Singapore's population up almost 200,000 between 2006 and 2007

Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia 31 Jul 08;

SINGAPORE : Singapore's population rose by almost 200,000 between 2006 and 2007.

As of last year, total population stood at 4.59 million, up from 4.4 million in 2006. Of these, 3.58 million are citizens and permanent residents.

The latest Yearbook of Statistics released on Thursday also showed there were 39,490 births last year, up by over 1,100 babies compared to the previous year.

Marriage inched up again, registering its highest number in five years.

Last year, 23,966 couples tied the knot, up 260 from 2006. But this is still down by 1,701 compared to a decade ago, which saw 25,667 marriages registered in 1997.

More are also delaying marriage. In 1997, the median age for groom was 28.4 years old, but last year, it was 29.8.

For the women, the median age of brides was 25.7 about a decade ago, compared with 27.2 last year. - CNA /ls

Population grows to 4.59 million
Straits Times 1 Aug 08;

SINGAPORE'S population now stands at 4.59 million.

It grew by almost 200,000 between 2006 and last year, with foreigners accounting for the bulk of the increase.

The number of foreigners - professionals, workers, students and their family members - rose 14.9 per cent over 2006 to hit 1,005,500 in June last year.

It was the first time the population of foreigners here has crossed the one-million mark.

The population of Singaporeans and permanent residents also rose, to about 3.58 million, up from 3.52 million in 2006.

The figures were given in the Yearbook of Statistics 2008, released yesterday.

Women outnumber men slightly - 1.80 million to 1.77 million.

The statistics also showed a marginal increase in the number of births and marriages.

The number of births last year went up by over 1,100 to 39,490.

The number of marriages was up 260 from 2006.

The 23,966 marriages registered were the highest number in five years.

TAN WEIZHEN

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NTUC FairPrice launches first organic produce certification programme

Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 31 Jul 08;

SINGAPORE : Supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice has launched a certification programme that guarantees the integrity of the organic produce along its entire supply chain.

FairPrice's Pasar Organic range is a new housebrand range of organic produce which comes with these labels.

It is audited by Singapore's Agrifood Technologies and gives customers the assurance that the organic produce is more than just pesticide-free.

The vegetables under the Pasar range are organically grown and harvested from six different farms in Thailand.

Stringent organic practices are applied to the farms, transportation, storage facilities and retail stores.

For example, organic farms have to be about 10-20 kilometres away from industrial land. There has to be enough space between inter-cropping to ensure the soil is rested, and organic produce is packed in special containers away from non-organic ones.

"Because we go direct to the farms, so we put in our own certification. We are, on average, able to sell the produce about 50 per cent cheaper than average of other organic products," said Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of NTUC FairPrice.

FairPrice's organic range will include more than 30 types of vegetables including Asian varieties such as "chye sim" (cai xin).

And if sales are anything to go by, the demand for organic products in Singapore is growing. FairPrice said sales of its organic produce grew by 20 per cent last year compared to the year before.

For now, the Pasar organic range is available at 10 FairPrice stores, including its new Fairprice Finest outlet at Thomson Plaza.

The Thomson Plaza Fairprice Finest outlet has a "Just Organic" section, which features over 800 varieties of organic products including condiments, baby food, beverage, snacks and household cleaners.

The outlet is the second FairPrice Finest store, a new retail concept started by the labour movement, to bring quality food products at affordable prices to Singaporeans.

The concept has proven to be a hit. FairPrice said since the first store was opened at Bukit Timah Plaza in August last year, sales have gone up by 50 per cent. - CNA /ls

FairPrice spreads organic message further
New range - Pasar Organic - reaches out to growing number of S'poreans worried about chemicals in their food
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 1 Aug 08;

IT IS now cheaper to make a meal with organic food.

NTUC FairPrice yesterday launched a new range of house-brand organic products aimed at the growing number of Singaporeans who want to avoid artificial chemicals in their food.

Called Pasar Organic, some items cost up to 40 per cent less than their brand-name counterparts, though they remain much more expensive than non-organic varieties. For now, the line features 34 types of vegetables, including chye sim, kai lan and bok choy.

The demand for certified organic food, grown without pesticides and other chemicals, is booming. The number of Singapore stores selling organic food has grown to about 40 from 15 during the past few years.

NTUC FairPrice, the biggest supermarket chain in Singapore, recorded a 20 per cent increase in sales of organic products last year compared to 2006. It also received feedback from customers - in the form of e-mail messages, phone calls and requests to staff - to provide cheaper alternatives.

The new house brand is now available at 10 NTUC FairPrice stores, including a new store at Thomson Plaza that opened yesterday. The products will be progressively introduced to more stores throughout the year.

Although still about twice the price of its non-organic counterparts, the house brand gives consumers more reason to go organic, said the supermarket chain's chairman Ng Ser Miang.

Pasar Organic carrots, for example, cost $3.50 per 500g - 25 per cent less than the Earthbound Farm version. And house-brand broccoli costs $13 a kg, compared to $14.40 for its brand-name counterpart.

All Pasar Organic products are imported from Thailand, rather than from conventional organic food providers such as the United States and Australia. But consumers need not worry, said Mr Ng, because checks have been put in place to make sure the products are certified as organic by a Thai government body.

Meanwhile, organic food fans are enjoying the cost savings.

'As long as I can afford it, I go organic,' said Mr Francis Ang, 58. 'I am glad that there is a cheaper alternative. Organic food can be really expensive.'

The technical officer said the new range helps him cut his grocery bill by 20 per cent.

Other customers think lower prices are helpful, but that quality matters more.

Said Ms Cynthia Chow, 44, who picked up a packet of Pasar Organic cherry tomatoes yesterday: 'Cheaper is good, but I will buy it only if the quality matches up.'

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New case of chikungunya fever detected near Holland Road

Hasnita Majid, Channel NewsAsia 31 Jul 08;

SINGAPORE: There has been a new local case of chikungunya fever. This time, the victim is a 60-year-old housewife who stays in Jalan Jelita, off Holland Road.

She developed symptoms on July 24 and saw a doctor the next day. Neither she nor her family members have travelled overseas recently.

Following the infection, her family members and foreign workers at nearby construction sites were screened. All tested negative for the virus.

As there was no evidence of further transmission, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will not be conducting mass screening at the vicinity at the moment, but will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Authorities advise anyone who has visited the area recently and who has developed fever and joint pains to consult their doctor.

This is one of 24 new cases of chikungunya infections reported in the past month. Twenty-three cases were imported between June and July.

As for the 23 imported cases, authorities said they came from various nearby countries with reported outbreaks, such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

With these, a total of 48 cases of chikungunya infections have been detected so far this year. Seventeen of these were local cases.

Apart from the latest case, 13 were from the Little India cluster in the early part of this year and two from the teachers housing estate cluster in Upper Thomson. Another one case was found at Farrer Road. - CNA/vm

Chikungunya case detected in Holland area
Alicia Wong, Today Online 1 Aug 08;

SIX weeks after the last case of locally transmitted chikungunya fever was detected, a 60-year-old housewife living in Jalan Jelita has become the 48th person here to come down with the infectious disease.

She is believed to be a case of local transmission as she and her family have not travelled recently.

While such cases are still in the minority — 17 this year — imported cases are on the rise. In the past six weeks, 23 imported cases of chikungunya were found, compared to the eight detected in the first half of the year.

The Health Ministry said there have been “chikungunya outbreaks in our region such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia”, advising Singaporeans to consult a doctor if they experience fever and joint pains after travel.

The housewife developed symptoms last Thursday and sought treatment the next day. Investigations show neither the housewife’s contacts nor nearby foreign construction workers have the virus. Over 83 premises have been inspected for mosquito breeding and three instances detected.

Chikungunya strikes in Holland Road area
Housewife is 17th person to be infected here and not overseas
Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times 1 Aug 08;

CHIKUNGUNYA is back.

This time, it has hit a 60-year-old woman who lives in Jalan Jelita off Holland Road.

She is the 17th person to contract the mosquito- borne, dengue-like disease in Singapore, rather than having been bitten by an infected mosquito while overseas.

The housewife started running a fever and suffering joint pains and rash last Thursday. She went to a general practitioner the next day and recovered over the weekend.

Since neither she nor her family members had been overseas in the past month, health officers have concluded that she was probably bitten by an infected Aedes mosquito here.

The officers have since screened 39 people for the virus, beginning with her family and including the foreign workers in construction sites in her neighbourhood.

All tested negative.

Since the infection does not seem to have spread, the officers will not conduct mass screenings in the area for now, the Health Ministry said.

But it has advised those who have been in the area recently to see a doctor if they develop a fever, joint pains and rash.

Officers from the National Environment Agency (NEA) have also stepped up efforts to wipe out mosquitoes and their breeding sites in the area.

Sixteen officers have been deployed, 10 more than usual.

So far, they have checked 102 homes, sprayed insecticide in more than 80 of them and destroyed four mosquito breeding sites.

Before the first outbreak of chikungunya in Little India in January, the 13 people who had come down with the disease had been infected overseas.

The situation changed with the Little India outbreak, because the infected 13 living or working there had not left Singapore in the previous month.

Three more cases sprang up in June - a retiree and her maid living in Teachers' Estate off Upper Thomson Road, and an expatriate housewife in Farrer Road.

A further 31 people here were infected with chikungunya while overseas, bringing the total tally for this year to 48.

The Health Ministry noted yesterday that although the disease has cropped up locally, the majority of the cases remain imported.

It urges people to take precautions while overseas, especially in countries which have had outbreaks, including India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

To protect themselves, they should apply insect repellent, wear long-sleeved shirts and trousers, and use mosquito coils.

But while the number of chikungunya cases both local and imported is higher this year than in previous years, the rate at which people are coming down with dengue - a similar disease spread by the same mosquito and entrenched here - appears to be slowing.

Last week, 122 people were diagnosed with it, down from this year's highest weekly count of 175 in the first week of June.

In the first 30 weeks of this year, 3,427 people were hit by the disease, about a third fewer people than the 5,086 stricken in the same period last year.

Infectious disease in any land is danger to all
Salma Khalik, Straits Times 1 Aug 08;

DISEASES once confined to a few countries are now spreading easily across international borders through trade and travel.

In June, two Singaporeans were hospitalised for three weeks with brucellosis, a rare disease brought on, in their case, by drinking unpasturised camel's milk.

That time, fortunately, the disease was confined to them.

But Singapore may not be as lucky with the mosquito-borne illness chikungunya, which may be here to stay. A case has popped up every now and then, despite massive efforts to contain and wipe it out.

The most recent victim, the 48th this year, caught it here. This means mosquitoes here now carry the virus.

This underscores the mantra of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that infectious diseases are an international problem, since the potential for international spread is always there.

Dr David Heymann, WHO's assistant director-general of communicable diseases, stressed at an international conference on infectious diseases in Kuala Lumpur last month that vaccines and other benefits must be made available to the world's six billion people.

His point was that, so long as an infectious disease is active somewhere in the world, there is always the risk that it could spread.

Even the United States, with its First World abilities, has been unable stop the West Nile Virus from becoming endemic.

It is not known how the bug was spread to the US in 1999 but, since then, this mosquito-borne disease from Africa has become an annual summer problem in the US and Canada.

Polio had been on its way to extinction because the vaccine was made available to all countries. The number of children left paralysed by it fell from more than 1,000 cases a day 20 years ago to under 1,000 a year now.

But efforts suffered a major setback in 2003 when Nigeria, one of six countries that still had the disease, stopped vaccinating its children because it suspected that the West was using the vaccine as a weapon to sterilise its girls. Within two years, polio spread through international travel and trade from Nigeria to 18 countries that had previously wiped out the illness.

Nigeria, since convinced the vaccine is just that and not a covert weapon, has resumed its vaccination programme.

There is hope now that polio will follow smallpox, which was eradicated by 1980, into medical history.

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"Cancún’s White Sands Wouldn’t Exist Without Coral"

Interview with Marine Scientist Roberto Iglesias-Prieto
Roberto Iglesias-Prieto, IPS News 31 Jul 08;

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, U.S., Jul 31 (Tierramérica) - "There would be no white sands on the beaches of Cancún without the Mesoamerican reef," Professor Roberto Iglesias-Prieto, a marine ecophysiologist working at the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Tierramérica.

Tourism is Mexico’s third leading source of revenue, and the country needs to invest much more in protecting its valuable coral systems, says the expert. But to explain the problems that coral reefs face "it is not enough to be an ecologist; one has to be an economist and political scientist as well," he adds.

The Mesoamerican reef, which is off the Yucatán Peninsula and is shared by Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, extends 1,100 kilometres, making it the largest in the Atlantic Ocean and the second largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef east of Australia.

Corals are crucial for the health of oceans and are home to 25 to 33 percent of marine life. The livelihoods of one billion people rely on coral reefs, directly or indirectly.

But the reefs are dying as a result of excessive fishing, pollution and climate change, which is heating up the water and causing acidification.

Few coral reefs will be healthy beyond 2050 if significant reductions in emissions from the burning of fossil fuels do not occur in the near term, most experts in this field agree.

Tierramérica’s Stephen Leahy spoke with Iglesias-Prieto during the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in July in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Are Mexico's coral reefs properly protected?

ROBERTO IGLESIAS-PRIETO: There are several protected areas, but most of these allow multiple uses such as recreation and fishing. Unfortunately there has been no real commitment or investment by the federal government in reef protection and management. Reefs like the Mesoamerican provide services worth billions of dollars such as attracting tourists, providing hurricane protection, and preventing shoreline erosion.

The beachfront in Cancún (southeastern Mexico) is incredibly valuable. The tourists are mostly going to the beaches, not the forests, yet the forests are the focus of the country's conservation policies.

TA: How are you trying to change this?

RIP: I appear before the federal and state governments and try to convince them to invest in reef protection and management. Right now a small fee that tourists pay is about all that is available. Unfortunately, governments do not see coral reef conservation as a priority, but I am trying to change that by showing the economic benefits of reefs. It's not enough to be an ecologist; you also have to be an economist and a political scientist.

TA: Your own research is on how corals use light. Can you explain?

RIP: Corals are fantastic light traps. They are far more efficient at using light energy from the sun than plants on land. Corals harvest light and spread it internally to supply their symbionts (algae) with light energy. The symbionts are what give corals their incredible colours and transform light into nutrients for the corals to live on.

TA: Corals in the Caribbean region have been dying or bleaching in recent years. Why?

RIP: Corals are very sensitive to environment changes. Climate change is warming the surface water of oceans. Raise water temperatures around corals by only 1.5 C degrees higher than the average summer temperature and that's it. Corals bleach because they lose their symbionts and they die without them.

TA: What do you mean when you say corals are "the marine canaries in the coal-mine"?

RIP: Corals are clear evidence of the impact of climate change. If we don't take action and we lose them, we will be fighting for our survival. We have to keep insisting and telling people that.

TA: Doesn't Mexico want to expand its exports of oil -- the very fossil fuel that's killing corals?

RIP: We're a developing country, we want to burn more oil, export it to make money so we can develop and live a happy life. And yet there is this nightmare where those emissions will, in a few decades, mean we will lose the "beautiful monsters" -- the corals and the amazing creatures that live in the reefs.

TA: With things as they are, what are your thoughts about the future?

RIP: I have witnessed the destruction of entire coral ecosystems in my life. And the future does not look that bright. When I talk to school children I feel like I am telling them a horror story about what is happening to coral reefs and the challenges of climate change. I tell them they have to fight. They can change this by reducing their ecological footprint and demanding a green agenda from politicians.

TA: If you could write the headline for corals and climate change, what would it be?

RIP: Corals are in deep trouble but good management and protection can buy them time until we find ways to reduce carbon emissions

(*Stephen Leahy is an IPS correspondent. Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.) (END/2008)

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Penang hit by haze from open burning in Sumatra

Straits Times 1 Aug 08;

GEORGETOWN - PENANG was overcome by haze yesterday, with three areas experiencing poor visibility of between 2km and 6km.

The haze is believed to have originated from open burning in Sumatra, Indonesia.

According to a spokesman for the Penang Meteorological Department, the situation was worsened by suspended materials in the atmosphere.

'We believe the haze is caused by open burning in Sumatra as satellite images have indicated 150 hot spots there,' he said. 'Due to the dry weather, the haze is expected to last for several days in the northern part of the peninsula.'

But the spokesman said the situation 'is not alarming'.

He explained: 'It will change for the better when there are strong winds and heavy downpours.'

As at 11am yesterday, the Air Pollutant Index (API) at Seberang Jaya, a town near Butterworth, was at 79, while visibility was 2km.

At Prai, Penang's main industrial area, the API was at 53, while visibility was 6km. Over at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, the index was at 53, with visibility at 5km.

The API for the unhealthy level is more than 100.

In June, Singapore Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim met his counterparts from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to discuss the haze issue.

It was the group's fifth meeting since the setting up of a task force in late 2006 to tackle the haze problem, which has hit the five countries almost annually since 1997.

Dr Yaacob unveiled two programmes that Singapore would run with Indonesia's Jambi province in north Sumatra.

One is to train farmers to rear fish for export instead of growing crops to turn them away from slash-and-burn cultivation; the other is aimed at keeping the water level in the area's peatlands up. This is because when the peatlands dry out, they catch fire easily.

Farmers and plantation owners in Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands clear the land by slashing vegetation and burning it in the middle of the year, ahead of the planting season.

BERNAMA

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Marine-Life Hot Spots Shift Over Time, Study Says

Anne Minard, National Geographic News 31 Jul 08;

Earth's richest concentrations of marine life have shifted over time, cropping up where tectonic plates collide and the climate is friendliest to life, new research suggests.

Today, seas surrounding Indonesia are a hotbed for marine life. But eons ago, the Mediterranean and the Arabian seas were just as rich, scientists report in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

In their study, researchers compared genetic data with fossil records to discover at least three marine hot spots in the past 50 million years. The zones have migrated over time, so that almost half Earth's surface has hosted them at various periods.

"There are always hot spots, but they are always moving," said Willem Renema, a geologist at the National Museum of Natural History in the Netherlands, who led the study.

"[Hot spots] are dynamic entities. You can predict the location by looking at climate and tectonics."

Warm, Shallow Seas

Renema and his colleagues launched their investigation to explain rich veins in the marine fossil record.

Climate alone wasn't an exact match, Renema said: "The areas that are most diverse are not the warmest areas."

But when climate was considered alongside large-scale geologic processes, the fossil and genetic markers of marine biodiversity synched up.

Hot Spot Life Cycles

A present-day hot spot for marine life is the "coral triangle," a border area between the Indian and West Pacific oceans that is generally defined to include the coastal waters of Malaysia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea.

Besides some of the most abundant—and most diverse—coral reefs in the world, the region supports mangroves, sea grasses, algae, mollusks, arthropods, fish, and other marine species in unmatched concentrations.

Scientists behind the new study say a single hot spot can last millions of years, and that the coral triangle hot spot is much older than previously thought, stretching as far back as the Miocene epoch, which lasted from 23 to 5 million years ago.

But hot spots don't last forever, and Earth's geology has much to do with it, the team says.

As tectonic plates vie for position, one edge eventually becomes subducted, or submersed, beneath the other. The resulting uplift can produce new islands and mountains.

But during this process, nearby terrain tends to normalize, making habitat less diverse. As a result, species that depend on diverse terrain must migrate or die out.

"Usually if there are mass extinctions, they're more severe when you are in that second phase of the hot spot cycle," Renema said.

The new study suggests that species diversity peaks not necessarily where tectonic plates collide head-on, but at places where the meeting is messy and shallow seas of varying depths form.

As tectonic plates vie for position, one edge eventually moves beneath the other. Many millions of years later, the resulting uplift can produce new islands and mountains.

Following Hot Spots

David Jablonski, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, described the researchers had a "really interesting hypothesis."

He said it's the first comprehensive presentation of an idea— that plate tectonics generate biodiversity—that first emerged in the 1980s.

Jablonski says it remains to be seen whether the abundance of marine species found today in the coral triangle has truly been hopping the globe or is in a process of contracting, with the West Pacific as a sort of last holdout.

Renema, the lead study author, concedes that more work needs to be done to track diversity hot spots more closely over time.

"We have this idea," he said, "And now we can test it."

Fish, Coral "Hotspots" Linked to Geology - Study
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 1 Aug 08;

OSLO - Geological shifts over millions of years may explain the huge wealth of fish, corals and other life in seas between Asia and Australia and hold clues to modern conservation, researchers said on Thursday.

A study of marine fossils also showed that what is now the Mediterranean region and an area off the Middle East were previous "hotspots" -- seas with the highest numbers of marine species -- in the past 50 million years.

The formation of each marine hotspot, previously little understood, coincided with shifts of vast plates in the earth's crust, they said. Shallow seas suitable for thousands of species can emerge when continents start to collide.

"There have been at least three marine biodiversity hotspots during the past 50 million years," the international team of scientists wrote in the journal Science. Previously, biodiversity has been studied on shorter timescales.

"They have moved across almost half the globe, with their timing and locations coinciding with major tectonic events," they said. Some types of corals off Australia, for instance, had evolved from species off the Middle East.

The scientists, in the Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Britain, Malaysia, the United States and Panama, said they hope that better knowledge of the long-term formation and decline of "hotspots" could give clues to conservation needs.

The Mediterranean, linked to what is now the Indian Ocean region 40 million years ago when Africa was further south, died off as the main marine hotspot as Africa ploughed north. Some areas previously under water ended high in the Alps.

The Mediterranean was succeeded by a region between the Middle East and India as the main hotspot.

Lead author Willem Renema, of the Dutch National Museum of Natural History, said conditions for the current Indo-Australian Archipelago hotspot may be past their peak in a looming slow-motion collision as Australia moves north towards Asia.

Over the past five million years, mountains were forming such as in Papua New Guinea, as the continents crumpled together. Former huge corals off Sulawesi, Indonesia, had also been lifted out of the seas by the same huge forces.

"It's clearly something we can't do anything about, but the hotspot is more vulnerable than it used to be 6 or 10 million years ago," he told Reuters.

That was a hint that humans had to be careful about adding extra stresses, such as from global warming caused by burning fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants, he said.

"It's more vulnerable so you have to be extra cautious about what you do ... it's closer to the edge than it was," he said.

Renema also said that candidates for the next global hotspot, in 25 million years or so, were likely to be off southern or eastern Australia.

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Australian dolphin find may make marine history

The Australian 1 Aug 08;

A DIMINUTIVE dolphin called "Snubby" may make history in marine science if DNA samples taken this week from animals off the northwest Kimberley coast prove they are the world's newest dolphin species or sub-species.

The Australian snubfin dolphin, whose short dorsal fin and rounded snout differs radically from those in other dolphin species, was discovered in 2005 insmall populations across the Top End and north Queensland coasts.

The shy species was initially mistaken for an Irrawaddy dolphin, which is found in coastal areas and rivers in Southeast Asia. However, it was later confirmed as a new species unique to Australia, and the first new dolphin species found in the world for 50 years.

But the "snubbies" swimming a few hundred metres offshore from Broome's popular tourist beaches may reveal even more diversity if they are found to be a unique sub-species restricted to the Kimberley region.

Scientists from WWF Australia, led by cetacean ecologist Deborah Thiele, spent this week collecting dolphin skin samples using darts launched from a boat, to confirm whether Kimberley snubfins differ from the other northern Australian populations.

She said their long isolation from animals living further north and east along Australia's coastline could have caused evolutionary differences.

"There's been no genetic information from the Kimberley so they may be a separate species again," Dr Thiele said.

"We're doing work here and in the Northern Territory to clarify whether the dolphins we're seeing are an Australian snubfin or another new species."

Such a finding would be welcome news at a time when dolphin species are declining worldwide.

The Chinese Baiji dolphin, once found in the Yangtze River, has been declared extinct after an extensive scientific search in 2006 failed to turn up a single animal.

Dr Thiele said the Broome expedition, while yielding the possibility of a new scientific find, had also turned up good numbers of dolphins. The team recorded the first footage of snubfin dolphins spitting into the water, a technique used to herd and capture fish prey.

"But if the populations are very isolated, it means they need even more protection because there's not a huge gene pool," she said.

Tammie Matson, WWF's spokesperson for species conservation, said coastal and river dolphins were among the world's most endangered mammals.

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Congo Basin passes 1 million ha milestone in swing to sustainable forestry

WWF website 31 Jul 2008

Yaoundé, Cameroon - WWF today announced that more than one million hectares of Congo Basin forests have achieved certification under the world’s leading sustainable forestry scheme.

The world’s second largest block of rainforests, the Congo Basin is a haven for indigenous peoples and endangered species like elephants and gorillas. It is also important in sequestering carbon and safeguarding water supply and quality.

“With rampant illegal logging, vague logging concession boundaries and massive blocks of pristine forest destined for the chainsaw, this is a laudable step towards avoiding an ecological disaster,” says James P. Leape, Director General of WWF.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification has now been achieved for forestry operations on 1.2 million hectares, a significant step towards WWF’s Green Heart of Africa network initiative goal of having certification achieved for 50% of production forest in the Congo Basin. The certification involves logging companies SEFAC, Transformation Reef Cameroon (TRC) and WIJMA in Cameroon and CIB in the Republic of Congo.

“While the certified forests will have to be maintained according to acceptable international standards, there is urgent need for other timber business operations in the region to adopt responsible forest management practices in order to ensure the conservation of this unique forest ecosystem for the benefit of people in the region and the world,” added Mr. Leape.

To promote responsible forest management and trade in the Congo Basin, WWF-CARPO has set up the Central Africa Forest and Trade Network (CAFTN), a part of WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) – which works to provide support, advice and guidance to logging companies to help them better understand how good logging practices can contribute to conservation of biodiversity, improve the livelihood of local communities and lead to a market advantage.

“Illegal forest exploitation and forest crimes are largely due to poor governance and insufficient law enforcement,” said Laurent Somé, WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office (CARPO)'s Representative.. “WWF also recognizes that responsible forest management plays an important role in the economic growth of tropical countries and reducing poverty in forest communities.

“WWF is convinced that the adoption of responsible forestry schemes by logging companies will contribute greatly to the conservation of the Congo Basin forests and towards improving the national economy and also improve the livelihoods of local communities,” Mr Some said. “For the success of responsible forestry in the Congo basin, there is a high need for government to set up enabling conditions that include enacting adequate legislation and enforcement, and promoting good governance while providing support to responsible forestry initiatives.”

By 2012, WWF expects that 7 million hectares of forest in the Congo Basin will be under credible certification while another 5 million hectares will be progressing towards credible certification.

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Ivory poaching at critical levels: Elephants on path to extinction by 2020?

EurekAlert 31 Jul 08;

African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989. But the public outcry that resulted in that ban is absent today, and a University of Washington conservation biologist contends it is because the public seems to be unaware of the giant mammals' plight.

The elephant death rate from poaching throughout Africa is about 8 percent a year based on recent studies, which is actually higher than the 7.4 percent annual death rate that led to the international ivory trade ban nearly 20 years ago, said Samuel Wasser, a UW biology professor.

But the poaching death rate in the late 1980s was based on a population that numbered more than 1 million. Today the total African elephant population is less than 470,000.

"If the trend continues, there won't be any elephants except in fenced areas with a lot of enforcement to protect them," said Wasser.

He is lead author of a paper in the August issue of Conservation Biology that contends elephants are on a course that could mean most remaining large groups will be extinct by 2020 unless renewed public pressure brings about heightened enforcement.

Co-authors are William Clark of the Interpol Working Group on Wildlife Crime and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Ofir Drori of the Last Great Ape Organization in Cameroon, Emily Kisamo of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force in Kenya, Celia Mailand of the UW, Benezeth Mutayoba of Sokoine University in Tanzania and Matthew Stephens of the University of Chicago.

Wasser's laboratory has developed DNA tools that can determine which elephant population ivory came from. That is important because often poachers attack elephants in one country but ship the contraband ivory from an adjacent nation to throw off law enforcement.

For instance, 6.5 tons of ivory seized in Singapore in 2002 were shipped from Malawi, but DNA tracking showed the ivory came originally from an area centered on Zambia. Similarly, a 2006 shipment of 3.9 tons seized in Hong Kong had been sent from Cameroon, but DNA forensics showed it came from an area centered on Gabon.

Evidence gathered from recent major ivory seizures shows conclusively that the ivory is not coming from a broad geographic area but rather that hunters are targeting specific herds. With such information, Wasser said, authorities can beef up enforcement efforts and focus them in specific areas where poaching is known to occur as a means of preventing elephants from being killed. But that will only happen if there is sufficient public pressure to marshal funding for a much larger international effort to halt the poaching.

In 1989, most international ivory trade was banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (http://www.cites.org/), which regulates trade in threatened and endangered species. The restrictions banned ivory trade except for ivory from elephants that nations legally culled from their herds or those that died naturally.

At the time the treaty was enacted, poachers were killing an average of 70,000 elephants a year. The ban instigated much stronger enforcement efforts, nearly halting poaching almost immediately. However, that sense of success resulted in waning enforcement. Western aid was withdrawn four years after the ban was enacted and poaching gradually increased to the current alarming rates, Wasser said.

"The situation is worse than ever before and the public is unaware," he said, "It's very serious because elephants are an incredibly important species. They keep habitats open so other species that depend on such ecosystems can use them. Without elephants, there will be major habitat changes, with negative effects on the many species that depend on the lost habitat.

"Elephants also are a major part of ecotourism, which is an important source of hard currency for many African countries."

The illegal ivory trade is being carried out mostly by large crime syndicates, Wasser believes, and is being driven by growing markets in China and Japan, where ivory is in demand for carvings and signature stamps called hankos.

In addition, in the last few years demand has risen sharply in the United States, where much of the ivory is used to make knife handles and gun grips. In fact, a May report from the Care for the Wild International, a not-for-profit British natural protection organization, ranks the U.S. second behind China as a marketplace for illegal ivory.

But the illegal ivory trade has gotten relatively low priority from prosecutors, and new laws promoting global trade have created "a policing nightmare," Wasser says, which makes ivory poaching a high-profit, low-risk endeavor.

The only way to curb the trade, he believes, is to focus enforcement in areas where the ivory comes from in the first place, before it enters the complex, global crime trade network. Public support is crucial to helping reduce demand and to spur the needed enforcement help from the West.

However, Wasser believes that news reports about the need to cull excess elephants from managed populations in three or four countries have led many people to believe incorrectly that there are too many elephants in Africa. Those managed populations are confined by fences that limit the elephants' natural movements.

"Public support stopped the illegal ivory trade back in 1989 and can do so again," Wasser said. "The work with DNA sampling allows us to focus law enforcement on poaching hot spots.

"It forces countries to take more responsibility for what goes on within their borders, and it also gives us more insight on where to look so that, hopefully, we can stop the poachers before the elephants are actually killed."

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Nepal's 'restaurant' for vultures

Charles Haviland, BBC News 31 Jul 08;

As the early morning mist lifts on the farmlands at the edge of the jungle, Yam Bahadur Nepali embarks on a job which many would find difficult but which, for him, is a regular chore.

He wheels his tricycle cart to collect the carcass of an old and sick cow which died during the night. It is to be fed to the vultures, under a unique initiative to conserve the scavenging birds. It is called the "vulture restaurant".

With some difficulty Yam Bahadur and his wife wheel the heavy beast past houses and down across wet paddy fields to the vulture feeding area.

The "restaurant" is a big grassy area surrounded by tall, fragrant sal trees. The peaceful scene is broken only by the cattle skeletons scattered around - and the vultures nestled above.

'Kidney failure'

Nepali ornithologists have established it as a place where vultures can eat healthily.

Two of the seven vulture species in the Indian subcontinent - slender-billed and white-rumped - have declined catastrophically in number and are now endangered, explained ornithologist Dhan Bahadur "DB" Chaudhary.



"In 1997 in eastern parts of Nepal there were about 67 nests," he says. "And in four or five years, in 2001, there was zero.

"So that rapidly they declined from India, Nepal and Pakistan. And over 12 years they started declining - now more than 95% of the vultures' number has gone down."

Scientists recently pinpointed the cause - the drug, diclofenac.

Farmers often give it to their cows as a painkiller. But if the cows die soon afterwards, the drug is deadly for the vultures which feed on their flesh. Mr Chaudhary says they rapidly die of kidney failure and gout.

As Hem Sagar Baral, executive director of Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) explains, Nepal and India have now banned diclofenac because it was harming the vultures. It has been replaced by a safe drug called meloxicam.

"It is also anti-inflammatory but has been tested against vultures and other birds of prey and general birds and does not cause damage to these birds," he says.

'Massive creature'

As Yam Bahadur skins the carcass, we go into a spacious, brand-new observation hide. With us are several of the villagers who serve as volunteers on the project committee. We watch as the vultures wait.

After half an hour we are still waiting. A stray dog starts feeding on the carcass but seems worried and keeps barking.

The birds gain confidence and 22 of them land, still just watching the dog. Nearly all are the endangered White-rumped Vultures but there is also a massive creature - the biggest, the Himalayan Griffon Vulture.

They look like a rather grotesque gathering of clergymen with their blackish coats and white "collars".

Then, suddenly, they close in on the cow's corpse. It is like a rugby scrum of vultures, all wanting to gorge on the carcass, fighting with each other, the strongest in front, the weaker behind.

One vulture attacks another which has a long strand of raw meat dangling from its mouth, already half-swallowed.

The scavenging birds jump clumsily around, their wings outstretched. I tell Mr Chaudhary I think they are truly ugly animals.

"Yes, they are ugly looking, but they are really helpful for us," he says. "See - within half an hour they finished eating all that dead animal. Only the skeleton is left. It is really helpful to clean the nature."

Nepalis even nickname these birds "kuchikar", meaning a broom.

The villagers on the project's committee are engrossed by the spectacle. One is a woman farmer, Tila Devi Bhusal.

'Preserve them'

"Traditionally we see the vulture as a very bad bird," she says. "If it passes your house, then the house has to be purified. They can bring danger.

"But that belief is disappearing. People realise that vultures eat rotten things and we must preserve them."

The vulture restaurant has many volunteers but only two full-time employees.

One is Yam Bahadur who looks after the cows when they are living, not only when they die.

The project buys elderly or sick cows from farmers, looks after them humanely and treats them, if necessary, with the safe drug, meloxicam.

The cows, considered sacred by Hindus, die a natural death.

The other employee is Ishwari Chaudhary, the educational officer. He is spreading the vulture conservation message among villagers and in veterinary shops.

"We tell them about the new medicine, meloxicam, and how we can save the birds by using it," he says.

The banned drug diclofenac is still being rounded up all over Nepal. Meloxicam is more expensive, but it is injected in much smaller doses which partly compensates.

The numbers of endangered vultures are rising again.

Mr Chaudhary says that before the project was opened, he used to see a maximum of 72 vultures around one carcass.

"Once we established the vulture restaurant, in five or six months we found double that number - the maximum number I have recorded is about 156, all at the same time on the same carcass."

BCN, with support from others like Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, now wants to open more "vulture restaurants" - and scientists in India too are now showing interest in the idea.

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Caged Hens Spark Battle Over Eggs in California

Jill Serjeant, PlanetArk 1 Aug 08;

LOS ANGELES - What do hens want, and how do humans know?

That's the issue at the heart of a fierce battle looming in California between animal rights campaigners and egg producers over the welfare of caged hens that could crack the state's US$300 million egg production industry.

A November ballot measure seeking more space for calves raised for veal and breeding pigs could also make California the first US state to ban the housing in small wire cages of egg-laying hens.

If passed -- and support is currently running at 63 percent according to a July Field poll -- most of California's egg producers would be driven out of business, say opponents who have organized with the website www.safecaliforniafood.org.

Proposition 2 would give California's 20 million laying hens, most of which currently have less space than a 8-1/2 by 11 inch (210 by 297 mm) letter-sized piece of paper, room to spread their wings, lie down, stand up and turn around.

The measure would come into force in California -- which ranks 6th in US egg production -- in 2015, three years after a similar ban already agreed in the European Union..

"California voters recognize this is a modest reform and that all animals, including those raised for food, deserve humane treatment," said Jennifer Fearing, campaign manager for Yes on Prop. 2 (www.YesonProp2.com).

"Californians have a long history of very progressive attitudes towards animals and have a commitment to outlawing animal cruelty where it exists," Fearing told Reuters.

In rural San Diego County, brothers Ryan and Alan Armstrong are proud of their 60 year-old family egg farm business and say it is in their best business interests to provide good conditions for their 500,000 hens.

"If the hens are uncomfortable, if they are too hot or too cold, or don't get enough water or don't like their feed, the first thing that gets hit is egg production," Ryan Armstrong told Reuters.

About 10 percent of the Armstrong hens are cage-free. In one vast breezy barn, 8,800 brown, loudly clucking hens roam under a 9,000 sq foot (836 sq meters) roof. But the brothers say relative freedom is not necessarily a good thing.

"People have the idea that cage-free is healthier but it's not. The hens sometimes lay eggs in the manure on the ground. Sometimes they eat it. If one is sick, it's impossible to catch and remove it. Another problem with so many hens living together is cannibalism," Ryan Armstrong said.


CAGE-FREE DEMAND

Demand in California for cage-free eggs, which normally carry about a one dollar premium per dozen, has leveled off in the past three years, according to the brothers.

"We had planned 12 cage-free buildings but we only put up six because demand is not there," Alan Armstrong said.

The brothers said their highest production came from the sort of conditions that most rile animal campaigners -- an air conditioned, computer-controlled barn housing 130,000 hens in cages of six each, stacked five high.

Manure is collected on trays under each wire cage, clean, white eggs roll onto conveyor belts, and sick or injured hens can be quickly identified and removed.

"The supporters of Prop. 2 are asking us to throw all that away so chickens can spread their wings but that doesn't make birds healthier. Sometimes what is better for a hen isn't always what you think it might be," Ryan Armstrong said.

He said the costs of extra equipment, labor and land needed to meet the Prop. 2 changes would "put our family out of business and all that will happen is that egg production will be driven out of California to Mexico, where standards are lower."

Animal rights groups say farms like the Armstrongs are the exception not the rule. An undercover investigation in May by the vegan campaign group Mercy for Animals of a large egg farm in Merced, northern California, showed video of rotting hen carcasses in cages with live hens and scrawny hens covered in excrement.

Fearing said the "Yes" campaign had vast grass-roots support from animal lovers across California. "People get it. We would never keep our pets in cages so small they couldn't turn around and farm animals don't deserve that misery either," she said.

Farmers says such sentiment is out of place in commercial food production. "People want to eat animals raised for food but they want them to be treated like pets. They are not pets to us, but their livelihood is in our best interests," Ryan Armstrong said. (Editing by Jackie Frank)

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Green Revolution Emerges in Smokestack China

Jeremy Lovell, PlanetArk 1 Aug 08;

LONDON - China, pilloried as the world's biggest polluter, has quietly taken a lead in moving to a low carbon economy, an independent climate advisory group said on Friday.

Although it is building one coal-fired power station a week and its carbon dioxide emissions have surged since 2002, from seven percent of the global total to more than 24 percent, China is also making strides in renewable energy and green technology.

"Everybody sees China as this monster polluter, but it is doing so much more than that," said Changhua Wu, China director of The Climate Group -- an independent, non-profit organisation advising business and governments on combating climate change.

"China is already leading in certain types of technologies. In the power sector it is in clean coal, solar, wind. In transport it is developing more efficient compact cars and electric cars," she told Reuters in London, where she is launching the report, "China's Clean Revolution".

She noted, however, that China still had a long way to go.

China produces carbon emissions of 5.1 tonnes per head -- one quarter of the United States -- but with a population of 1.3 billion people it would equal the planet's entire emissions on its own if it hit US levels.

Washington says it can do nothing to combat global warming unless Beijing takes steps to cut its booming emissions of climate changing carbon gases from burning fossil fuels for power and transport.

For its part China, along with other major developing countries, argues that most of the carbon in the atmosphere was put there by the rich developed nations who must therefore shoulder the burden of dealing with its causes and effects.

"Developed countries really need to demonstrate their sincerity, demonstrate the feasibility of the solutions, really demonstrate that they are serious about this," said Wu.

"Telling developing countries that they must do it when they themselves are not is just not acceptable."

While on the surface it appears to be a major diplomatic standoff, China is already acting on its own, driven by serious domestic stress from rampant pollution and rising food prices caused in part by replacement for biofuel production.


GREEN MESSAGE

"In China the top leadership are all of the same mindset. China opened up 30 years ago. But our economic miracle was driven by intense resource use that produced great pollution ... and recently unrest," Wu said in an interview.

"That is fully understood. The leadership has been thinking about a new pathway. They know they can't repeat the path of the past. They know it has to be clean, it has to be more efficient. Low carbon has now been integrated into this new pathway."

The report says China is the world's top maker of solar power panels, is set to become the top exporter of wind turbines and has two-thirds of the global market in solar water heaters.

China is also is a leading producer of energy efficient domestic appliances and rechargeable batteries.

At the same time it has brought in stringent measures to boost fuel efficiency and has boosted production of electric-powered bicycles and efficient compact cars.

"China has got the green message. Companies are making profits in pushing forward the low carbon economy," Wu said.

Much as Japan, rebuilding from scratch after World War Two, led the industrial boom in the global economy, so leading developing countries like China and India are looking to lead the world into the low carbon age.

"The thinking in China is that there is no doubt that in 20 or 30 years time China will be a world leader," Wu said.

"To be a respected, responsible leader of the world we have to start thinking now about what we should do to lead up to the day when China has to lead and will be able to lead well. Climate change is one of the key issues there." (Editing by Luke Baker and Philippa Fletcher)


China's 'rapid renewables surge'
Mark Kinver, BBC News 1 Aug 08;

China's rapid investment in low carbon technologies has catapulted the nation up the global renewable energy rankings, a report shows.

The Climate Group study said China invested $12bn (£6bn) in renewables during 2007, second only to Germany.

However, it was expected to top the table by the end of 2009, it added.

The findings have been published as China faces criticism over its air quality ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, which begin on 8 August.

The report, China's Clean Revolution, brings together the latest data on the country's burgeoning renewables sector in one publication.

Co-author Changhua Wu, The Climate Group's China director, said the rapid rise in investment was, in part, the result of the government realising that the western model of industrialisation was unsustainable.

"China has been experiencing similar problems during its industrial revolution that western nations saw during their period of rapid growth - pollution, environmental damage and resource depletion," she told BBC News.

"Domestically, we are being constrained in many ways; we do not have that many natural resources anymore.

"We have to rely on the international markets, so there is a big security concern there."

Uncertainty over future energy supplies has seen global fuel prices reach record levels, which has resulted in renewable technologies becoming a more attractive option.

The report said China's $12bn investment in renewables during 2007 was only just behind top-of-the-table Germany, which spent $14bn.

In order to meet its target of increasing the percentage of energy from low carbon technologies from 8% in 2006 to 15% by 2020, China is expected to invest an average of $33bn annually for the next 12 years.

This was going to result in China becoming the leading investor by the end of 2009, Ms Wu forecast.

Figures within the report showed that China was already the leading producer in terms of installed renewable generation capacity.

It has the world's largest hydroelectricity capacity since the controversial Three Gorges project began producing electricity, and the fifth largest fleet of wind turbines on the planet.

Although its installed capacity of photovoltaic (PV) panels is still relatively low, it is already a leading manufacturer of solar panels.

Ms Wu explained that the rapid growth of the sector was being driven by both government and business.

"In order to really drive towards a low carbon economy, policy incentives are crucial; but it is not always the case," she said.

"The wind sector's fast growth was mainly a result of domestic policies, because the government offered incentives to developments so that private and public sector entrepreneurs would jump on it.

"But the solar PV sector benefitted mainly from the international market, such as demand from the US and EU.

"Even today, the policy incentives are still not there, yet it still has grown to the level it is now."

Lingering legacy

However, despite the advances in low carbon technology, the legacy of rapid economic growth, which was primarily fuelled by burning coal, has been soaring greenhouse gas emissions.

In the final days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, there has been growing international concern over the air quality in the Chinese capital as the world's top athletes begin to arrive.

Organisers of the Games had promised that the city's notorious pollution would be cleaned up, so failure to deliver would be seen as an embarrassing environmental shortcoming.

City officials said that they would introduce emergency measures, such as banning the use of private cars and closing some factories, if conditions did not improve.

Although Beijing's troubles are currently under the media spotlight, air quality is a nationwide problem. According to figures from the World Bank, 20 of the planet's 30 most polluted cities are in China.

"In terms of total emissions, China is already the world's biggest emitter," Ms Wu said. "That's publicly available information, even the government is not denying it anymore.

"But if you look at emissions on a per capita basis, we are not the biggest emitters because we have 1.3bn people."

The report suggests that if China's population emitted as much as US citizens, its total emissions would be roughly equivalent to those of the entire planet's human activity.

"But just looking at numbers does not help tackle global climate change," Ms Wu added.

"In China, we are concerned about the speed of growth in emissions; it is really scary."

The report showed that China was only responsible for about 7% of greenhouse gases emitted in the period before 2002, when more than 90% of emissions from human activity were released.

But since the turn of the century, it added, China's portion has been growing steadily and now accounts for 24% of the global total.

The government is looking to stabilise its emissions by 2020, primarily through greater energy efficiency and the expansion of the nation's renewable energy infrastructure, including electric cars.

Ms Wu added that within the international climate negotiations, the Chinese were looking to developed nations to prove that they were serious about tackling climate change, such as delivering the mandatory cuts in emissions outlined in the Kyoto Protocol.

"If they are not able to do it with the technology available to them, then is it reasonable to expect China and India to do it?

"China does not commit itself to a number and then not deliver," she said, referring to whether China would sign up to legally binding targets in the ongoing UN climate negotiations about what system should replace the current Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

"If they commit, then they are very, very serious about; so they have to figure out what is possible."

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