Best of our wild blogs: 8 Jan 08

Chek Jawa's Great Fishnet Graveyard
and equally grave words for poachers, fishermen and others impacting our shores, on the reddot blog

More echinoderms of Singapore: the poky ones
on the singapore celebrates the reefs blog

Duck's Eye View of Chek Jawa
from the tower and beyond on the budak blog

Geh Min's New Year Resolutions
on the champions of the environment blog

Morning at the Central Nature Reserve
roadkills and macaques and more on the wonderful creations blog

Eagle snatches goldfish
what are the odds? on the nature spies blog

Shooting butterflies at Toa Payoh
on the butterflies of singapore blog

Ubin Lontong
mouthwatering descriptions and explanations of proper lontong do justice to this super special highly endangered dish, on the budak blog

Nature Walk for NIE and NTU
a new event by the volunteers of NTU Earthlink and NIE Green club

Read more!

Why Ngiam the critic is tolerated

Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 8 Jan 08;

TWO reference points have been burnt into Singaporeans' consciousness when it comes to critical analysis of government policies: Author Catherine Lim's article suggesting that then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong was living in the shadows of his predecessor, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and blogger mr brown's satire on the rising costs of living.

There are two other reference points that are hardly mentioned: Former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow's (picture) criticisms of economic and population policies, and National Neuroscience Institute director Lee Wei Ling slamming the direction in which Singapore's life sciences sector is heading.

Why is it that one group evokes sharp and direct censure from the political leadership, while the other does not?

Needless to say, Mr Ngiam and Dr Lee are backed by their achievements and standing in the establishment, and it would be politically awkward, to say the least, for any government to put down one of its own.

The two aren't the only ones to have publicly criticised the Government without incurring obvious backlash, political journalist-turned academic Dr Cherian George points out.

Dr George, a forceful critic himself, cited the examples of ambassador-at-large Professor Tommy Koh as well as academics and journalists outside the establishment.

He added: "If anything, the little difference with individuals within the establishment is that it is harder for the establishment media to ignore them."

Yet, it was precisely the prominence given to Dr Lim and mr brown in the mainstream media that rubbed the Government the wrong way.

Even so, it is tempting to draw up a checklist of what the Government deems as acceptable criticism, and what it does not, based on these examples.

For instance, the fact that you are of a high standing within the establishment, with a stellar list of achievements that lends you the credibility to speak on topics related to your expertise, probably means you would be quite safe from official backlash.

What could make you practically risk-free is to craft your criticisms in a more benign language, focus on the issue and steer clear of making personal attacks.

But matters are hardly so straightforward, of course. Such considerations are weighted differently depending on the subject or timing of the criticism.

For instance, suggesting that the incumbent Prime Minister, who was barely a few years into his job, was not the real person in charge — as Dr Lim did in 1994 — was hardly a case of good timing.

Wiser from her experience years later, she likened the political situation to a series of concentric circles. At the periphery were the day-to-day issues over which the Government would be "very accepting" of criticism.

Closer to the centre, the leaders might be more uptight about style, even if they are becoming more prepared for critiques of policies. At the centre, she listed political "no-nos" such as allegations of nepotism.

Ask mr brown, who had suggested that the Government had suppressed information on the income disparity until after the 2006 General Election, and he would probably add casting aspersion on the Government's integrity to the "no-no" list.

And the whole dynamic changes if you happen to be an Opposition politician.

As Mr Lee Hsien Loong, then the Deputy Prime Minister, spelt out in a Parliamentary speech in 2000, special treatment is reserved for those out to "prove to voters that the Government is not up to its job, and that they would do a better job themselves if elected".

Still, the Government's attitudes towards the Opposition are shifting, even if it remains the final arbiter "who decides how to cast its opponents", said Dr George.

He added: "It seems to be trying to show it will treat responsible Opposition in a civil way."

Calibrating its responses to its intended target undoubtedly serves the Government well in its twin objectives of widening the social sphere for civic engagement, while drawing a clear line on political challenges.

But such a clinical approach would also mean that many Singaporeans would rather keep mum than risk having their intentions misread. Few would want to be cast as challenging the political powers when they are merely unhappy with government policies, and a fine line divides the two.

Yet, why should Singaporeans expect the Government to keep quiet when it is being criticised? The more pertinent concern should be whether these critics get singled out and suffer repercussions for engaging the authorities in a head-on debate.

"Anyone who wishes to debate public affairs in a way that makes an impact should expect that one of the impacts is that the Government will engage them. There is obviously still some doubt in the public mind whether criticising the Government really is cost-free," said Dr George.

But if Dr Lim's experience is anything to go by, Singaporeans should have little to fear. She has gained prominence as a political commentator and continued to excel in her professional life.

She also became a cause celebre of the chattering classes. The same goes for mr brown.

Neither has speaking out against their paymasters stalled the careers of those like Mr Ngiam, Dr Lee or Prof Koh.

As the good professor put it, "an intellectual should not be afraid to take risks" and should expect to "get beaten up from time to time when we transgress the OB markers".

"Otherwise, how can you advance the cause if you are afraid of getting beaten up?" Prof Koh remarked in an interview a year after the Catherine Lim incident.

There you have it. The rules are quite clear actually: Speak your mind if you want to be heard. And if you want to dip your criticisms in political ink, get ready to be smeared.

After all, politics is a game that takes two to play.

The least any responsible media, establishment or not, could do is give all sides a fair airing.

Read more!

Pulau Ubin: Illegal animal traps getting bigger

Tracy Sua, Straits Times 8 Jan 08;

Poachers seem to be eyeing bigger hauls, if the size of the illegal traps they set is anything to go by.

Nature activist Ben Lee, 46, who found three traps in the last four months on Pulau Ubin, said he was shocked to find one over 2m high in the island's jungle on Sunday.

The founder and head of nature society Nature Trekker Singapore was leading a group of the society's members on a nature appreciation tour.

He said of the trap: 'I did not think I would still be able to find more traps, and this was bigger than the rest. It was well camouflaged, not like the other few I found.'

Made of wood and wire mesh and with a metal trap gate, it was so heavy that it needed two people to lift it.

Mr Lee estimates it could house at least 20 wild boars. Coconuts were left inside the trap, likely as bait for wild boars or other animals. Mr Lee sprang the trap so animals would be kept out of it.

Saying he would report the matter to the National Parks Board, he added that even though wild boars were not endangered, other rare animals such as the leopard cat, civet cat, pangolin, long-tailed macaque and oriental small-clawed otter could well have been caught in it.

Under the Parks and Trees Act, poaching in parks and nature reserves, including Pulau Ubin, is illegal. Those convicted face up to six months' jail or fines of up to $50,000 or both. Those who trap and kill wild animals and birds can also be fined up to $1,000.

Eleven cases of illegal animal trapping surfaced last year, two more than the year before.

Read more!

Mandai: Two landed sites to go on sale

Two landed sites to go on sale with tenancies
Prices should be less than market rate as house owners need to be compensated
Joyce Teo, Straits Times 8 Jan 08;

And with the government about to release a 30-hectare site at Mandai for nature-themed attractions, the area will become more vibrant

TWO sizeable landed residential plots off Mandai Road will be sold via auction later this month - with prices expected to be below the market rate for comparable plots.

The catch: The 23 houses that sit on the land are owned by different owners rather than the two brothers who own the two respective plots.

That means the buyers of the plots will have to negotiate with the owner-tenants of each house separately and compensate them individually.

After that, the buyer can build three-storey landed homes on the 999-year leasehold sites, both sited on Meng Suan Road.

Colliers International, which is conducting the auction on Jan 30, said fairly large landed plots are relatively rare. For instance, the Government will release only two landed sites for sale in the first half of this year, said its deputy managing director for agency and business services and auctioneer, Ms Grace Ng.

The first Meng Suan Road plot has an area of 21,066 sq ft and is occupied by a row of nine single-storey terrace houses. The second is 31,043 sq ft and with a row of 14 single-storey terrace houses.

The father of the two brothers who own the sites sold the houses to individual owners 40 to 50 years ago for less than $5,000 each.

This may sound unusual, but sales with tenancies were quite common in the past, said Ms Ng. The owners of the Meng Suan Road houses have enjoyed a great deal as they pay the land owners 'ground rent' of just $20 a month.

Negotiating with these owners may take time, but the buyer will be able to take heart that he is likely to get a good price. 'We have applied some discount because they are encumbered with existing tenancies,' said Ms Ng.

The indicative price of the sites is between $250 and $260 per sq ft, inclusive of the development charge. This puts the smaller plot at about $5.3 million and the bigger one at around $7.8 million.

Negotiating with the house owners will be somewhat simplified by the fact that owners of six of the 23 houses are related to one another, said Ms Ng.

Dealing with multiple owners may not be easy, but it is something that boutique development firm Link (THM) Holdings has proven it can handle.

The firm, which began as a fashion business, said yesterday that it had acquired a freehold site in Ban Guan Park, off Holland Road, comprising nine apartments and nine shops, after negotiating with the individual owners since late 2005. It paid $31.1 million for the site of 32,900 sq ft and plans to build 20 semi-detached houses.

The firm said there were several failed collective sale attempts in the past decade.

Its director, Mr Kenny Tan, said the firm then decided to talk to individual owners to address their concerns and to get them to sell individually.

Two residential sites off Mandai Rd up for auction
Business Times 8 Jan 08;

PROPERTY firm Colliers International yesterday announced the auction of two residential sites off Mandai Road. Both plots have 999-year leases from Oct 16, 1884. The sites are being sold on a non-vacant basis. This means the buyers will be responsible for vacating the tenants.

The two sites are at 20-28 and 43-56 Meng Suan Road. Each is expected to go for about $250 per sq ft (psf), said Colliers auctioneer Grace Ng.

This means the smaller plot at 20-28 Meng Suan Road, which is 21,066 sq ft, will cost about $5.3 million including a development charge (DC). The site is now occupied by a row of nine single-storey terrace houses.

The larger plot at numbers 43-56, which is 31,043 sq ft, will cost about $7.8 million, also including a DC. The land is occupied by a row of 14 single-storey terrace houses.

'The successful buyer can consider developing a row of 10 terrace houses on the smaller plot of land of about 1,938 sq ft each for the inter-terrace units and about 2,583 sq ft each for the corner units,' said Ms Ng. 'The larger plot of land can accommodate up to nine similar terrace houses, as well as four other semi-detached houses of about 2,583 sq ft each. Given the limited supply of land, freehold and 999-year leasehold, this is a rare opportunity for developers and investors to acquire two huge plots.'

And with the government about to release a 30-hectare site at Mandai for nature-themed attractions, the area will become more vibrant, she said.

The auction will be held on Jan 30 at Amara Hotel.

Read more!

Illegal logging and road building threatens tigers and tribes of the Heart of Sumatra

WWF 7 Jan 08;

Field investigations in central Sumatra have found that the home of two tribes of indigenous people and endangered elephants, tigers and orang-utans faces “being split in half” by the construction of “a legally questionable highway” for logging trucks servicing one of the world’s largest paper companies.

The investigation, by WWF Indonesia and other scientific and conservation groups, also found the crucial Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape threatened by illegal logging, clearing for plantations and other roadbuilding – much of it linked to operations of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its partners.

The forest is one of the last large forests in Sumatra, boasts some of the richest biodiversity on earth and is one of Indonesia’s most important habitats for numerous species. It is the location of a successful conservation project to reintroduce orangutans, which now reside in a part of the landscape that is proposed for protected status but is already being cleared by APP-affiliated companies, the report found.

Clearing for the highway, which allows logging trucks easier access to APP’s pulp mills in Jambi Province, appears to have taken place after APP’s forestry operations in neighboring Riau Province were halted due to a police investigation of illegal logging. APP partners have cleared an estimated 20,000 hectares of natural forest in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape, with some clearing appearing to be in violation of Indonesian law.

“With its high conservation values, the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape should be protected and thus all natural forest clearance in the area has to be stopped,” said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s Forest Program Director.

“APP is one of the world’s largest paper companies and we believe its global customers expect it to act like a responsible corporate citizen. The company should commission independent assessments of the conservation values of these areas in a publicly transparent manner before any conversion takes place, and commit to protect and manage conservation values identified in these areas.”

Indonesian law has a set of criteria and requirements to be fulfilled prior to conversion of natural forest. Yet evidence found during the investigation indicates APP-affiliated companies converted hundreds of hectares before fulfilling these requirements, thus violating Indonesian law. Part of the area being cleared is in a proposed Specific Protected Area that serves as habitat for about 90 Sumatran orangutans recently introduced into the area for the first time in more than 150 years.

Unplanned and illegal road building is especially devastating to such areas, opening them up to poaching, illegal settlement and plantation activities and undermining the viability of indigenous communities. One of the tribes threatened by APP-linked activities is wholly dependent on the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape.

“We urge APP and its partners to stop clearing any more natural forest whose ecological, environmental and cultural conservation values have not been determined and to stop sourcing any of its purchased wood from such forests,” Ian Kosasih said.

“We also call on the government to ensure an end to all forms of forest clearance found to violate national Indonesian laws and regulations.”

Read more!

Venice Offers Lessons on Coping with Rising Seas

Sylvia Poggioli, NPR 7 Jan 08;

As the Earth warms up, rising sea levels will increase the threat of storm surges and flooding. In some places, that will make existing problems worse. Venice, Italy, offers a glimpse at what may lie ahead.

For years now, Venice has topped the world's most endangered cities list. Built 1,300 years ago on mudflats in the center of a lagoon, the sinking city is subject to increasingly frequent winter flooding, from high tides known as "acqua alta" in Italian.

A major engineering project has now begun aimed at protecting the Venetian lagoon from rising sea levels, but most Venetians seem to take high water in stride.

Elevated walkways ensure dry feet, boutiques provide fashionable rubber boots, and residents are comforted by the conviction that nothing evil can come from the sea, Venice's oldest friend and protector.

MOSE Project Aims to Part Venice Floods
by Sylvia Poggioli

A boat ride in the Venice lagoon is a discovery of how humans and nature have created one the world's most extraordinary experiments.

Starting in the 16th century, the Venetians diverted major rivers outside of the lagoon to prevent silt from filling it up.

Left alone, lagoons like the one in Venice either tend to dry up and become land or they are overwhelmed by the sea and turn into bays.

The lagoon covers 212 square miles. Along with the city of Venice in the center, there are some 50 smaller islands, as well as dozens of mudflats and sandbanks — havens for thousands of aquatic birds that flock here even in winter.

This delicate and fragile ecosystem is the largest wetland in the Mediterranean.

If Venice is to be saved, the lagoon must be protected.

But today, rising seas threaten the Venice lagoon. All along the Grand Canal, windows of buildings near sea level have been closed and filled with cement.

"Those windows have been closed as they are too much exposed to the waters," says Francesca de Pol of Consorzio Venezia Nuova, the consortium entrusted with the task of safeguarding Venice.

Moving Upstairs

No Venetian lives on the ground floor any more.

In the last century, the city sank 11 inches, mostly due to the pumping of groundwater and methane gas for local industries. But it has also being affected by rising sea levels.

What that means is that the same tides that were not flooding the city 100 years ago are now high-tide events. It's called acqua alta.

High water afflicts Venice mostly in the winter. A century ago it happened seven times a year, now it's more like a hundred.

The visionaries who first began building Venice 1,300 years ago used materials for the foundations that could withstand water. But with the seabed sinking, brick walls on the ground floors are being corroded and waterlogged buildings are crumbling.

Sophisticated technology is now being used to rescue the lagoon. MOSE, the acronym in Italian for experimental electromechanic module, is the biggest public works project in Italian history.

MOSE is also the Italian word for Moses, recalling the biblical parting of the Red Sea.

The project is building 78 floodgates at the three inlets that link the Venice lagoon to the Adriatic Sea. Del Pol says one of the gates' characteristics is their flexibility.

Depending on the type of tides, there are differing ways to manage the gates.

"You are not obliged to close the whole lagoon," she says. "You can close one inlet and not the other.

"In case of wind coming from a certain direction, you can chose not closing the whole system but only parts of the gates for certain types of tides.

"So you continue to have an exchange of water, not totally blocked."

Giant Gates Filled with Air

At the Malamocco inlet, the walls of the MOSE project are being built just like the original walls in Venice. But workers are driving 125-foot-long steel and concrete pilings into the lagoon bed, instead of wooden pilings.

When the giant doors are at rest, they will be lying on the bottom of the inlet channel, invisible to the world. Each gate will be up to 92 feet long, 65 feet wide, and will weigh 300 tons.

When a dangerous tide is forecast, compressed air will be released inside the gates, emptying the gates of water. They will then rise and block the entrance of the tide.

In another effort not to alter the landscape, the worksite is on a specially built artificial island that will be demolished once the project is completed.

Protests Fail to Slow Construction

A debate over the floodgates has been under way for nearly four decades. The design was finally approved by the Italian government in 2003. Costs now stand at $7 billion.

Claudio Mantovan, supervisor at the Malamocco worksite, says the project is on schedule. Some 37 percent of the work has been completed, and MOSE should open as planned in 2012. One key element already finished is a navigation lock to allow large ships to enter the lagoon when the gates are up.

Mantovan says a few days of work have been lost due to peaceful protests by environmentalists and others.

"In order to build trenches for the MOSE gates, they are going to dig up millions of cubic meters of seabed and replace it with cement, which could seriously alter the ecosystem," says Alberto Vitucci, a journalist who has been covering the project for years.

"The entire mechanism will be underwater, making maintenance extremely difficult and costly. And the authorities never took any alternative projects into serious consideration."

Other proposals to control flooding in Venice have included narrowing the inlet channels to reduce the water flow from the sea into the lagoon, and banning tankers and large ships from entering.

Some criticize the project as irreversible and outdated. They say it was designed without taking into account predictions on rising sea levels over the next century.

MOSE engineers respond that the mobile gates are designed to last at least a century and to protect Venice from a difference in water level between the sea and lagoon of up to six and half feet.

The latest prediction of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is for a one- or two-foot increase by the end of this century.

Despite opposition, the MOSE project is moving ahead, and it's being closely watched not only by Venetians.

Coastal cities all over the world, from New Orleans to Singapore to Bombay, know that due to rising sea levels, Venice's seasonal flooding could soon become a shared, global phenomenon.

Read more!

Saving species: Conservation marketers choose land over beast

Branding land
Economist.com 7 Jan 08;

FOR decades, conservation organisations have known the value of a flagship species. The so-called charismatic megafauna—giant pandas, tigers, mountain gorillas, African elephants and blue whales, to name but a few—have become well-known brands that, when used in emotive advertising, bring in the conservation dollars.

But relying on flagship species can also cause problems. Conservation organisations with broader goals than saving these specific animals cannot just spend the money raised for tigers on something else.

What is more, many of the cuddly megafauna may not necessarily be the best torch bearers for broader biodiversity. In the trade, such species are known as “indicator species”.

Elephants and tigers, for instance, are poor indicators of broader biodiversity in their regions; saving them will not necessarily help other species. And many species in great danger receive no attention, simply because they happen to be neither cuddly nor recognisable.

One response to this problem has been to focus conservation brand-making on species that need greater attention. The Zoological Society of London has been trying this with what it calls “EDGE” (an acronym for “evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered”) species.

EDGE species are rarely cuddly—in fact, some of them look quite weird to the human eye. They are often the last representative of an entire group of animals; when they go, a branch, rather than a twig, is snapped off the evolutionary tree. EDGE species include the duck-billed platypus, the long-beaked echidna, the aardvark and the dugong.

This year, two EDGE species—the long-eared jerboa and the Yangtze river dolphin—have made global news for very different reasons. The jerboa is an amazing Mongolian nocturnal creature that looks like a miniature kangaroo with floppy ears; it was filmed for the first time hopping in the desert. The Yangtze river dolphin made news because scientists think that it may now have been driven to extinction. Although it is still early days for EDGE species, conservation branding for that dolphin hasn’t been a success.

Some people are starting to wonder whether the one-by-one approach to conservation is really the right solution. With many predicting the extinction of thousands of species, Bob Smith, a researcher in conservation at the University of Kent in Britain, argues that targeting individual species is too narrow. He praises the recent trend toward identifying and branding entire regions as “flagship areas”.

Conservation International, based in Arlington, Virginia, has its biodiversity hotspots: (“the most remarkable places on earth are also the most threatened” is their slogan). These include the tropical Andes, the Brazilian Atlantic forests and Africa’s Cape floristic region. The World Wide Fund for Nature, based in Gland, Switzerland, boasts that it is “working for conservation of the world’s most fabulous places”, which it called “global ecoregions”.

And the African Wildlife Foundation, based in Washington, DC, has its “heartland regions”—areas with unmatched concentrations of wildlife. Visitors to the website are greeted not by a picture of a baby elephant up for adoption but by a bit of landscape and the chance to adopt an African acre in an important place.

Branding flagship areas is an expensive business, but it means that the money raised can be used to support a wide range of conservation projects. Raise money for the lion, and you have to spend it on lions; raise money for a region and you can support the local development of sustainable businesses that benefit both people and wildlife.

Dr Smith also believes that there is an opportunity, here, to make conservation campaigns more aspirational. In other words, conservation groups can start offering to bring about change, instead of just opposing it.

Flagship areas make sense for another reason. Biodiversity is not spread uniformly across the planet, but concentrated in particularly rich areas. Conserving these places can therefore be a good investment. This approach, says Dr Smith, has the virtue of scientific defensibility: science can establish an area’s unique characteristics, then branding can advertise it.

Conservation International has raised $750m to protect biodiversity hotspots. And although scientific debate about whether the “best” places have been chosen remains contentious, Conservation International’s 25 hotspots contain the last remaining habitats of 40% of all terrestrial species.

It isn’t the end of the road for the flagship species. The polar bear, for instance, is now successfully promoting the danger to Arctic wildlife posed by global warming.

Given the success of a recent film, “Ratatouille”, in improving the image of rats, conservation groups should perhaps employ a technique used by marketers in other areas: product placement. Forget champagne, watches and cars: in the next James Bond film, the villain might be found in a Brazilian Atlantic forest hideaway, stroking a long-eared jerboa in a diamond collar.

Read more!

US Delays Decision on Polar Bears and Global Warming

PlanetArk 8 Jan 08;

WASHINGTON - A U.S. decision on whether global warming threatens polar bears will be delayed as much as a month, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service said on Monday, prompting ire from environmental groups.

The deadline for deciding whether to list the big white bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act is Wednesday but a government statement said analysis of scientific data and public comment will take more time.

"We expect to provide a final recommendation to the Secretary of the Interior and finalize the decision within the next month," the statement said.

A key piece of data under consideration is a September report from the U.S. Geological Survey that predicted polar bears could disappear from places where Arctic sea ice is melting fastest, including the northern coast of Alaska.

Two-thirds of the world's polar bears could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true, the report said. The ice is melting at least in part because of human-caused climate change, scientists have said.

Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, and without it, the bears could be forced onto land, where they are inefficient hunters.

Within minutes of the government's announcement of the delay, environmental groups vowed to sue to enforce the deadline in the polar bear case.

"The Bush administration has squandered seven years denying the devastating scientific evidence of global warming," Kert Davies of Greenpeace USA said in a statement. "Stalling has cost us dearly, putting the polar bear at risk of extinction and jeopardizing the future welfare of billions of people around the world."

Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity said in a joint statement they plan to start the legal process on Wednesday with a formal notice to sue, as required under the Endangered Species Act.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Decision on listing polar bear postponed
Dan Joling, Associated Press Yahoo News 8 Jan 08;

Federal officials said Monday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming.

The deadline was Wednesday, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it now hopes to provide a recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in time for a decision by him within the next month.

The department has never declared a species threatened or endangered because of climate change, Hall said.

"That's why this one has been so taxing and challenging to us," he said.

Environmental groups that petitioned to protect polar bears, arguing that warming threatened their habitat, said they would go court to ensure a timely decision.

"We certainly hope that the polar bear will be listed within the next month," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Listing polar bears as "threatened" with extinction could trigger limits on development, particularly oil and gas exploration and production, that could harm the animals. That listing is a step below "endangered," the most severe classification under the Endangered Species Act.

Kempthorne proposed the "threatened" listing for polar bears in January 2007, and under the Endangered Species Act that gave him a deadline of exactly one year for a final decision. Among other things, the yearlong period includes opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed listing.

The Biological Diversity Center, along with Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed a petition more than two years ago claiming that global warming was eroding sea ice, the polar bear's primary habitat.

In September, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report concluding that two-thirds of the world's polar bears, including the entire population in Alaska, will be killed off by 2050 because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic.

Read more!

Florida manatee deaths decreased in 2007

Jim Loney, Reuters 7 Jan 08;

MIAMI (Reuters) - The number of endangered manatees that died in Florida waters last year dropped by 24 percent, according to preliminary report on Monday from the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The commission, which in December postponed a decision on whether to remove the manatee from the state's endangered species list, said 317 manatees died in 2007 compared to 417 in 2006, the highest death toll on record.

An annual census found 2,817 manatees in state waters last year, down from 3,113 the previous year.

The number of deaths blamed on boats also dropped significantly, from 92 in 2006 to 73 in 2007, the report said.

Manatee death counts can swing wildly from year to year and the wildlife commission cautioned not to read too much into the decline.

"It's not that we're not encouraged by the lower numbers, but we look at longer-term trends," commission spokeswoman Wendy Quigley said. "It's not definitive that this is a trend."

The commission decided last month to delay a decision on a recommendation from its research staff to reclassify the manatee to "threatened" because it no longer met the criteria for "endangered" status.

The reclassification had seemed imminent until a plea from Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who expressed concern about uncertain population counts, rising boat accidents and the record number of deaths recorded in 2006.

Wildlife officials say a change in status from endangered to threatened would not diminish protection for the marine giant often called the sea cow.

Advocates for the popular mammal say it could be hurt by public perception that it is no longer in danger.

The West Indian manatee, related to the African and Amazon versions and to the dugong of Australia, grows to 10 feet (3 meters) and more than 1,000 pounds (454 kg). Its wrinkled and whiskered face has won the hearts of generations of children.

Although they have no natural enemies, manatees are routinely crushed or drowned in canal locks, run over by speeding boats or hurt by fishing line and hooks. They are vulnerable to cold water in winter and to deadly blooms of "red tide" algae.

The Florida population is believed to have increased slightly in recent decades, in part due to boat speed restrictions. As a result, developers and boat industry interests have argued for easing restrictions to allow more construction of boat slips.

Read more!

Bright Future for Biofuels in Congo, UN Says

Golnar Motevalli, PlanetArk 8 Jan 08;

LONDON - The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of Africa's most promising biofuels producers due to its vast amount of farmland suited to a range of crops from palm oil to soybeans, a top UN economist has said.

"The DRC and many of the African countries have an enormous agri-ecological potential," Dr Schmidhuber said a telephone interview. "They have production potential for more than (sugar) cane: palm oil, maize, jatropha, cassava even soybeans -- whatever is suited to tropical and highland conditions."

Many countries seeking to produce biofuels have run into problems over the use of land, and environmental campaigners have accused palm oil growers in Indonesia, for instance, of cutting down rain forests to make room for feedstock.

Schmidhuber said this need not be an issue in Congo, home to the world's second largest rainforest, given the substantial amount of arable land outside precious rain forest areas.

"The normal perception is that biofuels destroy the environment, particularly palm oil on existing rain forest land, but that doesn't have to be the case," Schmidhuber said.

And using land for energy crops should not necessarily be at the expense of food production, he added.

In fact, producing bioenergy from domestic agriculture could boost productivity, as a lack of energy is a key factor holding back agricultural productivity and food production.

DRC, in central-eastern Africa, is rich in natural resources with a land area the size of western Europe but years of civil war have hindered economic growth and inward investment.

Schmidhuber said it would be difficult to produce biofuels for export and Congo would benefit most by providing fuel for domestic consumption.

"You have to bear in mind barely 1 percent of the rural population has access to electricity ... There's a need for empowerment and to be sufficient in energy and not just food."

He said capital investment in the sector from abroad depended on the scale of demand, referring to China's well-established interest and investment activity in Congo.

"Domestic support seems to be there, there is a government programme that essentially stresses that one should try to explore energy options with the objective to produce motor-fuel and electricity," Schmidhuber said.

Latest World Bank figures show US$402 million of foreign direct investment went to Congo in 2005.

Other countries with similar potential to supply themselves with biofuels were Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, he added.

(Editing by Chris Johnson)

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Naples rubbish crisis: New unrest as government vows 'radical' solution

Yahoo News 8 Jan 08;

New unrest erupted outside Naples overnight, the ANSA news agency reported Tuesday, as Italy's centre-left government pledged a speedy, "radical" solution to a Mafia-linked rubbish disposal crisis in the region.

A huge fire raged at a dump occupied by protesters who took it over after security forces made a tactical retreat following days of clashes over the site, which authorities plan to reopen to cope with a massive logjam of uncollected rubbish.

Outside the Pianura dump, near the Pozzuoli suburb west of Naples, protesters were using an earth mover to break down a containment wall for debris to block the access road along with dozens of overturned garbage bins and downed traffic light poles, ANSA said.

Pozzuoli residents, up in arms over a plan to reopen the Pianura landfill, claimed a victory when security forces moved away from the site on Monday evening, allowing protesters to occupy it.

But the situation turned tense again as security forces began pushing back towards the site, ANSA said.

The renewed protest was apparently sparked by an announcement that preparatory work to reopen the site would go ahead, along with reports that soldiers were arriving to carry out the work.

In Rome earlier, government spokesman Silvio Sircana told journalists: "Within 24 hours we will be ready to confront the situation radically," after Prime Minister Romano Prodi met with cabinet members to address the chronic problem in the impoverished southern city and the surrounding Campania region.

Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio then announced that he had asked for army reinforcements to help collect the mountains of rubbish that have accumulated for more than two weeks.

After brainstorming separately with ministers including Scanio and Interior Minister Giuliano Amato, Prodi will convene a "summit" of all the relevant ministers at 11:00 am (1000 GMT) on Tuesday, Italian media reported.

The crisis prompted finger-pointing from outside the government as well as within Prodi's fractious ruling coalition as the prime minister was already bracing for a new round of threats to his precarious political position.

The right-wing opposition claims that Scanio, who heads Italy's Green party, is partly to blame for the crisis for having refused to allow new incinerators to be built in the Naples region, home to some six million people.

A single incinerator is set to go into operation in early 2009.

The centre-left mayor of Naples, Rosa Russo Iervolino, for her part broadsided Prodi with the declaration that he "was informed of the risks a year ago."

Authorities want to add tens of thousands of tonnes of waste to the Pianura site, only a fraction of the more than 110,000 tonnes that have accumulated with existing treatment centres operating beyond cap

acity.

Across the region, residents have set dozens of fires, sending dioxin and other toxins into the air.

Clandestine dumping by organised crime dubbed the "ecomafia" has forced the closure of several treatment centres in Campania.

Criminal investigators say the Camorra Mafia pay truckers to haul industrial waste from factories in northern Italy for fees that undercut those of the legal trade. They dump it at existing landfills in the Naples region or create new ones by blasting holes in mountainsides.

Italian Army Tackles Naples Garbage Chaos
Robin Pomeroy, PlanetArk 8 Jan 08;

NAPLES - Italy's army shifted mountains of rubbish from schools and streets around Naples on Monday to ease a two-week-old garbage crisis that has triggered violent protests by residents.

Locals angered at plans to revive a landfill in their neighbourhood clashed with police while Prime Minister Romano Prodi held emergency meetings with ministers to decide a plan of action for the area, where waste collection ground to a halt in the run-up to Christmas.

The protest was peaceful again by Monday evening but residents still expressed fury about the failure to deal with Naples' long-running waste crisis.

"They are the killers -- those (politicians) who promised that there will be no more dumping here," said a 42-year-old protester named Luciano, who declined to give his surname.

Protesters are trying to halt the re-opening of the waste dump, closed in 1996. But Rubbish dumps in the Naples area are full and a massive incinerator which was supposed to open at the end of 2007 is not ready.

Some 110,000 tonnes of garbage has accumulated in the Campania region, of which Naples is the capital, local media reported on Monday.

VIOLENCE FLARED

The trash emergency has dogged the southern region for 14 years. Italy has spent 2 billion euros and appointed six successive "trash tzars", but a combination of political incompetence, corruption and organised crime has scuppered efforts to solve the crisis.

Violence has flared several times in recent days between protesters and police outside the landfill in the suburb of Pianura. One man who climbed onto a bulldozer was dragged off by police and said he was beaten with truncheons.

"I climbed up there as a gesture and they hit me in the head and on the back," said the 30-year-old builder who gave his name as Vincenzo.

Near Monday's protests, stray dogs picked through rotting trash on the semi-deserted streets, the stench of rotting food heavy in the air.

Many schools, due to reopen on Monday after the Christmas holidays, remained closed amid public health concerns despite the army bulldozing garbage away from the buildings. Hundreds of trash piles have been set alight by residents, prompting fears of high levels of cancer-causing dioxin emissions.

Part of Naples' problem is that organised crime groups have made illegal waste disposal an industry that was worth 5.8 billion euros (US$8.6 billion) in 2006, according to a study by conservation group Legambiente.

The Camorra, the Naples brand of the Italian Mafia, is heavily involved in the transport and disposal of waste. Local authorities say it has benefited from the continuing crisis and may have actively tried to prolong it.

Mafia-controlled waste disposal -- by burial or burning -- has poisoned the environment so badly that people in some parts of the region are two to three times more likely to get liver cancer than in the rest of the country, according to Italy's National Research Council. (Writing by Robin Pomeroy and Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Janet Lawrence)


Soldiers bulldoze Naples rubbish
Christian Fraser, BBC News 8 Jan 08;

The Italian army has begun bulldozing the 100,000 tonnes of rubbish that has piled up in the streets of the southern city of Naples.

The government is to hold an emergency meeting to find a solution to the rubbish crisis. Naples dustmen stopped collecting rubbish two weeks ago.

With nowhere to put it local people are forced to burn it. The fire brigade has been struggling to put out the fires.

Protesters have clashed with police near an overflowing landfill site.

Police tried to reopen the site, but residents of Pianura, a western suburb, said it was a health risk and blocked the roads. They threw stones at police, who responded with batons. At least three people were taken to hospital.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi has returned from his holidays to a national embarrassment. The EU is warning there will be tough penalties unless Italy resolves the crisis this week.

Schools which have been closed were reopened on the orders of the government, though only a handful of students have left their homes.

Finding a solution to this problem means tackling the mob.

The Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, has turned this into a hugely profitable business.

They have sabotaged every effort to build hi-tech incinerators, so that Naples must rely on landfill sites, where they can hide the domestic and industrial waste, which they chuck in from all around the country.

Health concerns

Millions of tonnes of it have been dumped illegally in the sea or in the countryside, untreated and highly toxic.

Doctors say cancer rates in Naples are much higher than the national average.

Over the weekend angry Neapolitans clashed with police.

In one of the more worrying developments, police found effigies of the mayor and the regional governor hanging from lampposts with death threats pinned to their chests.

Rubbish collection is a perennial problem which has plagued Naples and its politicians for some 15 years.

The government is conscious it is under severe pressure to find a solution - but this means tackling the mob.

The EU says it is watching closely and is considering legal action for Italy's breach of European waste disposal directives.

In 15 years of promises, the Italian state has spent some 2bn euros (£1.5bn) trying, and failing, to clean up the waste.

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Naples 'suffocated' by rubbish, again
Yahoo News 3 Jan 08;

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Sierra Club sues Shell over refinery pollution

Erwin Seba, Reuters 7 Jan 08;

The fines have not been enough to stop preventable pollution. "Shell is paying to pollute. Shell is factoring these fines into its costs of operating these facilities."

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Sierra Club, the largest and oldest U.S. environmental organization, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against Shell Oil Co and subsidiaries over pollution at a refining and chemical plant complex along the Houston Ship Channel.

Shell could face a maximum fine of $32,500 for each of an estimated 1,000 incidents between 2003 and 2007 when the Deer Park, Texas, refinery and chemical plant exceeded levels of pollution allowed under permits issued by Texas regulators.

Shell has been cited by regulators and paid fines for some of the incidents, Joshua Kratka of the National Enviromental Law Center, which represents the Sierra Club and Environment Texas in the lawsuit, told reporters.

The fines have not been enough to stop preventable pollution, Kratka said.

"Shell is paying to pollute," he said. "Shell is factoring these fines into its costs of operating these facilities."

Shell declined comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but said the company hoped to continue discussions with the Sierra Club and Environment Texas about the issues raised in the lawsuit.

"Shell Deer Park refining and chemical share the goal of the Sierra Club and Environment Texas to improve air quality," the company said in a statement.

Pollution from the refinery and chemical plant is regularly pushed by prevailing Gulf Coast winds to neighborhoods along the ship channel, said a resident of the area.

"We don't have a magical fence that stops it from coming to us," said Karla Lands, a resident and business owner in the Houston suburb of Channelview, Texas, north of the Deer Park complex.

A former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement official said to be successful the organizations will have to prove the state enforcement efforts, which include plans to prevent future malfunctions, were ineffective.

"They're going to have to address that these problems have already been addressed," said Richard Alonso, attorney with Bracewell, Giuliani.

A University of Texas study released in 2007 found a possible link between childhood leukemia and living within 2 miles of the Ship Channel's refinery row.

The Sierra Club lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of Texas under the U.S. Clean Air Act which allows citizen lawsuits to gain enforcement of the act's provisions.

The Deer Park refinery is the eighth-largest U.S. refinery and a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex.

Shell Oil Co, based in Houston, is the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

(Editing by David Gregorio)

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