Singapore to review critical electricity, gas systems

Comprehensive study will identify weak areas that need improvement
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 23 Sep 09;

(SINGAPORE) Singapore is carrying out a holistic review of its critical electricity and gas network systems to identify potential weak spots which can be beefed up, so as to prevent any major power failures which can be costly for the economy.

The thorough study will be carried out all the way down the line - from gas receiving terminals and gas pipelines to facilities in the power stations, underground electricity transmission systems, etc.

The aim is to make the electricity and gas systems - which are interrelated and with many interdependent operations - more robust, especially as more new players are expected to enter the market shortly.

'Additional generation capacity of about 1,700 MW is expected to come on stream around 2013,' the Energy Market Authority (EMA) said in its tender document for the study, while the new $1-1.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Jurong Island, construction of which is scheduled to begin in January, is also expected to start operating in 2013.

The study, expected to take five-and-a-half months, follows several electricity blackouts or near incidents here over the last few years, triggered primarily by disruptions to natural gas supplies from Indonesia and Malaysia, with these affecting operations down the line. The last one happened in November last year, EMA chief executive Lawrence Wong told BT in a recent interview, when lightning struck Singapore's onshore gas receiving facility, and EMA had to activate the standard operating procedure for the power stations to switch to a liquid fuel to ensure that electricity supplies were not disrupted.

In a bid to prevent any future occurrences, EMA is now inviting bids for a consultant to form a project team to carry out the review of the electricity and gas systems 'to identify all potential vulnerabilities' and 'to provide mitigation options to address these'.

The two systems are critically interlinked in that 80 per cent of the electricity here is generated from natural gas, with the remainder 20 per cent from fuel oil and refuse incineration.

The present five generation companies here - Senoko Power, PowerSeraya, Tuas Power, Keppel Merlimau Cogen and Sembcorp Cogen - which provide a total 9,691 MW of generating capacity, use mainly their more efficient combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) to produce the electricity.

As such, CCGTs account for 62 per cent of the gencos' current installed generation capacity, with another 3 per cent being open cycle gas turbines. The remainder 35 per cent comprises steam turbines (which use fuel oil or diesel as feedstock).

The consultant's study will cover areas including onshore gas receiving terminals here; the gas pipeline network; standby fuel management including that of fuel oil, diesel and alternative gas sources at each power station; emergency fuel switching during gas disruption; and also the predominantly underground electricity transmission system.

It will look at details such as design; protection and control; operation and maintenance; and emergency responses for such facilities. The study will however, not cover system vulnerabilities arising from terrorism or sabotage.

EMA said that although it is carrying out the study, the findings will be made available to a number of stakeholders, including government agencies; electricity and gas licensees; fuel suppliers; and the electricity and gas network operators.

On the upcoming new generation capacity, EMA did not spell out where the additional 1,700 MW expected here around 2013 will come from, although this most likely includes India's GMR - with its planned $1.2 billion, 800MW Island Power project - for which it is now trying to source Indonesian natural gas.

Tuas Power is also mulling a US$2 billion coal/biomass plant to produce mainly steam, although the plant will also produce 180 MW of electricity; while Sembcorp is considering a second cogen plant based on waste-to-energy technology, but has not disclosed its scale.

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Spreading peace beneath doves' wings

Benson Ang, The New Paper 23 Sep 09;

IT WAS the biggest artwork he had made in his life of nine years.

Never mind if it was the adults who did all the sewing.

For Ethan Cheung, what mattered was that he was part of the United Nation's International Day of Peace.

Together with his brothers Keenan, 31/2, and Declan, 21/2, the Tanjong Katong Primary School student worked hard at painting the feathers, making sure each was colourful and beautiful.

About 100 participants - comprising volunteers and members of the public - attended yesterday's Day of Peace. The event was organised by the Singapore branch of the Jane Goodall Institute, a conservation group.

The birds were made from newspapers, paint, bamboo poles and bedsheets.

And each was larger than a motorcycle.

About 15 of these giant doves were paraded around the compound of the Old School at Mount Sophia about 5pm yesterday.

At least one of the doves, which had a wingspan of about 5m, was made mainly by schoolchildren. The bird's head was made of paper mache, which was stuck to a giant balloon.

It had a pink beak made of cardboard, and its wings and tail were made of 'feathers' made from pieces of scrap cloth, which were sewn onto an old bedsheet.

The dove was designed by Mr Andrew Tay, 45, a volunteer from Cicada Tree Eco-Place, a nature education group.

Mr Tay said he wanted each feather to have a heart painted on it to symbolise love and peace.

The parade of doves was followed by a concert of dance and music acts.

The event brought together several other non-governmental organisations such as Unifem Singapore, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, to celebrate peace.

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Forests fight back as Indonesia tackles illegal palm oil

Gillian Murdoch, Reuters 22 Sep 09;

ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - For decades, the roar of the chainsaw has meant one thing in Indonesia's national parks: illegal loggers ripping down the rainforest.

Now, the whirring blades are part of a fight back to cut out illegal palm oil from the international supply chain and slow the deforestation that has pushed Indonesia's carbon emissions sky high, threatening the destruction of some of the world's most ecologically important tropical forests and their animals.

In the country's first, symbolic action to stop the lucrative crop's march into protected lands a chainsaw-wielding alliance led by the Aceh Conservation Agency (BPKEL), Acehnese NGOs, and police teams are sweeping tens of thousands of hectares of illegal palm from the 2.5 million hectare Leuser Ecosystem.

"Plantation speculators, developers, whatever you want to call them, have moved in further and further," said Mike Griffiths of BPKEL, the agency created by Aceh Governor Yusuf Irwandi to manage Leuser in 2006, a year after the province at Sumatra's northern tip won greater autonomy from Jakarta.

"They do it by fait accompli... Go in, knock the trees down and plant, and all of a sudden the local perception is that you own it. It's Wild West stuff."

Planting a cash crop used in some of the world's best-known brands of chocolate, crisps and soaps inside legally-protected forests and national parks may seem a high-risk strategy.

But with much legal land already allocated, lax law enforcement, large untapped workforces of villagers living inside remote rainforests, and high Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices, such illegal conversions makes sense to many.

"The forest is seen as a green tangle with little real use and filled with dangerous animals and diseases," explained Jutta Poetz, Biodiversity Coordinator at industry environmental standards body the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

"If this green tangle can be converted into something profitable, with the dangers largely removed, isn't that good? Plantations will develop the country, create jobs and improve people's lives. This appears to be the prevailing sentiment in Southeast Asia."

GREASY PALMS?

One year after Indonesia overtook Malaysia as the world's top palm oil producer, hundreds of illegal plantations are thought to riddle its reserves.

A 2007 United Nations report found forest conversion for palm oil plantations was the country's leading cause of deforestation, with illegal oil palm, illegal logging and illegal land clearances by fire occurring inside 37 of 41 national parks.

Leuser, Sumatra's largest rainforest expanse, and one of the last refuges for endangered Sumatran tigers, elephants, orangutan and rhinos, was one of the worst affected, it said.

Industry bodies, such as the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, GAPKI, insist all plantations follow government regulations, and any found playing fast and loose with the rules are targets.

"We support that illegal oil palm plantations have been cleared -- if they do not follow all the regulations," said Fadhil Hasan, Executive Director of GAPKI.

The Leuser chainsaw sting evicted eleven illegal estates covering 12,000 hectares, a fraction of the at least 50 other illegal estates BPKEL estimates are in the reserve.

NGOs in Aceh say corruption greases the wheels of the plantation concession system. Officials allegedly pocket millions of rupiah for issuing non-binding "recommendations" to companies lacking official permits, and fail to enforce laws stipulating ten years' jail and a $500,000 fine for planting in parks.

Forestry officials in the area say confusion, rather than corruption, is the problem.

Conflicting maps, clashing tenure claims, and overlapping authorities mean locals, district chiefs, companies and government officials may not be aware of exact park boundaries, even in UNESCO-listed World Heritage rainforests such as Leuser.

"The boundaries do not match reality in the field," said Syahyahri, head of Aceh Tamiang Forestry Department.

"Villagers don't know who the forest belongs to. They may not have seen the maps. We are gathering data for making the boundaries now."

HIDDEN COSTS

Leuser's regenerating forests will form a 'corridor' connecting two otherwise non-viable elephant herds, which became separated by the sea of illegal palm over the last decade said Rudi H. Putra, BPKEL conservation manager.

But keeping the high-yielding crop out will take vigilance.

"The problem is protecting the forest," he said. "Growing oil palm is easy."

As well as planting in parks, Indonesia's oil palm industry has been accused of converting forests on carbon-rich peatlands more than two-meters deep, and setting fires to clear land.

GAPKI denies knowledge of these illegal activities, which not only harm the industry's reputation, but also release billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.

While the companies caught in Leuser were domestic, rather than international players, confusion and illegality seeps upwards into the global supply chain.

Blended together at mills and shipped overseas, legal and illegal oils flow into a myriad of products such as chocolate, shampoos, soaps and biofuels, leaving multinational end-users, and consumers, exposed to the risk of illegal ingredients.

While the high price of segregating oils means even RSPO-certified products cannot guarantee illegal oils are excluded, concerns over governance problems, and the crops environmental and social impacts, are already hitting profits.

In late August the World Bank's private finance arm, the International Finance Corp (IFC), which has $132 million invested in palm oil projects, suspended all palm-related investments, due to complaints about plantations' dubious licensing, land-rights conflicts and illegal logging activities.

The same month Cadbury New Zealand pulled palm oil from its milk chocolate products, after consumer protests over the crop's role in rainforest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Back in Aceh, BPKEL and police teams hope their lead can be followed in other areas.

Felling illegal palm will both save forests, and safeguard the industry's long-term financial security by weeding out cowboys, said Hariyanta, police chief of Aceh Tamiang district.

"The local people only get a day's food from a day's work on the illegal plantations, but the companies get so much money," said Hariyanta, who like many Indonesians, goes by one name.

"That's why we go after the companies."

(Additional reporting by Aloysius Bhui in Jakarta, Editing by Megan Goldin)

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Indonesia: World's first environmental radio station airs in smoggy Jakarta

Sara Schonhardt, Christian Science Monitor 21 Sep 09;

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – The smog-choked capital of Indonesia seems an unlikely place for the world’s first environmental radio station. But it’s here that Green Radio 68H, powered only by solar panels, broadcasts up to 10 hours of environment-focused news and information each day.

Located on one of Jakarta’s rare tree-shaded lots, Green Radio aims to build a more ecofriendly mind-set in a city faced with threats from widespread flooding, dismal sanitation, and water contaminated by sewage and garbage.

“This is what Jakarta needs,” says station manager Nita Roshita, noting the lack of environmental awareness among the city’s 9 million inhabitants.

The commercial station’s ethos covers every­thing from its clean-energy operations to its advertisers: mining and cigarette companies are prohibited. It also works with the national park system to plant trees in one of Java’s fastest shrinking forests.

After more than a year and a half in operation, the station appears to be gaining a foothold.

Environmental activists say the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide still has a long way to go, but Ms. Roshita says she believes Green Radio can help build support for environmental preservation by capitalizing on Indonesia’s new love for all things Earth-friendly.

“We start with a trend and go from there,” the radio manager says. “We’re not going to change the whole world, but we can change Jakartans’ way of living.”

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The royal stud of Borneo

Roy Gohroygoh, New Straits Times 23 Sep 09;

HEALTHY and well fed, Kertam, an adult male rhino caught in the jungles of Sabah, is the most eligible bachelor in captivity.

The only thing left now is for a partner to be caught and paired with Kertam to reproduce one of the most endangered species in the world.

Until then, the authorities are taking round-the-clock care of the animal in a small plot of jungle within the 120,000ha Tabin Wildlife Sanctuary in Lahad Datu.

The three-hectare area called the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary was set up by the State Wildlife Department in collaboration with the organisation, the Borneo Rhino Alliance.


Herman Stawin of the sanctuary said their task now was to ensure that Kertam remained healthy and once a partner was found, he would be released in a 4,500ha fenced area within Tabin.

"Kertam is like a royal stud just waiting for a partner and we are keeping our fingers crossed for that to happen, the sooner the better," he said of the 638kg Sumatran rhino.

In what was described as a lucky break, the department captured Kertam in August last year in the Kertam Forest Reserve in the same district. He was eventually relocated to Tabin for rehabilitation and full-time care by a team of four keepers.

Justin Endi, one of the four keepers, said Kertam had grown bigger since he arrived here, with a steady supply of food and the absence of threats, natural or otherwise.

"He appeared weak when he first came and his right foreleg had a scar," said Justin recently as he called out to Kertam in a metal enclosure, linked to the open paddock, where it could be fed, washed or treated when necessary.

The ring-like scar on his right foreleg also showed that Kertam may have been snared previously but managed to release himself.

Justin said snares were commonly set by hunters or even plantation workers to catch animals such as deer or wild boar but other animals were known to have got trapped.

As Justin fed Kertam with fruits, roots and leaves, he recalled how the rhino was apprehensive when he first arrived but gradually allowed the keepers to pat, wash and even hand-feed him.

When Kertam is hungry he would let out a high-pitched wail almost similar to that of a young buffalo to call his keepers, stationed about a stone's throw away, be it in the morning, afternoon, or at night.

"He likes bananas and certain types of roots which we collect from the jungle. We also feed him salt once in a while," he said, adding that the keepers keep a record of what type of roots or leaves the rhino consumed or rejected.

As Justin patted the rough hairy shoulder with skin like a tree bark, he also demonstrated how the rhino liked to be scratched with a plastic rake while lying on its side.

"We look after him as if he were our own child," said Justin, who speaks to Kertam when feeding him and even scolds him for playing in the mud too long.

"Most of the time Kertam would be out in the forest roaming about for food or just wallowing in several mud pits we made or even playing in a nearby river.

"But we keep the door leading to the enclosure open at all times for him to come in and be pampered by us," quipped Justin, who shares a special bond with the animal.

"I find Kertam to be a friendly animal. It's a pity there are not many of them left in the wild because I don't see them as a threat to anything."

He has the huge responsibility of saving his species
New Straits Times 23 Sep 09;

KERTAM, one of two rhinos in captivity in Sabah, is a national treasure, state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said.

"It's one of 30 or less left in the state and they are critically endangered, on the brink of extinction, unless we do something about it," he said when met recently.

Poaching and loss of habitat are among key reasons why their numbers have dwindled at an alarming rate, Masidi said, adding that serious conservation efforts were needed.

"Sabah is one of the last bastions for the Sumatran rhino and we are in a position to do something about it. I for one want to leave this world knowing I did something to save the rhinos."


Masidi said because of the threats, rhinos were not able to reproduce.

"As more development comes into the state, land is cleared, and their habitat is fragmented. Because of this, they are not able to see each other to mate.

"Poaching, too, is a problem. Not because they hunt rhinos but because in the attempt to trap other wildlife like wild boar or deer, poachers can hurt rhinos or even kill them with their snares or weapons."

That was one of the reasons why the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary programme was introduced at the 120,000ha Tabin Wildlife Sanctuary in Lahad Datu.

Eventually, 4,500ha of forest will be fenced up within the sanctuary to place rhinos that are rescued from other parts of the state. Kertam, a healthy male of about 638kg, was the first to be rescued.



Rhinos are solitary animals and only meet during the mating season. Records of surveys in the past showed that they roam in an area that would stretch thousands of hectares.

State wildlife director Laurentius Ambu said the fragmentation of habitat appeared to have caused reproduction problems among the animals because they rarely meet and mate.

"Its small numbers in the wild, too, is a hindrance in the effort to increase its population," he said, adding that maintaining and protecting the species in the wild was their only option now to prevent the rhino from extinction.


The Borneo Rhino Sanctuary programme, which involves the department and the Borneo Rhino Alliance, took a positive turn with the rescue of Kertam last year. Subsequently, Sime Darby Foundation pledged RM7.3 million to fund the sanctuary.

Establishment of the sanctuary was part of Sime Darby's "Big 9" campaign aimed at protecting endangered animals which include the sun bear, orang utan, pygmy elephant, clouded leopard, Malayan tiger, proboscis monkey, hornbill and the seladang.

The programme's coordinator, Dr Senthilvel Nathan, said Kertam was ready for a partner and hoped that one could be captured soon as there have been reports on the presence of a few rhinos in several locations in the east coast of Sabah.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed that at least one of them is a female," he said, adding that the other rhino in captivity, at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, was a female called Gelugub but she has aged.

"All we can do now is wait and make sure that Kertam is ready for his task, which to his species will be a big responsibility."

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Weird New Ghostshark Found; Male Has Sex Organ on Head

National Geographic 22 Sep 09;

September 22, 2009—California has a new star, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark.

Photo from MBARI.

But the newly identified species prefers to stay out of the sun—and the spotlight. And with a club-like sex organ on its forehead, the male ghostshark isn't likely to get any leading man roles.

The new ghostshark uses winglike fins to "fly" through its dark habitat, thousands of feet deep off the coasts of California and Mexico's Baja California peninsula, a new study says.

The ghostshark seems to have flown under the scientific radar too. Since the 1960s experts have been finding specimens of the strange, 3-foot-long (0.9-meter-long) fish, which ended up nameless in museum collections around the world.

It wasn't until after a team recently searched through shelves of "dead pickled fish" that the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark was recognized as its own new species, said study co-author Douglas Long, chief curator in natural sciences at the Oakland Museum of California. The specimens' unique proportions, precisely measured, gave the fish away as a separate species of ghostshark.

Ghostsharks in Chimerical Company

The shark-like animal belongs to the mysterious and little-studied chimeras, perhaps the oldest group of fish alive today.

These "living fossils" branched off from sharks about 400 million years ago. They may have survived by adapting to extreme deep-sea environments, Long said.

The newfound ghostshark belongs to the "big black chimeras," a group whose species number has exploded in recent years, thanks to improved diagnostic techniques, according to the new study, published in the September issue of the journal Zootaxa.

Chimeras display some unusual features not seen in other living animals, Long said.

Male chimeras, for example, have retractable sexual appendages sprouting from their foreheads. These organs, which resemble a spiked club at the end of a stalk, may be used to stimulate a female or to pull her closer—though these are still assumptions, Long said.

Long said the odd fish shows how complex the deep ocean can be—as well as the vast potential for encountering weird new creatures.

"It's like Christmas. You don't what you're going to get," he said, "but you know it's going to be great."

—Christine Dell'Amore

New species of ghostshark from California and Baja California
Ancient and bizarre fish named by California Academy of Sciences researchers
California Academy of Sciences, EurekAlert 21 Sep 09;

New species are not just discovered in exotic locales—even places as urban as California still yield discoveries of new plants and animals.

Academy scientists recently named a new species of chimaera, an ancient and bizarre group of fishes distantly related to sharks, from the coast of Southern California and Baja California, Mexico. The new species, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark (Hydrolagus melanophasma), was described in the September issue of the international journal Zootaxa by a research team including Academy Research Associates David Ebert and Douglas J. Long.

Additional co-authors included Kelsey James, a graduate student at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and Dominique Didier from Millersville University in Pennsylvania. This is the first new species of cartilaginous fish to be described from California waters since 1947.

Chimaeras, also called ratfish, rabbitfish, and ghostsharks, are perhaps the oldest and most enigmatic groups of fishes alive today. Their closest living relatives are sharks, but their evolutionary lineage branched off from sharks nearly 400 million years ago, and they have remained an isolated group ever since. Like sharks, chimaeras have skeletons composed of cartilage and the males have claspers for internal fertilization of females. Unlike sharks, male chimaeras also have retractable sexual appendages on the forehead and in front of the pelvic fins and a single pair of gills. Most species also have a mildly venomous spine in front of the dorsal fin. Chimaeras were once a very diverse and abundant group, as illustrated by their global presence in the fossil record. They survived through the age of dinosaurs mostly unchanged, but today these fishes are relatively scarce and are usually confined to deep ocean waters, where they have largely avoided the reach of explorers and remained poorly known to science.

This new species belongs to the genus Hydrolagus, Latin for 'water rabbit' because of its grinding tooth plates reminiscent of a rabbit's incisor teeth. This new species was originally collected as early as the mid 1960s, but went unnamed until this year because its taxonomic relationships were unclear. A large blackish-purple form, Hydrolagus melanophasma (melanophasma is Latin for 'black ghost'), is found in deep water from the coast of Southern California, along the western coast of Baja California, and into the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). This species is known from a total of nine preserved museum specimens, and from video footage taken of it alive by a deep-water submersible in the Sea of Cortez.

Renewed exploration of the world's deep oceans and more extensive taxonomic analysis of chimaera specimens in museum collections have led to a boom in the number of new chimaera species discovered worldwide in the last decade, including two species from the Galápagos Islands named by Didier, Ebert, and Long in 2006 that were originally collected by Academy scientist John McCosker. With further advances in research and discovery, perhaps more will be known about these living fossils and their diversity in the world's oceans.

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Chris Packham: 'Giant pandas should be allowed to die out'

Giant pandas should be allowed to die out, BBC wildlife expert Chris Packham has said.
The Telegraph 22 Sep 09;

The television presenter said that the species was not strong enough to survive on its own and that the millions spent preserving them could be better spent elsewhere.

Mr Packham, who hosts BBC2’s Springwatch, also argued that breeding the animals in captivity for later release was pointless because there is not enough habitat left to sustain them.

He said: “Here’s a species that of its own accord has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac. It’s not a strong species.

“Unfortunately, it’s big and cute and it’s a symbol of the World Wildlife Fund – and we pour millions of pounds into panda conservation.

“I reckon we should pull the plug. Let them go with a degree of dignity.”

The 48-year-old also claimed that tigers could become extinct with two decades.

He told the Radio Times: “Animals are invariably becoming extinct because there’s no secure habitat for them.

“Where are you going to release them? I don’t think tigers are going to last another 15 years. How can you conserve an animal that’s worth more dead than alive? You can’t.”

Giant pandas have been dying out because of the destruction of their natural habitat and are only found in about 20 patches of forest in a densely populated region of China.

There are around 1,600 in the wild with around 180 more being reared in captivity.

Fellow wildlife expert David Bellamy lent his support to Mr Packham. “I agree completely,” he said. “When I was a WWF trustee I begged them to buy big chunks of the land in which these animals live, not just go on spending millions on rearing pandas in captivity.

“You can’t release them back into the wild if there is no wild left and we shouldn’t rear animals just to put them into cages.

“Even the WWF admitted there is no longer enough land for them to live on.”

However, Dr Mark Wright, a conservation science adviser for WWF described Mr Packham’s comments as “daft” and “irresponsible”.

He said: “Pandas have adapted to where they live. They live in the mountains where there is plenty of the bamboo they want to eat.

“It’s like saying the blue whale is in an evolutional cul-de-sac because it lives in the ocean.”

Dr Wright added that pandas face extinction due to poaching and humans moving into their habitat, and that if left alone they would not be under threat.

Hands off the pandas
The Independent 23 Sep 09;

Broadcaster Chris Packham has set fur flying with a claim that the endangered bears should now be left to die out. Simon Usborne leaps to their defence

Poor Yang Yang and Kou Kou and Lun Lun. Chris Packham thinks you and all your panda friends are good-for-nothing, bamboo-munching, taxidermist-dodging benefit cheats. In an interview with Radio Times, published yesterday, the BBC nature presenter launches a viscous assault on the embattled species. He says the giant panda has "gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac". He adds: "It's not a strong species ... I reckon we should pull the plug. Let them go with a degree of dignity."

And it gets worse. Last year the birdwatcher even threatened to "eat the last panda if I could have the money we've spent on panda conservation to [spend on] more sensible things". Eat a panda? What are you saying, Chris? Why not polish off a blue whale? You've got the mouth for it.

Packham is right in one regard – the panda is under threat and often seems hopeless. Habitat loss, poaching and the bear's notorious disinterest in making baby pandas has left it clinging to life in isolated mountain ranges. There are fewer than 2,000 pandas in the wild, around 250 in captivity.

But since when was it OK to "pull the plug" on one of the world's most recognisable and best loved animals? Predictably Packham's comments have caused uproar among panda lovers and animal experts (and presumably, Chinese people). So Chris – eat this. We present five reasons why the panda is worth saving...

Pandas are symbols of conservationism

Giant pandas belong to a select breed of animals qualifying as "charismatic megafauna". They are the poster boys of the natural world – the "T-shirt" animals whose plight is elevated to get us moist-eyed and agitated. "But pandas didn't ask to be cute and cuddly," says Mark Wright, the science adviser at WWF (which has a panda for a logo). "The point is that by saving the panda you are saving the dozens of other endangered species that are unique to those habitats." So if we did pull the plug on the panda and its habitat, Wright says, we'd also kiss goodbye to the Sichuan wood owl and the Snowy-cheeked laughing thrush. And they're birds, Chris – you like birds.

They are Chinese cultural icons

There is no animal the Chinese love more, besides the mythical dragon, than the giant panda. They're called "di xiong mao", which means "big bear cat" and serve as a symbol of national pride. The animal appears on commemorative coins and Jing Jing the panda was one of Beijing's mascots, elected by Chinese voters, at last year's Olympics. The panda is seen as a manifestation of the Yin and Yang philosophy of Chinese society. Their black and white coats and placid nature are held up as examples of harmony. And they have practical value. "Panda diplomacy" has helped Beijing build bridges, most recently with Taiwan, usually by loaning animals to zoos.

They are unique

There are two kinds of animals of interest to scientists – common ones (think flies) and the rare ones that may hold valuable secrets. "Pandas are famous in evolutionary science because they developed out of their wrist a unique appendage that works as a specialist thumb for stripping bamboo," says Bill Sutherland, a professor of conservation biology at Cambridge University. All too often lessons from nature die with endangered species. The gastric-brooding frog incubated its eggs in its stomach. Scientists seeking a cure for gastric ulcers were studying the acid-proof substance that protected those eggs until the frog became extinct. "You never know why or when a species will become vital to science," says Sutherland.

They're good for humans, too

The panda's future isn't only important for the species who share its home. Pandas have become rare largely thanks to human encroachment. Vast tracts of south-east China have been deforested or given over to agriculture as China tries to fuel and feed a rapidly-growing population. Pandas are now one of the most protected species on the planet. The Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province is one example. It is home to 150 pandas – and thousands of people. "Most of them derive a living from the panda," says Iain Valentine of Edinburgh Zoo. "They depend on pandas thriving."

They're really cute

Packham may say it's the panda's doe-eyed tranquillity and teddy-bear features that have skewed our perspective – but there's no denying the bear's cuteness. It turns out there's science behind our soppiness. The Austrian zoologist, Konrad Lorenz, argued that humans react positively to animals that resemble babies, because we have evolved instinctively to care for our offspring. So humans are genetically disposed to animals with big eyes and heads and cute little ears. If evidence of this theory were needed, visit YouTube and search for "sneezing baby panda". The clip, which has been seen 40 million times, shows a mother jumping out of her fur when her offspring interrupts teatime with an almighty sneeze. Packham either hasn't seen it or doesn't have a heart.

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Once feared extinct, Angolan sable wins new hope for survival

Louise Redvers Yahoo News 22 Sep 09;

LUANDA (AFP) – They are Angola's national symbol and the nickname for the country's football team -- yet fewer than 100 are believed still alive.
And while they are plastered on bank notes and company logos, only a handful of people have actually seen the giant sable antelope -- or palanca negra gigante as they are known in Portuguese, the official language -- in the flesh or beheld their majestic metre-and-a-half (more than five-foot) horns.

The animals' numbers were decimated during the 27-year civil war that shattered this country on Africa's southwestern coast, before it ended in 2002. Among the survivors, many giant sables stopped breeding or started cross breeding with roan antelopes, creating a new hybrid species.

But the sable's future now looks brighter after a breakthrough by scientists from Angola's Catholic University, who worked with shepherds to track down the antelope 100 years after the animal was first discovered.

After six years of monitoring stealth cameras and tracking dung samples, the team has finally captured 10 pure-bred giant sables for a breeding programme and tagged dozens of others to monitor their progress.

"It was an outstanding success, it exceeded all our expectations," expedition leader Pedro Vaz Pinto told AFP.

"The timing could not have been better because now is the traditional mating time for giant sable and we hope that by May or June next year, we will have at least seven calves."

"I don?t think the giant sable will ever be non-endangered because it's only found in such small areas, but I hope we can upgrade it from its critically endangered status," he said.

Vaz Pinto travelled in a helicopter alongside renowned South African veterinary expert Peter Morkel, scanning the Cangandala National Park in the northeastern province of Malanje.

Once they had located a herd, they hovered above the ground and fired a sedation dart at a hybrid female, in order to fit her with a collar with a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracker.

"We used this hybrid as a Judas and she did a great job. In no time we were able to find nine pure females whom we tagged and took to a sanctuary," Vaz Pinto said.

The sedated animals were blindfolded and transported hanging by ropes from the helicopter to a special two square kilometre (0.75 square miles) breeding area in the park.

Some of the antelopes, which weigh up to 250 kilogrammes (550 pounds), were also carried in a Russian M18 helicopter lent to the team by the Angolan Air Force.

No males were seen in Cangandala and the females recovered show no evidence of having mated in at least seven years, which confirmed the team's worst fears.

The search then turned to the more remote Luando Reserve, where the only lead was a positive DNA test on a dung sample collected on an earlier trip.

There they found two herds, in total around 40 giant sable, and chose one for the breeding area.

Even after several weeks back in the capital Luanda, Pedro is still ecstatic about his encounters with the giant sables.

"Getting close to that first male was just incredible," he said. "But for me the most emotional part was when we put the male into the area with the females and stood back to watch them interact.

"We only took one because if we put two in there they would kill each other, but this one we chose is at his prime so we hope will be good for breeding."

And he joked: "The females immediately surrounded him and followed him everywhere, I think he will find it hard to have his own space over the next few weeks. It couldn't be more promising."

A leading authority on the giant sable, Richard Estes of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology who conducted research expeditions on the animal as early as 1968, returned to Angola this year to join Vaz Pinto's expedition.

The now 82-year-old scientist said he got his best view ever of the animals.

"We had such low expectations based on our earlier failures that it was just incredible," he said, speaking to AFP from his US home.

"I did not think we would find a single male, so to find as many as we did was amazing. This is an absolutely seminal step for the project."

Both Vaz Pinto and Estes are thrilled so far with the project, which is conducted in cooperation with Angola's environment ministry and funded by oil companies such as Songangol and ExxonMobile. But both say it will bring new challenges and require more money.

"This has been an amazing success but it also brings new responsibilities," Vaz Pinto said.

The giant sable has a place in the heart of all Angolans," added Estes, "and we're looking at a renaissance of conservation conscience in Angola."

But he added: "The government has a moral and ethical responsibility to preserve its natural ecosystems and tackle the poaching and destruction of its national parks."

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Japan's new government stands by whaling

Yahoo News 22 Sep 09;

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Japan's new government urged Australia on Tuesday to help prevent violent attacks by activists on Japanese whalers as it stood by the country's traditional support for whaling, an official said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith on the sidelines of this year's UN General Assembly.

Okada was appointed last Wednesday when Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was sworn in at the head of his new center-left government after winning the country's elections.

The victorious Democratic Party of Japan formed a coalition government with two small parties under Hatoyama, ending half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the country's conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

"During the meeting, our minister called for Australia's cooperation against groups like Sea Shepherd (Conservation Society), which resort to violent action," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

Smith stopped short of replying to the request, only saying Australia wants to resolve the dispute through dialogue to avoid straining relations.

"Our minister did not clearly state that the new Japanese government supports whaling, but I understand that his remarks were quite in line with the stance held by our previous cabinet on the subject," the official said.

Anti-whaling nations led by Australia and New Zealand, as well as environmental groups, have attacked Japan for its annual whaling expeditions, including in Antarctic waters, criticizing them as cruel and unnecessary.

Japan hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows whales to be killed for "lethal research," and Tokyo often accuses western critics of insensitivity toward its culture.

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Ecuador Would Protect Oil-Rich Rainforest For Cash

Terry Wade, PlanetArk 23 Sep 09;

UNITED NATIONS - Ecuador, a member of OPEC, is willing to preserve a tropical forest with reserves of 900 million barrels of oil if rich countries pay it about $360 million a year to keep the petroleum in the ground.

Under the proposal, the international community would pay Ecuador an annual fee equal to about half of the total cash it would generate from selling the crude. Leaving the oil under the Yasani rainforest would prevent the release of up to 410 million tons of carbon.

"We have to attack the cause of climate change, which is the elevated use of energy by industrialized countries," Ecuador's Foreign Minister Fander Falconi told Reuters.

"Climate change has a very clear origin ... high energy use by rich countries," he said.

Some developing countries at a U.N. climate change summit on Tuesday said rich countries should pay for damage they have caused and compensate poor countries for taking steps to prevent carbon emissions.

But it may be hard to reach agreement as leaders prepare to sign a new pact to tackle climate change in December in Copenhagen.

Rich countries want guarantees that cash they pay to poor ones would be properly used, while poor countries are worried they might put their sovereignty at risk if they agree to setting aside resources for conservation in exchange for cash.

Falconi said agreeing to forgo oil drilling in a block that overlaps the Yasuni National Park would also protect two indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation.

Despite its conservation offer, he said Ecuador doesn't plan to limit future oil exploration or extraction in other parts of the country.

"Petroleum is extremely important for Ecuador's economy; it sustains our foreign trade," Falconi said.

He said however that an international body like the United Nations should levy a global carbon tax to help limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Ecuador produces about 450,000 barrels per day, and wants to boost production in the future.

STRAINS WITH COLOMBIA, U.S. BASES

In addition to participating in climate talks, Falconi said he would "cautiously" meet with Colombian officials to map out a series of talks that could eventually lead to their re-establishing diplomatic ties.

Ecuador cut off relations last year after Colombia's military raided a FARC rebel camp inside Ecuadorean territory. Other countries condemned the attack as well.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the raid was a crucial part of his crackdown on FARC rebels whose long-running insurgency is financed by cocaine trafficking.

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa canceled access to his country's Manta air base that a previous leader had given to the United States.

Now Washington plans to move its anti-drug flights and surveillance operations to Colombian military and air bases.

Ecuador, like many countries in South America, has voiced concern the United States may increase its military presence in the region -- a prospect that has angered Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez in particular.

"The Colombian bases that will be used by the American military will have technological capabilities that go way beyond the objectives of fighting drug trafficking," said Ecuador's Security Minister Miguel Carvajal.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Flamingo paradise becomes largest Andean Ramsar wetland

WWF 22 Sep 09;

La Paz, Bolivia: Celebrations here yesterday marked the recognition of an area of southern Bolivia as a Wetland of international Importance (or Ramsar Site), the largest declared in South America’s 7000 Km long Andes Mountains chain.

The Los Lipez wetlands complex encompasses 23 high altitude lakes and lagoons as well as geothermal springs and flooded grasslands unique to the southern Andes, known as “bofedales” in the southern tip of Bolivia, and neighboring Chile and Argentina.

At 1.4 million hectares or about one third of the size of Switzerland, the new Los Lipez protected wetland is also more than 25 times the size of the Laguna Colorada, Bolivia’s first Ramsar Site designated in 1991. Laguna Colorada, bordering on Chile and among the most visited protected areas in the country, is now included within the new reserve.

Bolivia’s new Ramsar Site is important for the conservation of South American Flamingo species ranging over Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. In good years, Los Lipez provides nesting over summer for over 60% of the total population of the rare James Flamingo, and also hosts nearly 30% of the total population of Andean Flamingos.

Archeological investigations show hunter gather presence in the area from 6500 BC and also vestiges of the Inca conquest in the 1400s, most notably the Quechua language. It has historically been a centre of salt extraction as well as of quinoa and potato cultivation, with the bofedales providing prime sites for breeding of lama, alpaca and vicuna.

Significant archeology

Bolivia is currently hosting the 6th annual meeting of the Regional Initiative for the Conservation of High Andean Wetlands, attended by Delegates from Andean Countries and Costa Rica, and by representatives of NGOs including WWF, IUCN, Wetlands International and Birdlife International.

Juan Pablo Ramos, Bolivian Vice-Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Change, received the Ramsar Certificate for the designation of Los Lipez from Maria Rivera, Ramsar Regional Advisor for the Americas, at the opening of the meeting in La Paz.

According to Denis Landenbergue, from WWF International Freshwater Programme, “the protection of Los Lipez is also important due to its location in an arid mountain region which is very exposed to the effects of climate change”.

The International Convention on Wetlands, or Ramsar Convention, was the first of the modern global intergovernmental treaties on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It was signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, and has now 159 Contracting Parties.

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Biodiversity indicators and assessments need greater investment

IUCN 18 Sep 09;

For the world’s governments to understand adequately how their actions and policies are impacting the planet’s species and ecosystems, more investment is needed in the set of biodiversity indicators that has been developed to measure these impacts. This is the conclusion of a review published today in the journal Science by a group of the leading scientists and organisations working on this issue.

In 2002 the world’s leaders adopted a target of significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. In October next year, the international community will convene in Nagoya, Japan for the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) to review whether the target has been met.

The answer lies in a set of 22 biodiversity indicators being developed by over 40 international organizations participating in the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership. In their article “Tracking progress toward the 2010 biodiversity target and beyond”, the authors have assessed the development of these indicators, and found that the set is by no means complete. Five of the headline indicators are not being developed, and only a minority of the datasets used to underpin the other 17 have good global coverage and time series data to detect trends.

"There is certainly a need to invest in biodiversity indicators but more importantly in baseline assessments underpinning those indicators. This is what IUCN has been pushing for and what the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has been doing for years. As shown in our latest publication Wildlife in a Changing World, the IUCN Red List index by itself shows that we are far from reverting the decline of wildlife throughout the wold.. More action is needed quickly while there is still a window of opportunity. The more we wait, the bigger the cost" said Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head, IUCN Species Programme.

Besides highlighting the limited development of indicators, the review also raises questions over whether the current suite of indicators will provide all the right answers. For example, the indicators do not include any measure of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, and few that shine a light on the benefits, the goods and services, that we gain from biodiversity and natural ecosystems. “Biodiversity monitoring and indicators will only be successful if they help to answer the questions that decision makers are asking” says Robert Höft, Environmental Affairs Officer of the CBD Secretariat.

The CBD meeting next year in Nagoya will see decisions made about future biodiversity targets beyond 2010 and with it the continuation and future development of the indicator set. “Nagoya will provide the perfect opportunity to build on the accomplishments of the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership and refine the suite of indicators for meeting the needs for global decision makers over the next decade and beyond” says Robert Höft.

The new indicator set is already a hot topic within the biodiversity sector. Seventy experts from governments, non-governmental organisations and universities met in Reading, UK, in July this year to create a list of indicator recommendations for the Nagoya meeting. “We are eagerly anticipating the outcomes of Nagoya. If the right indicator set is chosen, the global community can look to the future with greater optimism for adequate and accurate biodiversity monitoring, an essential component of sustainable development” added Dr Walpole.


The Article
The article is available from the AAAS Office of Public Programs. Tel +1-202-326-6440 or scipak@aaas.org. The full citation is: Walpole, M. et al. (2009) Tracking Progress Toward the 2010 Biodiversity Target and Beyond. Science 325, 1503-4.

The 2010 Biodiversity Target
In April 2002, at the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), governments committed themselves ‘to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth’. This ‘2010 Biodiversity Target’ was later endorsed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), and has been included in UN Millennium Development Goal 7 (MDG 7) under the ‘reducing biodiversity loss’ target.

The biodiversity indicators
The CBD has identified 22 headline indicators from seven focal areas for assessing progress towards, and communicating the 2010 target at a global level. Each headline indicator may be made up of a composite of indicators, also termed measures. Many of the biodiversity indicators are fully developed and ready for immediate use at the global scale, whilst others require further development and testing. Although developed principally for global use, a number of the indicators can be disaggregated to assess biodiversity trends at regional, national and sub-national scales. A full indictor list and information on individual indicators is available from the 2010 BIP website (www.twentyten.net).

The 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership
The 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010 BIP) is a global initiative to track progress towards achieving the “2010 biodiversity target” to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The Partnership is a collaboration of over 40 international organizations and agencies developing global biodiversity indicators and is the leading source of information on trends in global biodiversity.

The 2010 BIP has been established with major support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Secretariat of the 2010 BIP is hosted by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, U.K.

The Convention on Biological Diversity
Signed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is dedicated to promoting sustainable development. The Convention was inspired by the world community's growing commitment to sustainable development. It represents a dramatic step forward in the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

The Global Environment Facility
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a global partnership among 178 countries, international institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector to address global environmental issues while supporting national sustainable development initiatives. It provides grants for projects related to six focal areas: biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.

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