Iconic brands and the ethics of luxury

Dr Jem Bendell, Today Online 17 Jan 08;

It is time to turn the question "what are you made of" onto the companies and examine what lies beneath the brand.

"What are you made of?" From London to Little India, stars of sport and screen ask us as they peer from billboards and magazines.

The watch company Tag Heuer suggests wearing their brand provides the answer: You are made of something strong, successful and beautiful. George Clooney now chooses Omega; so do actresses Ivy Lee and Kym Ng.

Luxury brands sell status. They are the highest-priced and highest-quality item in any product or service category, providing the consumer with an elite experience. Watches, jewellery, high fashion, exclusive resorts and restaurants comprise a sector worth about US$150 billion ($214.6 billion) per annum.

Working with celebrities and spending billions on advertising, iconic brands such as Dior and Prada have become a global language of luxury, influencing what people admire and aspire to worldwide. A new social order defined by brands is taking hold in Asia.

That is good news for big-name brands. Louis Vuitton and Chanel have doubled the size of their flagship stores at Ngee Ann City, while Changi Airport hosts a luxury-retailing "island" featuring Bulgari, Cartier, Fendi and Bottega Veneta outlets. There are more brand connoisseurs now, illustrated by the attendance at the Sincere Watch Academy.

Swiss luxury firm Chopard, known for adorning the stars, chose Singapore for the worldwide launch of its L.U.C Crono One watch, in October. Luxury services are also doing well, with the St Regis Singapore opening before Christmas with chauffeur-driven Bentley and personal butler service.

But all is not as it seems. In recent months, journalists have begun to question whether luxury has "lost its lustre", suggesting the globalisation of luxury brands has emptied them of their meaning. Some complain that French-labelled haute couture is made in China, with cost-cutting leading to a decline in quality.

Others question the ethics of luxury, encouraged by films such as Blood Diamond, which show how the trade in precious stones has fuelled conflict. Other problems for luxury goods companies include labour rights and environmental degradation throughout their supply chains.

It is time to turn the question "what are you made of" onto the companies and examine what lies beneath the brand.

The report, Deeper Luxury, from the World Wildlife Fund did just that and ranked the 10 largest, publicly-traded luxury companies on their environmental and social performance.

Their brands include Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and IWC amongst dozens of others. The Paris-based L'Oréal Group, which owns Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, emerged top, but only with a C+.

The report describes growing environmental awareness across Asia. Ms Issy Richardson, co-founder of Singapore's organic company Belle and Dean, said: "With increasing press coverage and celebrity endorsements of green living and eco-fashion brands, attitudes are changing".

The craze over the designer shopping bag by Anya Hindmarch, branded with the phrase "I'm NOT a plastic bag", illustrates the potential demand.

The notion of "luxury" is changing. In future, the highest quality product or service may be regarded as the one that generates the most benefit to all involved in its creation.

Some brands embrace this approach. The Banyan Tree hotel group has developed a sustainable form of luxury since its founding. In the early '90s, Banyan Tree Bintan built villas on stilts and around existing trees and boulders to protect the rainforest and installed waste-water treatment to recycle water for irrigation.

The company has adopted the United Nation's Millennium Development goals to guide its efforts. Its managing director of retail operations, Ms Claire Chiang, is encouraging others through the Singapore Compact for Corporate Social Responsibility, now with over 170 corporate members.

Such efforts remind us that the products we consume do not magically appear in malls, but rely on life. Pick any product and consider its history — the grazing cows, swaying trees, ingenious designers, busy labourers and calculating bankers.

The cooperation of millions of people and a sustaining environment underpins all that we buy. By embracing corporate responsibility, iconic brands could remind us of this deep connection between our things, our selves, our communities and our planet.

Life without shopping may not be complete, but more Singaporeans today realise that shopping is not complete without life.

The writer is director of Lifeworth Consulting, associate professor at Griffith Business School and founder of the Singapore environmental community EcoSing.com. He will be speaking on sustainable luxury at the Singapore Compact for CSR on Jan 23.

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Singapore to supply China's oil guzzling

New field for marine, offshore firms

Business Times 17 Jan 08;

China's rise as a marine and offshore player offers opportunities for Singapore's companies, reports CHUANG PECK MING

CHINA'S red-hot economy has turned the country into an oil guzzler matched only by the United States - and that should have Singapore's marine and offshore industry salivating at the prospect of more business.

The Chinese consume over 7.4 million barrels of oil daily. Last year, China spent US$81.9 billion on oil imports. All the signs point to China's demand for oil escalating.

Coupled with a global shortage of the commodity, this has led China to step up its oil and gas exploration efforts, pumping more money to build up its marine and offshore industry.

China's rise as a marine and offshore player spells opportunities for Singapore's seasoned offshore and marine players, according to International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the government agency pushing Singapore business to go international.

'In tandem with the growth of its oil and gas industry, China will need to build more platforms and other offshore facilities, repair some existing structures and decommission others, and move operations into deeper waters,' says Tham Poh Cheong, director of Corporate Group for Infrastructure Services and Environmental Services at IE Singapore.

At the same time, China has also opened up its oil markets - once monopolised by Chinese state-owned enterprises - to the private sector and foreign players, making it a more level playing field.

To be sure, Mr Tham says the development of China's marine and offshore industry - backed by the Chinese government - is a double-edged sword. It will also produce Chinese competition for the Singapore companies.

But Singapore's strong position and long experience in the business will stand its companies in good stead to seize the opportunities that come with China's rise as a marine and offshore player.

'Singapore, as one of the world's leading integrated marine and offshore centres, can effectively collaborate and support China in its drive to develop its offshore and advanced marine sectors,' says Mr Tham.

'Singapore currently plays host to a comprehensive cluster of marine and offshore companies with vessel owners, shipyards, fabricators, key equipment manufacturers and engineering service providers undertaking a wide range of activities,' he adds.

Since 1981, when the first tanker was converted to a floating production storage offloading (FPSO) unit, Singapore shipyards have finished well over 30 related jobs, making it the undisputed leader in FPSO conversions.

According to a Reuters report, Singapore-listed yards have cornered more than half of the 92 oil drilling rigs under construction worldwide.

Meanwhile, smaller Singapore yards are making their presence felt in building offshore support vessels (OSVs) for anchor handling and towing as well as supply vessels.

'These OSVs are deemed the 'workhorses' of the offshore industry, helping transport, moor and supply staff and goods to offshore rigs and platforms,' Mr Tham says.

'Singapore yards such as Labroy Marine, Jaya Holdings, Pan United Marine and ASL Marine are building nearly a quarter of the 300 or so OSVs on order worldwide, vying with leading global players such as Norway's Aker and Kleven Verft and Bollinger Shipyards of the United States.'

Mr Tham says Singapore's marine and offshore companies can concentrate in three areas when venturing into the Chinese market - collaborating with the Chinese on offshore constructions; setting up yards in China; and supplying equipment and services to Chinese shipyards.

'As a comprehensive offshore engineering centre, Singapore has capabilities in floating production, processing, subsea equipment, pipelines and installation engineering,' he says. 'Singapore has also benefited from the strong growth of the offshore industry with several leading players, including MODEC, Prosafe, GPS and APL, strengthening their presence here in Singapore over the past year.'

He says offshore engineering, procurement and construction contractors and shipyards here should team up with China shipyards to build and integrate top modules for FPSO. IE Singapore can play match-maker - and there are various incentive schemes that Singapore companies can tap.

Singapore offshore and marine companies can also take advantage of China's skilled labour and ample waterfront space for shipyards and fabrication yards to expand their capacity for orders in the booming offshore and marine market. Keppel Nantong Shipyard, owned by Keppel Offshore & Marine, is one prominent Singapore company that has done so.

To upgrade China's marine capabilities and develop its offshore sector, which is a primary goal of the country's 11th Five-Year Plan, the country would need high technology, machinery and management for the shipbuilding industry, says Mr Tham.

'The best prospects for Singapore companies looking to leverage on China's growing shipbuilding companies are in the supply of raw materials, coating equipment and coating materials, computer-aided design software and associated technology for ship design and construction, equipment maintenance, high-tech equipment such as GPS, navigation and on-board computer systems, cutting and welding technology and related equipment,' he says.

Other areas in demand by the Chinese, and which Singapore can meet, are state-of-the-art equipment and products like welding gears, cathodic protected steel items such as fasteners, bolts and nuts, high-quality thermal expansion joints and specialised services like on-site machining for oil rigs and platforms and FPSOs construction.

'Although the supporting industry for the marine industry in China is fairly established, the offshore industry is relatively new and undeveloped,' Mr Tham says. 'Hence ample opportunities are available for Singapore offshore suppliers and service providers.'

But he cautions that labour costs in China are rising and there is local competition.

'One of the findings during IE Singapore's mission to eastern China in November 2007 was that the average wages for shipyard workers in the wealthier eastern region was not as low as perceived,' Mr Tham says. 'The wages for workers in shipyards in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu regions came up to around 3,000 yuan (S$594) monthly for skilled welders and 10,000 yuan for experienced engineers.'

Competition will come from many local Chinese companies which have started to manufacture and supply related equipment, he says. But Singapore companies can sidestep the threat by stepping up their research and development efforts and move up the value chain in manufacturing and engineering services, according to him.

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Cultural renaissance in Singapore? Start with built heritage

Letter from Png Eng Huat, Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

VALUE OF HISTORICAL BUILDINGS: Historical buildings and landmarks may be expensive to conserve but they add immeasurable value to our heritage and culture over time.

I REFER to the article, 'Be like Italy - aim for a cultural renaissance' (ST, Jan 12).

Living in a country that places economic growth above everything else, it is interesting to read that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew now hopes to see a cultural renaissance in Singapore in 10 to 15 years.

For a start, keeping our brick-and-mortar heritage alive could be a good investment for a cultural renaissance.

The Government should not equate conserving historical buildings and landmarks with plain economics. These old structures may be expensive to conserve but they add immeasurable value to our heritage and culture over time.

I always wonder why the Raffles City complex, which could have been built anywhere in town, had to occupy the grounds of Raffles Institution, a school founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1823. One would sense a feeling of loss rather than awe looking at an inconspicuous plaque which now marks the historical site.

Similarly, the SMRT headquarters could have been located anywhere in Singapore but it had to eat into the historical site of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus in Victoria Street, a school founded by early missionaries in 1852.

The fact that the Government did not even blink an eye to the destruction of such important historical sites could lead one to infer that conservation is definitely not a priority in Singapore.

When such old buildings and structures disappear, it may be difficult for a cultural renaissance to take root in Singapore.

The Renaissance era that defined 14th- to 16th-century Europe encompassed a cobweb of intellectual and artistic movements. The renaissance covered not only achievements in the cultural arena but also in areas like politics, religion and social life.

Thus, a cultural renaissance by itself may not happen in a society without any corresponding changes in the sociopolitical scene. The ramification of a cultural transformation has wide-reaching influence on all aspects of life in a society.

The question then is will the Government allow such a renaissance to take place? When such a situation arises, I am afraid 'out of bounds' markers will pop up like clockwork to put the strays back into their places.

Where does that leave us? We will probably end up with a pseudo-cultural renaissance that is engineered to perfection but lacking in depth and substance.

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Food from cloned animals: Singapore to conduct own review, says AVA

Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

ASIA'S food safety and agriculture authorities said that they would conduct their own checks on the safety of cloned food, following the US government's declaration on Tuesday to allow meat and milk from cloned animals into the food supply.

In Singapore, the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) plans to do its own risk assessment on such products, spokesman Goh Shih Yong told The Straits Times.

Singapore's beef imports amounted to 24,385 tonnes last year, with US beef making up just 1.5 per cent of that figure - or 374 tonnes, the AVA said.

Before the 2003 ban on US beef in Singapore, about 5 per cent of the Republic's 18,393 tonnes of beef imports that year came from the US.

The authorities in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, which was the largest overseas market for US beef in value terms in 2003, have said that their countries will need to conduct their own reviews on the issue.

Asia, which was the destination of 55 per cent of all US beef exports in 2003, remains a lucrative market for the meat, although some countries, including South Korea, have kept a ban on US beef imports after the US case of mad cow disease.

REUTERS

Already on our plates?
Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

WHILE many of America's biggest grocers are dead set against the idea of selling cloned products, food from the offspring of clones may already be on the market, said cattle cloning industry officials.

Executives from the nation's major cattle cloning companies conceded on Tuesday that they have not been able to keep track of how many offspring of clones have entered the food supply chain, despite a years-old request by the Food and Drug Administration to keep them off the market pending completion of the agency's safety report.

And food which comes from the offspring of clones can be used for everything from the milkshakes served by restaurants to the steaks sold in supermarkets - without any special labelling.

At least one Kansas cattle producer also came forward on Tuesday to say that he has openly sold semen from prize-winning clones to countless US meat producers in the past few years, and that he is certain he is not alone.

'This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain,' said Mr Donald Coover, a Galesburg, Kansas, cattleman and veterinarian who has a speciality cattle semen business.

'Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about or they're not being honest.'

WASHINGTON POST

To eat or not to eat?
Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

US agencies send mixed signals on safety of food from such sources
WASHINGTON - CONSUMERS in the United States have received a plateful of mixed messages as the US food safety authority declared food from cloned animals and their offspring to be safe, while farmers were told by the Agriculture Department to keep such animals off the market.

The ruling by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was the latest twist after years of debate over the reproductive technology, which advocates say will provide consumers with top-quality food by replicating prized animals that can breed highly productive offspring.

Mr Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, who oversaw a six-year review of the safety of food from clones and their offspring, said: 'Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day.'

The FDA said that it did not have enough facts to make an assertion about cloned sheep.

In a controversial move, the agency also said that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring would not be labelled because it was the same as conventional food and did not pose a safety risk, despite a programme launched by US biotechnology firms last month to track cloned cattle and pigs.

Awkwardly meshed announcements by the FDA and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials, made at a joint news conference on Tuesday, reflected continuing divisions among US food-related agencies on how to deal with the cloned-food issue.

Farmers have long held back from selling cloned foods, and on Tuesday, USDA said this state of affairs should continue, pending consultations on introducing these foods into the market.

'USDA is encouraging the technology producers to maintain their voluntary moratorium on sending milk and meat from animal clones into the food supply,' USDA official Bruce Knight told reporters.

But the FDA decision to let cloned products into the food chain was hailed by cloning companies and some farmers, who hope to turn cloning into a routine agricultural tool.

As clones are costly, they will be used primarily for breeding, not for producing meat and milk.

But some US consumer groups suggested that the American public would be as tough a sell as the 'Frankenfood'-averse consumers in the European Union and Japan.

A September 2006 poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64 per cent of Americans were uncomfortable with animal cloning. FDA focus groups found that a third of consumers would never eat food from cloned animals.

A number of US groups have also demanded that food from clones be labelled as such, so that consumers can exercise a 'right to choose'.

Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, who is among a group of lawmakers pushing for a delay on the cloned-food issue until further studies are completed, accused the FDA of acting 'recklessly' on Tuesday.

'If we discover a problem with cloned food after it is in our food supply and it's not labelled, the FDA won't be able to recall it...the food will already be tainted,' she said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, WASHINGTON POST


How cloning works
Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

WHEN scientists explain the practice of cloning livestock, they describe clones as genetic twins born at different times.

Cloning companies say it is just another reproductive technology, such as artificial insemination.

Here is how cloning works: Scientists take an immature egg, usually from a cow that went to the slaughterhouse, and remove the nucleus. They add DNA from a donor cow, often taken from the skin cell of a ear, and a tiny electric shock coaxes the egg to start dividing and grow into a copy of the original animal. The egg is then implanted into a surrogate animal for gestation and birth.

The first mammal cloned from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep in 1997.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Giant palm found on Madagascar flowers itself to death

Yahoo News 17 Jan 08;

Botanists on Thursday announced they had identified a new species of palm that is so enormous it can be spotted from space and whose bizarre life cycle requires the plant to kill itself after it has flowered.

The gigantic, pyramid-shaped plant was discovered accidentally by a French family walking in remote northwestern Madagascar, according to the publishers of their study.

The palm's trunk is over 18 metres (58.5 feet) high and its leaves are an extraordinary five metres (16.25 feet) in diameter, which could make them the largest ever known among flowering plants.

It is not only a new species, but also a new genus -- the taxonomic term for a group that incorporates species. In layman's terms, the plant is in a classification of its own.

Experts at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, say the plant grows to dizzying heights before the stem tip bursts into branches of hundreds of tiny flowers.

"Each flower is capable of being pollinated and developing into fruit and soon drips with nectar and is surrounded by swarming insects and birds," British journal publisher Blackwell Publishing Ltd. said in a press release.

"The nutrient reserves of the palm become completely depleted as soon as it fruits and the entire tree collapses in a macabre demise."

It added: "The plant is so massive, it can even be seen on Google Earth."

The paper was to be published on Thursday in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. The London-based Linnean Society is an international association of naturalists devoted to the naming and classification of biodiversity.

Secrecy, though, surrounded the palm's taxonomic name.

The nomenclature was being kept closely under wraps until publication, in line with tradition involving new plant finds, the Royal Botanic Gardens told AFP on Wednesday.

A French couple, Xavier and Nathalie Metz, who run a cashew farm in Madagascar, stumbled upon the palm as they were walking with their family at a limestone outcrop in the hills of Analalava district, Blackwell said.

Stunned by the sight, they took pictures of it and posted them on the Web.

Kew research fellow John Dransfield, an expert on Madagascar's palms, saw the photos and asked a local researcher to send him material.

DNA analysis proved the plant to be a new genus within a palm tribe called Chuniophoeniceae. Only three other genera within this tribe exist, scattered across the Arabian peninsula, Thailand and China.

"Coupled with the great scientific interest of the palm is the fact that it is such an amazingly spectacular species and with such an unusual life cycle," said Dransfield.

"In a way, this palm is every bit as significant from a biological point of view as when the extraordinary Aye-aye lemur was first discovered."

The Aye-aye, a denizen of Madagascar first described in 1788, is the largest nocturnal primate in the world, and is believed to use echolocation to detect grubs in tree branches, which it extracts with its long fingers.

Less than a hundred individuals of the palm probably exist, which means protecting it from habitat loss and bounty hunters will be a huge challenge.

More than 90 percent of Madagascar's 10,000 plant species occur nowhere else in the world. But less than a fifth of the island's cover of native vegetation remains intact.

New tree species found in Madagascar
Jonny Hogg, Associated Press Yahoo News 17 Jan 08;

A self-destructing palm tree that flowers once every 100 years and then dies has been discovered on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, botanists said Thursday.

The name of the giant palm and its remarkable life cycle will be detailed in a study by Kew Gardens scientists in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society published Thursday.

"It's spectacular. It does not flower for maybe 100 years and when it's like this it can be mistaken for other types of palm," said Mijoro Rakotoarinivo, who works for the London botanical gardens in Madagascar.

"But then a large shoot, a bit like an asparagus, grows out of the top of the tree and starts to spread. You get something that looks a bit like a Christmas tree growing out of the top of the palm," he said.

The branches of this shoot then become covered in hundreds of tiny white flowers that ooze with nectar, attracting insects and birds.

But the effort of flowering and fruiting depletes the tree so much that within a few months it collapses and dies, said botanist Dr. John Dransfield, author of the study.

Dransfield noted that "even for Madagascar this is a stupendous palm and an astonishing discovery."

The world's fourth largest island, Madagascar is renowned for its unusual flora and fauna, including 12,000 species of plant found nowhere else in the world. Indeed 90 percent of its plant species are endemic.

The palm tree, which grows to 66 feet in height and has about 16-foot leaves, is only found in an extremely remote region in the northwest of the country, some four days by road from the capital. Local villagers have known about it for years although none had seen it in flower until last year.

The bizarre flowering ritual was first spotted by Frenchman Xavier Metz, who runs a cashew plantation nearby. After seeing it he notified Kew Gardens.

Puzzling Dransfield is how botanists had missed such a "whopping palm" until now. According to him it is the largest palm species in the country but there appear to be only about 100 in existence.

He also questions how the palm got to Madagascar. The tree has similarities to Chuniophoeniceae palms, however these are only found in Asia, more than 3,700 miles away.

Dransfield suggests the plant has been quietly living and dramatically dying in Madagascar since the island split with mainland India 80 million years ago.


Huge New Palm Found -- "Flowers Itself to Death"
Sara Goudarzi, National Geographic News 17 Jan 08;

A couple on a casual stroll in Madagascar recently discovered a new gigantic palm that flowers itself to death.

Taller than a six-story building, with a trunk 1.5 feet (0.5 meter) in diameter, it is the most massive palm discovered to date in Madagascar.

After the plant has rocketed to its full height, a vast candelabra-like structure of flowers develops above its leaves, said William Baker, a scientist with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.

Baker and colleague John Dransfield have studied and cataloged the plant.

"The [structure] produces hundreds of thousands of flowers, which drip with nectar when they are open," he said. "It is truly spectacular."

Once pollinated, each flower turns into a fruit. The palm's nutrient reserves then become depleted, the crown collapses, and the tree dies a prolonged death.

The palm is dubbed Tahina spectabilis—in the local language, Malagasy, spectabilis means "blessed" or "to be protected." It's the only known palm in a genus new to science, the researchers say.

Their research appears in the January 17 issue of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

Mystery Palm

Xavier and Nathalie Metz, a French couple who run a cashew plantation in remote northwestern Madagascar, first noticed the mystery palm in September 2006 at the foot of a limestone outcrop.

The enormity of the plant and its large flowers at the top caught their eyes. They posted photos of the palm on the International Palm Society bulletin board in December 2006, where Dransfield and his team soon caught wind of the discovery.

"Clearly this was going to be an extremely exciting discovery, and I just couldn't wait to examine specimens in detail," Dransfield said in a statement.

The data and material Dransfield's team collected suggested that T. spectabilis belongs to a new genus within the palm tribe Chuniophoeniceae.

Henk Beentje, an expert on Madagascar flora at the Royal Botanic Gardens, was not involved with the study.

"The fact that [the palm] is described by some of the world's major palm experts makes [the find] pretty solid in my eyes," Beentje said.

"It will enhance our understanding of palm taxonomy, and a new genus is a substantial contribution in its own right—there are less than 200 palm genera known so far," he added.

"There might be new genera lurking elsewhere but I doubt if they would be as spectacular as this one."

Eggs in One Basket

The only three other known genera in this tribe are dotted across the Middle East, Thailand, and China.

The researchers don't know how the newly discovered palm reached the large island off the African continent, or why it destroys itself after flowering.

"The new palm is one of a small, select group of palms that behave in this way," Baker told National Geographic News.

"There is little evidence that the palm flowers frequently, suggesting that it might be rather long-lived and that reproduction is a rare event. It is certainly an extreme way to reproduce—putting all your eggs in one basket."

Conservation Efforts

Researchers have identified 90 T. spectabilis specimens so far, most scattered around a tiny patch of limestone forest just 820 feet (250 meters) in length.

"Our analyses suggest that only a very small coastal area would be suitable for the palm, and much of the vegetation in this area is highly degraded," Baker said. "Apart from a lone individual at a nearby village, no other localities are known."

To conserve the palm species, Dransfield and local assistants have set up a patrol to guard the plants.

The Millennium Seed Bank and the Royal Botanic Gardens are also working to sell T. spectabilis seeds to raise funds for the villagers and help spread the palm.

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Critically Endangered Porpoise May Be Doomed To Extinction

Science Daily 16 Jan 08;

ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2008) — An international research team, including biologists from NOAA's Fisheries Service, reported in the scientific journal Conservation Biology, that the estimated population of vaquita, a porpoise found in the Gulf of California, is likely two years away from reaching such low levels that their rate to extinction will increase and possibly be irreversible.

Scientists believe only about 150 vaquita remain.

The research team, led by Armando Jaramillo, Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Mexico, included researchers Barbara Taylor, NOAA's Fisheries Service, and Randy Reeves Reeves, Chair of the Cestacean Specialist Group, IUCN -- the World Conservation Union.

The group assessed the number of vaquita based on past estimates of abundance and deaths in fishing nets together with current fishing effort. Approximately 30 vaquita drown each year in the Gulf of California when they become entangled in nets set for fish and shrimp.

Vaquita are found only in a small area of productive, shallow water in the northernmost Gulf of California. They are listed as endangered species by the United States and Mexico and critically endangered by the World Conservation Union.

Researchers cite worrisome parallels between vaquita and the baiji, a freshwater dolphin in the Yangtze River, which was recently declared likely to be extinct; primarily from entanglement in fishing gear.

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Endangered sea turtles found dead in Bangladesh

Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

COX'S BAZAR (BANGLADESH) - DOZENS of endangered sea turtles have washed-up dead along the southern Bangladesh coast over the last week, conservation officials said yesterday.

At least 20 turtles, ranging from 40kg to 60kg, were found dead on Monday and Tuesday alone, and more were reportedly found on other parts of the sandy coast, conservation official M.A. Hannan said.

Pollution and the use of illegal nets by fishermen near the shoreline were believed to be responsible for the deaths of the Olive Ridley turtle species in Cox's Bazar district but conservationists were investigating, he said.

Olive Ridleys, the smallest of all sea turtles, are endangered. They come ashore during September to March to lay eggs along Bangladesh's coast, Mr Hannan said.

Last year, several hundred of the turtles died along the same coast, officials said.

Dr Ainun Nishat, local head of the Geneva-based World Conservation Union, said the government should focus on informing fishermen how to properly release turtles caught in their nets.

'We can prevent most of the deaths of the turtles if the fishermen are aware enough,' Dr Nishat said.

The government has launched a conservation project with the help of the United Nations Development Programme to protect turtle eggs on beaches.

'We have already collected more than 1,500 eggs for breeding this year,' said Mr Hannan.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bangladesh finds dead turtles on beach
Reuters 17 Jan 08;

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Bangladesh found at lest 40 dead turtles, some weighing 40 kg pounds) or more, on the beach of the Bay of Bengal over the past week, officials said on Thursday.

At least 10 of them were found dead on Thursday.

"I have seen more than a dozen carcasses of turtles, some of them were Olive Reedley, scattered on the vast beach, during my resent tour," a senior ecological official told Reuters in Cox's Bazar, 400 km (250 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka.

The turtles die mostly in winter and last year officials and fishermen reported the death of more than 200 turtles along the Cox's Bazar sea beach.

No one seems to know why the sea creatures are dying.

Marine officials believed the turtles died after being caught in fishing nets. But fishermen said they avoided such big turtles, as they often tear their fishing nets and other gears.

Environment experts said the deaths could be caused by increased pollution in the bay, from waste disposal of ships or perhaps other unknown natural causes.

Bangladesh has a 120-km (75 miles) natural beach from Cox's Bazar to Teknaf, which is poorly maintained and monitored.

(Reporting by Mohammad Nurul Islam, writing by Nizam Ahmed)

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Whalers vs activists: High-seas stand-off

Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

Two activists held on Japanese ship as whalers, activists trade accusations

SYDNEY - A HIGH-SEAS stand-off has emerged in the icy waters of the Antarctic as Japanese whalers and anti-whaling activists traded accusations of piracy and terrorism yesterday.

At the centre of the row are two activists who remained locked up on a Japanese ship after boarding the vessel in a protest action.

The whalers said that they would release the two men only if the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Group promised not to take any 'violent action' against their ship and keep the protest ship Steve Irwin 10 nautical miles from the whaling ship Yushin Maru No.2.

But Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, the captain of the Steve Irwin, demanded the immediate and unconditional handover of the two activists.

'When you start making demands for the return of hostages, that sounds like terrorism to me,' he told AFP from on board the Steve Irwin.

'We will continue to chase them until they stop their hunt,' he said.

The Japanese have accused the activists of attempting to entangle the ship's propeller with ropes and throwing bottles of acid onto the decks.

Sea Shepherd group said the pair - Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35 - boarded the ship to deliver a letter demanding an end to the hunt, but they were assaulted, dunked in icy water and tied to the radar mast by the Japanese crew.

The Japanese side said that the two men were briefly tied up near the bridge of the Yushin Maru, and later moved them to a cabin.

'It was the only way, you couldn't have them running around the deck not knowing what they're going to do,' said Mr Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research that organised the hunt.

He added that the pair had been given hot meals, a bath and had a good night's sleep.

Mr Inwood yesterday accused Sea Shepherd of stalling the handover to get more publicity.

'It is completely illegal to board anyone's vessel... on the high seas so this can be seen as nothing more than an act of piracy by the Sea Shepherd group,' he added.

A spokesman for Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tomohiko Taniguchi, said that it was incorrect to call the two men 'hostages'.

'The two crew members were intentionally left behind on board,' he was quoted as saying by BBC News.

'According to the International Whaling Commission, what the Japanese whaling fleet is doing in the South Pacific and Antarctic region is legal,' he added.

Despite a moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual 'scientific' hunt, arguing whaling is a cherished cultural tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales.

The programme is widely condemned as a front for commercial whaling.

'The pirates down here are the Japanese,' Mr Watson of Sea Shepherd told Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) radio.

The stand-off was an escalation of the annual contest between the fleet that carries out Japan's controversial whale hunt in the ocean at the bottom of the world and the environmental groups who try to stop them.

One way to resolve the stand-off could be for the two activists to be handed to an Australian fisheries ship en route to the area.

The two anti-whaling protesters were detained inside Australia's declared Antarctic waters and a southern whale sanctuary declared by Canberra but not recognised by Japan.

Australia criticised both sides for behaving in a potentially dangerous way in a region that is thousands of kilometres from the nearest help in case of an emergency.

'From the very first day I urged all parties in this matter to exercise restraint,'Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told ABC radio, referring to previously known plans for the environmentalists to chase the whalers.

'It's quite clearly the case that restraint hasn't occurred here.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

Group known for aggressiveness
Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

ANTI-WHALING group Sea Shepherd has been labelled 'eco-terrorist' for its aggressive tactics.

It has rammed whaling ships in the past, sinking some of them.

Its founder Paul Watson said he would do everything he could to stop whaling.

'Greenpeace claims they don't like our tactics, but they are protesting against whaling and we are policing whaling,' said the former member.

Greenpeace, which kicked out Mr Watson in 1977 because of his militant style, says it will not cooperate or share information with his group.

Its spokesman Sara Holden said Sea Shepherd placed lives at risk while Greenpeace only disrupted whaling by placing inflatable boats between harpoon boats and the whales.

'Our actions are peaceful and are not designed to do anything other than defend the whales,' she said.

In response, Mr Watson was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying: 'You don't go down the street and watch a dog being kicked to death and do nothing.

'You don't sit there and watch a whale being harpooned and killed and do nothing except take its picture.'

His group's reckless act of sending two members to board a Japanese whaling ship has achieved its goal - at least for now.

The harpoon ship has halted whaling until the activists are handed over.

REUTERS

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Which Whales are Most Endangered?

PlanetArk 17 Jan 08;

Japan plans to hunt almost 1,000 minke and fin whales for what it says are scientific purposes this year, continuing a hunting tradition that dates from the 12th century.

Minkes, numbering about 200,000 northern minke, (hunted by Japan), and more than 700,000 southern minke, are said by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to be at low risk of extinction. Fin whales, numbering more than 40,000, are classed as endangered.

Here is a ranking of the world's smallest whale populations and some facts about the impact of whaling upon them:

1. NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE

-- Population: Approximately 350. Endangered.*

-- Found off the US East Coast and Canada, the slow swimmers were targeted for centuries for their abundant oil. In 1935 it became the first whale protected from commercial hunting.

2. BLUE WHALE

-- Population: About 5,000. Endangered.

-- The world's largest animal, weighing up to 100 tonnes and growing to 100 feet (30 metres). Distributed throughout the world's oceans.

-- Hunted to near extinction, numbers shrank from 250,000 to around 1,000 by 1950s. Now rebounding since 1960s whaling ban.

3. BOWHEAD WHALE

-- Population: About 8,000. Low extinction risk.

-- Found in the Arctic, where its 70 cm thick blubber helps it survive icy waters.

-- Hunted for its oil and baleen, or "whale bone", from the 17th century to the early 1900s; protected since 1946.

4. HUMPBACK WHALE:

-- Population: Between 10,000 to 20,000. Vulnerable.

-- Humpbacks live in all the world's oceans. Known for their agility and acrobatics, they also "sing" for up to 30 minutes.

-- Japan dropped plans to hunt 50 humpbacks this year after strong international protests.

5. GRAY WHALE

-- Population: 25,000. Low extinction risk.

-- Found mainly in the northeast Pacific. Gray whales are already extinct in the North Atlantic. The 100 or so Western Pacific gray whales are classed as critically endangered.

-- Decimated by hunters in the 1850s. International Whaling Commission protection has seen numbers rebound since the 1940s.

* Conservation status classified according to the IUCN.

Sources: Reuters, World Wildlife Fund (http://www.worldwildlife.org), World Conservation Union (http://www.iucnredlist.org), International Whaling Commission (http://www.iwcoffice.org/index.htm)

(Writing by Shahida Patail, Singapore Editorial Reference Unit)

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Bush exempts Navy from environmental law

Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press Writer Yahoo News 17 Jan 08;

Conservationists on Wednesday blasted President Bush's decision to exempt the Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using high-power sonar in its training off Southern California — a practice they say harms whales and other marine mammals.

The president's action by itself won't allow the anti-submarine warfare training to go forward because an injunction is in place, but the Navy believes it will significantly strengthen its argument in court. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is expected to make a determination on the future of the Navy exercises on Friday.

The White House announced Bush signed the exemption Tuesday while traveling in the Middle East. In his memorandum, Bush said the Navy training exercises "are in the paramount interest of the United States" and its national security.

Peter Douglas, the executive director of the California Coastal Commission, which joined in the lawsuit to provide the mammals greater protections from sonar, called the exemption unprecedented in California.

"I'm not surprised at all," he said. "It's typical for this Republican administration to ignore environmental protections under the banner of fear."

Attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has been fighting the Navy's sonar training, said the group would file papers with the appeals court to challenge Bush's exemption.

"The president's action is an attack on the rule of law," said Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica. "By exempting the Navy from basic safeguards under both federal and state law, the president is flouting the will of Congress, the decision of the California Coastal Commission and a ruling by the federal court."

A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction this month requiring the Navy to create a 12-nautical-mile, no-sonar zone along the Southern California coast and to post trained lookouts to watch for marine mammals before and during exercises. Sonar would have to be shut down when mammals were spotted within 2,200 yards, under the order.

The court found that using mid-frequency active sonar violated the Coastal Zone Management Act and Bush exempted the Navy from a section of that act. Complying with the environmental law would "undermine the Navy's ability to conduct realistic training exercises that are necessary to ensure the combat effectiveness of carrier and expeditionary strike groups," Bush said.

Scientists say loud sonar can damage marine mammal brains and ears. Sonar may also mask the echoes some whales and dolphins listen for when they use their own natural sonar to locate food.

But much is still unknown about how sonar affects whales and other marine mammals. For example, the sound can hurt some species while not affecting others, and experts don't fully understand why.

In an argument that has been going on for years, the Navy has continually said that the exercises are vital for training and that it works to minimizes the risk to marine life.

A statement from the Defense Department said that the new exemption covers the use of mid-frequency active sonar in a series of exercises scheduled to take place off California through January 2009 and that the Navy already applies 29 measures to mitigate the effects.

In a separate development, the Pentagon statement said, Navy Secretary Donald Winter signed a memo Tuesday agreeing to greater public participation and better reporting on the issue while officials complete an environmental impact study for Southern California.

Use of sonar "is part of critical, integrated training that must be done in the Navy's operating area off the coast of San Diego to take advantage" of features there related to water depth, as well as extensive ranges, airfields and other infrastructure needed for training, the Pentagon statement said.

About half the Navy's fleet will receive "its most critical, graduate level training" there before it deploys its forces around the world, it said.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said that exercises with sonar train sailors to detect quiet submarines that might threaten its ships.

"We cannot in good conscience send American men and women into potential trouble spots without adequate training to defend themselves," said Roughead.

"The Southern California operating area provides unique training opportunities that are vital to preparing our forces, and the planned exercises cannot be postponed without impacting national security," he said in the Pentagon statement.

Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

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Amazon deforestation seen surging

Stuart Grudgings, Reuters 16 Jan 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deforestation of the Amazon has surged in recent months and is likely to rise in 2008 for the first time in four years, a senior Brazilian government scientist said on Wednesday.

The rise raises questions over Brazil's assertion that its environmental policies are effectively protecting the world's biggest rain forest, whose destruction is a major source of carbon emissions that drive global warming.

"I think the last four months is a big concern for the government and now they are sending people to do more law enforcement," Carlos Nobre, a scientist with Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, told a seminar in Washington.

"But I can tell you that it (deforestation) is going to be much higher than 2007."

Nobre, whose government agency monitors the Amazon and gathers data, said that 2,300 square miles of forest had been lost in the past four months.

That compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months ended July 31, which Brazil officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since the 1970s.

Brazil's government has said that policies such as more controls on illegal logging and better certification of land ownership were reducing the deforestation that has destroyed about a fifth of the forest -- an area bigger than France -- since the 1970s.

But environmental groups have warned that rising global commodity prices are likely to fuel more clearing of land for farms, as occurred in 2004 when Brazil recorded the highest deforestation rate of more than 10,400 square miles (27,000 square km ).

LAND USE CHANGES

Nobre said the cause of the recent surge was unclear, but that the major drivers of deforestation such as illegal logging and land clearing for cattle farming remained intact, despite the recent annual declines in forest clearing.

"All those drivers of change are there. The three years of reduced deforestation ... did not bring by themselves a cure for illegal deforestation," he said.

Destruction of forests produces about 20 percent of man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making conservation of the Amazon crucial to limiting rises in global temperatures.

But the government has struggled to stem deforestation, partly due to strong global demand that has made Brazil one of the world's biggest food suppliers. Environmental groups also warn that a rash of planned infrastructure projects in the coming years could bring more settlers to untapped regions.

"Infrastructure is associated with aggressive and progressive land use change," said Nobre, noting that 90 percent of Amazon deforestation occurred within 30 miles (50 km) of roads.

He also warned that continued high world oil prices were likely to result in a surge in demand for Amazon land to produce ethanol, the alternative transport fuel for which global demand is already booming.

"If oil prices keep increasing there will be an explosion of biofuel production in the Amazon, contrary to Brazilian government policy," Nobre said.

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Air Pollution at Historic Highs in China's Guangdong

PlanetArk 17 Jan 08;

HONG KONG - Air pollution in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong increased markedly last year, with 27 major cities and counties suffering a record number of hazy days, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

China's industrial heartland of Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong, recorded an average of 75.7 days of haze in 2007, the highest level since the Communists came to power in 1949 and a "marked increase" over normal years, according to a new report released by Guangdong's meteorological bureau, Xinhua said.

The report found the industrial heartland of the Pearl River Delta, whose factories have powered China's export growth, fared the worst.

Provincial blackspots included Enping with 240 hazy days and Dongguan with 213, Xinhua added.

"It may take at least 20 or 30 years to bring the haze under control. Cities in the delta region should join in fighting air pollution instead of acting by themselves," Wu Dui, an atmospheric studies expert from the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Bureau, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Neighbouring Hong Kong has also grappled with chronic air pollution, partly from industrial smog blown in from Guangdong, but also from coal-fired power stations.

The city's picturesque harbour is now regularly shrouded in a thick smog, particularly during the winter months.

Hong Kong and Guangdong have committed to ambitious air-quality reduction targets by 2010, including cutting sulphur dioxide and suspended particulate emissions by upwards of 50 percent compared with 1997 levels.

But green groups and scientists have expressed scepticism the targets will be met.

China's coastal waters have remained severely polluted and excessive discharge of industrial waste is the main culprit, a government report said.

A total of 145,000 square km (55,985 sq miles) of Chinese coastal waters did not meet environmental standards, according to the 2007 China Oceanic Environment Report by the State Oceanic Administration.

In another report, the State Oceanic Administration warned that sea levels along China's coast had risen 90 mm over the past 30 years, faster than the average global rate.

The northern port city of Tianjin had seen an alarming increase of 196 mm in its sea level during the period, while financial centre Shanghai had seen a 115-mm rise. (Reporting by James Pomfret and Guo Shipeng; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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