No lack of natural gas for Singapore

Straits Times 14 Jul 08;

SINGAPORE will not have a shortage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for many years, given its long-term contracts with Indonesia and Malaysia, said Foreign Minister George Yeo yesterday.

And for the long haul, there is also the upcoming LNG terminal.

Mr Yeo was responding to media queries on how political instability in neighbouring countries would affect Singapore's natural gas supply.

He was speaking at a community event in Hougang Stadium to promote social harmony, which was attended by about 2,000 residents from Aljunied and Hougang.

The billion-dollar LNG terminal will be ready to supply a third of the country's gas demand by 2012.

At yesterday's event, which included a walk, telematches and performances, Mr Yeo also touched on the Youth Olympic Games that Singapore is hosting in 2010, which he said would have grassroots' support.

'There are many things that need to be done, from critical infrastructure to systems management to security, to making sure we have enough guides, hosts and hostesses,' he said.

Representatives such as community leaders, schoolchildren and undergraduates would be mobilised to help in the national effort, he added.

LIAW WY-CIN

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Indian group plans to light up 1.6b lives with solar lanterns

It will provide solar lanterns to rural poor, starting with those in India
P. Jayaram, Straits Times 14 Jul 08;

NEW DELHI - AN INDIAN energy research institute has launched a plan to bring light to 1.6 billion rural people worldwide with low-cost solar lanterns.

The plan, which would help mitigate carbon emissions and the threat of climate change, will cover - besides India and Africa - less developed South-east Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, said Dr R.K. Pachauri, chairman of The Energy Research and Resources Institute (Teri).

'Rural Indonesia will also be covered under the plan, but we want to implement it first in India,' said Dr Pachauri, who is also head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with ex-US vice-president and leading environmental activist Al Gore.

Of the 1.6 billion people in the world without access to electricity, 25 per cent, or 400 million in more than 76 million households, are in India, according to figures released by Teri.

Of these 76 million households, 65 million use kerosene for lighting purposes, consuming an average of 3 litres a month, or 2.4 billion litres per year, and emitting an estimated 5.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, the organisation said.

The solar lanterns are similar in shape to traditional kerosene lanterns used in Indian villages, and cost 3,600 rupees (S$113) each.

The lanterns consist of a solar-charged battery, compact fluorescent light bulb and light-emitting diode bulb for evening and overnight lighting, respectively.

Dr Pachauri said that because many rural people would find the price of these lanterns beyond their reach, they could instead rent them at a cost of 2 rupees to 3 rupees a day - the same amount that a village household spends on kerosene.

Teri has already lit up non-electrified villages in seven states across India with these lanterns.

'To provide solar lanterns to the 65 million rural households now dependent on kerosene for lighting, an outlay of between 208 billion rupees and 234 billion rupees would be required, which is half the total government subsidised kerosene consumed in India annually,' he told a press conference.

'Thus, with this amount, we can provide a sustainable means to provide clean lighting to all those people who lack it, instead of keeping them dependent on a subsidy.'

A recent study noted that a third of the subsidised kerosene, which the government regularly spares from fuel price increases, is being diverted to the black market, or has been adulterated.

'In addition, the solar lanterns will mitigate the 5.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted from kerosene lanterns,' Dr Pachauri said.

The solar lanterns will also provide better illumination and eliminate the health problems associated with kerosene lanterns, such as pulmonary diseases and poor eyesight.

According to him, the campaign to 'Light One Billion Lives' would require a total of 200 million solar lanterns, and this can only be accomplished with local government and international support.

Dr Pachauri said during a recent visit to the United States that the mayors of New York and Chicago have promised to support the lighting of some villages.

pjay@sph.com.sg

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Kenya court halts $370m sugar, biofuels project

Daniel Wallis, Reuters 13 Jul 08;

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Kenyan court has temporarily halted a $370 million sugar and biofuels project in a coastal wetland that conservation groups warned would threaten wildlife and local livelihoods.

The government and the country's biggest sugar miller, Mumias, wants to plant cane on 20,000 hectares in the Tana River Delta to create jobs and plug an annual 200,000-tonne sugar deficit.

But the Malindi High Court ruled on Friday that environmentalists and groups representing local livestock keepers could apply for a judicial review, according to a copy of the order seen by Reuters on Sunday.

"This decision will make supporters of the project reflect on some of the issues raised at the public hearings," said Steve Itela, director of Kenyan campaigners Youth for Conservation.

"This should never have needed to go to court."

Kenya's National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) cleared the project last month. But it has run into fierce opposition from activists who say it threatens 350 species including birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles.

They accuse NEMA of ignoring a study showing irrigation in the area would cause severe drainage of the Delta, leaving local farmers without water for their herds during dry seasons.

Mumias, which owns 51 percent of the Tana Delta project, hopes to produce about 23 million liters ethanol -- which is distilled from molasses, a cane by-product -- there each year.

It says it will also generate 34 megawatts of electricity and create some 20,000 direct and indirect jobs, partly through the construction of an 8,000-tonne a day sugar mill.

The government, which has a 30 percent stake, says the project will benefit locals and that it has its full support.

Kenya produced 475,670 tonnes of sugar in 2006, and Mumias projects that it will generate an extra 200,000 tonnes annually from the Delta project.

Mumias chief executive Evans Kidero told Reuters in an interview on Thursday the firm was operating at full capacity again after post-election violence at the start of the year disrupted production and transport.

The company's pre-tax profits for the half-year ending December 2007 surged 38 percent to 564 million shillings ($9.11 million) from 436 million in the same period a year before.

Mumias, which is 20 percent owned by the government, currently produces 300,000 tonnes of sugar a year, 90 percent of it from some 66,000 smallholder farmers.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

Nobel laureate Maathai warns Kenya over biofuel
Yahoo News 13 Jul 08;

Kenya will regret its failure to protect the environment, Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai said Sunday, as environmentalists battled to halt a government backed biofuels project.

"This country has failed to take environment issues seriously and that is very dangerous for posterity," Maathai told AFP.

"I am sorry that Kenyans are going to regret, in 20 to 30 years to come, why they let their government interfere with the environment, forests and wetlands," she added.

Maathai was speaking two days after a Kenyan court temporarily halted construction of a government-backed project where sugar was to be grown to generate power in coastal wetlands and opposed by environmentalists.

The government has approved the Tana Integrated Sugar Project, a 24-billion-shilling (369.3-million-dollar, 235-million-euro) operation on July 1.

Friday's ruling, from a court in the coastal town of Malindi, temporarily suspended work to allow environmentalists and local communities to apply for judicial review.

Conservationists and local communities have warned that loss of grazing and crops caused by the project would incur serious land damage in the protected area.

Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature Kenya also oppose the project, which would cover more than 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of the Tana River Delta, saying it would damage the fragile ecosystem.

But Maathai stressed that it was up to local people and communities to oppose government projects that harmed the environment.

"We cannot just start messing around with the wetland because we need biofuel and sugar," she said.

Maathai won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for her Green Belt Movement which has planted some 30 million trees to counter forest loss and desertification in Africa.

The Tana Integrated Sugar Project aims to mill 8,000 tonnes of sugar cane daily, generating 34 megawatts of electrity and producing 23 million litres of ethanol a year.

Mumias Sugar Company owns 51 percent of the project, to be sited about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the port city of Mombasa.

The rest is owned by the state-run Tana and Athi River Development Authorities and local residents.

Demand for biofuels has been blamed as one of the factors contributing to the global food crisis that has sparked riots in many poor nations, including Kenya.

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Forests to fall for food and fuel

Richard Black, BBC News 13 Jul 08;

Demand for land to grow food, fuel crops and wood is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests, a report warns.

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) says only half of the extra land needed by 2030 is available without eating into tropical forested areas.

A companion report documents poor progress in reforming land ownership and governance in developing countries.

Both reports will be launched on Monday in UK government offices in London.

Supporters of RRI include the UK's Department of International Development (DfID) and its equivalents in Sweden and Switzerland.

"Arguably, we are on the verge of a last great global land grab," said RRI's Andy White, co-author of the major report, Seeing People through the Trees.

"It will mean more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone."

Rising demand for food, biofuels and wood for paper, building and industry means that 515 million hectares of extra land will be needed for growing crops and trees by 2030, RRI calculates.

But only 200 million hectares will be available without dipping into tropical forests.

Forest focus

The report foresees demand increasing further into the century.

It cites studies suggesting that "...if the current plateau in productivity continues, the amount of additional agricultural land required just to meet the world's projected food demand in 2050 would be about three billion hectares, nearly all of which would be required in developing countries."

According to UN figures, the world currently has about 1.4 billion hectares of arable land and about 3.4 billion hectares of pasture.

Some academics place their hopes in agricultural technologies including genetic engineering to boost crop yields.

But since the spectacular successes of the Green Revolution, advances have been slow. In some areas, yields are falling - a trend which is likely to be exacerbated by climate change.

However, eating into tropical forests to create extra agricultural land would, in turn, exacerbate climate change, with deforestation currently accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Reform call

One of RRI's key conclusions is that reform of land ownership is crucial, if large-scale pillage of tropical forests is to be avoided.

The conclusion is supported by DfID, whose minister Gareth Thomas will be speaking at the launch event.

"These new studies should strengthen global resolve to protect the property rights of indigenous and local communities who play a vital role in protecting one the most outstanding natural wonders of the world," he said.

DfID runs programmes in West Africa aimed at helping forest dwellers acquire the legal right to manage their land.

"It is clear that the dual crises of fuel and food are attracting significant new investments and great land speculation," said Andy White.

"Only by protecting the rights of the people who live in and around the world's most vulnerable forests can we prevent the devastation these forces will wreak on the poor."

But the second RRI report - From Exclusion to Ownership? - says progress in reforming ownership has been slow, with only a few countries such as Brazil, Cameroon and Tanzania handing over significant tracts to local communities.

Moves to curb climate change by preserving forests in developing countries could help, RRI concludes. But it also raises the question of who owns rights to the trees - the rich Western countries that want to fund carbon sequestration, or the people who live in the forest areas?

Sorting out ownership could not only help on the environmental front, but also remove reasons for conflict. RRI calculates that about two-thirds of the world's current violent conflicts are driven by land tenure issues.

Forest funding 'could put billions in wrong hands'
David Adam, The Guardian 14 Jul 08;

The rush to protect forests as a way to tackle global warming could see billions of pounds handed over to corrupt politicians, criminals and polluting industries, experts have warned.

The Rights and Resources Initiative, a coalition of groups from around the world, says not enough has been done to address land rights in tropical countries, where much of the money is being directed. Without clearer guidelines on land ownership and involvement by local people, they say, the funds provided by rich countries, including Britain, to protect trees could fuel violent conflict and fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Deforestation causes about a fifth of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and how to protect the huge stocks of carbon locked in tropical forests has become a key issue in the climate change debate. Sir Nicholas Stern, in his 2006 review of the economics of the problem, said that £2.5bn a year could be enough to prevent deforestation across the eight most important countries. Britain and Norway have already pledged £108m to a fund to protect forests in the Congo basin. Rich countries paying tropical regions to protect forests is likely to form part of a new global climate deal to replace the Kyoto protocol, which could be agreed next year.

Stern also said that a series of institutional and policy reforms were needed, including forest property rights. Without such changes, said Andy White, coordinator of the initiative, the money aimed at protecting trees could go to central government officials, many of whom were closely tied to illegal logging and mining activities. He said direct payments to local groups would be more effective, but that required them to be given clear land rights. Evidence from Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil showed that local communities protected the forests better than governments, he said.

White added: "These forests are often in lawless regions with a history of conflict. We have huge concerns about sending all this money in the name of fighting climate change if the land rights for people living there are not resolved. It could cause more violence, benefit only a wealthy elite and lead to even greater carbon emissions.

"We think it would be a terrible mistake to reduce development funding purely to carbon and mitigating climate change. This poses a real dilemma for governments of conscience like the UK. They risk undermining all of their development and human rights work in this area if efforts to protect carbon don't support and strengthen community land rights and organisations."

Two reports from the Rights and Resources Initiative, published today, show that progress on land rights has slowed in recent years. The group says just 27% of developing-country forest is owned by local communities, or designated for their use. It warns that the next two decades could see the remaining forests threatened by the "last great global land grab", with booming demand for land to grow food, biofuels and wood products.

White said more effort was needed to map remote forests and register the people who live there to protect their interests. "We know how to do this. It's not rocket science, it just needs to be scaled up." He praised steps Britain has taken in the Congo basin.

Gareth Thomas, green minister at the Department for International Development, said: "We don't spend money on any project if we can't be certain that the money is going to go where it is needed. But we have to step up work on land-use management, ownership issues and improving governance. We have made quite a lot of progress, but it is not realistic that we can sort out every land use issue by the time of the next climate treaty."

James Heneage, the director of the Prince's Rainforests Project, a group set up by the Prince of Wales to work out a mechanism to fund forest protection, said a focus on land rights risked delaying efforts to protect the climate. He said: "The issue of land rights is important and must be looked at, but it is also an intractable problem and will take time to solve. We are in a state of emergency with climate change and we cannot allow the issue of land rights to delay getting serious amounts of money into forests to stop deforestation."

World's forests 'threatened by food, fuel demands'
Yahoo News 14 Jul 08;

The world's forests will be gobbled up by an escalating demand for fuel and food unless steps are taken to hand the people who live in them greater rights, two reports published here Monday said.

The US-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an international coalition of forest governance and conservation groups, warned that widespread deforestation would make climate change more severe.

It would also push the billion or so people dependent on forests further into poverty and trigger conflicts, the coalition's reports said.

The international community must work to empower poor forest-dwellers if the loss of forest and its consequences are to be avoided, the RRI concluded.

The world will need a minimum of 515 million more hectares (1.27 billion acres) by 2030, in order to grow food, bio-energy and wood products, said the reports.

This is almost twice the amount of available land and equal to an area 12 times the size of Germany, the RRI said.

"Arguably we are on the verge of a last great global land grab," said RRI co-ordinator Andy White.

"Unless steps are taken, traditional forest owners, and the forests themselves, will be the big losers.

"It will mean more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone."

The RRI found that developing countries' governments claimed an overwhelming majority of forests and had made limited progress in recognising local land rights.

The report said that left open the potential for violence, as some of the world's poorest peoples struggled to hold on to their only asset: the forest land.

The biggest carbon emitters from deforestation, including Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Democratic Republic of Congo should be targeted for investment in land rights reform, the research urged.

"It is clear from the research that the dual crises of fuel and food are attracting significant new investments and great land speculation," White said.

"Only by protecting the rights of the people who live in and around the world's most vulnerable forests can we prevent the devastation these forces will wreak on the poor and the poorly governed hinterlands.

"In the process, our studies have shown that we will protect the forests themselves by recognising the rights of the people with the most to lose if they are destroyed."

The reports' conclusions are supported by Britain's Department for International Development.

"These new studies should strengthen global resolve to protect the property rights of indigenous and local communities who play a vital role in protecting one of the most outstanding natural wonders of the world," said International Development Minister Gareth Thomas.

Population Boom Will Pressure Forests - Reports
PlanetArk 15 Jul 08;

LONDON - Booming demand for food, fuel and wood as the world's population surges from six to nine billion will put unprecedented and unsustainable demand on the world's remaining forests, two new reports said on Monday.


The reports from the US-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) said this massive potential leap in deforestation could add to global warming and put pressure on indigenous forest dwellers that could lead to conflict.

"Arguably we are on the verge of the last great global land grab," said Andy White, co-author of "Seeing People Through the Trees," one of the two reports.

"Unless steps are taken, traditional forest owners, and the forests themselves, will be the big losers. It will mean more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone."

RRI is a global coalition of environmental and conservation non-government organisations with a particular focus on forest protection and management and the rights of forest peoples.

White's report said that unless agricultural productivity rises sharply, new land equivalent in size to 12 Germanys will have to be cultivated for crops to meet food and biofuel demand by 2030.

Virtually all of it is likely to be in developing countries, principally land that is currently forested.

The second report, "From Exclusion to Ownership", noted that governments still claim ownership of most forests in developing countries, but said they had done little to ensure the rights and tenure of forest dwellers.

It said people whose main source of livelihood is the forests were usually the best custodians of the forests and their biodiversity.

RRI said governments were failing to prevent industrial incursions into indigenous lands. Its report noted that cultivation of soy and sugar cane for biofuels in Brazil is expected to require up to 128 million hectares of land by 2020, up from 28 million hectares now, with much of it likely to come from deforestation in the Amazon.

"We face a deficit of democracy plagued by violent conflict and human rights abuses," said Ghanaian civil rights lawyer Kyeretwie Opoku, commenting on the reports.

"We must address underlying inequalities by consulting and allowing forest peoples to make decisions the themselves regarding the actions of industry and conservation," he added. (Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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Best of our wild blogs: 13 Jul 08

Sentosa: Coral Relocation - Lies Beneath It
on joseph lai's eart-h.com

Sharing Cyrene at Reel Revolution
on the wildfilms blog

What do bee-eaters do after a meal?
find out on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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$5m to help conserve monuments

But sum is to be used only for urgent repairs of religious and non-profit national monuments
Esther Teo, Straits Times 13 Jul 08;

Religious and non-profit national monuments might soon get a helping hand in their upkeep.

The Government is setting aside $5 million over the next five years - or $1 million each year - to help owners of such buildings patch up possible structural defects, though not to assist in routine maintenance work.

The bottom line: They have to be urgent and necessary repairs.

The new assistance scheme - the National Monuments Fund - will be launched by the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB) this year, said Senior Minister of State for Education and Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew yesterday.

Designed to provide financial help in conserving the 55 gazetted national monuments, the fund could benefit iconic buildings like the Armenian Church in Hill Street and the Jamae Mosque in South Bridge Road.

Monuments are gazetted based on their architectural, social and historical significance.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui said he hopes to see more people and private-sector firms support preservation efforts.

'It is important for society to demonstrate that we recognise it is partly our collective responsibility to help preserve and cherish those monuments, not just for the present, but for the future as well,' he said at the launch of the fifth Singapore HeritageFest at Causeway Point Shopping Centre yesterday.

The money will be given based on needs, with 30 religious and non-profit monuments already singled out as possible recipients.

The PMB will meet once a year to decide on the allocation of funds, distributed on a co-funding basis, although it is prepared to be flexible when it comes to exceptional cases.

It will release more details later this month.

Dr Yeo Kang Shua, who works as an architectural consultant at the PMB, said restoration of monuments is not just the state's responsibility but also the owner's.

'However, since they are part of our heritage, the state is willing to assist them,' he said.

Heritage buffs also applaud the move, although they say that much more can be done.

Mr Dinesh Naidu, an architectural writer, said: 'This is definitely a historical and important step. The owners of such monuments are providing a public good and it is good that the Government is finally assisting them.'

However, he suggested extending such a scheme so that owners of such monuments will not have to worry about their upkeep after the five years have passed.

Govt to set aside S$5m over 5 years to help monument preservation
Chio Su Mei, Channel NewsAsia 12 Jul 08;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government has said it will set aside S$5 million over the next five years to help owners of religious and non-profit national monuments undertake repairs.

Called the National Monuments Fund, it will be launched by the Preservation of Monuments Board later this year, and will help repair over 30 monuments.

This was announced by the Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, at the opening ceremony of the annual Singapore HeritageFest.

The annual festival opened at the Causeway Point shopping centre with traditional cultural performances and a display of traditional works of art.

This year's theme celebrates local heroes, paying tribute to ordinary people with extraordinary spirit.

Singaporeans can expect to enjoy cultural exhibitions and concerts around the island till July 27.

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Cutting food waste: Bin there, done that

Mark Rice-Oxley for the Straits Times 13 Jul 08;

Kingston, England - Prime Minister Gordon Brown would be proud of me. It was the end of another messy mealtime with my three young children. As usual, large quantities of perfectly edible food were left on the plates.

There was a time when this would have gone straight in the bin. But not any more.

Here's how we divided it up: The eldest didn't like his potatoes, but the middle child did, so he got the spuds. His leftover beans went in the opposite direction. And the two-year-old's chicken pieces, well, I was a bit peckish so I ate them.

Leftover vegetables went in the composter. We didn't even need to open the bin.

So when Mr Brown says that Britons are throwing away more than 4 million tonnes of perfectly good food every year, I like to think we are not guilty.

And yet... A quick nose around my kitchen and a review of our shopping habits reveal that we could learn a thing or two from Mr Brown's 'waste-not-want- not' exhortation.

For a start there are several ancient jars and tubs in the fridge which I just know are going to end in the dustbin.

There's too much bread in the breadbin as well, and some of it has a distinctly furry look about it.

The fruit bowl has some small apples of indeterminate vintage that appear to have taken on a life of their own.

And in the back of one cupboard is something that used to be carrots, but now is just an unpleasant suppurating mess.

How did we get to this pass, a situation where time pressure, affluence and complacency have combined to warp our ability to shop properly?

Britons spend less than one-tenth of their household income on food - down from around 30 per cent a couple of generations ago.

This new-found affordability has tended to mean that people are inclined to shop now and think later, filling their cupboards with supermarket fare not all of which will be eaten.

Mr Brown wants this to change. He called it 'unnecessary demand' last week when he urged Britons to 'do more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain about £8 (S$22) a week'.

Newspapers have responded by publishing self-help guides to remind people how to plan, shop, cook, and use up leftovers.

Essentially these can be boiled down to five main themes:

1. Avoid supermarkets. Easier said than done.

Supermarkets are ubiquitous, accounting for around 80 per cent of UK grocery spend.

The biggest store, Tesco, now takes £1 in £7 spent in all British shops.

Yet the way they package goods invites waste, according to Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb.

'Supermarkets make it harder for householders to avoid food waste,' he said. 'They refuse to stock small portions, which are essential for the growing number of one-person households, and offer too many 'buy-one, get one free' deals on perishable goods.'

We are listening: Now we get all our meat in a once-a-month delivery from an organic farm.

2. Avoid BOGOF deals. They're everywhere, the 'buy one, get one free' offers that often result in that extra pack of cakes going to waste. I'm rarely tempted, to be honest.

3. Shop daily for perishables. We're better at this, thanks to a fruit and vegetable stall nearby.

More and more Britons are signing up to vegetable box deliveries too, which bring in-season fare to the front door - fresh, low food miles and interesting.

4. Meal-plan for the week. We used to do this, but it's a little regimented. Life's too short.

Now the tactic is to check what's in the cupboards and invent something that uses as many leftovers as possible. Yum!

5. Grow your own. Well, we started on this, but have only a small urban back garden, good for a few tomatoes and carrots but not much else.

Evidence is mounting however that Britons are taking to GYO in large numbers. There are long waiting lists for allotments that once stood fallow. Sales of potato and vegetable seeds are shooting up.

'Grow your own is great,' says amateur gardener Vincent Brannelly. 'I eat my tomatoes straight off the plant. They're delicious. When you buy them from the supermarket, they sit in the fridge for three or four days and they're gone over.'

And as if to prove that money really does grow on trees, he points out the purple sprouting broccoli on his allotment plot. 'Sainsbury sells it for £1 a bunch. I can grow 50 bunches on one plant and I've got 12 plants.'

It's the kind of resourcefulness that Mr Brown would do well to ape.

For after advising the country on how to shop and eat, he then went on to a lavish eight-course banquet at the Group of Eight summit in Japan. Whether he finished everything on his plate remains unknown.

Read more!

Brazil and Indonesia pledge biofuel cooperation

Zulhefi, Yahoo News 12 Jul 08;

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Indonesian counterpart pledged cooperation on biofuels during talks here Saturday in a bid to take advantage of surging oil prices.

Lula and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed off on an agreement to share knowledge on biofuel technology after meeting at Jakarta's presidential palace.

The Brazilian leader called spiralling global commodity prices a "great opportunity" for developing countries such as Indonesia and Brazil, both of which are major producers of biofuel.

"The developing countries that have the characteristics that Indonesia and Brazil have should not analyse this crisis as only a problem. We have to see this moment as a great opportunity," Lula said.

"We have land, we have sunlight, we have water resources, we have technology and, thanks to God, the poor of the world have started to eat more, three meals a day, so they will demand more food production."

The two leaders signed memoranda of understanding that would see the countries exchange experts and students to share knowledge on biofuels. Yudhoyono will also make an official visit to Brazil in November.

"In the energy sector, both countries are cooperating in the field of alternative energy. Brazil has succeeded in developing bio-ethanol and Indonesia can learn from Brazil to develop bio-ethanol," Yudhoyono said.

Yudhoyono also called for a broadening of countries represented on the United Nations Security Council, throwing his backing behind permanent membership for the South American power.

"Brazil is included in those countries that have been mentioned as having the potential to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Some also say Indonesia should be a permanent member of the UN Security Council because it has the highest Muslim population," he said.

The biofuel cooperation agreement comes amid criticism of the role of biofuels -- which are mostly made from food crops -- in pushing up global food prices and promoting deforestation in both countries.

The leftist Lula used the announcement with Yudhoyono to criticise rich nations for unfairly laying the blame on developing countries for high commodity prices and environmental destruction.

"First of all, it's not ethanol or biofuel production that is responsible for the rise in the food prices. Secondly, it's not only due to China that the oil prices are rising," Lula said.

"Thirdly, people will soon discover that reaching a good agreement at the Doha round of the WTO could solve the food issue, giving more incentives to the poor countries to improve their food production (by opening up market access)," he said.

"The only thing that is unacceptable is to ask to the poor people of the world not to eat more. Ask us to produce more and we'll do it because we have the competence to do so."

Brazil is the world's largest sugarcane ethanol producer with a long-established programme mandating biofuel content in automotive fuel. The country argues its massive production does not divert land from food crops.

Indonesia recently overtook Malaysia as the world's top producer of palm oil, which is a key feedstock for biodiesel.

The government is reportedly considering a regulation forcing manufacturers to use 2.5 percent biodiesel, but faces criticism over massive deforestation in equatorial forests to make way for plantations.

Lula's Indonesian visit is the final leg on an Asian tour that took him to Vietnam and East Timor after going to Japan for the Group of Eight industrialised nations summit.

Read more!

Second oldest US wildlife refuge in jeopardy

Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Yahoo News 11 Jul 08;

The nation's second oldest national wildlife refuge, a chain of barrier islands southeast of New Orleans, is in danger of being lost unless the islands are restored, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday.

The Chandeleur and Breton islands have been battered by hurricanes in the past four years and they took a pounding from Hurricane Katrina, which "reduced the islands by one-half of their pre-storm size," the agency said in a new report.

The nation should pour money into restoring the refuge, the report said.

"Current management has not been able to keep up with the rate of land loss," the report said. "Circumstances are now at a turning point. We can either let things continue to deteriorate or we can expand restoration efforts."

The islands form an arc in the Gulf of Mexico southeast of the swamps and marshes that surround New Orleans. Remote and accessible only by boat and aircraft, the islands are important nesting grounds for a variety of birds, chief among them brown pelicans, terns and black skimmers.

But the beauty of the islands — captured by Gulf Coast wilderness painter Walter Anderson — may be lost forever unless expensive restoration takes place.

Katrina was quite possibly a "tipping point," said Abby Sallenger, an oceanographer with the U.S. Geological Survey who has studied the islands' shorelines.

Two years after the storm, the shoreline continued to get washed away and there was little evidence that sand was piling up in dunes, he said. A more recent survey indicated some dunes might be forming, which would be a positive sign, he said.

"There's no guarantee that they're going to last," said Jack Bohannan, the refuge manager.

The islands have changed dramatically since President Theodore Roosevelt designated them a national wildlife refuge on Oct. 4, 1904 to stop destructive bird hunting.

In 1915, people lived on the islands in a settlement that included a school and there were reports of trees growing. Not anymore.

What was once a continuous strip of land, where beaches were backed up by high dunes and shrubbery made up of black mangrove and groundsel bush, is now a patchwork of low-lying sand bars rising just above the sea.

Because the islands are so far from shore, restoration would be expensive and would cost tens of millions of dollars, Bohannan said. Scientists are studying what sections could feasibly be restored, he said.

Mark Schexnayder, a coastal adviser for Louisiana State University's Sea Grant Extension, said the nation and state need to find the money to save the islands regardless of the cost.

"It's got historical significance and it's the largest rookery for our state bird, the brown pelican," Schexnayder said. "I'm not willing to fold the tent and go home."

But the fate of the islands may be beyond whatever humans can do, the report suggested.

"After the devastating 2005 storm season, serious concerns now exist regarding the amount of recovery possible," the Fish and Wildlife Service report said, noting that the rise in sea level is a threat.

Friday's report was part of the agency's nationwide effort to draw up 15-year conservation plans for every wildlife refuge by 2012.

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Lead Shot From Hunting and Fishing Kills Wildlife

LiveScience.com, Yahoo News 12 Jul 08;

Millions of pounds of lead used in hunting, fishing and shooting sports wind up in the environment each year and can threaten or kill wildlife, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Lead has long been known to be damaging to biology. It's previous use in gasoline, paint, pesticides, and solder in food cans has nearly been eliminated. Lead shot was banned for waterfowl hunting in 1991, but its use in ammunition for upland hunting, shooting sports, and in fishing tackle remains common.

Numerous previous studies have documented adverse effects to wildlife, especially waterbirds and scavenging species, like hawks and eagles, the researchers say. Lead exposure from ingested lead shot, bullets, and fishing sinkers also has been reported in reptiles, and studies near shooting ranges have shown evidence of lead poisoning in small mammals.

The USGS released images of a young eagle with lead shot inside it and the stomach of a pelican loaded with fishing gear.

Outdoor shooting ranges overall are thought to use more than 80,000 tons of lead shot and bullets each year, according to the report. Precise estimates are not available for lead fishing tackle in the environment, but about 4,382 tons of lead fishing sinkers are sold each year in the United States. Frequently used upland hunting fields were found to have as much as 400,000 shot per acre.

The most significant hazard to wildlife is through direct ingestion of spent lead shot and bullets, lost fishing sinkers and tackle, and related fragments, or through consumption of wounded or dead prey containing lead shot, bullets or fragments, said U.S. Geological Survey contaminants experts Barnett Rattner and Chris Franson. The two scientists are lead authors of a new Wildlife Society technical report and co-authors with five other experts of a recent Fisheries department article on the same subject.

"Science is replete with evidence that ingestion of spent ammunition and fishing tackle can kill birds," Rattner said. "The magnitude of poisoning in some species such as waterfowl, eagles, California condors, swans and loons, is daunting. For this reason, on July 1, 2008, the state of California put restrictions on the use of lead ammunition in parts of the range of the endangered California condor because the element poses such a threat to this endangered species."

Lead poisoning causes behavioral, physiological, and biochemical effects, and often death. The rate of mortality is high enough to affect the populations of some wildlife species, the scientists conclude. Although fish ingest sinkers, jigs, and hooks, mortality in fish seems to be related to injury, blood loss, exposure to air and exhaustion rather than the lead toxicity that affects warm-blooded species.

Lead can also slowly dissolve and enter groundwater, making it potentially hazardous for plants, animals, and perhaps even people if it enters water bodies or is taken up in plant roots, the study points out. For example, said Rattner, dissolved lead can result in lead contamination in groundwater near some shooting ranges and at heavily hunted sites, particularly those hunted year after year.

Some states have limited the use of lead shot in upland areas to minimize such effects, and others are considering such restrictions, according to a USGS statement. Environmentally safe alternatives to lead shot and sinkers exist and are available in North America and elsewhere, but use of these alternatives is not widespread, according to the report.

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Algae spreading along China's Yellow Sea coast

Yahoo News 12 Jul 08;

The algae plaguing China's Olympic sailing venue is spreading to other ports and beaches along the coast, state media has reported, despite official claims that the battle is being won.

Officials in Jiangsu province activated an emergency plan on Friday, assigning experts on marine patrol ships and two helicopters to stop the spread of algae that has appeared in the state's Yellow sea waters, Xinhua reported.

At the end of June officials said the weeds had affected a total sea area of 13,000 square kilometres (8,080 square miles), but it has continued to grow offshore even as cleanup efforts closer to shore have been stepped up.

An updated estimate of the total affected area was not immediately available.

Chinese officials are also facing trouble on another front as swarms of locusts that left thousands of acres (hectares) barren in Inner Mongolia, threaten to descend on Beijing, the Beifang Xin Bao reported this week.

Jiangsu borders Shandong province where the algae bloom first appeared in late May. Qingdao, Shandong's major resort city, is hosting the Olympic sailing competition next month.

Officials in Jiangsu' Lian Yungang and Shandong's Ri Zhao have jointly set an algae task force and China's State Ocean Administration has also stepped up monitoring of waters neighboring Shandong, Xinhua reported on Friday.

Environmentalists say the algae is caused by sewage and agricultural waste. But government officials have played down links to pollution, saying this year's unusually large bloom is due to heavy rain and hot weather.

China has invested heavily in cleaning up the water around Qingdao, including moving sewage discharge pipelines away from the shore and out to sea.

Qingdao officials have set a Tuesday deadline to clean up all the algae from the city's waters and have drafted more than 10,000 soldiers and volunteers and hundreds for fishing boats to help.

A barrier more than 22 kilometres (13 miles) long of constructed out of inflatable oil booms and was completed on Saturday sealing off sailing courses from invading algae, Qu Chun, the Olympic sailing competitions manager said.

"From what we see today after finishing an inspection tour, there is very little algae on the courses, which shows our previous efforts worked," Qu told AFP on Saturday.

The algae has spread as far as the county of Rongcheng, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) up the coast from Qingdao, near the northern tip of China's Yellow Sea Coast.

Authorities in the coastal counties of Rushan, Wendang and Wengcheng were also forced to mount cleanup efforts in the midst the summer tourist period, state press reported.

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Green Olympics yield mixed record on green building

Lindsay Beck, Reuters 12 Jul 08;

BEIJING (Reuters) - It's been billed as the "Green Olympics", but do the showpiece venues that will host the Games' key events live up to the theme?

The record is mixed, experts say, with the best venues for the Beijing Games setting a standard for energy-efficient building while others betray the promise of environmental sustainability.

In the end, much was left to the developers, with few mandatory guidelines set by Olympic organizers, meaning they had little leverage to impose consistent standards.

"The intention is always positive, but if you don't give people some mandatory parameters on which they have to work, then you allow them to make shortcuts," said Theodore Oben, head of the sport and environment programme at the United Nations Environment Programme.

"A lot of the building and facilities are developed by contractors ... If the parameters are not mandatory, then the contractors will have either to do as much as you want or more, or they may make shortcuts if they want to save money," he said.

The National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest" for its latticework of interwoven steel, and the National Aquatics Centre, or "Water Cube", the rectangular swimming venue that sits by its side, are considered among the world's most architecturally adventurous new buildings.

But are they the most green?

NEST OF STEEL

"It's an iconic structure, but a green building it ain't," Robert Watson, CEO of green building consultancy EcoTech International, said of the Bird's Nest.

The stadium features non-flush toilets equipped with sewage treatment systems, a rooftop photovoltaic system with a capacity to generate 130 kilowatts of power, and facilities to collect 58,000 cubic meters of rainwater annually.

But to Watson the structure itself, which used some 42,000 tonnes of steel, is the problem.

"The fact that it uses 10 times the materials of a normal stadium, any green virtue is inundated by that," he said.

"Ninety percent of the structure does nothing but hold itself up," said Watson, who founded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system for green buildings.

Experts say the Water Cube fared better.

The $143 million venue's playful facade, which evokes giant soap bubbles, is made of ETFE, a durable plastic that allows natural light into the building and is a better insulator than glass.

"It's super lightweight, so it allows us to cut a lot of the structural load out of the building as a result," said Haico Schepers, leader of the sustainable buildings group at Arup, the engineering firm that was a partner in the Cube's design.

The daylight that the material conducts into the building is also harnessed to heat the swimming pool, reducing the pool enclosure's energy consumption by 30 percent.

Part of the building's success, said Schepers, was that its green aspects were not afterthoughts, but integrated into the design.

"What we tend to find with sustainability is if you make it an add-on item, there's a large risk it gets costed out through the process," he said.

NO OSTENTATION

Premier Wen Jiabao himself has urged energy efficiency in the Olympics venues as environmental sustainability becomes a theme of China's leadership, keen to ward off civil discontent sparked by widespread degradation.

"There will be no talk of extravagance or ostentation in organizing the Olypmic Games. We should save every drop of water and every unit of electricity in the construction of the Olympic venues," local media quoted Wen as saying last year.

For its part, Beijing's organizing committee has stressed the environmental aspects of the Olympic village, which include solar heating to supply hot water to its more than 16,000 residents, a rainwater collection system and a heating and cooling system that will cut electricity by 40 percent by using recycled water.

But experts say there have also been near-misses and lost opportunities.

One of the buildings where Chinese athletes are training was built with timber from an uncertified source -- meaning it could have come from protected forests -- because Beijing's organizing committee had little control over the contractor, Oben said.

The design for the basketball venue initially included giant LED screens on each side, a plan Watson said would have used as much energy in one project as several thousand Chinese families.

Still, despite some missed opportunities, environmentalists hope where things went well they will provide a template for what rapidly growing China could do in future.

"I think the ability to point at some of the innovations in these facilities, or the mistakes, will have some impact down the road," said Watson.

"Certainly the best buildings in China are equivalent to the best buildings anywhere."

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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