Mass migrations and war: Dire climate scenario

Charles J. Hanley, AP Yahoo News 21 Feb 09;

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – If we don't deal with climate change decisively, "what we're talking about then is extended world war," the eminent economist said.

His audience Saturday, small and elite, had been stranded here by bad weather and were talking climate. They couldn't do much about the one, but the other was squarely in their hands. And so, Lord Nicholas Stern was telling them, was the potential for mass migrations setting off mass conflict.

"Somehow we have to explain to people just how worrying that is," the British economic thinker said.

Stern, author of a major British government report detailing the cost of climate change, was one of a select group of two dozen — environment ministers, climate negotiators and experts from 16 nations — scheduled to fly to Antarctica to learn firsthand how global warming might melt its ice into the sea, raising ocean levels worldwide.

Their midnight flight was scrubbed on Friday and Saturday because of high winds on the southernmost continent, 3,000 miles from here. While waiting at their Cape Town hotel for the gusts to ease down south, chief sponsor Erik Solheim, Norway's environment minister, improvised with group exchanges over coffee and wine about the future of the planet.

"International diplomacy is all about personal relations," Solheim said. "The more people know each other, the less likely there will be misunderstandings."

Understandings will be vital in this "year of climate," as the world's nations and their negotiators count down toward a U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen in December, target date for concluding a grand new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol — the 1997 agreement, expiring in 2012, to reduce carbon dioxide and other global-warming emissions by industrial nations.

Solheim drew together key players for the planned brief visit to Norway's Troll Research Station in East Antarctica.

Trying on polar outfits for size on Friday were China's chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua, veteran U.S. climate envoy Dan Reifsnyder, and environment ministers Hilary Benn of Britain and Carlos Minc Baumfeld of Brazil.

Later, at dinner, the heavyweights heard from smaller or poorer nations about the trials they face as warming disrupts climate, turns some regions drier, threatens food production in poor African nations.

Jose Endundo, environment minister of Congo, said he recently visited huge Lake Victoria in nearby Uganda, at 80,000 square kilometers (31,000 square miles) a vital source for the Nile River, and learned the lake level had dropped 3 meters (10 feet) in the past six years — a loss blamed in part on warmer temperatures and diminishing rains.

In the face of such threats, "the rich countries have to give us a helping hand," the African minister said.

But it was Stern, former chief World Bank economist, who on Saturday laid out a case to his stranded companions in sobering PowerPoint detail.

If the world's nations act responsibly, Stern said, they will achieve "zero-carbon" electricity production and zero-carbon road transport by 2050 — by replacing coal power plants with wind, solar or other energy sources that emit no carbon dioxide, and fossil fuel-burning vehicles with cars running on electric or other "clean" energy.

Then warming could be contained to a 2-degree-Celsius (3.4-degree-Fahrenheit) rise this century, he said.

But if negotiators falter, if emissions reductions are not made soon and deep, the severe climate shifts and sea-level rises projected by scientists would be "disastrous."

It would "transform where people can live," Stern said. "People would move on a massive scale. Hundreds of millions, probably billions of people would have to move if you talk about 4-, 5-, 6-degree increases" — 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. And that would mean extended global conflict, "because there's no way the world can handle that kind of population move in the time period in which it would take place."

Melting ice, rising seas, dwindling lakes and war — the stranded ministers had a lot to consider. But many worried, too, that the current global economic crisis will keep governments from transforming carbon-dependent economies just now. For them, Stern offered a vision of working today on energy-efficient economies that would be more "sustainable" in the future.

"The unemployed builders of Europe should be insulating all the houses of Europe," he said.

After he spoke, Norwegian organizers announced that the forecast looked good for Stern and the rest to fly south on Sunday to further ponder the future while meeting with scientists in the forbidding vastness of Antarctica.

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Fixing climate wrongs will be key to protecting human rights

WWF 23 Feb 09;

London, UK - Effective action on climate change – caused mainly by the privileged and impacting more and more devastatingly on the deprived – is becoming central to a just as well as a sustainable world, WWF International Director General James Leape told an emergency human rights congress in London today.

And action on climate change will not be effective unless it is also fair, Mr Leape told the congress convened under the patronage of noted Human Rights barrister Cherie Blair and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The congress will develop guidelines for protecting human rights during the reshaping of world economies.

“We have a clear correlation between climate wrongs and human rights,” said Mr Leape. “Those who are most impoverished, most marginalised and whose rights are least respected are also those who depend most on their environment for subsistence.

“Those deep in forests under assault, on the fringes of floodplains or shores of coral seas count heavily among those who will suffer the most from climate change, will have the least power in the negotiations and who will need the most support as we go through this year to the Copenhagen Climate conference.”

Mr Leape said WWF's work in the field was showing up other correlations – that action to preserve, repair and restore the functioning of forests, water catchments and coasts now was what would best protect those areas and their people from the climate change impacts coming.

“We see this most graphically, if tragically, in the case of disasters,” Mr Leape said. “The communities conserving their mangroves and inshore reefs are those that have suffered least from waves and storms and will suffer least from the more severe and more frequent storms to come. It is the rivers with functioning wetlands that best absorb floods and have the reserves needed in dry spells.”

Mr Leape urged congress organisers and attendees to add their voices to the pressure on Copenhagen climate decision-makers to take bold action to reduce emissions in OECD countries, and to provide robust funding to developing countries for low-carbon development, for reducing deforestation,and for adaptation.

The leaders of the world’s most powerful countries - in the G20 and the G8 – need to commit to approaches that recognise the rights of indigenous peoples and forest communities during the forthcoming climate negotiations Mr Leape said.

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Climate change lays waste to Spain's glaciers

Spain loses 90% of its glaciers thanks to global warming, threatening drought as rivers dry up
Giles Tremlett, guardian.co.uk 23 Feb 09;

The Pyrenees mountains have lost almost 90% of their glacier ice over the past century, according to scientists who warn that global warning means they will disappear completely within a few decades.

While glaciers covered 3,300 hectares of land on the mountain range that divides Spain and France at the turn of the last century, only 390 hectares remain, according to Spain's environment ministry.

The most southerly glaciers in Europe are losing the battle against warming and look set to be among the first to disappear from the continent over the coming decades. Their loss will have a severe impact on summer water supplies in the foothills and southern plains south of the Pyrenees.

"This century could see (perhaps within a few decades) the total, or almost total, disappearance of the last reserves of ice in the Spanish Pyrenees and, as a result, a major change in the current nature of upper reaches of the mountains," the authors of the report on Spain's glaciers said.

Scientists have ruled out the idea that the progressive deterioration of glaciers around the globe are part of normal, long-term fluctuations in their size. Europe's glaciers are thought to have lost a quarter of their mass in the last 8 years.

Prof Wilfried Haeberli, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service, said that the rate of glacier loss is particularly quick. "Small glaciers disappear faster so the relative loss is much larger."

"They are the best indicators of climate change," he said . "I would even say these figures (for Spain) are optimistic. If the loss of ice goes on at the speed of the past 10 years they may disappear within ten to 20 years."

Scientists warn of potentially dramatic effects to agriculture as glaciers that feed rivers disappear, taking away a major source of summer water.

The glaciers under threat in Spain feed rivers such as the Gállego, the Cinca and the Garona which water the foothills and plains south of the Pyrenees.

"During the dry season, especially in Spain, they are nourished by glacier and snow melt," said Prof Haeberli.

He said that smaller glaciers, such as those in Spain and some in tropical countries such as Colombia and Kenya, would soon disappear as the planet heats up.

Even the Alps, though, stand to lose up to 75% of its glacial area by mid-century.

Glaciers provide a unique record of global climate change as scientists have been tracking their development since the International Glacier Commission was founded in Switzerland in 1894. Spanish glaciers were among those measured at the end of the 19th century.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service last year reported that glaciers around the planet were melting at a rate unseen for 5,000 years.

"It has become obvious that the ongoing trend of worldwide and fast, if not accelerating, glacier shrinkage … is of a non-cyclic nature," the service's report for the decade up to 2005 said.

The rate of melting more than doubled over that period when compared to the previous decade.

Changes were "without precedent in history" and would produce "dramatic scenarios", including the complete loss of glaciers in some mountains systems, according to the report.

"Glacier shrinkage … is not a periodic change and may lead to the deglaciation of large parts of many mountain regions by the end of the 21st century," the monitoring service report warned.

Early figures for 2006 and 2007 indicate that the speed of glacier melt around the world continues to increase.

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EU Prepares For Battle Over Growing GM Maize Crops

Jeremy Smith, PlanetArk 24 Feb 09;

BRUSSELS - European Union biotech experts will discuss next week whether to allow more cultivation of genetically modified crops but little progress is expected to break years of EU deadlock on biotechnology.

Two GM maize types are to be considered at the Wednesday meeting. If the experts fail to agree, which officials and diplomats say is the most likely outcome, both applications will be escalated to EU ministers for a decision.

The crops are Bt-11 maize, engineered by Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta, and 1507 maize -- jointly developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a unit of DuPont Co and Dow AgroSciences unit Mycogen Seeds.

"It's almost certain to be a non-opinion," said one official at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, meaning that there was unlikely to be enough majority under the EU's weighted voting system to approve or reject the applications: stalemate.

The European Union has long been split on GMO policy and its 27 member countries consistently clash over whether to approve new varieties for import but without ever reaching a conclusion. GM crop cultivation is the "big one," diplomats say, in that no new modified crops have been approved for growing since 1998. There has been a string of GM approvals since 2004, however, but only as imported products for use in food and feed.

While diplomats say approving a new GM crop for growing is nigh on impossible in the EU's current climate, if next week's GM applications get sent to ministers and then there is a second voting stalemate, they would then return to the Commission.

If that happens, the Commission would -- probably -- end up issuing standard 10-year licenses. But that may take some time.

Even now, more than 10 years later, only one GM crop has won EU approval for commercial cultivation: a gene-altered maize made by U.S. biotech company Monsanto, known as MON 810.

Other companies want to change that situation and have filed lawsuits against the Commission for what they say is too much delay in getting their products approved and into EU markets. Pioneer is one of those complainants and filed its case in 2007.

"The fact is: the 1507 maize cultivation application has been unduly delayed since it was submitted nearly eight years ago, has been imported into the EU since 2006 and has been approved for cultivation in seven countries already," said Mike Hall, Pioneer's communications manager for Europe.

(Editing by Keiron Henderson)

New study points to GM contamination of Mexican corn
Yahoo News 23 Feb 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Genes from genetically-engineered corn have been found in traditional crop strains in Mexico, according to a new study likely to reignite a bitter controversy over biotech maize.

The paper, by scientists from Mexico, the United States and the Netherlands, backs a 2001 probe that sparked a row over the safety of genetically-modified (GM) crops.

Green activists say GM crops are a potential hazard, arguing that their genes could spread to related plants through cross-pollination.

Their campaign has helped drive bans on GM crops in some countries, including Mexico itself, the ancestral home of maize, as corn is also called.

In the 2001 study, published in the prestigious British journal Nature, researchers reported finding transgenes in samples of corn taken from the Sierra Juarez region of Oaxaca.

But this study was blasted for technical inaccuracy and choice of samples. In an exceptional slap, Nature distanced itself from the paper, saying the evidence had not been strong enough to warrant publication.

This damning verdict was underscored by a further study, carried out in 2005 by a different team, that was unable to replicate the results.

But new research now says the original study was right.

A team led by Elena Alvarez-Buylla of the National Autonomous University in Mexico City looked at nearly 2,000 samples from 100 fields in the region from 2001 and 2004, and found that around one percent of the samples had genes that had jumped from GM varieties.

"We confirmed that there was contamination in 2001 and also found contamination in 2004, which means that it either persisted in the local maize that we sampled or that it was reintroduced, which is less likely," Alvarez-Buylla told AFP.

She said the difference between previous studies and her research lay in the samples chosen for gene sequencing and in the molecular technique for decrypting the DNA.

The investigators looked for two specific genes that had escaped from biotech corn, and found them in some fields but not in others.

Alvarez-Buylla said the evidence shed stark light on the failure of efforts to shield Mexico from unauthorised GM corn.

The country imposed a moratorium on the planting of transgenic maize in 1998 in order to protect genetic diversity. It is the home of about 60 traditional domesticated strains, also called landraces, as well as several wild strains.

Transgenic seeds are entering the country, most probably from the United States, and getting mixed with local seeds in trade among small farmers, Alvarez-Buylla believed.

"It is very hard to avoid gene flow from transgenic maize to non-transgenic maize in Mexico, even though there has been a moratorium," she said.

"It is really worrying that the government of Mexico has not been efficient enough in biosecurity monitoring," she said, accusing watchdogs of failing to establish rigorous molecular monitoring that was independent of data provided by biotech giants.

Alvarez-Buylla's team did not explore the impact of the escaped genes on the native corn, on the local environment or human health, nor did it test whether the foreign genes passed on to progeny plants.

The study appears in the latest issue of Molecular Ecology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Britain's Blackwell group. It has been endorsed by a lead author of the 2005 paper.

GM crops have had genes inserted into them to produce benefits for farmers. For instance, they exude natural toxins that kill off pests, or are resistant to herbicides, enabling a farmer to spray a field in one go and not kill the crop.

GM producers say there is no evidence of any threat to human health or the environment. The overwhelming view of scientists is that, so far, this is true.

But suspicions remain strong in many countries, especially Europe, where several governments retain safeguard measures against GM corn despite EU-wide approval.

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Feb 09

A Shocking Find!
about Nature Reserves and masting on the spotlight's on nature blog

First Pulau Hantu Dive For 2009
on the colourful clouds blog

Terumbu Raya Pan
video clip on the sgbeachbum blog

Western Central Catchment
on the Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature blog

Natural and Human Impacts on Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
on the Running with the Wind blog

Shrewed
on the annotated budak blog and cycle of eights

Olive-backed Sunbird: A tragic ending
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher taking a spider
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Monday Morgue: Knobbly sea star
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Online tide tables for Singapore
on the wild shores of singapore blog

The Fishy Workshop... recapped
on the Leafmonkey Workshop blog

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Big forest fire in Tampines

Cheryl Frois, Channel NewsAsia 22 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE: A large forest fire broke out near Tampines Ave 9 at around noon Sunday.

The blaze, about the size of three football fields, took about 45 minutes to put out.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that the blaze was one of the many vegetation fires that have hit the country since January.

The vegetation fires were one reason behind hazy skies on some days.

Over 100 such fires have happened this month alone.

No injuries were reported in the fire on Sunday.

Investigations into the cause of the fire are going on.

- CNA/ir

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Human role in Indonesian forest fires traced

Atmospheric scientists trace the human role in Indonesian forest fires
EurekAlert 23 Feb 09;

TORONTO, ON – Severe fires in Indonesia – responsible for some of the worst air quality conditions worldwide – are linked not only to drought, but also to changes in land use and population density, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience led by Robert Field of the University of Toronto.

"During the late 1970s, Indonesian Borneo changed from being highly fire-resistant to highly fire-prone during drought years, marking the period when one of the world's great tropical forests became one of the world's largest sources of pollution," says Field, a PhD student of atmospheric physics.

"Ultimately, this abrupt transition can be attributed to rapid increases in deforestation and population growth. The resulting occurrences of haze currently rank among the world's worst air pollution episodes, and are a singularly large source of greenhouse gas emissions."

Sumatra has suffered from large fires at least since the 1960s, but Indonesian Borneo seems to have been resistant to large fires – even in dry years – until population density and deforestation increased substantially and land use changed from small-scale subsistence agriculture to large-scale industrial agriculture and agro-forestry.

"We've had a good understanding of fire events since the mid 1990s, but little before this due to the absence of fire data from satellites," says Field, who collaborated with Guido van der Werf of VU University Amsterdam and Sam Shen of San Diego State University. "However, one of the major impacts of large-scale fires is a reduction in visibility due to the smoke produced. Visibility is recorded several times a day at airports in the region, and these records proved to be an excellent indicator of severe fire activity. We were able to piece together visibility observations back to the 1960s, and hence develop a longer term record of the fires."

Having a long-term record of the fires allowed the scientists to better understand their causes. "Using weather records, we were able to estimate the specific rainfall level below which large fires have occurred in the previous two decades. In turn, we found that the rainfall over Indonesia was influenced equally by the Indian Ocean Dipole and the El Niño Southern Oscillation phenomena. Hopefully, this information can be used to better anticipate and prevent future haze disasters in Indonesia."

Field says that there is a direct link between the increased prevalence of severe fires and haze disasters and the man-made change in land use. "The visibility record also showed, quite strikingly, the impact of human settlement on a previously pristine tropical forest. This should give pause to further agro-forestry expansion in Indonesia, particularly for oil palm as a source of biofuel."

###

The findings are presented in a paper titled "Human amplification of drought-induced biomass burning in Indonesia since 1960", which is to be published in the March issue of Nature Geoscience, available online February 22. The research was funded with support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

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Health experts fear Tamiflu may be useless in pandemic

Salma Khalik, Straits Times 23 Feb 09;

BANGKOK: The rapid resistance of the flu virus against Tamiflu, a popular influenza medicine, has 'stunned' experts.

Several speakers at the 11th symposium on respiratory viral infections expressed their grave concerns over this.

First seen in the winter of 2007, the resistance to the drug in many countries in Europe, as well as the United States and Australia, was almost complete for the H1N1 strain of flu by early this year.

The implications, the experts said, are serious. It might mean that the huge stockpiles of this medicine that countries around the world have been building up, could be virtually useless should there be a bird flu pandemic.

Singapore has more than one million courses of this medicine, and is getting a further 650,000. Other countries have also been buying and keeping large amounts of Tamiflu on the advice of the World Health Organisation.

The medicine is meant for use against the anticipated next flu pandemic - with the bird flu or H5N1 virus as a current front runner for this major health disaster. Previous pandemics have killed millions of people.

Tamiflu, an antiviral, can be used to prevent a flu attack if taken daily, or to ameliorate the severity of the attack with two daily doses for five days. It has 90 per cent of the market for flu medication.

Dr Tawee Chotpitayasunondh, a specialist in infectious diseases with Thailand's Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health, said that resistance in Thailand built up from zero at the start of last year to 75 per cent by the end of the year.

This has spurred the Thai government to provide, for the first time, two million free flu vaccines for the elderly, very young and the sick who are more likely to suffer badly if they get the flu.

Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose work in 'reverse genetics' is now used in new generation flu vaccines, said that similar resistance has surfaced among a small number of people with bird flu. 'New flu drugs are needed,' he pointed out.

Professor Frederick Hayden of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, a member of WHO's global influenza programme till last August, said that up to 25 per cent of H5N1 victims are now resistant to Tamiflu. 'There is persistent replication of the virus with fatal outcomes.'

However, it is not all gloom and doom on the flu front. Another antiviral, Relenza, remains effective.

Dr Jennifer McKimm-Breschkin, who gave a closed-door presentation to about 30 policymakers from several countries, including Thailand and Vietnam, told The Straits Times that her advice is to keep 'a balanced stock of both medicines'.

The researcher from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation said the two drugs are very different, although both inhibit the virus from reproducing.

Relenza is inhaled and works extremely well if the virus only replicates in the airways, since that is where the drug is mostly concentrated.

Tamiflu, on the other hand, is swallowed, is dispersed throughout the body and is good to stop the virus if it also replicates in other organs.

But change in the inhibiting factor needed to make Tamiflu into a capsule that can be taken orally is also the reason it allows resistance. This does not happen with Relenza, which should continue to work with all flu types.

Singapore has 50,000 courses of Relenza as part of its anti-flu arsenal.

Dr McKimm-Breschkin said that influenza viruses generally replicate in the airways, but some people fear this might change in future.

Tamiflu would remain useful if the pandemic is caused not by bird flu but by a different flu strain.

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Cameron Highlands - A Legacy Borrowed

Melati Mohd Ariff, Bernama 18 Feb 09;

CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Feb 18 (Bernama) -- The water crisis that hit Cameron Highlands in the late 1990s prompted several concerned residents to form the Regional Environmental Awareness Cameron Highlands (REACH).

Against the many challenges that came its way, REACH continues to gain momentum, garnering support especially from the local residents in making its stance on the many environmental issues plaguing the highlands.

REACH president Ramakrishnan Ramasamy, 43, born and bred in Cameron Highlands, has been at the helm of this community-based body since the organisation took shape in 1998.

And he has seen it all, the degradation and the deterioration of the highland he grew up with.

A LEGACY BORROWED

"Our main concern is the fast pace of development that is taking place in Cameron Highlands and its future if there is no proper check and balance," he told Bernama in an interview here recently.

Ramakrishnan strongly maintained that the highland is a legacy that is not inherited but borrowed from the future generations. Hence, its well-being needs to be protected and preserved.

This deep-rooted conviction is equally shared by his fellow committee members and also other supporters of the organisation including those from abroad.

With many on-going sustainable programmes, REACH does not only get the much needed support and assistance from the people of Cameron Highlands but it also receives helping hands from volunteers from Kuala Lumpur and as far as Singapore.

Cameron Highlands is a popular holiday getaway for Singaporeans.

REFORESTATION

Deeply concerned with the repeated rape of the virgin jungles around Cameron Highlands, REACH with the support of Forestry Department has initiated a reforestation project in 2001.

According to Ramakrishnan, the project involved 17 hectares of area in Gunung Brinchang.

A local farmer cleared the site for agricultural activities and part of it was a forest reserve of Ulu Bertam.

The forest does not only contain diverse biodiversity of flora and fauna but also forms part of the water catchment area for the Sungai Burung water treatment plant.

According to Ramakrishnan, the treatment plant supplies drinking water to the population of Brinchang and its surrounding areas.

"So you can imagine what happened when the site was cleared. Not only the forest was cleared, both its flora and fauna were also gone and the quality of drinking water was also affected.

"We managed to convince the Department of Forestry to have a smart-partnership with us, them giving us the technical assistance and we would reforest the illegally-cleared site," he said.

PAINSTAKING JOB

To date, REACH with the help of volunteers has managed to cover about 60 percent of the said site.

At some locations, coconut husks had been added to create as the topsoil. Ramakrishnan described the replanting job as arduous.

"When the forest was cleared, the rain washed away the top soil consisting humus and organic materials. The land is almost barren and that slows down the growth of the plants. There is also the high altitude factor," he said.

Some of the local species that have been replanted including 'podo bukit' (podocarpus neriifolia), 'medang' (lauraceae spp), 'meranti bukit' (meranti bukit) and 'merapuh daun runcing' (swietenia penagiana).

In 2004, REACH started planting 'symingtonia (exbucklandia) populnea' at the site.

All the seedlings, according to Ramakrishnan were obtained from the nearby-forested area and other locations.

"We hope with this reforestation project, it would instill not only a sense of awareness and responsibility but also ownership, at least within the community of Cameron Highlands.

"They must appreciate that they, too, have a role in safeguarding the forests and the water catchment areas," said Ramakrishnan.

LOVE OUR RIVERS

Rivers of Cameron Highlands are receiving the full brunt of the uncontrolled clearings of lands for agricultural activities particularly on steep slopes and water catchment areas as well as over-development or urban areas.

And according to Ramakrishnan, because of the deteriorating conditions of the rivers, REACH has taken onto itself to educate the people of Cameron Highlands on the importance of good river water quality. The project took off in 2005.

"First we started out by creating awareness and condition of the rivers. We began ith the secondary school children and this year, we will get the primary schools to be involved as well," he said.

Ramakrishnan is not deterred by the fact that the 'Love Our River' campaign mooted by the government has been dubbed a failure.

"That is why we are focusing on the children, at least they can go back and convince their parents about the river programme.

"We are making the programme more attractive. The kids will be Community Stream Investigators (CSI). They would go out in groups to investigate the health of our rivers.

"By searching for specific small animals in the river and simple testing, they will learn whether the stream is healthy or polluted. This kind of teaching is more appealing to kids and is cheaper," explained Ramakrishnan.

He said the simple water testing kits given to the school children under the programme are provided by Water Environment Federation under its World Water Monitoring Programme.

RECYCLING PROJECTS

Another on-going sustainable programme by REACH is the recycling project initiated in 2003.

"We started with an awareness programme that involved school children and the local community which includes housing areas and villages. We also went to the Orang Asli settlements," said Ramakrisnan, adding that educational activities at schools involve bringing 5.0 kg of recyclable materials each week.

REACH also established collection centres for all the recycled items including newspapers, aluminum cans and plastics at specific location at Bertam Valley, Ringlet, Brinchang, Tringkap, Kuala Terla and Kampung Raja.

For this recycling project, REACH received good support from Cameron Highlands District Council which later provided a site for a compacting plant.

"The compacting plant is located on the lowland, near Simpang Pulai. It was opened last year. At the plant, all waste collected from the collecting centres are taken to be compacted before being sent to factories in Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.

"This project is moving on in a very positive manner. In a way, we are helping the local authorities to properly manage waste items," said Ramakrishnan.

FARMERS THE NEXT TARGET

He said this year REACH plans to proceed with the recycling programme on a much bigger scale.

"We are targeting the farms this year. We visited some previously but our efforts were hampered due to shortage of staff," he said.

According to Ramakrishnan, the farms use a lot of plastics and some have been indiscriminately dumping plastics and other wastes into the rivers.

"We are very much concerned with this lackadaisical attitude on the part of the farmers. I have caught many doing this. They even threw pesticide containers into the rivers.

"One farmer even had the cheek to tell me that he threw rubbish into the river because many farmers are doing that when I caught him and his workers dumping rubbish into Sungai Parang after closing his temporary stall set for the Chinese New Year festival recently!" Ramakrishnan said.

THE ORCHID BOOK

Meanwhile, REACH would be coming out with a book on Wild Orchids of Cameron Highlands next month. The A4-size book is 205 pages thick, full colour with over 400 photographs of wild orchids, amidst the backdrop of some of the more untouched and unspoilt areas of the highlands.

"This project involves a team of volunteers and many individuals who have supported this effort.

"Proceeds from the sale of this book will be channeled to our conservation projects in Cameron Highlands," said Ramakrishnan.

The book's selling price is RM98.

He said REACH began documenting the wild orchids in Cameron Highlands about six years ago.

"Now we have a collection of 15,000 photographs and so far we have been able to describe 605 different orchids. Prior to this, there were only 305 orchids known in Cameron Highlands.

"The orchids are intact but their very existence is threatened by logging and also by indirectly local climate change brought about by immense clearing of lands for agricultural activities," he added.

More information on REACH is available by either calling 012-589 8684, email reach@reach.org.my. or visit http://www.reach.org.my/).

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Box turtles face knockout as Indonesian traders flagrantly ignore quota

WWF 23 Feb 09;

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Unregulated trade—at 10 to 100 times legal levels—has caused Southeast Asian Box Turtles almost to vanish from parts of Indonesia where they were once common, according to a new report by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

The turtles are used for meat and in Traditional Chinese Medicine, with major markets in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Malaysia, mostly supplied from Indonesia. Box turtles are also in demand as pets in the US, Europe and Japan.

The study found at least 18 traders operating in Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Kalimantan dealing illegally in Southeast Asian Box Turtles.

Each trader handled an average of just under 2,230 turtles a week, adding up to a combined total of 2.1 million Southeast Asian Box Turtles per year. The vast majority is destined for export, although Indonesia’s official annual export quota for this species is just 18,000 turtles—a figure set without a scientific basis.

“The number of Southeast Asian Box Turtles currently traded is certainly ten times the official export quota, and probably nearer 100 times it,” said Dr Sabine Schoppe, author of the new report, “Status, trade dynamics and management of the Southeast Asian Box Turtle Cuora amboinensis in Indonesia”.

Thirteen of the 18 traders investigated were registered for some trade in reptiles, but not in box turtles, with the provincial offices of the Government’s Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA), which is required to inspect such businesses regularly. TRAFFIC has previously presented the results of the study to PHKA.

Collectors in Riau and Sulawesi reported huge falls in Southeast Asian Box Turtle numbers in the wild, and registered pet traders said they had experienced difficulties in obtaining turtles compared to a decade ago.

“The current level of illegal exploitation will result in Southeast Asian Box Turtles being systematically wiped out across Indonesia, indications of which are already obvious at collection and trade centres, ”said Schoppe.

In 2000, the Southeast Asian Box Turtle was listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), a measure intended to regulate its international trade. However, the report found that following CITES-listing, trade in the box turtles had increased, with the largest numbers being smuggled through the ports of Makassar, Medan, Pekanbaru, Tembilahan and Banjarmasin.

“Authorities should concentrate on eradicating illegal trade, and in setting realistic limits on what numbers can safely be harvested,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

Weak enforcement of existing laws is a key problem, caused through a combination of factors including non-inspection of shipments, falsification of CITES export permits, and lack of training amongst enforcement officers.

The report recommends better training and more co-operation between Indonesian enforcement authorities and those in importing countries to tackle illegal wildlife trade, for example through initiatives like the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), and research into populations of box turtles.

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Super-size rodents at risk in Colombia

Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times 22 Feb 09;

Reporting from Hato Corozal, Colombia -- They look like hamsters on growth hormones, bark like dogs and swim as fast as otters -- all reasons why chiguiros, the world's largest rodents, are an object of unending fascination for zoologists and wildlife enthusiasts.

But ranchers here in northeastern Colombia fail to see the attraction. They claim that the rodents, which stand knee-high to humans and weigh as much as 120 pounds, consume valuable pasture, foul drinking water and spook their horses and cows.

That antipathy, plus a booming market for chiguiro meat in neighboring Venezuela, has prompted open season on the rodents and landed them on Colombia's endangered species list.

Rancher Magali Delgado says chiguiros, which were visible recently from the veranda of her house in this isolated settlement in Casanare state, are a costly nuisance.

"They are like having a pack of rats in your home," said Delgado, who complained that she has to buy expensive antibiotics for her cows when they drink the spoiled water.

"I have to defend my cattle. They are what I live from," said Delgado, a mother of three whose husband was killed by paramilitary fighters several years ago. She says she doesn't kill the rodents herself but doesn't stand in the way of hunters who do.

Chiguiro meat is considered a delicacy in Venezuela. Demand is especially strong this time of year, when Roman Catholics eat it during lent and Holy Week as a church-sanctioned substitute for fish and red meat. Chiguiros have been wiped out in Venezuela, which prompted the sharp increase in poaching in Colombia.

Over the last two years, 28 tons of chiguiro meat has been confiscated in illegal shipments by truck or plane to Venezuela, said Maj. Maria Antonio Sanchez of the Colombian environmental police. That's more than double the 12 tons the police seized in the previous two-year period, 2005 and 2006.

Biologists are concerned that continued killing of the rodents, which are also known as capybaras, will not only lead to their extinction but do irreversible harm to the savanna ecosystem.

Chiguiros eat plant life that might otherwise overwhelm the savannas, which are flatlands that receive enormous amounts of rainfall, attracting hundreds of species of migratory birds as well as mammals and reptiles, said Olga Montenegro, a biologist at the National University of Colombia.

At the same time, scientists such as Montenegro and government officials say the chiguiros are a resource that can be managed -- they reproduce fast enough that their herds can be culled at a rate of 10% to 30% a year and still remain viable.

The trick is in how to manage such a culling.

"The laws surrounding controlled killing of chiguiros are very rigorous, so people avoid them," said Saulo Orduz of the government's Corporinoquia environmental management agency. "We're trying to come up with another model to facilitate people taking advantage of the animals while observing environmental needs."

Legal killing and dressing of chiguiros would require an investment of as much as $15,000 in a temporary slaughterhouse that would abide by existing sanitary rules, Delgado said, a cost that makes legal killing uneconomical. So freelance hunters kill the animals and ship them to Venezuela as contraband.

Biologists are dismayed by the threat to the chiguiros, which once ranged over much of South America's Amazon basin and surrounding plains.

"If the chiguiros are lost, it's part of our natural heritage gone forever," university professor Montenegro said.

"They have a right to exist. After all, they were there before the cattle."

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Poachers put Balkan lynx on brink of extinction

Jasmina Mironski Yahoo News 22 Feb 09;

GALICICA MOUNTAIN, Macedonia (AFP) – The camera sits hidden in a field ready to track every move of the Balkan lynx, a wild cat both revered as an icon and reviled as a pest that has teetered on extinction for nearly a century.

"The lynx has no natural enemy except man," said Georgi Ivanov, an ecologist working on a project to monitor lynx numbers in western Macedonia's Galicica National Park, where 30 such cameras have been set up.

Poaching is one of the biggest threats to the survival of this Balkan subspecies of the European lynx, the largest wild cat found on the continent.

Though its overall numbers are uncertain, they seem to hover dangerously around the 100 scientists say are needed for their population to remain stable.

In Albania and Macedonia, foreign experts put their number at less than 80 though local counterparts say there are fewer than 40. The estimates in neighbouring Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia are even worse.

Lynx are killed by villagers in the impoverished region mainly for their prized fur, a spotted golden-brown. But dwindling forests and a lack of prey are also factors in their decline, experts say.

"The main cause of the extinction threat is illegal hunting, as well as environmental destruction and, above all, uncontrolled forest cutting," said biologist Dime Melovski of the Macedonian Ecological Society.

The monitoring scheme is also underway in Mavrovo National Park, also in western Macedonia, and in Albania in cooperation with the Swiss-based research group KORA, Germany's Euronatur and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA).

Adeptly maneuvering his jeep along Mount Galicica's winding roads, Zoran Celakovski said members of the Ohrid Hunting Society, which he heads, are also doing their part to protect the Balkan lynx.

"We have information that there are some lynx here so we help the ecologists in their work, patrols and file-keeping," he said.

In addition to determining the cats' status, via camera date, research and interviews, the project aims to establish protected areas for the animal and help local authorities develop a conservation strategy. It is due to wind up at the end of 2009, Melovski said.

Long seen as an unofficial national symbol in Macedonia, the Balkan lynx -- whose scientific denomination is "lynx lynx martinoi" -- features on both a postal stamp and a coin. With a short tail, long legs, and thick neck, its defining characteristic may be the striking tufts of hair on both ears. They grow to an average one metre (three feet) in length and 65 centimetres (two feet) in height and can weigh up to 25 kilograms (55 pounds).

The wild cat prey mainly on roe deer, the mountain goat-like chamois and hares, but never attack its greatest threat -- human beings.

Although hunting lynx is punishable by prison terms of up to eight years, poachers continue to pursue the animal with impunity, knowing that no one has ever been prosecuted for doing so.

Lynx-advocates like Macedonian ecologist Aleksandar Stojanov have been pushing to have areas where the cat roams proclaimed as national parks, to "reduce threats and increase the number of protected mountainous areas".

Raising awareness among villagers is also needed, he said. Local lore holds that lynx are "pests that kill livestock and that is why they do not like it."

"But our data has shown that in only four cases has the animal actually caused any damage, and it was minimal," said Stojanov.

Experiments in other parts of Europe have been encouraging. Conservationists reintroduced wild lynx to Switzerland after its eradication there at the end of the 19th century, raising the population to 140 in the last two decades.

Similar action has seen the lynx population recover in the Baltics, in the Carpathian mountains that run from Slovakia to Romania, and in Scandinavia.

Some experts involved in the Balkans project, like John Linnell of NINA, warn this success might be difficult to repeat here because "poaching is obviously a factor that is limiting their ability to recover."

Another, Manuela von Arx of KORA, stressed that improving law enforcement and stepping up efforts to educate locals about the animal was the key to the Balkan lynx' survival.

"Legal protection is meaningless if violations are not persecuted," she said in a statement.

"In the long run co-existence between large carnivores and people can only be achieved and secured if the local people and land users are willing to tolerate animals such as the Balkan lynx in their vicinity."

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