Glorious sunset over Pasir Ris
on the wonderful creation blog
Weird blob is a sea slug!
on the wonderful creation blog
Semakau Public Walk
on the Urban Forest blog
Field work at "Ngee Ann Stream"
on the Water Quality in Singapore blog
Of nestlings’ diet and Coppersmith Barbets (Part 5)
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
2008 Waste Statistics and Current Waste Situation in Singapore (Part One) on Zero Waste Singapore and Part Two
ninenews 18 Mar 09;
The Solomon Islands government will host a forum to discuss the controversial issue of their ongoing international dolphin trade.
The Solomons Ministry for Environment, Conservation and Meteorology along with stakeholders and NGOs will meet on Thursday for talks on the capture and sale of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins.
"The forum is part of its (Solomons government) continuing effort to ensure the export of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin is sustainable and conducted in a transparent fashion," the Solomons government said in a statement.
"There has been so much media publicity on this issue by different interest groups in recent years.
"The forum offers the opportunity to present information about the efforts of the Ministry to everyone," a spokesman said.
The Solomons began selling bottlenose dolphins in 2003 and ever since there has been widespread opposition to the legality and sustainability of the trade, along with concerns for the captured animals' welfare.
Earlier this year, a luxurious Singapore resort came under fire for importing Solomons dolphins.
In 2007, 28 dolphins from the Solomons were sent to a resort in Dubai amid protests from environment groups.
The dolphin shipment was criticised by the Australian and New Zealand governments.
The two countries also protested a shipment of 28 Solomons dolphins to Mexico in 2004.
Forum on dolphin export, Thursday
Solomon Star 18 Mar 09;
A FORUM to debate the export of dolphins will be held in Honiara this Thursday at the Quality Inn.
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation & Meteorology is organising it.
This came in light of considerable opposition from certain international organisations and various sectors of the society to this trade.
The ministry said the opposition can be attributed to concerns about the legality and sustainability of the trade, as well as the viability of the dolphin population and their welfare.
“The ministry has considered these divergent interests and perspectives and has taken necessary steps to ensure the dolphin population is exploited and managed in a more sustainable manner,” it said.
The ministry said tomorrow’s forum is to ensure export of the dolphins is conducted in a transparent fashion.
“There has been so much media publicity done on this issue by different interest groups in recent years and the forum offers us the opportunity to come together and present this information while everyone is present.”
The forum starts at 9am
Public Forum On Dolphin Trade
scoop.co.nz Solomon Islands Government press release 18 Mar 09
Government To Organize Public Forum On Dolphin Trade
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Meteorology is organizing a forum to discuss the capture of indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin and its trade from Solomon Islands.
A forum to be held on Thursday this week will bring together representatives from government agencies, non-government organizations and others to openly share their views and concerns on the capture of live bottle-nose dolphin and export from Solomon Islands.
A statement from the Ministry said the forum is part of its continuing effort to ensure the export of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin is sustainable and conducted in a transparent fashion.
It said there has been so much media publicity on this issue by different interest groups in recent years and the forum offers the opportunity to present information about the efforts of the Ministry to everyone.
The Ministry said since international trade in the indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin began in 2003, there has been opposition to the legality and sustainability of the trade and the welfare of the captured animals.
The Ministry has taken into account all the different interests and perspectives of the issue and has taken steps to ensure the country's wild, local indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin is exploited and managed in a more sustainable manner.
Related articles and links
Ng Tze Yong, The New Paper 18 Mar 09;
AT A time when the world is reeling from the biggest financial crisis in decades, a United Nations (UN) bigwig has called for Singapore to step forward.
'There was a time when the international community came to Singapore's support.
'Now, maybe Singapore can think about giving back...' said Mr Kamal Malhotra, the new United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
Mr Malhotra, 52, was in Singapore last week to talk at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies on the impact of the financial crisis on the region.
His visit comes almost 50 years after Dr Albert Winsemius first arrived here. The Dutchman led a UN mission to advise Singapore on its development and became the republic's economic czar, working without pay for the next two decades.
Speaking of Dr Winsemius, Mr Malhotra said: 'There's a lot that Singapore can now contribute back to the international community in a wide range of areas vital for the future of the world, particularly in urban management.'
Singapore could help in areas like water purification, waste management, public transport and public housing.
'These are the technologies needed to create liveable cities. In an increasingly urbanising Asia especially, there will be a strong demand for them,' said Mr Malhotra.
Looking forward, Mr Malhotra, who used to serve at UNDP's New York headquarters, said it's time for Singapore to diversify beyond manufacturing high value-added products and offering financial services.
The Singapore Government, he feels, can 'focus more on the industries where demand won't fall in a future crisis', such as food processing, green technology and manufacturing high-end IT products.
'Singapore is near to China and India and the demand for food there is unlikely to fall, even in times of crises,' said Mr Malhotra.
As for green technology, he said it will be resilient to crises because it promises cost savings.
He feels Singapore can focus more on manufacturing high-end IT products as 'there are many such products which, for many people today even in Asia, are no longer luxuries but necessities for doing business and for communicating'.
Mr Malhotra expects to see a 'prolonged slump' of three to five years, even after countries come out of recession.
'In the US, where it all started, it might take even longer,' he added.
Today Online 18 Mar 09;
It has not been built, but Singapore’s new cruise terminal is making waves.
The design :for the International Cruise Terminal at Marina South is being shown for the first time at the three-day Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention 2009 in the United States. It opened yesterday in Miami.
“The new cruise terminal’s nautical theme was chosen as a natural complement to the terminal’s function and setting ... the terminal’s rooftop depicting a modern interpretation of low rolling waves will provide a very welcoming sight to passengers as their cruise ship sails into Singapore,” said Mr Chew Tiong Heng, director for Destination Marketing and Cruise for the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
The terminal, which will double the present number of cruise berths, will add to the distinctive Singapore skyline that includes the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Flyer.
The terminal is designed by Bermello, Ajamil and Partners (BA) and RSP Architects Planners and Engineers.
The STB is committed to delivering this by the end of 2011, said Mr Chew.
Groundbreaking is expected to take place in the next quarter.
New cruise terminal to be ready by end-2011
Straits Times 19 Mar 09;
IN A nod to the Republic's ambition to become an international cruise centre, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) gave a glimpse of its new cruise terminal at a shipping event in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday which attracted industry bigwigs.
The new terminal will boast berths that can accommodate the world's largest ships.
It will help Singapore achieve its ambition of becoming a cruise hub for the region by doubling the handling capacity of the current HarbourFront terminal, which is already struggling to cope with the growing number of ships and people arriving there.
Worse, the existing terminal at HarbourFront has a height restriction of 52m, making it impossible for many bigger ships to dock there.
The new terminal at Marina South will not have any size or height restrictions.
However, it will be ready only by 2011, a year later than originally planned. No reason for the delay was given in STB's press statement.
Miami's Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention is an important annual event at which shipping industry movers and shakers meet to discuss the latest developments.
At the event, STB's director for destination marketing and cruises, Mr Chew Tiong Heng, said: 'Even amid the current economic climate, the STB is committed to delivering this key infrastructure by the end of 2011 to help position Singapore as a regional cruise hub.
'We believe the terminal's rooftop, depicting a modern interpretation of low rolling waves will be a very welcoming sight to passengers as their cruise ships sail into Singapore.'
The new cruise terminal was designed by a collaboration between United States-based Ajamil and Partners and local firm RSP Architects Planners and Engineers.
The ground-breaking for the project is expected to begin in the next quarter.
Damage by unusual storm to cost Jurong Country Club more than $20,000
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 18 Mar 09;
HE HAS been working at Jurong Country Club for more than 25 years and he has never seen anything like it.
Mr Mohd Ghous Abdul Rahim, 53, a golf marshal, said of the squall that blew down more than 200 trees in the club on Sunday afternoon: 'Normally, it's only one or two trees, but this time, there were so many down. It was terrible.
'Luckily, no one got hurt but this is still a disaster.'
Strong winds of up to 90kmh had ripped through the club on Sunday in the middle of an inter-club Singapore Golf Association tournament which involved about 80 golfers.
Although there was no anemometer (instrument to measure wind speed) at the club, maximum gusts of up to 50 knots (90kmh) have been recorded by the meteorological department during the passage of a Sumatra squall, a weather phenomenon that results in sudden, intense thunderstorms here. (See infographics on facing page.)
Mr Ross Tan, 53, who was part of the green committee which decided to call off the competition, said: 'We were all huddled in the halfway houses and the wind was horrendous. The wind was so strong that rain was coming in sideways like bullets shooting at you. It was frightening.'
The decision was made to abandon the tournament because the many tall trees that were there to protect certain holes were gone and this would have affected the degree of difficulty of the golf course, he added.
Right before the Sumatra squall, the club's lightning meter registered a reading of '35', a very high number considering that, at a reading of 'two', the greens are cleared of people to prevent lightning from striking anyone, said Mr Mike Chng, the club's golfing supervisor.
He said: 'At around 3.45pm, there was a lot of lightning, so we suspended the course and got everyone to take shelter. Fifteen minutes later, the sky was very dark and suddenly, there was a very, very, strong wind.
'It was like a scene from the movie, The Ten Commandments, where the winds parted the Red Sea.'
Then 15 minutes later, the lightning meter went back down to 'zero' and the golfers were prepared to go back to their game as the sky had cleared.
That was when they saw the destruction that had taken place.
'It was like a typhoon had come through, all the paths were blocked, we couldn't use the buggies and the golfers had to walk back.
Some trees simply snapped at their base because of the wind. Others were uprooted with metres of roots exposed.
The clubhouse's metal roof plating also came off - four pieces of it, weighing at least 10kg in total.
They were flung tens of metres away, said Mr Mohd Ghous, who had picked them up.
Mr Kok Cheong Ming, the golf course manager, said the trees that came down were of different ages and different species.
'What is common is that their roots didn't go very deep because the water table is high,' he said. He added that the cost of removing the trees alone will come up to $15,000. Replacing fewer than half of the trees would cost another $4,800.
Mr Peter Goh, general manager of the club, said: 'This would easily cost us $20,000 at the minimum. We haven't calculated the opportunity cost of closing the course for three days.
'We'll try to re-open as quickly as possible, especially for the freelance caddies who would otherwise have no work.'
A spokesman for the National Environment Agency said: 'The weather forecast for 15 Mar (on Sunday) was showers with thunder over many areas in the afternoon.
'A heavy rain warning was issued at 2.51pm for heavy showers with thunder to affect many areas of Singapore between 3.15pm and 4.45pm. The mid-afternoon showers with thunder, which is common during this period, was due to a convergence of winds and strong convection over our area.'
Wet weather for S'pore till end of month
RAINFALL was above average for the first two weeks of this month.
The northern part of Singapore around Yishun and Seletar experienced the highest rainfall of 310mm to 350mm. This is 250 to 290 percent above the monthly average as compared to previous years.
Areas in the north-west and south around Choa Chu Kang and the city received the lowest rainfall of 135mm to 170mm, but was still 50 to 90 per cent above average.
For the next fortnight, from today till the end of the month, Singapore can continue to expect wet weather conditions.
For more detailed forecasts, refer to http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/mss2.asp or call 65427788.
938LIVE Channel NewsAsia 17 Mar 09;
SINGAPORE: Small acts add up to big leaps and with this in mind Singapore is embarking on a challenge to do a million deeds.
Organised as part of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games movement, the event aims to celebrate the spirit of excellence, friendship and respect.
Singaporeans are encouraged to post their deeds online at http://www.milliondeeds.sg/ so as to share them with others.
The website is designed to resemble a virtual Torch Relay. Every deed posted will move the virtual Youth Olympic flame a step closer from Greece to Singapore.
The idea for the "Million Deeds Challenge" was inspired by students of Holy Innocents' High School who shared their thoughts on how young people could make a positive impact on their community by expressing the Olympic values.
The challenge was launched by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, at the Jurong Regional Library on Tuesday.
- 938LIVE
Show the Olympic spirit, share a good deed
Jonathan Wong, Straits Times 18 Mar 09;
FOR Holy Innocents' High School (HISS) student Erika Sim, setting up a Facebook group was the most natural way to share what the Olympic spirit means to her.
The Secondary 3 student and her schoolmates have posted instances of how everyday acts - such as helping a blind person cross the road and giving up one's seat to pregnant women - embodied the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.
'Not only athletes can be Olympians, the spirit of the Olympics is for everyone,' said Erika, who along with nine schoolmates and four teachers came up with the idea last August.
'And it doesn't have to be big acts, simple deeds also make a difference to people.'
What started out as a school project for a leadership conference is now set to be a nationwide campaign to raise awareness about the Olympic movement among Singaporeans.
HISS' simple yet novel idea is the inspiration behind the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Million Deeds Challenge.
The movement and its website were launched yesterday by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, at the Jurong Regional Library.
The Challenge invites anyone - even those outside Singapore - to post their deeds, which should celebrate the Olympic values
Ranjeetha Pakiam, Bloomberg 17 Mar 09;
Only once in 20 years of hunting in the Malaysian jungle did Bo witness the shooting of a tiger.
“That’s like hitting the jackpot,” said Bo, who mostly hunts wild boar for sport and declined to give his full name because tigers are a protected species in Malaysia. “I’ve never had the opportunity to shoot at a tiger.”
Only about 500 tigers remain in the wild in Malaysia, compared with 3,000 in the 1950s, after habitat destruction and poaching to supply an illegal trade in skins and parts for traditional medicines, according to Traffic, a wildlife-trade monitoring group. Tiger killers who are caught face a maximum fine of 15,000 ringgit ($4,035) -- less than a 10th of the price a pelt can fetch in China, according to data from the Havocscope Black Market Environmental Index.
The tigers are part of “a multibillion dollar industry” in trading protected species, said Chris R. Shepherd, senior program officer for Traffic South East Asia. “It’s often compared in size to the drug trade and the global arms trade, but the penalties are a joke.”
Now, environmental groups and the government have banded together to reverse the decline in the local tiger population. The Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers, or Mycat, teams conservation groups Traffic, WWF, the Malaysian Nature Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, to implement a National Tiger Action Plan aimed at doubling the number of wild tigers by 2020.
Protected Area
The plan, introduced in December, calls for securing 51,000 square kilometers (19,691 square miles) in the central forest spine, where most tigers are found. Amendments to the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, expected to be tabled during the next parliament sitting which starts in June, include raising the maximum fine to 500,000 ringgit and a mandatory jail term of up to 10 years, said Abd. Rasid Samsudin, director-general of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
“There’s still enough habitat to support that many tigers,” said Shepherd, who is based in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. “If there’s enough habitat and food, and there isn’t illegal poaching, the tiger population will bounce back.”
The issue was highlighted on Jan. 5, when a truck carrying four decapitated tiger carcasses was stopped in Thailand. Newspapers around the region printed pictures of the animals’ heads being held up by the Thai police, who said they believed the animals came from Malaysia, and were being smuggled to China.
Traditional Medicines
Environmental group WWF estimates there are fewer than 3,000 tigers left in the world. There are probably more on the shelves of medicine stores or in tiger farms than in forests, the group said. Tigers are bred commercially in farms in Thailand and China.
The animal and wildlife trafficking industry may be worth more than $20 billion a year, according to a 2008 U.S. Congressional report. Tiger bones go for $400 per kilo while pelts can fetch $50,000 in China, Havocscope said.
Ground tiger bone is used in some traditional Chinese medicine to treat arthritis or increase sexual potency. Dried tiger penis, called the tiger’s “whip,” is considered an aphrodisiac and a tonic for enhancing male sexual performance.
China’s largest herbal-medicine shops including the publicly traded Beijing Tongrentang Co. and 600-year-old Heniantang said they don’t sell any remedy containing tiger because it is against the law.
No Business
Tiger bones appear among the ingredients of products in Beijing’s “family planning clinics” -- sex shops typically lit with pink neon lights. An outlet across the road from Heniantang’s main store near the Forbidden City in Beijing sells packets of “Emperor’s Pills” that claim to include seal and tiger penises. At 120 yuan ($17.55) a pack, they promise to increase testosterone and help enlarge the male organ.
Tigers may also end up on the plates of diners willing to pay for endangered exotic meats, along with pangolins, bears, snakes, tortoises, and most recently owls, said Shepherd.
“It’s just fashion -- people wanting to try different kinds of wild meat,” said Shepherd. “Because of it, they’re going to go extinct.”
China is the biggest consumer of exotic meats such as tiger and pangolin, said Chumphon Sukkaseam, senior officer of the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network Program Coordination Unit.
Bo said he tasted tiger meat a decade ago at a restaurant 20 minutes from Kuala Lumpur. Cooked with garlic and spices, it tasted “like any other meat,” he said.
Food Supply
K. Ullas Karanth, director at India’s Centre for Wildlife Studies, said Malaysia’s success would depend on protecting the tigers’ food.
“If the prey numbers can be increased substantially, a doubling of tiger numbers in 12 years is not biologically unrealistic,” he said.
In a Jan. 11 raid, Malaysian Wildlife Department officers found a 500,000 ringgit haul including 47 legs and paws of the endangered Malaysian sun bear and 319 skinned owls, said Saharudin Anan, law enforcement director of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
There were 112 such cases of smuggling protected species in 2008, of which 44 went to court, said Saharudin.
The seizures are “just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “What is not reported, we don’t know.”
WWF 17 Mar 09;
Pekanbaru, Indonesia – Most violent incidents between people and tigers in Sumatra’s Riau Province in the past 12 years have occurred near forests being cleared by paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and associated companies, according to a new analysis of human-tiger conflict data.
The analysis, conducted by the group Eyes on the Forest, found that since 1997, 55 people and 15 Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) have been killed during conflict encounters in Riau Province. Another 17 tigers have been captured and removed from the wild.
By overlaying the locations of these conflicts with government maps of pulpwood plantation concessions, Eyes on the Forest found a direct correlation between tiger conflict and the unsustainable forest practices of APP, its holding company Sinar Mas Group, and other associated companies that supply pulpwood to APP’s mills.
At least 147 of 245, or 60 percent, of all conflicts in Riau occurred in the Senepis area, where APP/SMG-associated companies have expanded their natural forest clearance operations in five concessions, mainly since 1999. Three of those concessions were expanded without proper license from the Ministry of Forestry.
Eyes on the Forest is a coalition of 25 environmental organizations in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia. They include WWF-Indonesia, Jikalahari (Forest Rescue Network Riau) and Walhi Riau (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) and several other NGOs. The coalition was launched in December 2004 to investigate forest crimes and conflict in the central Sumatran province.
Sumatra is home to some of the most biodiverse forests in the world, however, half of the forest remaining in 1985 has since been lost.
“With so much forest loss, the tigers have nowhere to go” said Ian Kosasih of WWF-Indonesia, “In the last month alone, four tigers have been killed in Riau. There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers estimated to remain in the wild and every tiger killed is a significant loss to the population of this critically endangered subspecies.”
APP is responsible for more natural forest clearance in Sumatra – the only habitat for the Sumatran tiger – than any other company. Since it began operations in the 1980s, APP is estimated to have pulped more than 1 million hectares (approximately 2.5 million acres) of natural forests in Riau and Jambi provinces in Sumatra.
Currently, NGOs are concerned about APP’s involvement in forest destruction in Senepis, Kerumutan, Kampar and Bukit Tigapuluh forest blocks in these provinces. Eyes on the Forest calls on APP/SMG-associated companies to stop natural forest clearance immediately.
“APP/SMG-associated companies’ activities in Senepis are legally questionable and environmentally reckless,” said Jhonny Mundung, of Walhi Riau. “APP has recently made ridiculous public claims that it is leading tiger conservation in the area, when in fact it is jeopardizing the safety of local communities and pushing the tigers closer to local extinction. Global paper buyers should not be fooled: APP destroys forests and wildlife.”
Cleared areas around the Kerumutan forest have become a new hotspot for tiger conflict, with three incidents recorded already this year. Large area of this deep peat forest have been licensed for APP/SMG-associated companies and some sections have been cleared in recent years by them in what Eyes on the Forest believes is legally questionable logging.
In 2007, the Riau Police and the Indonesian National Police probed 14 companies as part of a widespread illegal logging case. Half of those cases were APP/SMG-associated companies, including one concession in Kerumutan (PT. Bina Duta Laksana) where one human-tiger conflict happened in February.
The Riau Police abruptly shut down their investigation in December 2008. However, authorities continue to investigate one company -- an APP/SMG-associated company, PT. Ruas Utama Jaya, which has concessions in Senepis.
“The Riau Police should continue probing the legality of natural forest clearing, including APP/SMG-associated companies’ activities, to ensure respect for the law, especially provisions that safeguard the environmental and social rights of Riau communities,” said Susanto Kurniawan from Jikalahari.
In February, the national Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) pledged to resume the cases of 13 companies and the House of Representatives’ Law Commission (III) supports this move.
Besides being critical habitat for tigers, Senepis, Kerumutan, Kampar Peninsula and other Sumatran peat forests in Riau are a globally significant carbon store; the carbon-rich peat soil is so deep that simply cutting the trees or disturbing the soil releases enough carbon emissions to impact global climate change.
Of all the natural forest lost from 1982 until 2007 in Riau, 24 percent was replaced by or cleared for industrial pulpwood plantations and 29 percent was replaced or cleared for industrial palm oil plantations.
Chris Morris, BBC News 17 Mar 09;
Looking down from a sea plane flying above the Maldives, the coral islands are spread across the water like giant jellyfish emerging from the depths.
People have lived on this archipelago for 3,000 years, and from the air it looks absolutely wonderful.
But down below is the front line in the fight against sea level rise.
We land at a remote atoll - Maduvari - with Maldives Vice-President Mohamed Waheed. It is home to about 2,000 people.
The vice-president takes me to a beach that used to be a paved road 3m (15ft) wide - it has now been reclaimed by the sea. And houses nearby are crumbling into the water.
"There is a natural process, or erosion, going on," Dr Waheed says. "But that process is being worsened by changing global weather patterns."
"How long do you think this island can be inhabited?" I ask.
"Not more than 20 years," he says. "Then we'll have to abandon it. Children growing up in primary school now won't be able to live here."
'Big islands'
So they are fighting against the sea on Maduvari - dredging sand from the lagoon to build temporary defences.
But recently-elected President Mohamed Nasheed has warned that he might have to find not just a new island but a whole new country unless sea level rise can be contained. It is an existential threat.
And so this week the president announced that the Maldives hoped to become the world's first carbon neutral country within 10 years, meeting all its energy needs from renewable sources like wind and solar power.
It is a strong statement of intent, and it will probably cost $1bn to implement. But it is designed to prod the rest of the world into action.
Because if the Maldives acts alone, it will perish. So it is appealing for international cooperation while it continues to search for practical local solutions to the threat posed by rising seas.
One possible solution is to build higher artificial islands.
Some 80% of the country's land mass is less than a metre above mean sea level, but on the island of Hulumale you can actually look down on the sea from a height.
There is a natural reef protecting the island, and a lagoon between the reef and the beach.
But the whole island has been raised and reclaimed using sand, concrete and shingle, to protect it from storm surges and higher tides.
Some environmental groups have concerns about the way the Hulumale project was implemented, but they argue that the basic idea could provide a solution that will allow people to continue living in the Maldives for hundreds of years.
"We're proposing big islands which are built up to three metres high in seven different parts of the country," Ali Rilwan from the NGO Bluepeace says.
"That will be enough for the entire population of 300,000 people.
"So the people who don't want to leave, those who don't want to become climate refugees - they can move to higher ground within the Maldives."
And then there is the country's natural defence system - the coral reefs.
A decade ago most of the coral in the Maldives was wiped out by a sudden rise in sea temperatures caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Now small private marine research centres - many of them based at luxury resort islands - are re-growing coral and trying to understand more about its role in protecting the eco-system.
"Really very little scientific research has been done, partly because there's no university in the Maldives," says Robert Tomasetti, a marine biologist who works at the Banyan Tree Resort.
"But all the sand here is formed from the corals, the shells and the algae. Without the coral there is no Maldives. Instead of sea walls, the coral reefs protect the islands."
So new reefs, higher islands and, in the future, a decarbonised economy.
But if paradise is to be preserved, much more international help will be needed - to fund further research on local solutions, and to take decisive global action against climate change.
His brief is to lead the fight against climate change. But civil servants have other ideas
Michael Savage, The Independent 17 Mar 09;
It was designed as a symbol of the Government's firm commitment to curbing climate change – a new department, with a bright, ambitious Secretary of State, dedicated to planning Britain's energy production around curbing greenhouse emissions and streamlining the fight to save the planet.
But after taking the plaudits from environmentalists and campaigners, all is not well at Ed Miliband's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Almost half a year after it was formed, it is beset with organisational problems, a severe backlog of paperwork and vacancies in key posts. Mr Miliband faces a battle of wills with senior civil servants still committed to cheap, fossil-fuel energy production.
Whitehall mandarins now under Mr Miliband's new department, which took over responsibilities held by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Business Department, are still working in different buildings.
The top team of officials remains incomplete. Despite leading the fight against climate change, DECC has yet to fill the key role of chief scientific adviser. Robert Watson, who holds the position at Defra and who environmentalists see as the Government's leading expert on climate change, has not made the move to Mr Miliband's department.
Mr Miliband has had to order a paperwork "blitz" after MPs complained of not receiving answers to letters and parliamentary questions sent to ministers and civil servants, in violation of Whitehall rules. Its website has also been hit by delays, only becoming fully operational this month. Mr Miliband recently told MPs on the DECC Select Committee that some of his staff in the new department had not been "adequately prepared".
Even Mr Miliband has been affected by the ongoing teething problems. One high-profile political colleague was surprised to find the Climate Change Secretary holding a meeting in a small side room with plastic chairs, rather than in the more suitable surroundings of a ministerial office.
"After holding court in the plush ministerial office of [former Environment secretary] Hilary Benn, it was a bit of a change to find Ed in a small room with plastic chairs, a table and a white board," said an official present at the meeting. "It looked like a classroom."
The problems have undermined the widely praised progress made by Mr Miliband around the cabinet table. He angered members of the environmental lobby over the continued expansion of Heathrow, while at the same time falling out with the Transport Secretary, Geoff Hoon, in winning environmental concessions. He managed to gain government backing for the ambitious (albeit faraway) target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
But his eagerness to push a green agenda has not only dented his relationship with cabinet colleagues. There are rumours in Whitehall that senior civil servants wedded to coal and nuclear energy – those joining him from Lord Mandelson's Business Department – are stifling Mr Miliband's plans to move energy policy away from a staunchly pro-business agenda. Some figures making the move, such as the department's director general of energy, Willy Rickett, remain committed to fossil fuel energy production and nuclear power.
Mr Miliband is said to have received short shrift from certain civil servants after he suggested they needed to place Lord Turner's report into climate change (which originally proposed the 80 per cent emissions cut) at the centre of their thinking on Britain's energy supply.
Allies of Mr Miliband played down the problems yesterday. One insisted: "Ed has not had any problems with gaining control of the officials working for him and the [restructuring] changes made to the department before Christmas were planned from day one."
A spokesman for the department admitted that it was experiencing integration problems: "Establishing the new department is well advanced but it inevitably takes time to bring people together under one roof in a new location." But he said that the DECC should be judged on policy: "From day one Ed Miliband and his officials have been firmly and effectively focused on pushing forward policy to tackle climate change and secure clean and affordable energy for Britain."
Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats' spokesman on climate change, said the problems at DECC were a "classic example of reorganisation on the hoof".
"Not surprisingly, there have been internal problems with staffing from top to bottom. "They have had problems about deciding departmental boundaries – and they're still not entirely clear or logical," he said.
"By definition they have therefore had problems with budgets – because these are set annually at least. And they have had problems sorting out their message with a website that has only just come online. None of this inspires confidence."
Yahoo News 17 Mar 09;
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday announced the creation of a youth environmental corps tasked with protecting California's verdant ecology, while training for future employment in the emerging "green economy."
At least 1,000 young Californians in the program, aged 16 to 24, will be paid with funds from President Barack Obama's recently-approved federal stimulus plan, Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"President Obama and I share similar priorities right now when it comes to helping the economy rebound and creating a greener California and America," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"In California we will utilize federal economic stimulus funds and public-private partnerships to help stimulate our economy while initiating actions to improve our environment," said Schwarzenegger, who stressed that the jobs are targeted toward youth considered "at-risk" of failing academically, foundering in the work place or getting into trouble with the law.
"Green jobs are exactly what our economy and environment need right now -- and the California Green Corps targets that need, while helping at-risk young adults realize a brighter future," the governor said.
The program will consist of a minimum of 10 regional Green Corps throughout California -- at least one regional in each of California's nine economic regions.
The program, which gets off the ground as a 20-month pilot program, makes use of at least 10 million dollars in federal economic stimulus funds from the US Department of Labor and an additional 10 million from public-private partnerships, the governor said.
Andrew Walker, BBC News 17 Mar 09;
Chief Sunday Inengite remembers the day the foreigners who had come to his village in Nigeria's Niger Delta struck oil.
"They made us be happy and clap like fools, dance as if we were trained monkeys," he says. Years later, the 74-year-old now looks back on his youthful enthusiasm with sour regret.
Nigeria has become Africa's biggest oil producer, but the people of Oloibiri complain they have not seen much of the money made in the 52 years of oil production.
"It smacks of wickedness, hard-heartedness," he says.
Inquisitive
Mr Inengite was 19 years old when the foreign engineers came looking for oil in 1953.
An inquisitive young man, he made friends with the British, German and Dutch engineers during the years they were exploring the area around Oloibiri, now in Bayelsa State.
"I was trying to know why they were all here, going into the forests and into the swamps."
The village elders thought they were looking for palm oil - a valuable edible oil that had been exported from West Africa since the first European traders arrived hundreds of years before.
"It wasn't until we saw what they called the oil - the black stuff - that we knew they were after something different," Mr Inengite said.
The explorers threw a party at their house-boat and invited everyone from the village to see samples of the oil they had been looking for.
"You can imagine the jubilation, after all they had been looking for oil in commercial quantities for years."
But now he says the environment has been damaged, affecting fish catches, and the small plots of land where people had grown crops are polluted by oil spills and gas flares.
"You see fish floating on the surface of the water, something we didn't know before."
"It may be difficult to make a catch that will be enough for your family for one day."
Government corruption
But the problem is not caused just by the oil companies.
The government gets tax and royalties on the oil the companies produce.
The government is also a majority shareholder in Nigeria's oil industry and has made over $1.6trillion in revenue over the last 50 years, according to analysts at Standard Bank.
"I don't only blame the whites that came here, what about the government?" Mr Ingenite says.
"People in the government get nearly all the money from the economy."
When the BBC visited the first oil well a few kilometres down the road, we were approached by men working as commercial motorcycle taxis.
They all insisted oil companies, especially Royal Dutch Shell, should give them money as compensation for taking the oil.
But as we spoke, a local government official drove up in his brand new luxury four-wheel-drive car, an expensive gold watch dangling on his wrist.
Why don't people ask their leaders where their money is?
"They have hearts as black as coal, they are evil people - what would be the point?" said Julius Esam, 27.
'Oil museum'
A nearby mosquito infested swamp was being cleared to build a 300-bed hotel and conference centre with an oil "museum".
The contractor told the BBC the project was costing the state government 90billion naira ($592million, £298million.)
NIGERIA'S OIL
# Oil struck in June 1956
# Government has made $1.6trillion since discovery
# Rivers state budget in 2006 was $1bn (£776milion at 2009 rates)
# Most Nigerians live on less than $2 a day
Dimeari Von Kemedi, in charge of scrutinising contracts made by the Bayelsa state government said he would stop the project.
"But it's very difficult to prevent every badly conceived or corrupt contract going through," he said.
The access to corrupt money allowed by political office in the Niger Delta is also responsible for the emergence of violent groups in the area.
Groups of "boys" were armed by government during the 2003 elections.
Their job was to ensure the ruling People's Democratic Party held onto power and therefore the oil money.
These groups later got involved in oil theft, stealing tens of thousands of barrels a day for powerful syndicates, kidnapping and extortion.
Although groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) use their contacts with journalists to promote a political agenda, most armed groups are criminal gangs who want their own share of the money being divided among the powerful.
Mr Ingenite says in his old age, he now understands what the militancy wants.
"We frowned at violence because we are very hospitable to those that come," he said.
"But it can't be so today, and if they act the way they do, you can't blame them, because their blood is hot, not like old men's that is cool."
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