$1b to be spent on greening Singapore

Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 23 Jan 09;

IN A move that pleasantly surprised industry watchers, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday announced that $1 billion will be spent over the next five years on 'greening' Singapore's infrastructure.

He noted sustainable development is 'not new to Singapore'.

However, he said, the Government has to invest more in this area to provide 'a high-quality living environment while our economy continues to grow'.

There is an 'economic imperative' for this type of investment, which will reap cost savings for both firms and householders in the long run, he said.

However, upfront costs might deter the private sector from making these investments. This is where the Government will step in to 'provide incentives where necessary', he said.

This $1 billion fund will support programmes such as energy efficiency for industry and households, green transport, clean energy and the greening of Singapore's living spaces.

Industry players were surprised at this provision in the Budget.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore tax partner David Sandison said it was 'slipped in' against a backdrop of a Budget focused on more bread-and-butter issues.

Nominated MP Edwin Khew, who is also chief executive of local waste recycling firm IUT Global, said the move was 'very timely'. 'After Singapore formed the Inter-ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development, I was concerned if there was going to be a budget allocated to it,' he said.

'$1 billion is a very good start.'

Singapore Environment Council's executive director Howard Shaw was elated. 'It shows that we are aiming our future economy in the right direction.'

Early adopters of green infrastructure will be the ones to benefit most, whether on a corporate or national scale, said Mr Shaw.

Mr Tharman said yesterday more details on the sustainable development blueprint will be discussed during next month's Committee of Supply debate.

Tax break for 'green' cars up to end of 2011
Straits Times 23 Jan 09;

BUYERS of 'green' cars will continue to enjoy a tax break until the end of 2011.

Currently, hybrid, electric and compressed natural gas (CNG) cars are accorded a 40 per cent cut in the Additional Registration Fee (ARF), the main car tax, up until end of this year.

This so-called green vehicle rebate has been in place since 2001, when it started off as a 20 per cent cut in ARF.

The Government said the rebate was to help offset the higher cost of such cars. Even with the rebate, a car such as the hybrid Toyota Prius costs $84,488 today, versus $51,988 for a similarly-sized Toyota Corolla Altis.

Next, the Government said CNG vehicles will continue to be exempted from the so-called 'special tax' which applies to cars which run on fuel other than petrol.

For instance, the special tax for a diesel taxi is $5,100 a year.

But from January 2012, CNG will be taxed at the pumps, like petrol. The duty will be phased in at 20 cents per kg of gas, compared with 41 cents per litre of petrol.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: 'We will study the appropriate long-term CNG duty rate, which should be benchmarked against the prevailing petrol duty rate, taking into account the relative impact that these two fuels have on the environment.'

Eventually, CNG cars will also be excluded from the green vehicle rebate scheme. This, the Government said, was because 'CNG vehicles are not significantly cleaner than petrol cars except for lower carbon dioxide emission'.

'By which time, there will be a critical mass of CNG vehicles, and the rebate will have done its job,' said Mr Gilbert von der Aue, sales manager at C. Melchers, a company that converts cars to use CNG.

Commenting on the continued exemption of special tax for CNG vehicles, Mr Neo Nam Heng, who runs a fleet of CNG cabs, said: 'There is certainty now for those who are considering CNG vehicles. Previously, the special tax was a big worry.'

Mr Cedric Foo, head of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, opined that the green vehicle rebate scheme 'can be enhanced'.

'In the long term, it makes Singapore more liveable,' he added.

CHRISTOPHER TAN

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Aggressive monkey business at MacRitchie Reservoir Park

Straits Times 23 Jan 09;

AS A regular user of the fitness corner at MacRitchie Reservoir Park, I would like to warn users and visitors about a troop of monkeys frolicking in the vicinity. As they are in heat, they are aggressive and confrontational.

Visitors with children in tow should be concerned for their safety. They should move in groups and conceal all foodstuff and drinks. They should cling onto sling bags and pouches and wear them in front.

Accompanying adults should carry a stick to ward off the monkeys. When confronted, challenge them with the stick and they usually back off.

Do not turn and run as they will pounce.

I hope the park wardens will look into the issue for the safety and protection of users and visitors.

Chin Kee Thou

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More about monkeys and how feeding makes them aggressive. You can make a difference by NOT feeding the monkeys.

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Seas to rise at varying rates due to warming: expert

Alister Doyle, Reuters 22 Jan 09;

ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica (Reuters) - Sea levels will rise at widely varying rates around the world because of a quirk of the earth's gravity linked to global warming, a leading glaciologist said.

"Everyone thinks sea level rises the same around the world," David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters on Tuesday at the Rothera Base on the Antarctic Peninsula. "But it doesn't".

Rises could vary by tens of centimeters (inches) from region to region if seas gained by an average of one meter by 2100 as temperatures rise, he said. Worst-affected nations would have to budget billions of dollars more than others on coastal defences.

Vaughan said big ice sheets on Antarctica and on Greenland have a gravitational pull that lifts the seas around them -- water levels around Antarctica, for instance, are higher than if the frozen continent were an open ocean.

As ice thaws, Antarctica would get smaller and its gravitational tug would diminish. In some places around the continent, the level of the Southern Ocean might even drop despite a flood of fresh water into the oceans.

The effect means that seas will paradoxically rise least where thawing ice pours into the sea and most further away from the point of melt, he said.

"Ice lost from Antarctica has a bigger impact on European sea level rise than ice lost from the European Alps, tonne for tonne," Vaughan said.

SYDNEY, BEIJING

Buenos Aires or Sydney will suffer less sea level rise if ice melts quickest from Antarctica than San Francisco or Beijing, for instance. And if Greenland melts fastest, South Pacific islands will suffer more than New York or London.

"If there's a meter of sea level rise over the next century, the difference will probably be tens of centimeters if it comes from Greenland or it comes from Antarctica," Vaughan said.

Vaughan said that governments, trying to work out a new U.N. treaty by the end of 2009 to fight global warming, needed to work out where ice was most likely to thaw.

The U.N. Climate Panel projected in 2007 that average world sea levels would rise by between 18 and 59 centimeters (7-24 inches) by 2100, mainly because of a warming spurred by human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

Vaughan, who was a co-leader of a chapter about the world's polar regions in the Panel's report, said recent studies indicated an accelerating rate of loss from both Greenland and parts of Antarctica.

"There is increasing evidence that Greenland and Antarctica are contributing more water than before," he said. The average sea level rise this century could be closer to a meter than the Panel's prediction.

Temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by about 3 Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) in the past 50 years -- the fastest rate in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of Antarctica, however, is a deep freeze that shows no sign of warming.

But even a tiny melt of Antarctica would affect sea levels -- its ice is equivalent to an additional 57 meters of sea level. The far smaller Greenland ice sheet would raise sea levels by about 7 meters if it ever all thawed.

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Indonesia, Malaysia need harmonized anti-timber smuggling procedures

Eliswan Azly, Antara 23 Jan 09

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - With many findings on illegal logging cases and smuggled timber trading on border areas shared by Indonesia and Malaysia, the two countries which share their cultural roots and beliefs need to harmonize their anti-timber smuggling procedures.

Due to the lack of harmonized procedures, Malaysia`s commitment to combat illegal logging and timber trading across its borders with Indonesia is often not followed.

Illegal logging and timber trading were often found using many heavy equipment belonging to Malaysian bosses that had been confiscated in Indonesian forest areas close to border.

Timber smuggled into Malaysia from Indonesian forests was often legalized by Malaysian authorities, Forestry Minister MS Kaban said in a dialogue forum here on Wednesday.

Perhaps the timber illegally brought into Malaysia was covered by certain documents but Malaysian authorities never checked their authenticity, he said.

It was true that at the 17th meeting of the Indonesia-Malaysia General Border Commission, the two countries agreed to adopt permanent procedures on coordinated air patrols along their common border, the minister said.

However, the procedures only covered the number of personnel, frequency and location of the coordinated air patrols whereas Indonesia was concerned much about the transactions after the smuggled timber entered Malaysia`s territory.

Furthermore, the minister said the air patrols were only aimed at monitoring security conditions along the Malaysia-Indonesian border region which are prone to illegal activities.

More saddening sometimes was that border guards often seemed to ignore what was happening right under their noses. "This is a ring of collaboration between smugglers and certain elements in the region," the minister said.

MS Kaban said Malaysian companies bought the Indonesian illegal timber to fuel their booming furniture industry. The smuggled timber was also often exported to China, Vietnam and other Asian countries through Malaysia.

The World Research Institute data show Indonesia had lost 72 percent of its forests, and according to some estimates, illegal logging has cost the Indonesian government more than $US3.2 billion a year.

Kaban called on the Malaysian government to hand down harsh sentences to businessmen for buying timber illegally from Indonesia.

"Documents obtained by Indonesian police provided enough evidence on illegal timber shipments from Indonesia to a company in the Malaysian state of Sarawak," he said.

Kaban explained forestry criminal offences in Indonesia, notably in Kalimantan and Sumatra, as well as organized crime like a mafia network, involving people at the highest local level.

The forestry minister also called for closer cooperation between the Customs Office, Police and the Forestry Ministry to stamp out timber smuggling from Indonesia.

Last March, the Indonesian National Police intercepted 19 boats carrying 12,000 cubic metres of timber on Pawan River, in Ketapang, East Kalimantan, suspected of being smuggled into Malaysia.

"There needs to be sanctions against countries taking illegal timber from Indonesia. As long as the market is there, timber theft will always exist," he said, adding that more than 10 million cubic metres of timber had been smuggled into Malaysia each year according to data of 2006," he said.

The latest arrests have been hailed as a bold move, about which the environmental group WALHI Indonesia saying that up until now, the destruction of large parts of forests in Indonesia is the result of the lack of law enforcement.

WALHI said the forestry ministry talked more about sanctions than action, Rully Syumanda, a forestry campaigner with the group, said consequently illegal logging became out of control.

"The problem was also caused by the weakness of Indonesian government itself to prevent anything being dispatched to Malaysia by land or by sea," he said.

Furthermore, Syumanda said the flow of illegal timber from Kalimantan or Sumatra to other parts of Indonesia had declined in the past few years following a government crackdown on the areas.

But he said that was only temporary, and corruption allowed loggers to move more timber into the neighboring country.

"In some particular areas, the police or the minister dealing with this muzzling practice, for example in Saba or West Kalimantan, illegal loggers often bribed the military to enable them to move into Malaysia," Syumanda said.

MS Kaban said the government has adopted a tough stance against the smugglers in Indonesia, but the Malaysian government needed to do more in stopping the flow of illegal timber into its territory.

"The Malaysian market is so close to the Indonesian border, and usually the boats say they were trading timber locally when leaving, but then in the middle of the sea they changed course towards Malaysia...and then they took care of security personnel by Malaysian companies, and given some sort of protection," he said.

"In such operations, all involved will be investigated, including the port master who had permitted the boats to sail."

Earlier, a West Kalimantan newspaper quoted Malaysia`s director of Sarawak forestry Datok Lan Talif Saleh as saying because the violation was committed in Indonesia, his country had no legal right to interfere, and would leave the handling of illegal loggers to Indonesia.

Datok Lan said Malaysia was committed to stamping out illegal logging, when it happened in Malaysia.

But Mr Kaban was calling for increased international support in the fight against illegal logging, urging Malaysia and others not to accept illegal timber or products they know came from Indonesia.

"Malaysia should be introspective, not just protect itself with the formal legalities of its institutions, stamping documents entering the country," he said.

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New Bahamas Reserve Protects Marine Life From Development

Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post 23 Jan 09

The Bahamas government has created a marine reserve off the island of North Bimini, preserving critical mangrove habitat and a shark nursery that had come under threat from a resort there.

The reserve, which will be protected from most fishing and other "extractive activities," is home to endangered species such as the Nassau grouper and the Bimini boa, as well as a vibrant nursery for lemon sharks.

The decision -- approved by the Bahamas cabinet Dec. 29 but announced last week -- is a setback for the Bimini Bay Resort and Marina, which has been clearing some of the island's mangroves to build a hotel, a golf course, a casino and two marinas, some of which have already been constructed.

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham had initially considered establishing the reserve in the late 1990s, but his party lost power in 2002, and the development proceeded. Ingraham's party won back control in 2007.

Philip Weech, director of the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology Commission, said the government concluded that the mangroves on North Bimini's North Sound contribute to the nation's fisheries as well as tourism.

"It is vital for the fisheries in the area to retain the ecosystem in that area," Weech said, adding that the reserve "helps us also to deal with the issue of climate change, flooding, storm surge and the biodiversity that's there."

Under the plan, the government will allow traditional land crabbing in the protected area, along with limited catch-and-release bonefish fishing.

Samuel Gruber, a University of Miami professor who has studied lemon sharks for nearly 20 years as head of the Bimini Biological Field Station, called the creation of the reserve "miraculous."

Gruber and four colleagues published a scientific paper last year showing that dredging in the North Sound for the resort construction in March 2001 had cut the first-year survival rates of juvenile lemon sharks there by more than 23 percent.

Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, who has collaborated with Gruber on his shark research, said the Bahamas' decision is significant because mangroves represent "essential fish habitat, and they're dwindling all over the globe."

The Bimini Bay Resort and Marina did not return calls seeking comment yesterday. Weech said any further development, including the planned construction of a golf course, would be allowed only if it did not jeopardize the reserve.

Demian Chapman, a Stony Brook professor who has also conducted research in Bimini, said the golf course "would be a disaster" because it would damage the reserve's water quality.

"It's just like having a sewage plant next door," he said.

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Q&A: the importance of protecting coral reefs

Polly Ghazi from World Resources Institute, part of the Guardian Environment Network, asks Lauretta Burke to explain why the recent designation of 195,000 square miles of coral rich marine habitat in the Pacific Ocean is important to global reef conservation efforts
World Resources Institute, guardian.co.uk 22 Jan 09;

What are the major threats that face the world's coral reefs and what more needs to be done to protect them?
There's a wide variety of threats affecting coral reefs, some local in nature and some global. Of the local threats, one of the most pervasive is overfishing pressure which can be reduced by this sort of Monument Status and by restrictions on commercial fishing within these reserves. Some other local threats include coastal development and runoff from the land, also runoff from excessive fertilizer application, and in some areas, tourism impacts. The global threats are obviously more difficult to deal with. As we emit more greenhouse gasses we're getting warmer seas. We're also getting acidifying seas. So it's important that there are actions to reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2. But a combination of local action and global action is needed because, as reefs face increasing pressure from these global threats, one thing we can do is reduce the local threats, thereby giving them a better chance to recover after an event like coral bleaching.

So how and where is the World Resources Institute contributing to reef conservation efforts, and are we concentrating more on the local than the global solutions?
Certainly in the past we've focused more on local solutions; now we're including consideration of these global threats. The original global Reefs at Risk Analysis, which is a map-based indicator of threats to the world's reefs, focused on local threats and developed a set of indicators to show the relative pressure from human activities across the world's reefs. The project series began 10 years ago, and last year we began a new project called "Reefs at Risk Revisited" which involves a high resolution update of this global threat analysis which will now include global threats. We are looking specifically at warming seas, and ocean acidification out to the year 2050.

It's a fairly comprehensive study in that it integrates information on human pressure on coral reefs, the climate related threats, current status and management of reefs and policy recommendations. So it's a very useful body of information for priority setting. It's done in a geographic information system so these spatial data sets can be used by both regional and national organizations to do priority setting within their countries.

Who do you expect to use this information?
A wide variety of users. One of the main users is coastal planning organizations and conservation organizations that are working on coral reefs. So these tools very much help with priority setting within the region, or within countries. They also help governments and MPA managers looking at different threats within different areas to guide prioritization. We also target tourism agencies. We like to show how much revenue is contributed through coral reef associated tourism, and we think this will help raise awareness within the tourism industry of the importance of maintaining healthy reefs.

The economic valuation of reefs is an innovative area that WRI is getting into, so could you explain a little more?
Economic valuation involves putting a dollar value on the goods and services provided by coral reefs. Very often dollar values speak to policymakers and businesses in a way that other conservation arguments can't. The economic valuation helps to highlight how these groups are currently benefiting from a healthy reef ecosystem and what they stand to lose if a reef continues to decline. So in the case of tourism, we raise awareness about the large values that are often coming into countries and also the taxes that governments receive because of tourists visiting the country. We also look at the contribution of reef-associated fisheries to the economy and the shoreline protection services provided by reefs. And that's a very important and very high-value service.

So what countries are you doing economic valuation in, and are there any examples of how policymakers have used the information that you've given them?
Yes. Our country level work on economic valuation of coral reefs began in the eastern Caribbean in Tobago and St. Lucia. We're just finishing a project in Belize looking at the economic value of coral reefs and mangroves. And we've now begun work in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. In Tobago for example, we looked at the country as a whole, but also at the value of coral reefs in the Buccoo Reef Marine Park, which at present is a bit of a paper park - although it's designated, there isn't particularly active management enforcement of fishing regulations, and there's not good control of land-based sources of pollution entering the Buccoo Reef area. So we looked at the economic contribution of tourists to that area and compared it with the cost of interventions to improve water quality and coral reef health in that area. And that was a case where it's clear that some modifications that would radically improve water quality and thereby help reef health were certainly sensible investments in the long-term interest of the island of Tobago.

So are you optimistic then about the future survival of the world's coral reefs in the long term?
I'm confident that reefs will survive long term, but I think there will be a smaller area of coral reefs a century from now than there is today. One of the things that's very important as we pull together information on threats and on warming seas and acidifying seas, is to identify the areas with the best prospect of staying healthy in the long run, and really protect those areas. And I think this designation of protected area in the Pacific by President Bush will help to that end.

• This article was shared by our content partner World Resources Institute, part of the Guardian Environment Network

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Foreigners Threaten Afghan Snow Leopards

Jonathon Burch, PlanetArk 23 Jan 09;

KABUL - Afghanistan's snow leopards have barely survived three decades of war. But now the few remaining mountain leopards left in Afghanistan face another threat -- foreigners involved in rebuilding the war-torn country.

Despite a complete hunting ban across Afghanistan since 2002, snow leopard furs regularly end up for sale on international military bases and at tourist bazaars in the capital. Foreigners have ready cash to buy the pelts as souvenirs and impoverished Afghans break poaching laws to supply them.
A female snow leopard with its cub is seen inside its enclosure at a zoological park in Darjeeling, about 80 km (50 miles) north from the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri June 21, 2007. Photo: Rupak De Chowdhuri
Tucked between souvenir stores on Chicken Street, Kabul's main tourist trap, several shops sell fur coats and pelts taken from many of Afghanistan's threatened and endangered animals.

"This one is only $300," one shopkeeper told Reuters, producing a snow leopard pelt from the back of his shop.

"It was shot several times," he said pointing to the patches of fur sewn together. "The better ones are only shot once. The skin remains intact," he says as his assistant brings out a larger pelt, this time with no patches. "This one is $900."

All the shopkeepers said they had more pelts at home and that they had sold furs to foreigners over the past few weeks.

Asked if it was easy to send the furs back home, one shopkeeper who did not want to be named said: "No problem! We hide the fur inside blankets and send it back to your country."

Snow leopards along with several other animals in Afghanistan are listed as endangered or threatened under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Anyone caught knowingly transporting a fur across an international border is liable to a large fine. In the United States, it could result in a $100,000 fine and one year jail term.

It is hard to know the exact numbers of snow leopards left in Afghanistan due to the creatures' elusive nature and the lack of any case studies during the last three decades of conflict, said Dr. Peter Smallwood, Afghanistan country director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

But what is known is that the snow leopard is endangered.

"If you look historically at Afghanistan, Afghanistan actually had more big cat species than the entire continent of Africa," said Clayton Miller, Environmental Advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

"Now the only cat species that is not on the threatened and endangered species list is the domestic cat.

Destruction of infrastructure, movements of refugees, modern weaponry, extreme poverty and a lack of law enforcement together with drought and deforestation are just some of the factors that have devastated Afghanistan's flora and fauna.

There are now only between 100 to 200 snow leopards estimated to be left in Afghanistan. In comparison, Bhutan has the same number but has three times less the area of habitat.

The estimated number of snow leopards in the wild worldwide is between 3,500 and 7000, according to the International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT).

CRACKING DOWN ON FOREIGNERS

Snow leopards in Afghanistan mainly inhabit the extreme northeast of the country in particular the remote sliver of land called the Wakhan Corridor which separates Tajikistan from Pakistan and extends all the way to China.

The mountainous Wakhan is sparsely populated by humans but is a vital link for the snow leopard.

"The Wakhan is a critical area because ... you're going to get snow leopards going between Tajikistan, Pakistan and China through the Wakhan valley, so it's a key, key area. Its importance far outweighs its physical size," Smallwood said.

When the U.S. embassy's Miller first moved to Afghanistan he discovered a widespread practice of selling endangered animal parts to foreigners.

"There were threatened and endangered species being marketed to international personnel, not only military but aid mission folks and anybody visiting the bazaar," said Miller.

In a bid to stop poaching of snow leopards, the U.S. embassy and the WCS targeted the buyers.

"We decided that one of the quickest ways of trying to address this issue was to go after the demand. The only individuals that are actually able to purchase these things were internationals," Miller told Reuters.

Snow leopard pelts can sell for up to $1500, well beyond the means of most Afghans.

Since August last year, Miller and the WCS have been educating military and civilian staff, in particular those in charge of mail services, on how to recognize endangered and threatened animal furs as well as conducting "raids" on U.S. military bases.

The raids have yielded products from endangered species including snow leopards, said Miller, but he stressed the U.S. military was very "cooperative" in trying to combat the trade.

Within two weeks of their first training session on a U.S. base just outside Kabul, the military had managed to "virtually eliminate" any trade of these products on the base, he said.

Local traders who offer their wares on military bases are issued with a warning if they are caught selling the furs and are barred from returning if caught again.

Because of the structured nature of the military, said Smallwood, it is easier to get the message delivered.

"The harder part is trying to deliver the message to the rest of the international community, which we're working on," he said.

But the threats to the snow leopard still remain.

"With numbers this low I wouldn't want to say ...if we just fix this problem the rest is fine. All of these problems need to be dealt with. Losing 10 animals could be as much as 10 percent of the population," Smallwood said.

(Editing by Megan Goldin)

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Tuna catches shrink due to Somali piracy

Indian Ocean states dependent on industry hit as trawlers avoid region
Straits Times 23 Jan 09;

VICTORIA (SEYCHELLES): Tuna catches in the south-western Indian Ocean fell by as much as 30 per cent last year as pirates blocked access to some of the world's richest tuna waters off Somalia, fisheries experts say.

European fleets said the Somali pirates, who are better known for their audacious hijackings of commercial vessels, including the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, are threatening an industry worth up to US$6 billion (S$9 billion) across the Indian Ocean region.

France and Spain, which both base fleets in the Seychelles, would expect to haul in nearly two-thirds of their year's catch off Somalia between August and November, said the head of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, Mr Alejandro Anganuzzi.

'Instead, they had to look further east and probably caught 50 per cent of what they would usually catch,' he said.

Some 50 trawlers use the port at Seychelles' capital Victoria, through which up to 350,000 tonnes of tuna are handled each year. But catches have suffered for two consecutive years as stocks fell.

Fisheries experts said foreign currency earnings will have fallen as a result of the dwindling tuna catch, dashing hopes for an economic recovery in the debt-laden archipelago.

In the Seychelles, tuna and related industries - re-export of fuel to vessels, port services, electricity and water for vessels - account for up to 40 per cent of foreign earnings.

Somalia has said piracy is merely a symptom of rampant illegal fishing by vessels from Europe and Asia in its waters after the country's central government collapsed in 1991.

The Kenya-based Maritime Seafarers Assistance Programme said in 2006 that there were hundreds of illegal fishing boats in Somali waters at any one time, mainly chasing tuna.

Some pirates have told Reuters they turned to hijacking to stop foreign fishing vessels destroying their own small boats and equipment. But the ransoms earned simply increased their appetite for hunting other ships.

From August to November, the waters beyond Somalia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) hold some of the planet's richest stocks of yellowfin tuna.

Pirates attacked tuna boats at least three times last year, leading to one ransom of over US$1 million.

'The pirates' impact on the fishing off Somalia has been huge,' said one European skipper, on condition of anonymity. 'At least half our business is there. Now we cannot go there anymore. The last season was wrecked.'

The audacious attack on the fully laden Sirius Star, 450 nautical miles out to sea, alerted the world to the pirates' extended range of activity, using ocean-going 'mother-ships' to deploy smaller boats for an assault. Pirates freed the ship earlier this month for a US$3 million ransom.

'They are in the south, too. We've seen suspect boats on the same longitude as Tanzania's capital, Dar Es Salam. They were there long before the Sirius attack,' the skipper said.

'We have seen them in the waters of countries where we hold licences, including Kenya and the Seychelles,' he added.

The financial implications for the Seychelles are hard to fathom as the tuna industry is shrouded in secrecy. In Japan, top-quality fish can sell for up to US$100,000 each.

According to data seen by Reuters, French vessels averaged some 4,000 tonnes each last year compared to about 6,000 tonnes in 2006. But the financial ramifications go beyond the fleets.

The Seychelles is paid per tonne of fish landed for port facilities - an important source of foreign exchange for the archipelago - and reduced catches means fewer calls to port. 'The pirates' biggest impact is reducing supply, driving prices up,' said Mr Rondolph Payet, head of the Seychelles Fisheries Authority.

Meanwhile, Japan's ruling coalition yesterday approved plans to send naval ships to Somalia to protect Japanese vessels and nationals, an official said.

The decision by the coalition's anti-piracy task force is expected to pave the way for a Japanese mission some time in the coming months. The task force said that Japanese coastguards should be on board the navy ships to exercise police duties as the Japanese navy's role was limited strictly to self-defence.

A number of nations are sending ships to the area to fend off increasingly brazen pirate attacks, which have led some shipping companies to avoid the route via the Suez Canal and, at greater cost, sail around Africa instead.

China deployed two destroyers and a supply ship to the Gulf of Aden last month. Earlier this month, Task Force 150, a Bahrain-based 20-country multinational fleet that is supporting United States-led operations in Afghanistan, said it is spinning off some of its warships to create Task Force 151, which will concentrate on suppressing piracy.

The United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 last month to allow naval forces in the area to 'take all necessary measures' to fight pirates.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG

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War against ivory trade takes to the sea

Auction house agrees to stop sale of whale tusks after pressure from campaigners
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 23 Jan 09;

It's the "other" ivory. And this week, conservationists in London stepped in to stop its sale. It might not be as well known as the stuff that comes from elephants, but the ivory from the narwhal, the tusked whale of the northern seas, is just as much in demand – and with that demand comes a threat just as severe as the one elephants face.

Not only is the narwhal's single spear-like tusk (which can be 8ft long) an object of great beauty, it is the object of myth and legend – in the Middle Ages it was considered to come from the unicorn – and so is highly prized by collectors. The demand for tusks is increasing and, as a result, so is hunting in the narwhal's core area of northern Canada and Greenland.

Campaigners from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) believe the rising hunting rate is a threat to the animal and so when seven narwhal tusks were entered into a major antiques sale at Bonhams, the London auction house, this week – where they were expected to fetch up to £10,000 each – they pressed for them to be withdrawn. The company agreed to do so; now the campaigners are calling on Bonhams to exclude narwhal tusks permanently, although the auction house confined itself to saying the tusks were withdrawn from the sale "for procedural reasons" and gave no indication about future policy.

"We welcome Bonhams' decision to remove the narwhal tusks from sale, and we hope that the company will extend this decision to future sales both at its UK auction houses and overseas salerooms," said Chris Butler-Stroud, the WDCS chief executive.

The tusks were entered in The Gentleman's Library Sale, an annual auction bringing together natural history curiosities of the sort that might have adorned the library or the smoking room of a wealthy Victorian; when it took place on Wednesday, the full sale of more than 1,000 items – featuring items from antique globes to antlered deer heads – raised nearly £900,000.

WDCS believes that the seven tusks originally listed for auction would have represented the largest single offering of narwhal ivory in the UK since the European Union banned its import from Canada in 1984 and limited imports from Greenland to personal effects only (ie, not for resale) in 2004.

Although elephant ivory is banned from general sale, apart from in specially licensed auctions – one such took place last year – the sale of narwhal ivory is still legal, although the trade has to be monitored. But the WDCS believes that demand is steadily growing, with prices rising accordingly, and that this is pushing native peoples in artic Canada and Greenland to hunt more and more of the animals.

One of the main narwhal populations in Greenland has been listed as critically endangered on Greenland's Red List of Species, and in 2008, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, cited over-hunting as the major threat and warned that the species as a whole could become "endangered" or "critically endangered" within five years.

The society has also contacted Bonhams' US branch, Bonhams and Butterfields, with its concerns, as it has sold at least four narwhal tusks at its Los Angeles salesroom in the past two years, for prices ranging from $11,000 (£8,000) to $20,400 for a single tusk.

"The publicity surrounding sales such as these, and the high prices fetched by the tusks, adds to the motivation for hunters to take as many narwhals as possible, and for management agencies to set quotas way above sustainable levels," Mr Butler-Stroud said.

Kate O'Connell, a WDCS researcher in the United States, said: "I think most people would find it abhorrent that such a trade should impact on such a beautiful animal."

Narwhals: The facts

The narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is a toothed whale closely related to the all-white beluga. Its single tusk is an elongated incisor tooth that in fully-grown males ranges from 7ft to 10ft long. An exclusively arctic species, it is hunted only in Canada and Greenland, where between 300 and 500 animals are taken annually by native people. However, last November, hundreds of narwhals were trapped in the ice on the northern coast of Baffin Island, perhaps because the ice-formation regime in the arctic is being altered by climate change. Eventually all 629 were killed by Inuit hunters.

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Zoos in 'salvage' operation to save Australian species

Madeleine Coorey Yahoo News 22 Jan 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – The two baby Tasmanian devils playing in a glass enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Zoo are not just crowd-pleasers -- these furry black creatures could be the saviours their species desperately needs.

In a climate-controlled shipping container nearby, some 500 button-sized southern corroboree frogs present the best chance of keeping the striking black-and-yellow striped Australian amphibian from annihilation.

For Taronga curator Paul Andrew, the exhibits show the changing role of zoos as they attempt to "salvage" animals from certain extinction due to climate change, habitat loss and deadly introduced species.

"There's a kind of rather serious, almost dark side to zoos now in that we are in biological salvage," he told AFP.

"We are trying to get things and keep them ticking them over until we allow them a place in their own right on the planet."

Zoos around the world have for decades taken on the challenge of conserving the animal kingdom, but Australian fauna presents a unique difficulty because it developed on the island continent in isolation from other competing animals.

The Tasmanian devil, which is believed to have been wiped out on mainland Australia hundreds of years ago by dogs and now exists only on the southern island state after which it is named, is a case in point.

"They are just not very bright," Andrew said, pointing out that the robust devil, despite its strength, vice-like jaws and ear-piercing shrieks, would likely lose out in competition against dogs.

"That's the problem with much of the Australian fauna, it's evolved in isolation."

Devils are now part of an intensive conservation programme because of the spread of an infectious facial tumour which gradually disfigures the animal's face to the point it is unable to eat and so dies within months.

The tumour is thought to have wiped out some 60 percent of wild devils over the past decade, prompting a group of Australian zoos including Taronga to breed an "insurance population" of 160 animals untouched by the disease.

"There's a realistic possibility that the devil could go extinct in the wild in 30, 35 years so our programme has to address that time frame," Andrew said.

"It costs us about 10,000 dollars a year per devil so to run 160 devils is about 1.5 million dollars (about 1.0 million US dollars) a year for the Australian zoos and this means that every devil has to make a contribution to the future of the species."

The situation for the southern corroboree frog is even more desperate, with fewer than 200 thought to exist in the wild after being devastated by the arrival of a foreign fungus some decades ago.

The species is also particularly at risk from global warming because it survives only in the cooler reaches of Mount Kosciuszko west of Sydney.

"It will be extinct in the wild in the very near future," Andrew said.

Climate change was potentially "massive" in terms of species extinction and "a very large percentage of the species that we have at the moment could go in a very short period of time," he said.

"We are realistically going to have to look at bringing them into captivity, looking after them for a number of generations and then trying to work out a way of getting them back into the wild," he said.

The spectre of climate change was noted in October by Adelaide Zoo chief Chris West ahead of a major conference on zoos in South Australia state.

Zoos were becoming like "field hospitals in a war zone" as they tried to help endangered animals from being overcome by habitat destruction, over-exploitation, invasive species, pollution and emergent diseases, he said.

"But now climate change is looming as a huge new horseman of the apocalypse, whose impact threatens to dwarf that of all the others," West said.

Andrew said zoos were probably "hopelessly optimistic" in their efforts to attempt to conserve as much life on the planet as possible.

"The trouble with conservation is that you never win. You might keep the species going for another day or another year but it's a continuous battle. And you only have to lose it once."

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Liberia caterpillar invasion is 'national emergency': UN

Yahoo News 22 Jan 09;

ROME (AFP) – An invasion of crop-destroying caterpillars in Liberia is a "national emergency" that could spread across West Africa, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday.

Tens of millions of the caterpillars -- described as "black, creeping and hairy" by villagers -- were advancing across the north of Liberia, contaminating water supplies and damaging food crops in the already impoverished country.

Winfred Hammond, FAO Representative in Liberia, said the situation amounted to a "national emergency" which unless contained was "very likely" to escalate into a regional crisis involving neighbouring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast."

The FAO estimates that up to 40 villages are affected in the Bong, Lofa and Gbarpolu regions of northern Liberia.

Two-thirds of Bong's 200,000 inhabitants have been affected by the caterpillar plague, the FAO said.

Three emergency committees had been set up but Hammond warned that "the country lacks the financial resources and technical expertise to combat the emergency on its own and will require international assistance."

The Liberian government has already asked the Economic Community of West African States regional bloc and the FAO for support.

The FAO said the plague of caterpillars was being described as Liberia's worst in 30 years

Caterpillar plague wreaks havoc in Liberia
West Africa regional emergency threatened
FAO website 22 Jan 09;

22 January 2009, Rome - Huge hordes of ravenous caterpillars have appeared in northern Liberia, destroying crops and vegetation, sending terrified villagers fleeing from their homes, and raising the spectre of a food, health and environmental emergency in West Africa.

FAO Representative in Liberia Winfred Hammond, an entomologist, described the situation in Liberia as a national emergency and said unless the invasion was quickly contained it was "very likely" to escalate into a regional crisis involving neighbouring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Cöte d'Ivoire.

The two- to three-cm-long caterpillars, described by villagers as "black, creeping and hairy", are advancing in the tens of millions, devouring all plants and food crops in their path and in some cases overrunning homes and buildings. They pose a major threat to the already precarious food security situation in Liberia and the sub-region.

In some communities villagers are unable to reach their farms, because these are completely surrounded by the pests.

African armyworms?

Some 46 villages in Bong, Lofa and Gbarpolu counties of northern Liberia are confirmed to have been affected, including two-thirds of the 200 000 inhabitants in Bong County, the worst-hit area. There are reports that the caterpillars, suspected to be African armyworms (Spodoptera spp) are currently advancing across the border with Guinea.

The situation is made worse by the fact that many wells and waterways in the area are unfit for human consumption because of the huge volume of faeces dropped by the caterpillars. Also making things difficult is that much of the infested area cannot be reached by car so that the extent of the infestation has yet to be precisely determined.

FAO has assembled a task force including experts from Ghana and Sierra Leone to assess the situation, prepare an immediate action plan and devise medium and long-term measures, Hammond said. Specimens of the caterpillars have been flown to Accra to be identified exactly so that the most appropriate form of pesticide can be determined.

Liberia has set up three emeregency committees to provide planning, resources mobilization and communication and information. The country lacks the financial resources and technical expertise to combat the emergency on its own and will require international assistance, Hammond said.

But he cautioned against the use of aerial spraying since it was likely to further contaminate the already precarious water supply in the area. And whatever the method, FAO recommends the use of less risky pesticides, including bio-pesticides when they are effective.

Giant trees

However, areas that have been hand-sprayed with pesticides have quickly been re-infested. This is because many of the caterpillars dwell on the leaves of giant forest trees such as the Dahoma, which can rise more than eight metres above ground.

The infestation is spreading fast because the pests are multiplying rapidly and adult moths can fly long distances under cover of darkness.

The plague is being described as Liberia's worst in 30 years. The last African armyworm outbreak in the sub-region occurred in Ghana in 2006.

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Drought, heat killing trees in western North America

Maggie Fox, Reuters 22 Jan 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trees in the western United States and Canada are dying twice as quickly as they did just 30 years ago, with rising average temperatures almost certainly to blame, researchers reported on Thursday.

These thinner and weaker forests will become more vulnerable to wildfires and may soak up less carbon dioxide, in turn speeding up global warming, they said.

The U.S. and Canadian researchers from a variety of agencies and universities studied trees in old-growth forests for more than 50 years to document the die-off, which they say is beginning to outpace replacement by new trees.

Warmer temperatures may be encouraging pine beetles and other organisms that attack trees, the researchers said. That, along with the stress of prolonged droughts, may be accelerating death rates.

"Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1 degree F (half a degree C) over the last few decades," said Phillip van Mantgem of the U.S. Geological Survey, who helped lead the study.

"While this may not sound like much, it has been enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the summer drought."

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said they found trees of various species, ages and sizes are dying faster at every elevation.

"Wherever we looked, mortality rates are increasing," Nathan Stephenson of the USGS told reporters in a telephone briefing.

'CARBON SOAKS'

Forests are usually called "carbon soaks" because plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, removing carbon from the atmosphere. But when trees die or burn, this carbon is released back into the atmosphere.

So a dying forest adds to the carbon that in turn helps warm the planet's surface.

The findings fit in with other studies and with changes that have become obvious -- such as the 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of pine forest that has been destroyed by mountain pine bark beetles in northwestern Colorado.

Thomas Veblen of the University of Colorado said new regulations may be needed to help the forests survive.

"We need to consider developing land-use policies that reduce the vulnerability of people and resources to wildfires," Veblen said.

"Activities include reducing residential development in or near wildland areas that are naturally fire-prone and where we expect fire risk to increase with continued warming."

Mark Harmon, a professor of forest ecology at Oregon State University, said the overall mortality rates are low but they add up.

"We may only be talking about an annual tree mortality rate changing from 1 percent a year to 2 percent a year, an extra tree here and there," Harmon said in a statement.

"Forest fires or major insect epidemics that kill a lot of trees all at once tend to get most of the headlines. What we're studying here are changes that are much slower and difficult to identify, but in the long run extremely important."

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Will Dunham and John O'Callaghan)

Tree Deaths Double in Western U.S. Forests
Andrea Thompson, livescience.com Yahoo News 22 Jan 09;

Trees in western U.S. forests are dying at twice the rate they were a few decades ago, a new study finds. Researchers think the most likely culprit is the regional impacts of global warming.

If this trend in tree deaths continues, it could change the very nature and structure of the forests, with impacts on ecosystems and western communities. It could also further exacerbate global warming, by reducing the amount of carbon stored in the forests.

"When the trees across the West appear to be dying at twice the rate they used to, that's not a good sign," said study team member Mark Harmon of Oregon State University.

The study's findings are detailed in the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Science.

Deaths doubling

The researchers used data from 76 forest plots gathered by generations of scientists over more than 50 years. All the forest stands were 200 or more years old, some having been established more than 500 years ago. Looking at old-growth forests was key because they are less disturbed and have a wide variety of trees of different ages.

Tree sites were located in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and southwestern British Columbia.

The data showed that there had been a doubling of tree mortality in just 17 years in the Pacific Northwest and 25 years in California. Interior states had a slightly slower rate change, taking 29 years to double.

"This suggests that one, or several, northwestern tree species are sensitive to whatever is going on," said study team member Jerry Franklin of the University of Washington, in Seattle.

The death rates increased across a wide variety of forest and tree types, at all elevations, and in trees of all sizes and ages.

The researchers ruled out a number of possible causes of the increasing death rates, including air pollution, long-term effects of fire suppression, over-crowding of forests, forest fragmentation and insect attack. These forces tend to play a more limited and temporary role in tree deaths.

But the authors did find a strong correlation between tree deaths and rising regional temperatures.

"Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit [0.6 degree Celsius] over the last few decades," said study team member Phil van Mantgem of the United States Geological Survey. "While this may not sound like much, it has been enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the summer drought."

Those longer summer droughts could be stressing the trees, leading to higher death rates. The warmer temperatures could also be giving a boost to insects and diseases that attack trees. For example, bark beetle infestations have been on the rise in the West, and have been linked to warming temperatures.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station, National Park Service, the University of Washington and Oregon State University.

Carbon feedback

Whatever is causing the tree deaths, the increased mortality rate could lead to substantial changes in western forests.

Essentially, forests have begun to lose trees faster than new ones can become established, the scientists said. Overall, this could mean that trees in these forests will become younger and smaller on average, making them more susceptible to sudden diebacks.

A changing forest structure could have cascading effects, such as changing the suitability of the environment for wildlife species that live there. "That may be our biggest concern," said study team member Nate Stephenson, also of the USGS. "Is the trend we're seeing a prelude to bigger, more abrupt changes to our forests?"

The higher death rates could also mean that western forests become net sources, instead of sinks, of carbon dioxide .

Trees, like other plants, take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to fuel their photosynthesis. The converted carbon gets stored in the trees. As the trees die, the forests as a whole will absorb less carbon dioxide and then inject more greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere. This could lead to a "feedback loop" where more carbon dioxide increases warming, which kills more trees, which further increases carbon dioxide levels.

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