Dengue cases down but chikungunya up in Singapore

39 caught chikungunya locally last week; disease has been made notifiable
Salma Khalik, Straits Times 23 Dec 08;

WITH intensified efforts this year, Singapore's fight against dengue appears to have paid off, with 25 per cent fewer cases than last year.

However, a newly emerged Aedes mosquito-borne illness is causing fresh concerns. Chikungunya cases continued their upward trend, with more than 40 cases a week in the past three weeks.
Of the 43 cases diagnosed last week, 39 caught the virus locally, while the other four imported cases were from Malaysia.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Health made chikungunya a notifiable disease.

Although doctors have already been informing the ministry of all cases since the end of 2006, when Singapore saw its first imported chikungunya case, the change means that doctors could be penalised with fines or jail terms for not doing so.

A ministry spokesman said this will enable the ministry to monitor the disease more closely. A circular has gone out to all doctors informing them of the change.

The appearance of locally transmitted chikungunya infections in Singapore this year also worries infectious diseases experts.

Although no one has died of the infection, chikungunya, unlike dengue, can be very debilitating. There is also the risk that it could become endemic, which means the disease would be here to stay, with no chance of wiping it out.

The Health Ministry said the disease has not become endemic yet, as a large number of cases is still from overseas.

Until this year, the few cases were all imported. But by the middle of this month, 388 people had caught the virus locally. A further 158 people who were infected were bitten by mosquitoes while overseas, primarily in Malaysia.

The areas where people here are getting bitten by the Aedes mosquito have also spread from the northern part of the island to places such as Bedok Reservoir and Tampines in the east.

Cases have also been on the increase, rising sharply since the end of July.

Given the current rates of infection, Singapore is likely to end the year with more than 600 chikungunya cases.

A spokesman for the National Environment Agency (NEA) said the Aedes albopictus mosquito, which is the main carrier of this virus, lives in forests and other heavily vegetated areas.

This makes it 'a challenge to remove as many breeding habitats as possible in such areas,' she said.

She added that the current rainy season is unlikely to be the cause of the increased rates. Instead, it has more to do with 'the movement of infected cases and the susceptibility of the population'.

The NEA spokesman said it is fighting chikungunya the same way it does dengue - by finding and destroying mosquito breeding spots and educating the public about stagnant water.

She added that the early and intensive exercise against the Aedes mosquito this year has staved off an anticipated dengue epidemic. Dengue epidemics tend to come in five to six year cycles.

So far this year, 6,424 people have become sick with dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever, 2,183 fewer than last year. 'Earlier this year, it was predicted that Singapore would experience major dengue outbreaks and the situation would be worse than last year,' she said.

But instead of going up, the number of infections had gone down significantly, due to the $200,000 a day spent fighting the scourge this year.

'This reversal in dengue trend, the first time in three decades, is a result of the enhanced dengue control strategy put in place by NEA,' said the spokesman.

salma@sph.com.sg

What is chikungunya

# SYMPTOMS: Sudden high fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash and joint pain.

These are almost similar to symptoms for dengue, the other Aedes mosquito-borne viral disease, except the joint pains for chikungunya can be excruciating, last for months and, in some cases, for more than a year.

While painful and debilitating, the infection is not life-threatening.

# TREATMENT: There is no vaccine against it or medicine that cures it. Treatment is only for symptoms such as fever or pain.

# TRANSMISSION: The culprit for dengue tends to be the Aedes aegypti while the Aedes albopictus is more likely to spread chikungunya.

However, both types of mosquitoes can spread both diseases.

# INCUBATION: It usually takes three to seven days from the time a person is bitten by an infected mosquito for symptoms to appear.

However, people can sometimes become sick just two days after being bitten, or as late as 12 days after.

# SPREAD: The disease is spread when a mosquito bites an infected person. The virus replicates in the mosquito and is passed on to people subsequently bitten.

# PREVENTION: The best way to stop the spread of the disease is to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. This year, the National Environment Agency spent close to $200,000 a day and has a team of 500 people doing just that.

A mosquito needs just a small spoonful of stagnant water to breed. The A. aegypti breeds well in indoor receptacles but the A. albopictus prefers forests and places with high vegetation.

Those infected should wear long sleeves and long dresses or pants and use insect repellent to prevent getting bitten again by mosquitoes, which could continue the chain of transmission.

SALMA KHALIK

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Vietnam customs seize five tons of frozen pangolin meat

Yahoo News 22 Dec 08;

HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam customs officials said Monday they had seized about five tons of frozen pangolin meat, a protected species whose trade is illegal.
The 270 boxes of pangolin meat were found Friday in northern Quang Ninh province, said an official at the Cai Lan port customs office, asking not to be named. Officials suspected the cargo was on its way to China, she said.

Another source at the port's customs office, who also asked not to be named, said the meat came from 1,481 pangolins.

Pangolins, also known as scaly anteaters, are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and trading of the animal and its products is illegal.

Demand for pangolin meat, with its supposedly medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities, is widespread in China and in Vietnam, which has a poor conservation record.

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Tough climate goals may be easier than feared

Alister Doyle, Reuters 22 Dec 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - Tough targets for avoiding dangerous global warming may be easier to achieve than widely believed, according to a study that could ease fears of a prohibitive long-term surge in costs.

The report, by scientists in the Netherlands and Germany, indicated that initial investments needed to be high to have any impact in slowing temperature rises. Beyond a certain threshold, however, extra spending would have clear returns on warming.

Until now, most governments have worried that costs may start low and then soar -- suggesting that ambitious targets will become too expensive for tackling threats such as extinctions, droughts, floods and rising seas.

"It gets easier once the world gets going ... ," said Michiel Schaeffer of Wageningen University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study in Tuesday's edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"In a sense ... our paper is bad news: doing a bit is hardly effective," he told Reuters. "On the other hand it's good news, because the return on the really 'painful' investments later on, of which the world is so afraid, gives you much better returns."

More than 190 governments have agreed to work out a new U.N. climate treaty by the end of 2009. Global economic slowdown is making many wary of setting too strict goals.

The article suggested there was a 90 percent chance of limiting global warming to 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above 19th century levels with average annual global investments of 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 2005-2100.

SPENDING MORE

That is roughly comparable to the percentage of GDP the European Union spends on environmental policies, Schaeffer said.

But early investments would have little impact. Spending 0.5 percent of world GDP would give a 10 percent chance of achieving the 2 Celsius goal while an investment of one percent of GDP would give a 40 percent chance.

Two Celsius is a goal adopted by the EU, some other nations and many environmental groups as a threshold for "dangerous" climate change.

The study focused on setting a ceiling for temperature rises, rather than on more normal goals of stabilizing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants.

The scientists said that shift gave a better perspective and toned down worries about exponential rises in costs.

"This viewpoint is more relevant for real-life climate impacts," Schaeffer said. "Concentrations don't tell you that much about what happens in terms of rainfall ... or to society."

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Activists ejected after presenting greenwash award to BP

Activists have been thrown out of a major oil company's headquarters after trying to present a new award for "greenwash".
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 22 Dec 08;

The Emerald Paintbrush was launched by Greenpeace to highlight the companies they claim are using green issues to advertise while doing little for the environment.

The first award was given to BP, the oil and gas company, which regularly refers to their investment in renewable energy in adverts.

Greenpeace claim the firm is guilty of "greenwash" because the majority of the company's investment is still in fossil fuels.

According to the environmental group, BP allocated 93 per cent, or $20 billion (£13 billion), of its total investment fund for 2008 in fossil fuels compared to 1.39 per cent, or $300m (£200m), in solar technology.

Activists wearing black tie attempted to present the award at the BP head office in London but were ejected.

James Turner, one of the activists, said: "You wouldn't know it from their adverts, but BP bosses are pumping billions into their oil and gas business and investing peanuts in renewables."

A spokesman for BP said the company will invest $8 billion (£5.3 billion) in renewables between 2005 and 2015.

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Best of our wild blogs: 22 Dec 08

Semakau… again!
on talfryn.net

Old groves
on the annotated budak blog and bird on the blue.

Rufous-vented Niltava fledgling learning to forage
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Birds of the Solstice: Calls of the Black-naped Oriole
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Birds of the Solstice: Birding at Singapore’s Bidadari Cemetery
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Pt.1: The Echinoderm Xmas Hall of Shame
on The Echinoblog

Shipping slowdown leads to more ships at Singapore port
on the wild shores of singapore blog

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New Plan Brings Hope to Malaysia’s Tigers

WWF 22 Dec 08;

Petaling Jaya, Selangor – Conservation groups welcome the release of the much-anticipated National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, an important milestone in tiger conservation for Malaysia.

The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Wildlife Conservation Society (Malaysia Programme) and WWF-Malaysia look forward to implementing this unique 12-year plan. Though ambitious, it presents a highly achievable conservation strategy that could secure and increase the number of wild tigers in Peninsular Malaysia.

“While this Plan is aimed at primarily saving the Malayan tiger, it will support our broader national conservation priorities through cross-sectoral issues, and bringing them together to a planned and strategic approach for implementation,” said Dr Loh Chi Leong, MNS Executive Director.

The aim of the Plan is to have 1,000 wild tigers surviving on wild prey in the Central Forest Spine by the year 2020 through securing key forests areas in landscapes connected with corridors, providing long-term on-the-ground protection of tigers and their prey, and promoting ecologically sound land-use practices. It prioritises three core areas, namely the Belum-Temengor Complex, the Greater Taman Negara Complex and the Endau-Rompin Complex.

According to Dr. Melvin Gumal, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (Malaysia Programme), the plan has realistic deliverables and timelines for delivery for all stakeholders.

“If everyone participates well and the deliverables are achieved, the whole is going to be definitely more than the sum of its parts – more tigers, more prey and ecologically sustainable forests all of which will benefit Malaysians and humanity,” he added.

The Plan was formulated in a participatory manner, beginning with the National Tiger Conservation Workshop in 2006 by DWNP in collaboration with the MNS, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Wildlife Conservation Society (Malaysia Programme) and WWF-Malaysia, using the collaborative platform of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT). Other agencies involved in developing the Plan include the Department of Forestry Peninsular Malaysia and Department of Town and Country Planning Peninsular Malaysia.

Implementation of some of the actions contained in the Plan has already begun. One of the main challenges, however, is the implementation at the State level, as the Plan is still a Federal policy document. This is where a process of socialisation is critical, to adequately engage State-level stakeholders.

“A well coordinated effort between agencies at both the state and federal level, with non-governmental agencies, is necessary to ensure the effective implementation of the Plan”, says Azrina Abdullah, Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

The Plan uses existing government policies and legislative structures relevant to wildlife conservation such as the National Policy on Biological Diversity, National Physical Plan and National Forestry Policy.

“This Plan will bring a higher sense of transparency and accountability to the processes and actions required to save Malaysia’s remaining wild tigers,” said Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma, CEO of WWF-Malaysia.

“Now, let’s show the world that Malaysia can, and will work together to ensure that one of Earth’s most iconic species will continue to thrive in our forests.”

This is a joint press release by the Malaysian Nature Society, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Wildlife Conservation Society (Malaysia Programme) and WWF-Malaysia.

Malaysia 'to double tiger stock'
BBC News 21 Dec 08;

Malaysia has launched a national plan to double the country's wild tiger population by 2020, activists say.

Conservation groups and the government have set an ambitious target of expanding the tiger population from 500 to around 1,000 over 12 years.

Numbers have fallen sharply in recent decades because of illegal hunting.

Conservationists say new security measures will prevent poaching and that jungle corridors will be restored so tigers can roam over larger areas.

The National Tiger Action Plan is the government's first concerted effort to reverse the decline in tiger numbers, instead of merely slowing it.

Although Malayan tigers have been protected by wildlife laws since the early 1970s, their numbers have been hit by demand for their meat and for body parts which are sometimes used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Authorities estimate the wild tiger population has fallen from 3,000 to 500 in the past 50 years, largely due to illegal hunting and the human encroachment and destruction of the tigers' natural jungle habitat.

Malaysia's tropical forests are home to a wide range of threatened animals, including orang-utans, Borneo sun bears, Sumatran rhinoceroses and pygmy elephants.

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Growing demand for environmentally-friendly Christmas trees in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 21 Dec 08;

SINGAPORE : More Singaporeans are buying Christmas trees that last for more than one season.

A Christmas tree farm in Singapore's northern Sembawang area has seen a growing demand for its Chinese Juniper tree over the last 10 years.
The farm has sold up to 300 of such trees this year alone.

The trees were originally imported from China and Japan. But they have been farmed locally to weather the warmer climate of Singapore.

Consumers said the Chinese Juniper is at least 30 per cent cheaper than the Scandinavian Christmas tree sold in Singapore.

Traditional Scandinavian Christmas trees can cost up to S$160, depending on its size.

And with proper care, the Chinese Juniper tree can help one spread the Christmas cheer for years. - CNA/ms

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Asia weighs nuclear power option

Climate change and rising costs making more nations rethink energy source: Invensys
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 22 Dec 08;

CONCERNS about climate change are prompting more Asian nations to explore nuclear power - a trend that could have direct implications for Singapore and benefits for some companies here.

Invensys Process Systems, a London-based firm that has operated in Singapore for 30 years, believes it can tap into the region's nuclear future.

The potential is huge: The number of reactors in Asia is set to grow from about 100 now to almost 40 per cent of the world's total by 2030, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Such growth could create a bonanza for Invensys, a production technology and energy management group that is a market leader in supplying control systems to nuclear plants.

It has provided energy management solutions to 40 per cent of the 440 plants operating worldwide. Its systems help plant operators automate the entire process, so safety is maximised and the potential for error is minimal.

The company's vice-president for strategy and marketing, Ms Sherie Ng, told The Straits Times that the public's perception of nuclear energy is 'starting to change'. Once seen as risky, it is now increasingly perceived as clean and free of greenhouse gas emissions, which are considered to be the chief culprit behind global warming.

Ms Ng said Invensys, which has its regional headquarters in Singapore, has seen interest picking up in South-east Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Some have recently stated their intentions to explore the nuclear option. Indonesia, for one, has fleshed out plans to build a US$1.6 billion (S$2.3 billion) plant by 2010 to generate 1,000MW of electricity at Mount Muria, 440km from Jakarta.

In Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently cast a more positive stance on the country's position on nuclear power, leaving open the possibility of setting up a plant here at some point.

Ms Ng cites statistics that show that nuclear power is the most cost-efficient energy source when compared with fossil fuels. Nuclear energy costs 1.76 US cents per kilowatt hour, while coal costs 2.47 US cents, natural gas 6.78 US cents and oil 10.26 US cents.

Furthermore, nuclear energy emits negligible greenhouse gases.

Asia, as an energy-importing region in general, will also benefit from gaining energy independence, said Ms Ng.

'With crude oil and operational costs on the rise, nuclear power generation will drive the next phase of energy affordability and availability,' she added.

Places such as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan have already established nuclear power industries, in which Invensys has a strong presence.

The company, which built a US$70 million regional base at Changi Business Park in 2002, employs more than 300 staff in Singapore.

At last year's East Asia Summit, leaders from Asean, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand pledged to work together to promote energy efficiency and the use of cleaner sources, and agreed to cooperate on nuclear safety.

Still, some environmentalists have highlighted that while nuclear energy might be clean, it is not renewable - uranium is still a finite resource. Some critics also note the risks involved when developing countries take the nuclear route, especially politically unstable states.

In addition, not all countries have the technology to produce nuclear power at low costs. This makes it economically not viable.

Former Ministry of Defence chief defence scientist Lui Pao Chuen told The Straits Times that producing nuclear energy is still more expensive than producing energy from burning gas.

But he noted: 'The economics may change when there is a carbon tax which is high enough and the price of oil stays high, above US$100 a barrel. Based on current economic conditions, there's no economic case for nuclear energy.'

This is where Invensys hopes to help.

Its team of experienced scientists and engineers from around the globe can

'facilitate the transfer of technology to emerging nations that are exploring nuclear energy', said Ms Ng.

'Safety is the No. 1 concern, and our experience has shown that nuclear energy can be one of the safest energy options when the right processes are used.'

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Scientists discover new forest with undiscovered species on Google Earth

Conservationists have found a host of new species after discovering uncharted new territory on the internet map Google Earth.

Louise Gray, The Telegraph 21 Dec 08;

The mountainous area of northern Mozambique in southern Africa had been overlooked by science due to inhospitable terrain and decades of civil war in the country.

However, while scrolling around on Google Earth, an internet map that allows the viewer to look at satellite images of anywhere on the globe, scientists discovered an unexpected patch of green.A British-led expedition was sent to see what was on the ground and found 7,000 hectares of forest, rich in biodiversity, known as Mount Mabu.

In just three weeks, scientists led by a team from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew found hundreds of different plant species, birds, butterflies, monkeys and a new species of giant snake.

The samples which the team took are now back in Britain for analysis.

So far three new butterflies and one new species of snake have been discovered but it is believed there are at least two more new species of plants and perhaps more new insects to discover.

Julian Bayliss, a scientist for Kew based in the region, discovered Mount Mabu while searching on Google Earth for a possible conservation project. He was looking at areas of land 5,400ft (1,600m) above sea level where more rainfall means there is likely to be forest.

To his surprise he found the patches of green that denote wooded areas, in places that had not previously been explored. After taking a closer look on more detailed satellite maps, he went to have a look.

An expedition was organised for this autumn with 28 scientists from the UK, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Switzerland. The group was able to stay at an abandoned tea estate but had to hack through difficult terrain and use 70 porters in order to carry out their investigations.

Within weeks they had discovered three new species of Lepidoptera butterfly and a new member of the Gaboon viper family of snakes that can kill a human in a single bite. There were also blue duiker antelope, samango monkeys, elephant shrews, almost 200 different types of butterflies and thousands of tropical plants.

Jonathan Timberlake, expedition leader, said digital imagery has helped scientists to discover more about the world. He believes there may be other small pockets of biodiversity around the world that are yet to be discovered that could be stumbled upon by searching on Google Earth, especially in areas like Mozambique or Papua New Guinea which have not been fully explored yet.

Mr Timberlake said discovering new species is not only important to science but helps to highlight conservation efforts in parts of the world threatened by logging and development.

Mount Mabu itself is under threat as Mozambique's economy grows and people use the wood for fuel or clear the land to grow crops.

"We cannot say we have discovered all the biodiversity areas in the world, there are still ones to discover and it helps to find new species to make people realise what is out there," he said.

British team discovers lost Eden amid forgotten forest of Africa
Scientists from Kew have brought back an astonishing collection of new specimens from the unmapped heart of Mozambique

Juliette Jowit, The Observer 21 Dec 08;

It was one of the few places on the planet that remained unmapped and unexplored, but now Mount Mabu has started to yield its secrets to the world.

Until a few years ago this giant forest in the mountainous north of Mozambique was known only to local villagers; it did not feature on maps nor, it is believed, in scientific collections or literature. But after "finding" the forest on a Google Earth internet map, a British-led team of scientists has returned from what is thought to be the first full-scale expedition into the canopy. Below the trees, which rise 45m above the ground, they discovered land filled with astonishingly rich biodiversity.

The scientists found what they believe are three new species of butterfly, a previously undiscovered adder snake and new populations of rare birds. They also expect to find new plants among the hundreds of specimens they have brought back with them.

Photographs from the trip - published here for the first time - show just part of the forest, tropical creepers, giant snakes such as the gaboon viper, and other wildlife seen by the team, including small klipspringer and blue duiker antelope, noisy samango monkeys, elephant shrew, and the granite-like rocky peak of Mount Mabu. Back at Kew Gardens in west London, where he is based, expedition leader Jonathan Timberlake said the wonder of what they experienced was only sinking in now that they are home: "That's when the excitement comes out - when you come back home or start reading some of the background and realise you're breaking new ground."

Scientists "describe" about 2,000 new species a year but discovering new ones still captures the imagination, said Timberlake: "The phenomenal diversity is just mind-boggling - seeing how things are adapted to little niches, to me this is the phenomenal thing. If we don't have wonder as a human species, where are we? If we don't have excitement, what are we doing with our lives?"

Mount Mabu was "discovered" in 2005 when Timberlake's team were looking for a site for a conservation project. Soon afterwards, locally based conservationist Julian Bayliss visited the site and studied satellite photos which showed a forest of about 80 square kilometres.

"It's then we realised this looked [to be] potentially the biggest area of medium-altitude forest I'm aware of in southern Africa," said Timberlake, who has spent most of his working life in the region. "Nobody knew about it. The literature I'm aware of doesn't mention the word 'Mabu' anywhere; we have looked through the plant collections of Kew and elsewhere and we don't see the name come up. It might be there under another name, but we're not aware of any collection of plant or animals, or anything else taking place there."

After a few exploratory trips, in October and November this year 28 scientists and support staff from the UK, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Switzerland, with 70 porters, drove to an abandoned tea estate where the road ended and hiked the last few kilometres into the forest to set up camp for four weeks. One highlight was emerging from the canopy on the peak of Mount Mabu, 1,700m up, where "hundreds upon hundreds" of male butterflies had gathered in the sunlight to attract mates by flying as high as possible. "There were swifts flying in and peregrines in the air above: it was phenomenal," said Timberlake.

Outside the forest the land has been devastated by a civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1992, but inside scientists found the landscape was almost untouched. Ignorance of its existence, poor access and the forest's value as a refuge for villagers during the fighting had combined to protect it, Timberlake explained.

The scientists fear that with local people returning to the area, and Mozambique's economy booming, pressure to cut the forest for wood or burn it to make space for crops will threaten the ecology.

Visiting and describing what they found was the first step to conserving the new species, said Timberlake. "They are not propping up the earth in most cases, but if you know about them what right have you to destroy them? If you don't know about them, it was an accident; if you know about them, it's malicious."
How scientists found the unknown forest

Scientists based at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew stumbled across the existence of Mount Mabu after looking at Google Earth internet maps in 2005, in the hope of finding a site for a conservation project.

Conservationist Julian Bayliss visited the area soon afterwards and saw satellite photos of a large, unexplored forest. In late 2008, an expedition hiked into it and was confronted with a treasure trove of new species.


Slide show of photos of the new forest on the Guardian website.

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Best of our wild blogs: 21 Dec 08

Resorts World Sentosa dolphins: what do they go through?
on the wild shores of singapore blog

One Greedy Nudibranch
on the colourful clouds blog

Butterflies and bees of Pulau Semakau
on the wild shores of singapore blog with some 'pink' mangroves and on a blue sky day.

Pasir Ris quickly
on the wonderful creations blog

Bukit Gombak Trail: Gone Forever?
on Manoj Sugathan's Wlog with an update.

The Singapore Red Data Book 2008
on the Butterflies of Singapore blog

Sungei Buloh
on the NaturallYours blog

Annual appearance of migrant starlings
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Design consultant for the Marina Coastal Expressway appointed
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Read more!

Import of dolphins slammed: to be trained for Resorts World Sentosa

Importation of dolphins slammed
Tonette Orejas, Philippine Daily Inquirer 21 Dec 08;

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—A marine park at the Subic Bay Freeport has been assailed by a concerned group for importing 18 bottle-nosed dolphins from the Solomon Islands to be trained for performances at a similar park in Singapore.

Trixie Concepcion, representative of Earth Island Institute in the Philippines, said seven dolphins arrived on Dec. 8 on a chartered UPS plane from Honiara, the Solomon Islands, for Ocean Adventure Park at Subic.

The rest of the dolphins are due to arrive soon, Concepcion said in a statement to the Inquirer.

John Corcoran, president of Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium (SBME), operator of Ocean Adventure Park, confirmed the dolphins’ arrival.

“They are currently in a quarantine facility and are being taken care of by a dedicated staff of Filipinos,” said Corcoran in a telephone interview Saturday.

The animals are going to be trained at Ocean Adventure for about a year but are not going to be part of the park’s shows, he said.

The park already has seven bottle-nosed dolphins, a false killer whale, a spotted dolphin and a rough-toothed dolphin.

Citing nondisclosure agreements, Corcoran declined to answer further questions on the dolphin importation or the company it was doing the training for.

In her statement, Concepcion identified the company as Resorts World Park in Singapore.

The importation was covered by international and local permits, according to Edwyn Alesna, chief of the fisheries quarantine and wildlife regulatory section of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

“They were legally imported,” Alesna said in a telephone interview.

He said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap signed the local permits.

“They are for training, not for the local park,” he added.

Concepcion said the export of dolphins from the Solomon Islands was controversial because the animals could not be declared sustainable since there were no scientific or baseline studies on the current stock and population of dolphins in that area.

This was based on the findings of the Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the technical advisory body to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), she said.

More details on Resorts World Sentosa dolphins: what do they go through? on the wild shores of singapore blog

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Home-grown produce by local farms is gaining a following in Singapore

As fresh as it gets
Home-grown produce by local farms is gaining a following as prices of imported food rise
Tay Suan Chiang, Sunday Times 20 Dec 08;
Once a month, housewife Jenny Lee drives from her home in Jurong East to Lim Chu Kang to do her grocery shopping - she buys vegetables and fish from the farms in the area.

'The produce here is fresher than the stuff I get at supermarkets,' says the 34- year-old mother of two girls aged seven and five.

The food lasts about a week and she supplements it with groceries bought from supermarkets.

She pops by Aero-Green Technology at Neo Tiew Crescent to buy packs of chye sim, sweet potato leaves and chives. Three packs cost her $6. Then, it is off to the nearby Khai Seng Trading & Fish Farm to buy live prawns and fish. She buys half a kilogram of prawns and two soon hock fish, which add up to about $20.

She then heads over to Hay Dairies to buy a week's supply of goat's milk for her daughters for $16.

'Supermarkets are more convenient but here, I can see where the produce comes from and I feel it is safer to eat,' she says, adding that she does not mind paying more for local produce.

She is not alone. The Straits Times reported on Dec 12 that demand for home-grown produce has increased. Price increases in imported produce have narrowed the price gap. Also, there have been food safety concerns over imported produce.

Like Mrs Lee, some people are going straight to the farms to get their supply of vegetables, seafood and milk.

Khai Seng's managing director Teo Khai Seng, 50, says he has seen an increase in Singaporeans and even new citizens who move here from Hong Kong and China coming to his farm to buy fish.

He declines to give figures but says more people are patronising his farm because prices at wet markets and supermarkets have gone up. Depending on the type of fish, his prices can be as much as 40 per cent cheaper than those sold elsewhere.

He rears fish such as soon hock, tilapia and grouper, which he also supplies to restaurants such as the Crystal Jade chain.

According to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), vegetable production in Singapore stood at 19,027 tonnes last year, up from 17,397 tonnes in 2005.

Singapore has also increased production of eggs by 29 million a year since 2005, with the total hitting 373 million last year.

The harvest is the result of the AVA's Agrotechnology Programme, which was started in 1986 to develop the agrotechnology parks in Singapore to house modern intensive farms.

Such farms in these parks develop, adapt and showcase advanced technologies and techniques for intensive farming systems.

The food production figures may look impressive but Singapore is nowhere close to being self-sufficient foodwise. AVA says more than 90 per cent of the Republic's food is imported.

Still, there are now six agrotechnology parks located in Lim Chu Kang, Murai, Sungei Tengah, Nee Soon, Mandai and Loyang. They occupy a total land area of 1,465ha and nearly 700ha have been allocated to more than 200 farms for the production of livestock, eggs, milk, ornamental and edible fish, vegetables, fruits, orchids, ornamental and aquatic plants, and for the breeding of birds and dogs.

Mr Chin Yew Neng, 53, AVA's head of food supply and agritech infrastructure, says the six areas were chosen because the land was suitable for farming.

'These parks produce a measure of our food supply and also set the benchmarks for food safety and quality,' he says.

Most of these farms are located in the Lim Chu Kang area. Not all are open to visitors but the ones that are, such as Khai Seng and Aero-Green, are bustling with visitors on the weekends.

At Aero-Green, people can also go on tours of the nursery, where heads of butterhead lettuce are grown via aeroponics. The roots of the lettuce are suspended in the air and a fine mist of soluble nutrients are sprayed on them. After visiting the nursery, visitors can snap up freshly harvested lettuce for $2 each. In supermarkets, two smaller ones sell for about $3.

Mr Ong Chee Kian, 38, vice-president of a semiconductor packaging company, visited Aero-Green with his family recently.

He says: 'Somehow, the lettuce here looks fresher, greener and bigger than the ones at supermarkets.'

It is this quality assurance that is winning over consumers.

Over at mushroom farm Mycofarm, formerly known as Everbloom, its director K.K. Tan, 61, says no pesticides or chemicals are used to grow its mushrooms, such as shiitake, king oyster, white oyster, Japanese oyster, abalone, willow and monkey head.

'They are safe to be eaten raw,' he says.

His farm supplies the major supermarkets and restaurants here but consumers can also buy the mushrooms direct from the farm at Seletar. The mushrooms are harvested daily, as are produce from the vegetable farms in the Lim Chu Kang area.

Housewife Koh Pei Pei, 27, goes shopping at the farms almost every weekend. The ones in Lim Chu Kang are just a 10- minute drive from her home in Choa Chu Kang. She says: 'Knowing that the produce doesn't have to travel too far to get to me makes me feel they are fresher.'

But there is a price to pay for freshness.

Generally, prices of produce sold at the farms are about 30 per cent cheaper than those in supermarkets.

But when compared with imported produce, home-grown ones are still more expensive because of smaller economies of scale.

For example, a 200g pack of cai xin from a local farm costs $3, compared to $1.40 for a 300g pack from China.

The higher cost has not stopped marketing manager Gillian Lam, 45, from buying mostly local produce. 'I find local produce healthier and more delicious,' she says.

But Mrs Lee, who also buys imported vegetables from supermarkets to supplement the local produce, says: 'Local produce is fresher but I still have to be practical and buy cheaper imported vegetables.'

Raising veggies
John Lui, Sunday Times 20 Dec 08;

When your business is raising plants, you get up with the sun. The Chai family wake up at 6.30am every day.

From their four-room HDB flat in Bukit Batok, four of them - father, mother, son and Indonesian maid - climb into a white Ssangyong Musso Sports pickup parked downstairs. In 15 minutes, they are at their farm, FireFlies Health Farm, at Lim Chu Kang Lane 2, where they will spend the next 12 hours.

They do this seven days a week all year round, except for two days during Chinese New Year.

Eldest son Nian Kun, 28, disappears into the distribution and retail building. His father, Mr Chai Kien Chin, 57, does a tour of the farm's 100 or so growing plots, each tented in insect-proof netting.

Like most agricultural sites in Singapore, FireFlies is microscopic by international standards, about three football fields in size. It takes 15 minutes to walk around its shoe-shaped perimeter.

No bit of land is wasted. Some plots contain two crops, one growing atop the other. Bananas, pumpkins and sweetcorn plots fill the odd gaps.

In the morning light, Mr Chai checks for caterpillars and aphids. On a pesticide-free farm such as FireFlies, infestations have to be caught early.

His wife, Madam Chua Lye Gek, 53, is at the back of the retail building, sorting and bundling deliveries.

Their two key cash crops - xiao bai chai and chye sim - do not grow well in this year-end rainy season so the farm struggles to satisfy orders.

At 9am, inspection done, Mr Chai hops into a backhoe, guns the engine and starts shovelling compost, made mostly of plant matter and rock dust. This lets the mixture breathe and break down faster.

Farming is in his blood. His parents used to raise fish and pigs in the north-west of Singapore. When he became a farmer himself, he grew unhappy with the amount of chemicals he used and feared for the safety of the food.

A decade ago, he decided to let nature take care of itself. He was on his way to becoming an organic farmer without even knowing the concept existed.

FireFlies' produce would not win any beauty contests. The lettuce leaves are freckled with tiny holes. The pumpkins are mottled and the bananas have ugly black splotches.Peel away the skin of a FireFlies banana and it not only looks perfect but also has an intense, sweet flavour. One imagines this was what the fruit used to taste like before the era of industrial agriculture.

The produce is all sold in Singapore to organic food retailers, restaurants and wet market stallholders. 'We don't grow enough to sell to supermarkets,' says Nian Kun. 'Larger resellers like them have penalty clauses in their contracts. Fail to supply and you have to cough up damages.'

At 9.30am, he serves the first drop-in shopper of the day, a 44-year-old housewife who picks up several days' worth of vegetables for her family of five. Her bill totals $20. A cab driver comes by to shop later. Then a family of four pick up some vegetables, a potted basil plant and sweet potatoes imported from Malaysia. The bill: $15.

For lunch, Madam Chua makes a salad of alfalfa sprouts, dou miao and cherry tomatoes. Other vegetables are stir-fried and simply flavoured with seaweed and sea salt. Brown rice completes the meal.

The farm employs 10 workers comprising both Singaporeans and foreigners from Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Malaysia. They have more people per sq m than conventional farms.

At dawn, the workers harvest the crops. These are sold or delivered to retailers the same day. In the afternoon, they weed, till the soil and transplant seedlings.

Almost every chore is done by hand and in a squatting position. Mr Chai says: 'Now you see how much effort it takes. People who put food into their mouths have no idea.'

In the afternoon and towards the early evening, he is busy sawing and hammering, building a rat-proof shed out of scrap wood to hold bags of bean-sprout seeds.

All three members of the Chai clan keep working till the sun goes down. There is a sudden power fault in one building and they will have to deal with the problem the next day. Being a farmer means being an electrician, plumber, businessman, manual labourer and scientist.

After dinner, another meal of vegetable dishes, it is 8.30pm and time to go home.

Throughout the day, F-16 fighters from the nearby Tengah Air Base screech across the sky. The Chai family like the ear-splitting noise. They like the troops and tanks rumbling around in the area too. It keeps the Kranji area unattractive to condo-builders, so that only madmen - and those who truly want to be farmers - will stay.

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