Green tax break for CNG cars: Call for firm ruling

Straits Times 29 Jul 08;

PLAYERS in the compressed natural gas (CNG) industry are lobbying for certainty in a tax policy governing cars that use the cleaner-burning fuel.

These vehicles are currently exempt from a so-called 'special tax' that applies to vehicles that do not use petrol. For diesel cars, it starts at $1,250 a year.

If not for this exemption, CNG cars would be taxed more heavily than petrol cars.

The exemption was introduced six years ago to encourage people to switch to greener vehicles, and expires at the end of next year.

There are more than 1,600 CNG vehicles on the road today, triple last year's number.

Motor traders, CNG retailers and companies that convert petrol-driven cars to run on the fuel are lobbying for a long-term policy - preferably one in favour of CNG.

'If the Government really wants to encourage environmentally friendly vehicles, it should not impose the special tax,' said Mr Johnny Harjantho, managing director of CNG-refuelling company Smart Energy.

The Land Transport Authority would only say that 'a review will be conducted in due course'.

At the same time, it is leaving the door open for an extension to the tax break.

A spokesman said the review would take into account, among other factors, the environmental benefits of such vehicles.

Earlier this month, the Vehicle Traders Association and the Automotive Importers and Exporters Association met ministries and government agencies over the fate of the special tax on CNG.

Mr Neo Nam Heng, who heads both associations, said: 'We were pushing for certainty so people can decide clearly whether they will buy a green car.'

Mr Gilbert von der Aue, sales manager at C. Melchers, a company that converts cars to use CNG, said: 'Even if the Government extends the exemption by another two years, it is not going to help much.'

He said car buyers and gas sellers have made 'long-term' investments in the fuel.

Shipping executive Agus Kassim, 44, who drives a bi-fuel Toyota Estima, said a tax would be 'unfair to owners because we are supporting a policy to go green'.

CHRISTOPHER TAN

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Climate change will increase the erosion of coral reefs

Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com 28 Jul 08;

Coral reefs are particularly susceptible to climate change. Warming waters have been shown to bleach coral, killing off symbiotic algae that provide them with sustenance, and often leading to the death of the coral itself. Much attention has been placed on bleaching coral, but now scientists have discovered an additional danger to coral reefs in a warming world: erosion.

A study published in this week's issue of PNAS has shown that coral reefs in the waters off Panama and Galapagos, which live in a naturally acidic and high CO2 environment, contain dangerously low percentages of cement to hold them in place.

The researchers believe that these reefs are a vision into the future of reefs worldwide, since their environment replicates the expected increased in acidity and CO2. Oceans have already absorbed about one-third of all carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.

The researchers believe that early marine cementation is key to a coral reefs "rigidity and stability".

Studying early marine cementation in three test sites, one in Galapagos and two in Panama, the researchers searched interskeletal pores for evidence of cementation. They found that cementation was in 1.5 to 16.1 percent of these reef's pores. The Galapagos was the most cement-free with six samples showing no cement whatsoever. The researchers also took samples from a reef in the Bahamas. In these less acidic and less CO2-rich waters, 60 percent of coral contained cementation: four times more than the most cement-rich coral found by scientists in the waters off Panama. Bearing out the link between less cementation and risk of erosion, the scientists note that erosion rates in the Galapagos and Panama "are among the highest measured for any reef system to date".

Coral reefs are bombarded by threats. A recent study from the IUCN showed that nearly one in three coral species in the world are endangered. Threats included human disturbance, coastal development, sedimentation from land erosion and deforestation, high nutrient run-off from agriculture causing algae blooms, over-fishing, and bleaching due to warming oceans. This new study reveals yet another vulnerability, the increasing instability of reefs in face of climate change.

"Poorly cemented coral reefs of the eastern tropical Pacific: Possible insights into reef development in a high-CO2 world," by Derek P. Manzello, Joan A. Kleypas, David A. Budd, C. Mark Eakin, Peter W. Glynn, and Chris Langdon. PNAS.

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Newfound Monkey Could Disappear Soon

LiveScience Yahoo News 28 Jul 08;

A monkey species discovered only three years ago could soon go extinct in its tiny forest home in Tanzania, say conservation scientists.

The kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji and also known as the Highland Mangabey) was discovered in 2005 in the Southern Highlands and Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania. In 2006, genetic analyses revealed the species represented an entire new genus of primate - the first since 1923.

Now, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York has published a census of the endangered primate, revealing 1,117 individuals of the species reside in two isolated forest regions spanning less than 7 square miles (18 square kilometers). The animals live in 38 groups, each with 15 to 39 members.

The forest-dweller sports long whiskers and a crest of hair on the tip of its head. The monkey is known for its unique honk-bark call.

"The kipunji is hanging on by the thinnest of threads," said Tim Davenport, Tanzania country director for the WCS. "We must do all we can to safeguard this extremely rare and little understood species while there is still time."

WCS researchers found that much of the monkey's remaining habitat is severely degraded by illegal logging and land conversion. This loss of habitat along with the monkey being hunted by poachers has WCS scientists worried about the species' survival.

WCS officials are proposing that that the kipunji be classified by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as "critically endangered," which means the species is threatened with extinction in the wild if immediate conservation action is not taken.

The kipunji census research, detailed in the July issue of the journal Oryx, was funded by the WCS, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, and Fauna and Flora International Flagship Species Fund.

Newfound Monkey Species "Rarest in Africa," Experts Say
Steven Stanek, National Geographic News 4 Aug 08;

A recently discovered African monkey could soon be extinct, scientists report.

The first comprehensive study of a three-foot-tall (one-meter-tall) monkey discovered in Tanzania found that just 1,117 individuals exist, according to researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The Rungwecebus kipunji on Monday was listed as "critically endangered"—the highest possible threat level before extinction—by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in response to the WCS research.

"Without a doubt, they are the rarest monkey in Africa, and I would imagine there are very few with such small numbers in the world," said Tim Davenport, Tanzania country director for the WCS, who led one of the two research teams that separately found the primate in 2005.

Davenport helped IUCN to assess the conservation status of the kipunji.

Mike Hoffmann, a Washington-based program manager for IUCN, said his organization relies on information from researchers in the field about animal populations to determine a species' conservation status.

"They've got very good information," Hoffman said of Davenport's teams. "This is information from people working on the ground conducting detailed surveys."

New Genus

Davenport said the main threats to the kipunji are poachers and illegal logging in its habitat in Tanzania's southern highlands and the Udzungwa Mountains, which rise 8,000 feet (about 2,400 meters) above sea level.

As adults, the brownish gray, long-haired monkeys weigh up to 40 pounds (18 grams) and emit a unique "honk-bark," so named because it sounds like "a goose followed by a dog," Davenport said.

Originally scientists thought the monkey was a new species of mangabey, but in 2006 DNA analysis revealed it to be an entirely new genus of primate named Rungwecebus—the first genus discovered in Africa since 1923.

Patricia Wright, a primatologist at New York's Stony Brook University, said: "If it is indeed its own genus, then it becomes even more important that we save it."

The primate could disappear in 20 to 50 years without safeguards to preserve it, said Wright, a member of National Geographic's Conservation Trust Advisory Board.

(The Conservation Trust is part of the National Geographic Society, which also owns National Geographic News.)

Counting Each Individual

The WCS study—published in the July issue of the journal Oryx—was the result of more than 2,800 hours of fieldwork by scientists.

Davenport said most primate censuses estimate populations through sampling and statistical extrapolation.

"What we decided to do was a little bit more time consuming ... actually try and count every individual," he said. "It was a bit of an unusual study."

It took 20 researchers six months to map the movements of 34 separate groups of kipunji, using GPS mapping systems. Each group has 30 to 36 individuals.

The team found the monkeys—which sport distinctive, upright crests of hair on their heads—live in a range of just 6.8 square miles (17.7 square kilometers) in two remote regions, which explains why they eluded Western scientists for so long.

The researchers said the kipunji's tiny population and "shyness" also contributed to the primate's obscurity.

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Ancient Ocean Cooling Sparked a Biodiversity Boom

Kimberly Johnson, National Geographic News 28 Jul 08;

More than 400 million years ago, Earth's dramatically warmer sea temperatures plummeted to almost present-day levels, opening the door for a boom in biodiversity, new research shows.

The cooler seas—which occurred during the Ordovician period—created a more hospitable environment for a range of species, researchers say.

The find might also foreshadow a biodiversity crisis if the planet continues to warm due to climate change.

"It's a warning of what happens to life on Earth when global temperatures get extremely high," said study co-author Chris Barnes, a paleontologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

"Life can exist, but it is not as diverse."

Biodiversity Boom

Sea-surface temperatures hovered at about 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) near the beginning of the Ordovician, 490 million years ago, researchers found.

The temperature fell dramatically to modern-day tropical climes by 470 million years ago, then cooled further during a brief glacial period to about 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) around 443 million years ago. As oceans cooled to modern levels, life bloomed. At the beginning of the period, the sea averaged about 350 to 400 species, but those numbers soon spiked to more than 1,700, Barnes explained.

"What we can show in this [research] is that this sudden expansion in the evolution of life occurred only over about five to ten million years. Thats really quite astonishing," Barnes said.

New Technique

Traditionally scientists have used oxygen isotopes—versions of an element with different masses—to measure ancient ocean temperatures. That's because ratios of these isotopes change based on sea temperatures.

Barnes' team used a new, more accurate technique for analyzing oxygen isotopes in the fossilized teeth of an ancient eel-like animal called a conodont.

About the size of an adult human finger, conodonts once swam in the tropical shallow seas that covered North America and Australia. The fossils were collected throughout sites in modern-day Canada and Australia.

Like today's sharks, the animals' teeth are the only hard parts in their bodies that are preserved as fossils.

The composition of the teeth—which are made of calcium phosphate—hasn't significantly changed with time or temperature, Barnes said.

This makes the teeth better research subjects than shells made of calcium carbonate, which recrystallize over time and lose their isotopic value, he added.

Based on ratios of the isotopes in conodont teeth, the scientists established a steady decline in sea-surface temperatures from 488 to 444 million years ago.

The research was published recently in the journal Science.

Clouded by Assumptions

The authors have produced a very nice data set, Richard Norris, a paleooceanagrapher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said in an email. The interpretation of that data, however, is clouded by assumptions.

One assumption, for instance, is that there was no ice until late in the end of the Ordovician period, he said.

Ice would have affected the ocean's isotope composition and could have lowered the temperature by several degrees. While he agrees that the study used a novel technique, Norris expressed skepticism about absolute temperature values derived from it.

He pointed out that no adjustment was made for an isotope measurement that varies due to evaporation or rainfall.

"It is also possible that the long-term temperature trend that is reported in the paper is an artifact of changes in oceanography between the different sites used in the study," Norris said.

For example, changes in the water depth, geographic position of the sites relative to areas of high rainfall or high evaporation, or changes in ice volume on the Poles could influence the results.

Norris added that he thought a link between temperature and diversification was not conclusive.

"Lots of things are correlated in nature without being strict causal relationships."

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Vietnam to freeze new golf courses to protect rice farms

Yahoo News 28 Jul 08;

Communist Vietnam plans to restrict the growth of new golf courses encroaching on rice farms to ensure national food security and protect thousands of poor farmers, state media reported Monday.

More than 140 golf courses, either operating or in the planning stages, would take up almost 50,000 hectares (more than 120,000 acres) of land, said the Vietnam News daily quoting a Ministry of Planning and Investment report.

New golf courses had been licensed at a rate of more than one per week since early 2006, when foreign investor interest surged in the "emerging tiger" economy, which saw growth of 8.5 percent last year.

But now, as food prices are sky-rocketing amid double-digit inflation, the government is planning to freeze new courses that do not meet land-use criteria and environmental protection requirements, reports said.

"Local governments should cease issuing new golf licenses if the projects are built on land which is currently used to cultivate two rice crops a year," the ministry report said according to the Vietnam Investment Review.

Vietnam currently has only 13 operating golf course projects, but new licenses have mushroomed recently, especially near the northern capital Hanoi and around the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City, the report found.

Long An province, near the former Saigon, had issued 18 licenses, and state-owned companies had also asked for permission to build many courses, with shipbuilder Vinashin alone planning five golf projects, it said.

Thousands of farmers had already lost their land and livelihoods, and developers had typically compensated them at a rate of about two or three dollars per square metre of land, the report said.

Golf courses also take a heavy environmental toll, said Eng Le Anh Tuan from the Can Tho University Environmental Technology Centre.

An 18-hole golf courses consumes 5,000 cubic metres of water per day, enough for 20,000 households, and three times the pesticides, fertilisers and other chemicals used for farming, he was quoted as saying by the Vietnam News.

Amid Vietnam's economic boom, rice land shrank from 4.5 million to 4.1 million hectares between 2000 and 2006 due to the growth of industrial and residential areas, the Agriculture Ministry said in June.

World grain prices have shot up this year, leading to bouts of panic-buying of rice in Vietnam and prompting the government to cap international sales and impose export tariffs to ensure national food security.

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Floods strip Midwest of tons of valuable topsoil

Deanna Martin, Associated Press Yahoo News 27 Jul 08;

Jim Lankford's corn crops used to stretch to the White River. Now the river has stretched itself through his crops.

The river eroded a new route for itself during June's flooding, a channel with steep 12-foot banks at the edge of some of Lankford's corn fields about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The flood spread rocks in other spots, making it look as if Lankford planted soybeans in a gravel road. Elsewhere, silt is piled up like sand dunes and uprooted trees still litter cornfields more than a month after the floods.

"It's the worst I've ever seen in my life for this area," the 62-year-old farmer said.

The flooding that swamped large areas of the Midwest took with it some of the region's most valuable resource: soil.

Now farmers and environmentalists are at odds over what to do with erosion-prone land — take their chances planting crops on marginal land in hopes of good yields and high grain prices, or plant trees, native grasses or ground cover that act as a natural flood buffer.

The floods may have caused up to $3 billion in crop losses in Iowa and $800 million in crop damage in Indiana, according to estimates from agriculture secretaries in those states.

Erosion damage is harder to tally.

In Wisconsin, flooding damaged about $2.8 million worth of conservation structures, such as dams, levees, ditches and waterways, said Don Baloun, a farm conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service in Madison, Wis.

Some land in Illinois is still submerged.

"It could be fall for some of our counties on the Mississippi River before we see what kind of damage farmers did experience as far as erosion," said Donald King of Illinois' USDA's Farm Service Agency.

Erosion robs farmers of the nutrient-rich topsoil their growing plants need.

"It takes thousands of years to form one inch of topsoil," said Jane Hardisty, Indiana's state conservationist. "Within a day, we lost it. It's just devastating."

It's also an issue downstream, where sediment diminishes water quality. Scientists think the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico — oxygen-depleted water off the Texas-Louisiana coast that can't support kill marine life — is likely to be worse this year partly because of the flood runoff.

States have set up programs to keep their soil. Missouri, for example, has nearly halved its rate of soil loss since the mid-1980s, when it dedicated a special tax that generates $42 million a year for soil-conserving practices such as terraces, retention ponds and grazing rotations.

The conversion of row-crop land to pastures over the last 20 years in northern Missouri also has helped conserve the precious few inches of top soil left in that part of the state, said Bill Foster, who heads the state's soil and water conservation program.

"If we lose very many more inches of soil, we won't be farming," Foster said. "It's critical to keep in place."

The Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program also helps. The $2 billion-a-year federal program pays farmers not to plant crops, instead returning land to its native state. That saves an estimated 450 million tons of soil each year.

However, that program isn't without controversy. Environmental groups recently sought a federal court injunction to stop hay production and cattle grazing on some conservation land. A judge in Seattle ruled that the USDA did not conduct an appropriate environmental review, but said a reversal would be unfair to farmers and ranchers counting on using that land.

Conservation program officials announced earlier this month that farmers in flooded-damaged areas of 16 states could graze livestock on conservation land to help them cope with rising grain prices and flood damage.

"Our CRP land is vital to the balance we promote at USDA between production and preservation," Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. "I commit this resource knowing that we must redouble our conservation effort at every future opportunity."

One of the program's founders, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., wants to also allow farmers to plant crops on more stable conservation land.

Environmental groups say there are risks to opening up conservation program land to planting. Marginal land planted with ground cover or trees acts as a natural flood barrier, said Sara Hopper, director of agricultural policy for the Environmental Defense Fund. Planting crops could mean less protection against floods, she said.

"It's going to make a bad situation worse, particularly over the long run," she said.

Lankford, the Indiana farmer, faces a difficult decision for his flood-damaged land.

He could replant corn in an effort to make money off the field, but that would take cash to rebuild a breached levee and haul hundreds of truck loads of topsoil to replace his lost land. He could also consider the conservation reserve program, or he could simply abandon the affected field.

Another big flood could come again next year, he said, or not for another hundred years.

"Traditionally, farmers are optimists, and I know I'm that way. They always think 'Well, next year will be better,'" Lankford said.

"You know there's risks. Sometimes it's worse than you think."

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Gardeners urged to stop using peat compost

Brian Unwin, The Telegraph 28 Jul 08;

The demand for peat for use by Britain's gardeners continues to cause environmental damage.

Despite two decades of campaigning and readily available alternatives gardeners account for almost 70 per cent of peat used in horticulture, according to The Wildlife Trusts.

As a result more than 90 per cent of UK peatlands formed over thousands of years and the ecosystems they contain have been damaged or destroyed.

Bogs also act as important carbon sinks and draining them before peat extraction can begin releases harmful greenhouse gases threatening people as well as wildlife.

This summer greater than ever emphasis is being placed on the need for peat to remain as the basis of a dwindling number of important wildlife habitats - not stuffed into plastic bags stacked in garden centres and supermarkets.

After International Bog Day (July 27) and its message that garden soil can be enriched without devastation to magical wild places, there is the Festival of the Solway Mosses (August 9 - 16) underlining the wonders of habitats that will be lost if extraction isn't curtailed extensively.

It is particularly a celebration of north Cumbria's nationally important peatbogs and there will be opportunities for free guided tours of some of the sites, along with a programme of talks and family events in nearby Carlisle.

The festival's joint organisers are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Natural England and the Environment Agency, who are working together to protect the area's surviving peatlands.

Peatbogs are part of the mosaic of wetland habitats at the RSPB's Campfield Marsh reserve near Bowness-on-Solway and its manager Norman Holton said: "Lowland bogs are one of the scarcest and most precious wildlife habitats in Europe.

"We are fortunate to still have so much of this irreplaceable landscape in Cumbria. Peat bogs are fantastic places, not just packed with rare wildlife but full of history too. The Festival of the Solway Mosses is a great chance to find out all about what goes on here and have a fun time with the family."

Through International Bog Day, The Wildlife Trusts is urging gardeners to help the survival of such habitats everywhere by opting for the green alternatives.

They want to see 90 per cent of the UK market for composts and soil improvers to be peat-free by 2010, in line with Government targets. With less than two years to go, they are stressing the need to switching to bark, coir and green compost to meet that target.

Chain stores such as B&Q, Focus DIY and Homebase already stock peat-free products.

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Best of our wild blogs: 28 Jul 08

Blog later. See this first!
latest on the hantu dive on the Pulau Hantu blog

Our cool clams!
featuring our beautiful bivalves on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Red-bearded Bee-eater: Black inner feathers?
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Butterfly Photography at our Local Parks
Featuring Alexandra Hospital Butterfly Trail on the Butterflies of Singapore blog

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Poachers leave animal traps in Lim Chu Kang forest

NOBODY WILL HEAR YOU SCREAM IN DESERTED FOREST IF YOU'RE STUCK IN... TRAP SNAP
Zaihan Mohamed Yusof, The New Paper 28 Jul 08;

ALL around, rotting leaves and branches lay on the damp forest floor.

Fruit pickers on weekend forays go looking for durian trees in the area.

And what The New Paper on Sunday discovered there this week can send a chill down the spine of any of them.

Hidden among the leaves in the Lim Chu Kang forest were hazardous animal traps left by poachers.

All it takes is one wrong step and trekkers may find themselves with serious injuries from these illegally setup traps.

Said Mr Ben Lee, 46, of Nature Trekkers Singapore: 'The snare is dangerous because the metal wire can cut into your shin.

'You'll be in so much pain that I don't think you'll have the strength to shout for help.'

Much care had been taken to make the trap 'blend in with the surroundings', said Mr Lee.

He had walked past the snare without even noticing it at first.

The three traps we saw were all within 50m of one another.

We came to know about the hazards from a concerned father, who gave his name only as Mr Teng.

He was worried that during the durian season, unsuspecting fruit pickers may spring the traps by accident. The traps were located off Neo Tiew Road, along Turut Track.

This road leads to the BBC's Far Eastern Relay Station and Kranji Transmitting Station, easily recognised by the huge aerial structures.

We found the traps to the right of lamp posts 41 and 42, some 30m from the one-lane road.

Said Mr Teng, 45: 'People normally look up when searching for fruits. But the danger is below (on the ground).

'This part of Lim Chu Kang is deserted on weekdays. You can scream all you want, nobody will help you if you are hurt.'

Mr Teng, a retired businessman, loves trekking.

It was his 10-year-old daughter, Rachel, who first spotted a cage-like trap. In the rusted cage, coconuts and rotting durians were left as bait.

Moving the fruits would cause the suspended cage to fall to the ground.

Luckily, Rachel did not touch the trap, which was big enough to hold four squatting adults.

Mr Teng took Rachel there on 22 May because it was her birthday wish to go hiking.

Said Mr Teng: 'I would not have been able to react if the trap had fallen onto her because she was walking 2m ahead of me. I'm angry poachers do not consider that there may be people wandering in the forest.'

Mr Teng has since marked the traps with coloured plastic bags. When he told his hiking buddies, one of them warned Mr Teng to avoid the area.

'When my friend told me he had seen a bear trap there, it gave me goose bumps,' said Mr Teng. 'This type of trap will maim you badly. Why would any one put up such a dangerous trap when there are no bears here?'

Mr Teng now uses a stick to probe the ground when he hikes in Lim Chu Kang forest. We could not speak to Mr Teng's friend as he was overseas.

From what we understand, a bear trap is a metal contraption with sharp 'teeth' that will clamp shut if stepped on.

Mr Lee said the public should always be alert when hiking in forested areas.

Said Mr Lee, 46: 'This is a serious matter and it shows that trapping is not a problem seen only on Singapore's smaller islands like Pulau Ubin.

'The existence of the traps on the mainland shows there are wild animals in our forests. The problem with poachers' traps is that they do not care who steps on them.'

LOITERING

Mr Lee intends to dismantle the traps. But that may also be a dangerous thing to do as he found out this week.

On Thursday, when Mr Lee went to look at the traps near Turut Track, a group of men, suspected to be poachers, had stared at his approaching taxi.

The three men, who came in a small lorry, had been loitering near one of the traps. They later walked towards the taxi, but Mr Lee told the cab driver to drive away.

Mr Lee then called the police.

As soon as the police were seen driving up the road, the men fled in their lorry, said Mr Lee.

Since the discovery of the traps, we have visited the site three times.

We noticed that in the cage trap, somebody had added ripe durians and cut-open coconuts.

Nevertheless, we did not spot any trapped animals or poachers there.

Others who frequent the area, like retiree Johnny Loh, 62 said: 'We always carry sticks to feel our way and scare off wild animals.

'Maybe we should scare the poachers too.'

Animal traps are 'wrong and cruel'

OVER the years, Mr Ben Lee of Nature Trekkers Singapore has seen 20 wild boar traps of varying sizes in other places.

Most of these traps had doors which would shut once an animal enters.

But there are times when the intended victim escapes and another animal, perhaps of an endangered species, gets caught instead.

Pangolins, leopard cats and flying lemurs, have been killed in this way, said Mr Lee.

'It's sad when you sometimes see an animal carcass dumped in a ditch by poachers,' he said.

'I have heard stories but it's hard to verify the numbers (of animals killed in traps) because people simply don't report such matters.

'As nature activists, we want to tell poachers that we're watching. We also want to tell them that what they're doing is wrong and cruel.'

There are many reasons why people trap animals.

Some eat the meat, while others make a profit selling the meat.

Said Mr Lee: 'It's hard to find wild boar meat in the market. But if it's rare and exotic, it will always be sought after.'

Poaching of wild animals is illegal in Singapore and under the law, any person who kills or keeps any wild animal or bird without a license, can be fined up to $1,000.

Poaching in nature reserves carries a more severe penalty.

You can be jailed up to six months and fined up to $50,000, or both.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it had received reports of poaching in areas like Changi, Dempsey Road, Tampines, Ubi and Lakeview this year.

In February, another man was fined $50 for setting up a net in Choa Chu Kang.

Last year, a man was fined $500 for trapping spotted doves.

Any person who encounters poaching activity should contact AVA at 6227 0670.

Read more!

Rooting for a million trees in the south-west

Serene Luo, Straits Times 28 Jul 08;

A MILLION trees will be planted in the areas under the care of the South West Community Development Council (CDC) over the next 10 years.

The plan calls for more gardening than is going on now. The current target is to put 100,000 native plants into the soil over three years.

The CDC's greening attempts are part of its ECo Plan, or Environment and Community Plan South West, unveiled yesterday. The CDC looks after estates such as Bukit Batok, Boon Lay and Telok Blangah, to name a few.

The one million trees and native plants to be cultivated include tapioca, yam and fruit trees, which are expected to provide shade and attract more birds and butterflies.

Another thrust of the ECo Plan South West, announced by South West CDC Mayor Amy Khor, lies in the cutting of energy consumption by both residents and offices.

Offices can expect to get help through the CDC's Cool & Green Office Certification programme, which will set benchmarks for eco-friendly workplace practices and produce guides to help them organise 'greener' events.

Residents will also be encouraged to recycle while litterbugs will be counselled. Programmes will be run to foster neighbourliness.

All these proposals, to be put up during a two-month consultation with people living in the area, will complement the National Sustainability Development Plan that the Government is drawing up.

While the national plan will focus on legislation, policies, infrastructure and technology, the South West CDC's plan will focus on the 'soft issues', such as 'rallying...and motivating residents to change habits and lifestyles', said Dr Khor.

Going greener and cleaner
South West CDC launches draft environment plan
Alicia Wong and Esther Ng, Today Online 28 Jul 08;

MORE community gardens and trees, cleaner toilets and increased neighbourliness, these are what residents in the South West District could see in the next 10 years, with the launch of the draft Environment and Community (ECo) Plan South West for public consultation yesterday.

The first ECo Plan ever to be rolled out at the district level, it is a ground-up initiative to ensure a cooler, greener, cleaner, more caring and proactive community.

While “sustainability is very much in vogue”, said Mayor of South West District Dr Amy Khor, “it is not just about reducing our environmental footprint but also about strengthening the community to improve the quality of life.”

The plan seeks to complement the National Sustainability Plan. Said Dr Khor, who is also the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, the national plan — to be launched next year — would likely focus on policies and infrastructure development.

But sustainability is also about the actions of businesses and community, she said, so the ECo Plan looks at both environmental and social sustainability — three goals focus on the environment and two focus on the community. The first goal is to reduce energy consumption by at least 10 per cent, using initiatives such as an office certification programme to encourage organisations to reduce their carbon footprint. This would also help create a sustainable cost of living, said Dr Khor, by reducing energy consumption people can reduce energy costs.

The CDC also intends to step up its existing 100,000 native plants programme to plant 1 million plants and trees. And it will train community members to assess the cleanliness and hygiene of toilets to provide feedback for toilet operators.

District level campaigns and dialogues will encourage a more caring society and volunteerism. The CDC further plans to launch a scheme to recognise good neighbours and highlight community role models.

Building on previous initiatives, the plan is “a lot more comprehensive and ambitious,” Dr Khor said, and more programmes are likely to be rolled out.

Most residents Today spoke to were supportive. Student Dee Zey, 20, was all for greater youth involvement: “There has to be a renewal of leadership among volunteers. The current crop of volunteers will become or already are senior citizens.”

President of Presbyterian Community Services childcare centre at Bukit Batok,Ms Lee Siew Chin, suggested teaching children to nurture plants to inculcate a sense of environmental ownership from young.

Other CDCs, also have plans to go green. For instance, South East CDC will be encouraging households to reduce electricity consumption and allow needy families to switch to energy efficient light bulbs.

The public consultation will be held from next month until October. After the trial, South West CDC will submit the final plan for incorporation in the National Sustainability Plan in November.

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We donate to humans but not to animals

Letter from Calvin Teo, Today Online 28 Jul 08;

I REFER to “The stray dilemma for animal groups” (July 25).

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) does have a Responsible Pet Ownership project. Perhaps the AVA can enlighten the public as to how effective the campaign has been?

How has it contributed toward educating the public? What steps have been actively taken to curb the stray population?

Are the penalties imposed for abandonment effective? In effect, has its policies on micro-chipping also contributed to animals being abandoned?

AVA has rightly pointed out sterilised dogs should be re-homed and licenced. How many strays rounded up have actually been re-homed and given a second chance in life? Has an effort been made at all? Or is culling to be the first course of action given the constraints of space?

The fact is this: While we as a nation generously give to charitable causes; even getting someone to part with $10 in aid of animals is difficult.

And the onus falls upon a small group of people who truly embrace animal welfare to take matters into their own hands.

Should we not be supportive and encouraging and work hand in hand with these private individuals and groups rather than adopt the armchair judgmental attitude of condemning strays released back into the environment?

Can more be done?:
Relaxing pet ownership rules might be an answer
Today Online 27 Jul 08;

I REFER to “The stray dilemma for animal groups” (July 25) and “Reader: You should not cull strays as you please, AVA” (July 26-27).

While I agree we should not be releasing sterilised animals back where they came from, there needs to be a solution to the problem.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has a Responsible Pet Ownership project. Perhaps the various authorities, individuals and groups could work in tandem, review the effectiveness of this campaign and come up with some more positive measures to supplement them?

For a start, most strays are mongrels. Perhaps we could consider more laxity for ownership of such dogs in public housing or temporary dog ownership schemes for “factory” dogs.

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Surabaya mangrove forests home to 140 species of Java`s biggest birds

Antara 27 Jul 08;

Surabaya, E Java (ANTARA News) - The mangrove forest conservation area in Wonorejo on Surabaya`s east coast has 140 species of Java island`s biggest birds.

Bambang DH, mayor of Surabaya, said here Saturday of the 140 bird species, about 84 are categorized as sedentary, 12 species as protected and 44 as migrant species.

"We should thank God that we have a good environment here. We hope the bird diversity can be maintained," he said after launching a drive to plant 15,000 mangrove trees on Surabaya`s east coast.

Surabaya`s east coast also constitutes a mangrove conservation center area and a buffer zone in the seaside ecosystem which is protected by the provincial government.

"Initially we issued a provincial administration regulation to protect the mangrove conservation center to avoid misuse of the conservation area," he said.

Thus, he asked all members of the local community to continue protecting the area.

If the mangrove conservation center area can be maintained well, there will be an added value, for instance, as a tourist object, he said, adding his office was preparing to implement the so called family tourism concept in the area.

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