Phuket's Jellyfish Specialists Ready for Action

Alan Morison, Phuketwan 19 Oct 09;

PHUKET is becoming an international centre for the study of jellyfish, inspiring neighboring countries to be more open about the spread of potentially deadly "boxies" especially.

Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia are now all following the lead set by Phuket marine biologists in warning people about the unpopular visitors.

The good news is that the small box jellyfish discovered last year in large numbers at Nam Bor Bay on Phuket's east coast appear to be varieties that are of low toxicity.

In other words, they may sting. But they won't kill you.

Other types of box jellyfish are regarded as the world's most poisonous animal, with tentacles capable of inflicting extreme agony and death within minutes.

Along with the rest of the world, Phuket has more jellyfish than it wants, with another non-dangerous type flopping onto Patong and other popular western beaches last January.

Will they be back this year? Maybe.

Dr Somchai Bussarawit of the Phuket Marine Biology Centre is learning about their habits, but he can't read their minds just yet.

He and three doctors from the Public Health department are to visit Australia on research grants in 2009-2010. The grants have come through the Divers Alert Network.

"The season is coming soon so we will be undertaking some surveys," Dr Somchai said. "We will be coordinating our research in the Gulf of Thailand, too."


Dr Somchai thinks an upwelling of a colder stream of deep water could be the reason for last season's invasion. There are not so many sea turtles around lately, either, to eat them.

More than 10 species of jellyfish are seen around Thailand waters, including some that are edible and caught for export.

There has only been one recorded death in the Andaman, a young Swedish tourist who was stung on a Koh Lanta beach in April last year.

Awareness has grown since then, with the discovery of two small varieties of box jellyfish in a bay on Phuket's east coast. There have been no sightings of them elsewhere, or of dangerous box jellyfish on Phuket's popular west coast beaches.

However, thanks to the awareness campaign, vinegar is now in most coastal first aid kits, because it's the only recognised treatment for jellyfish stings.

Vinegar does not ease the pain, but it stops the poison from spreading. It's widely acknowledged as the only treatment that works.

From November, officials and fishermen will be on the lookout for signs of increasing numbers of jellyfish off the island.

"It has been very interesting, from a scientific perspective," Dr Somchai said. "We are continuing to try to track the life cycle and habits of the jellyfish around Phuket."

He said there was evidence that some species of turtles were increasing in the Gulf of Thailand, which was an encouraging sign. Turtles are the natural predators of jellyfish.

People throughout Thailand were now more concerned about the environment and embracing conservation programs more and more, Dr Somchai said.

Overfishing still appeared to be a problem, though, with discarded nets trapping large marine creatures too often.

"I think fishermen don't want to harm these creatures," he said. "But there has to be a balance."

Other countries are following Thailand's lead, with surveys being undertaken in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

"It's a global issue," Dr Somchai said. "Now we are more open in reporting scientific information and promoting awareness."

Sightings of jellyfish in numbers on Phuket or elsewhere should be reported directly to the marine biology centre, or alert phuketwan and we'll pass on the message.

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Gibbons Sing for Survival in West Java

Lisa Siregar, The Jakarta Post 20 Oct 09;

Conditions were perfect in the hills of Nanggrang in Sukabumi, West Java, on Friday for the release of two Javan gibbons, both about 10 years of age: Echi, a female, and Septa, a male.

The air was sweet with the scent of damp grass and soil. The hills, which are part of Gede Pangrango National Park, were covered with tall, healthy trees, from which the gibbons could call to each other.

Echi and Septa had been prepared for their release back into the wild at the Javan Gibbon Rehabilitation Center in Bodogol village, which is situated about 1,500 meters from Nanggrang forest. Jatna Supriatna, the vice president of Conservation International Indonesia, which is involved in running the center, said it was the first time a pair of former pet gibbons had been released back into the wild.

Over their six years at the center, Echi and Septa had been taught the fundamentals of living in the wild. For perhaps the first time they had tasted forest fruits and leaves, and they had also learned to vocalize. Javan gibbons, a threatened species that is endemic to the island of Java, defend their territory and keep their families together with their cries and calls.

“You can hear them sing every morning in the forest. It’s beautiful,” said Anton Ario, deputy program manager at CII.

But pet gibbons cannot learn to sing by imitating other gibbons because they only have contact with humans.

Most of the Javan gibbons come to the rehabilitation center at the age of seven or eight, having been kept as pets since they were babies.

“All that time [when they were pets] they lived around humans and behaved like them. They even ate rice and fried chicken, because that’s what was given to them,” Anton said.

Javan gibbons have long, slender forearms, with hook-like fingers, which they use to propel themselves through forest canopies. But when they arrive at the rehabilitation center, few of them are able to swing around the branches in their cages.

“They can only jump around, because they are used to very small cages, with no trees, and were sometimes even chained up,” Anton said.

At the center, they learn how to move and behave like wild Javan gibbons.

Most of the gibbons at the center were brought there by the forestry police after being confiscated from traders, or by pet owners who could no longer look after them. Others were transferred from animal rescue centers.

Echi and Septa were initially kept in separate cages when they started their rehabilitation in 2003. They were matched together as a breeding pair only about a year ago, according to Anton.

The center has successfully matched 12 pairs of Javan gibbons, which are among the few monogamous primates. In the wild they don’t live in large communities but in families of two or three members.

“If you want to talk about Javan gibbons, don’t talk in individual numbers. Talk in families,” Anton said.

There are currently 27 gibbons at the rehabilitation center, which Anton said represented many more Javan gibbons that had been taken from their natural habitat.

The home territory of a Javan gibbon family in the wild is between five and 20 hectares of forest. “That’s why it is cruel to adopt them as pets,” Anton said.

The rehabilitation area in Bodogol is off limits to visitors. “If you had the flu and sneezed around them, it is very easy for them to get infected,” Anton said.

Gibbons can also be dangerous to humans once they are reintegrated into the wild because they have strong teeth and claws. “In the beginning, they are very friendly because they have been raised as pets,” Anton said.

But at the center the gibbons learn to be wary of humans prior to their release back into the wild so they aren’t easily recaptured. “The wilder they are, the better,” Anton said.

In 2004, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the Javan gibbon to its Red List of Threatened Species. The Red List is used as a benchmark for a number of bilateral and UN treaties aimed at wildlife protection.

According to Noviar Andayani, the director of the Bodogol rehabilitation center, the Javan gibbon is in danger because the animals are often taken from the wild and sold as pets.

She said there were only about 3,000 Javan gibbons left in the wild, living in fragments of forest from Banten to Central Java.

Juveniles are in the highest demand as pets and it is common practice for hunters to kill their mothers first.

After helping Javan gibbons adapt to their natural habit and pairing them up, the final step for the center is to return them to the forest.

Anton said he hoped this endangered creature would continue exist in the forests of Java. “We don’t want Javan gibbons to entirely disappear, like, for example, the Javan tigers, which we now only see in pictures and statues,” he said.

Echi and Septa’s release on Friday was witnessed by staff members from the Ministry of Forestry, university researchers and journalists, who were all sweaty and breathless after climbing the hill into the forest. It was difficult to see the gibbon pair because they were hidden among the trees inside their cage. But a few minutes after the cage was opened, one of the gibbons reached out to the branches and swung out of the enclosure. The other gibbon scratched one of the photographers as he took photographs from inside the cage.

“OK, that’s enough, you have to get out,” Anton said loudly from behind. “They are mad, they are not used to humans anymore.”

2 gibbons find new home at national park
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post 20 Oct 09;

The Javanese Gibbon Center released two Javanese Gibbons in Mount Gede Pangrango National Park, Bogor, West Java, over the weekend in the hope that the gibbons would reproduce in the wild.

Head of the national park, Sumarto, said that the male gibbon, Septa, and female, Echi, both aged 10 years, would stay in the Patiwel forest in the Bodogol area of the national park for three to four years.

"We hope they will have a baby gibbon in the next few years," Sumarto said.

Along with the release of the two gibbons, Sumarto said, his officers have also replanted 40 hectares of forest.

"In the next three years, the gibbon family will need at least 17.5 hectares of forested area to roam for food," he said.

He added that his officers had over the last two years been educating and imploring local people to help protect the gibbons from poachers.

"We've involved farmers working near the park to help monitor the safety of the gibbons," he said.

Around 500,000 locals inhabit the national park, clustered in 66 villages across the park.

The national park has 15.156 hectares of pristine forest and 7,650 hectares undergoing reforestation programs.

Executive chairman of the Javanese Gibbon Center, Noviar Andayani, said there are only 5,000 Javanese gibbons left on the island.

Aside from those found in Mount Gede Pangrango National Park, there are small populations in Ujung Kulon National Park, Mount Halimun Salak National Park and in several forests in Central Java, Noviar said, citing data collected by the Indonesian Association of Primate Experts and Lovers (Perhapi) and the research and development unit of the Forestry Ministry.

The Javanese Gibbon Center is currently home to 12 pairs of the endangered species.

Noviar said that poaching is the biggest threat facing the survival of the Javanese gibbons.

Director-General of Forest Protection and Natural Resources Conservation with the Ministry of Forestry, Darori, said that the Javanese gibbon needs areas of dense forest for their habitat.

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New security plan for Tiger Reserves in India

TRAFFIC 20 Oct 09;

New Delhi, 20 October 2009—The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in association with TRAFFIC India has prepared new guidelines for scaling up security at Tiger Reserves in India. The guidelines were drawn up amidst the on-going Tiger crisis, which has seen more than 60 Tigers poached in India in 2009 to date.

The Generic guidelines for preparation of security plan for Tiger Reserves were released by Dr Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary-NTCA earlier this month at the office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi.

The growing demand in some countries for Tigers parts and derivatives is one of the greatest threats to the survival of the big cats. The NTCA has advised all Indian States to prepare a specific Tiger Conservation Plan and asked them to use the newly developed guidelines to prepare security plans for their Tiger Reserves.

Dr Rajesh Gopal commented, “Illegal demand for Tiger parts and derivatives is a threat to the already endangered Tiger population in the country, necessitating enhanced intelligence-based enforcement.

“These newly released guidelines will help States to develop an effective security plan for management of their Tiger Reserves.”

Mr Samir Sinha, Head of TRAFFIC India added, “We are grateful to NTCA for giving us an opportunity to contribute our experiences from the field to this document.

“Illegal trade has become an organized transnational crime. There is a need to develop and action a sound security plan for protection of Tiger areas in the country. We are confident that these guidelines will help in up scaling protection and enforcement.”

The guidelines provide insights into the nature of threats to Tigers, evaluation of protected areas, preparation of security maps, prevention and detection of wildlife crimes, patrol planning, intelligence gathering, running informer networks, establishing criminal profile directories, understanding the scene of crime, media management, and other topics.

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Japanese annual marine research expedition kills 59 whales

Associated Press, guardian.co.uk 19 Oct 09;

Japan has caught 59 whales near the northern island of Hokkaido, officials said today, under a research programme critics allege is a cover for commercial whaling.

The annual expedition from the port city of Kushiro ended at the weekend after harvesting 59 minke whales, one whale short of the maximum 60 allowed by the International Whaling Commission.

Japan and other pro-whaling nations have been pushing for the IWC to revoke the 1986 ban on commercial hunts. Japan also hunts about 1,000 whales in the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans under an IWC research programme.

Critics say the expeditions are a cover for commercial whaling because the harvest is sold to market for consumption.

As in previous years, the Fisheries Agency said the hunt off Hokkaido was aimed at studying the whales' feeding patterns and their effect on fish stocks. Findings will be presented at next year's meeting of the IWC.

During the 12-day expedition, whalers caught 36 male whales and 23 females, the agency said. Examination of their stomach contents found that the minkes most commonly fed on pollack, krill and anchovy in the research area, about 50 miles off the coast of Kushiro in the Pacific Ocean, it said.

Kushiro is 895 kilometers (556 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

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10 months for eBay ivory trader

TRAFFIC 20 Oct 09;

Nicholas Noonan, 46, of Bedfordshire, UK, pleaded guilty on 5 October 2009 to charges relating to illegal trading in African Elephant tusks and Sperm Whale teeth as well as ivory artefacts. They had been carved into billiard balls or used to make corkscrews before being sold on the commercial website.

The trade of these items is restricted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Expert witness statements in the case were provided by TRAFFIC, on the elephant ivory trade, by Orca, on the sperm whale teeth trade, and by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (the UK’s CITES Scientific Authority for animals).

The investigation was launched in 2006 when covert agents from the US Fish and Wildlife Service received an unsolicited email, via eBay, asking them to look at a number of tusks that were listed for sale by Noonan.

Over the following months, Noonan traded various tusks, teeth and artefacts with the undercover agents; the evidence was then passed on to HMRC officers, with the National Wildlife Crime Unit undertaking initially gathering intelligence for the case.

Noonans home was later raided by HMRC officers and Bedfordshire Police, who found various items that were examined by experts at the Natural History Museum and confirmed as elephant tusks and whale teeth. In an attempt to continue trading ivory on eBay, Noonan had illegally obtained a certificate of exemption, then falsely altered and used it to pretend that specimens had an exemption certificate.

Peter Millroy, Assistant Director of HM Revenue & Customs said: "This was a concerted effort to break a law which is designed to preserve species at risk of extinction. The sentence handed down today shows that anyone tempted to trade in protected creatures and plants should think again."

Stephanie Pendry, TRAFFIC's Enforcement Programme Leader commented: "With the publication of Tackling the ivories in 2004, TRAFFIC sounded the first alarm over the use of the internet to trade ivory illegally.

"While the internet may give illegal online traders a sense of anonymity, the international collaboration between enforcement officers in this case demonstrates that the web is no hiding place for their criminal activities."

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UN food agency offers free satellite monitoring of forests

Yahoo News 20 Oct 09;

ROME (AFP) – The UN food agency Tuesday announced a satellite image database on the degradation of the world's forests as part of efforts to reduce global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation will provide high-resolution satellite data free to developing countries in partnership with other organisations including the State University of South Dakota and US Geological Survey in the United States and European Union Joint Research Center, a statement said.

"Never before has data of this kind been provided directly to users in developing countries," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf.

"Monitoring will be cheaper, more accurate and transparent for countries that want to participate in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation."

The data "will result in sound and objective estimates of global forest and land cover change," said Jeffrey Eidenshink, acting director of the US Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Center.

The database will provide an essential tool for individual countries to measure, report and verify their carbon emissions, the FAO said.

Global forest monitoring to help mitigate climate change
FAO 20 Oct 09;

Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation must be reduced

20 October 2009, Rome - For the first time worldwide, free and ready-to-use high-resolution satellite data is now available to monitor forests and help reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The monitoring system has been launched by FAO and other partners as part of the Global Forest Resources Assessment.

"This brings a revolution to the forest monitoring field. Never before have data of this kind been provided directly to users in developing countries. Monitoring will be cheaper, more accurate and transparent for countries that want to participate in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf.

The world's forests are in the spotlight as talks for a new climate change deal move towards an agreement on how to achieve reduced emissions from forests next December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A mechanism for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) would be a breakthrough in the fight against climate change and represents one of the areas where most progress is expected in Copenhagen.

It is the first time that a global forest scheme has the potential to generate such a magnitude of benefits for developing countries. Diouf underlined how a REDD mechanism would not only bring a reduced impact on climate but also much needed resources to improve livelihoods, conservation efforts and food security.

Tools to make REDD work

At the same time, many issues remain to be solved before REDD will work. One of the corner stones is Measurement, Reporting and Verification systems of carbon, which must be in place for carbon accounting and payments to be carried out in an appropriate and transparent way. Today, the majority of developing countries do not have sufficient monitoring systems in place.

Satellite remote sensing has provided images of the Earth for over 30 years. The technology and associated science has vastly improved the knowledge and perception of our planet.

"The FAO Forest Resource Assessment is unprecedented in so many ways. It is the most comprehensive and challenging use of high resolution satellite data ever attempted and the use of the historical time-series of Landsat images will result in sound and objective estimates of global forest and land cover change." says Jeffrey Eidenshink, Acting Director of the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Other partners include South Dakota State University, U.S. and the European Union Joint Research Center.

The monitoring system delivers data in a global sample grid at 13 000 locations and provides tools for their interpretation. It is designed to improve global and regional information on forest change in FAO's assessments of forests.

For a country the sample grid can be intensified and become a cost-efficient approach to measure national forest trends.

"This system will not cover all information needs for REDD, but the remote sensing approach, together with field verification, will provide forest area changes in a robust and verifiable way - a crucial component for carbon accounting under REDD," said Mette Wilkie who coordinates the Global Forest Resources Assessment Programme at FAO.

The UN-REDD Programme, a collaborative partnership between FAO, UNDP and UNEP supports developing countries to prepare for REDD.

"National monitoring systems must be enhanced, not just looking at carbon dynamics but also measuring multiple benefits of REDD and drivers of deforestation. This new global monitoring system is a very important step in demonstrating that REDD can become a reality" said Peter Holmgren responsible for FAO's involvement in UN-REDD and FAO's focal point for Climate Change.

Space agencies, Google seek ways to save forests
Alister Doyle, Reuters 20 Oct 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Space agencies and Google Inc are helping an international project to monitor forests by satellite to fight global warming, the head of an international earth observation group said on Tuesday.

Deforestation from Brazil to Indonesia is blamed for emitting about a fifth of all greenhouse gases from human activities -- plants soak up carbon as they grow and release it when they burn or rot.

"The only way to measure forests efficiently is from space," said Jose Achache, director of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), which is linking governments, space agencies such as NASA and others in a new partnership to measure forests.

The system would aim to make annual assessments of forest carbon stocks, compared to a current five-year cycle.

Google, which offers satellite images via its Google Earth site, would contribute with a related project, Achache told Reuters in a phone interview from London. Details of the company's involvement would be given in November.

A 190-nation U.N. climate pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December is likely to approve a plan to slow deforestation in tropical nations. That may include putting a price on carbon stored in trees as part of a new market.

"Investors will want some kind of guarantee that when they are putting money into forests that the forests ... will remain there and remain in good condition," Achache said.

NASA, ESA

America's NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space agencies of Japan, Germany, Italy, India and Brazil were among those taking part in the forest mapping.

Costs would be low, Achache said, since satellite data were already being collected for other purposes. GEO's members include 80 governments as well as U.N. organizations.

Seven countries would act as pilot projects in 2009-10 -- Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico and Tanzania -- based on satellite images taken in recent months.

Satellite images from the U.S. Landsat go back to 1972 -- enabling the world to work out deforestation rates by comparing images with snapshots of current forests. A base year of 1990 might be used, in line with the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for cutting industrial emissions.

Under the satellite project, a first phase was to show how much of a country was forested. A second phase would be to work out how much carbon was locked up in each type of forest.

Stephen Briggs, head of ESA's Earth Observation Science, Applications and Future Technologies unit, said radar images of forests can measure carbon above ground since the microwaves are scattered by passing through vegetation.

"We need some form of validated, assured mechanism," he said. Assessments of carbon stocks from space need to be calibrated against measurements taken on the ground.

David Singh, head of Conservation International in Guyana, said forest credits could help the South American nation.

"So far we have low deforestation rates. But there is an upgraded road joining northern Brazil to coastal Guyana. That has the possibility of opening the region," he said.

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Developing nations join West in deforestation fight

Yahoo News 21 Oct 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Six developing countries will join five western nations, including the United States and Britain, to combat climate change by better managing forestry resources, the World Bank said Tuesday.

The Forest Investment Program (FIP) will meet for the first time on October 29 in Washington to kickstart the program and discuss the criteria for selecting countries or regions of the world that could benefit most from the effort.

Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Morocco, Nepal, and Romania will join donor nations Australia, Denmark, Norway, Britain and the United States, who have jointly pledged some 350 million dollars to fund the project.

The FIP is among the first of a new generation of partnerships between developing and developed countries working to combat the threat of climate change through forest management, the World Bank said.

"This new program will provide much-needed upfront investment to developing countries and forest-dependent communities to help them prepare for and benefit from financial flows for the sustainable management of forests," said Eduardo Saboia, who represented Brazil in earlier meetings aimed at designing the FIP.

Global deforestation, which is advancing at a rate of five percent per decade, is responsible for 20 percent of all the annual carbon dioxide emissions.

The 20 percent figure is roughly equivalent to the total annual emissions of either the United States or China, and surpasses the total yearly emissions from every car, truck, plane, ship and train on Earth, according to estimates provided by the United Nations.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed on October 13 to engage with other leaders at the upcoming major climate summit in Copenhagen in the hope of reducing deforestation of the Amazon by 80 percent by 2020.

The Amazon, the planet's largest rainforest, loses 12,000 square kilometers (4,600 square miles) each year to deforestation.

Douglas Alexander, British Secretary of State for International Development, said Tuesday in a statement released by the World Bank that deforestation "is a global tragedy, destroying the homes and livelihoods of some of the world's poorest people.

"Rampant, large scale deforestation also produces more carbon emissions than all the world's planes, ships and cars combined," he noted, urging "decisive action" to counter the crisis.

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Global platform for food security revitalized

FAO 20 Oct 09;

Member countries agree to reform Committee on World Food Security

20 October 2009, Rome - Faced with rising world hunger and unacceptable poverty and in response to calls for greater coherence and coordination, members of the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) have agreed on a wide-ranging reform, FAO announced today.

The reform aims to make CFS the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform dealing with food security and nutrition and to be a central component in the evolving Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition.

The CFS reforms are designed to focus the Committee's vision and role on the global coordination of efforts to eliminate hunger and ensure food security for all. This includes supporting national anti-hunger plans and initiatives; ensuring that all relevant voices are heard in the policy debate on food and agriculture; strengthening linkages at regional, national and local levels; and basing decisions on scientific evidence and state of the art knowledge.

Inclusive

The new CFS will be inclusive. In addition to member countries, participation in the Committee will be made up of a wider range of organizations working with food security and nutrition from UN agencies like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis and other UN bodies.

The CFS will also include civil society and non-governmental organizations, particularly organisations representing smallholder family farmers, fisherfolk, herders, landless, urban poor, agricultural and food workers, women, youth, consumers and indigenous people.

Participation will also include international agricultural research institutions, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, regional development banks and the World Trade Organization. The Committee shall also be open to representatives of private sector associations and philanthropic foundations.

Advice from the experts

Another important part of the new Committee is that it will receive advice from a high level panel of experts on the subject of food security and nutrition. This will ensure that effective solutions to ending hunger are based on scientific and knowledge-based analysis.

Aligning policies

The Committee will provide a platform for discussion and coordination. It will promote greater policy convergence including through the development of international strategies and voluntary guidelines on food security and nutrition based on best practices and lessons learned from countries who have managed to make progress in reducing hunger. The CFS will help countries and regions to address how hunger and malnutrition can be reduced more quickly and effectively.

Successful reform

"The CFS reform shows that the international community is committed to pay more attention to the elimination of hunger and poverty," said Hafez Ghanem, Assistant Director-General of FAO. "Creating this important global platform means that we are building a better home for global food security including governments, international institutions, researchers civil society and the private sector."

The World Summit on Food Security, 16-18 November 2009, will focus the attention of leaders on making sure everyone in the world has enough food, including how to support the implementation of the reform of CFS.

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India worries over reports of China dams in Tibet

P. Jayaram, Straits Times 21 Oct 09;

NEW DELHI: The Indian government, in the face of widespread media reports here about Chinese plans to build dams along the Yarlung Zangbo river in Tibet, has said that this could have 'significant impact' on the people living downstream near the Brahmaputra.

The 2,906km-long Yarlung Zangbo and the Brahmaputra are one and the same river, with its first stretch of 1,625km flowing through Tibet, the next 918km in India and the remaining 363km through Bangladesh before it discharges into the Bay of Bengal.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said that although Beijing had 'categorically denied' any such plans, the Indian government would 'ascertain whether there are recent developments that suggest any change in the position conveyed to us'.

Both countries set up an experts committee on trans-border rivers in November 2006 and agreed to establish a joint mechanism to share technical data. But this was restricted to flood-season data.

Any diversion of water into the Brahmaputra would seriously affect the condition of people living downstream, the spokesman said.

India's north-eastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have expressed concerns about the reported Chinese move. Said Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi: 'Large-scale diversion of water would adversely hit the state's economy and could even lead to environmental problems and affect the surface water table in the north-east.'

The Indian Express, quoting information available with New Delhi, said the Chinese plan to build a series of five medium-sized dams along the Yarlung Zangbo in the Nanshan region of Tibet at Zangmu, Jiacha or Gyatsa, Zhongda, Jiexu and Langzhen.

Sources said New Delhi had taken up the matter with Beijing three years ago when some articles appeared in the media about the projects. China assured India then that these were just articles in the press and 'no concrete decision' had been taken.

The assumption then was that the dam would be built on the tributaries of the Yarlung Zango, but the Zangmu dam project is very much on it.

According to media reports here, the Nanshan Regional Administration issued orders as early as October 2007 for evacuation of people from the area.

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How Peru is netting water supplies

Dan Collyns, BBC News 20 Oct 09;

They look like huge abandoned volleyball nets facing west towards the Pacific Ocean on one of the many hillsides in the Peruvian capital, Lima.

They started as an experiment two years ago and now they are giving a lifeline to some of Lima's poorest residents.

The Peruvian capital gets an average of just over 40mm (1.5 inches) of rainfall a year but what it does not get in showers, it makes up for in fog.

For nine months of the year, much of the coastal city is shrouded in sea mist and these nets are being used to trap it.

The nets capture the fog in their thick plastic mesh and the drops fall into makeshift gutters that run along the bottom and drain into swimming pool-sized collection tanks further down the hillside.

Using four of these simple 8m x 4m structures, this community, perched on the foothills of the Andes in Lima's Villa Maria del Triunfo district, can harvest around 240 litres of water every night and the similar amount during the course of the day.

Ironically for a place almost constantly shrouded in fog, it is called Bellavista, which means "nice view".

"These fog nets have improved our quality of life. We can grow vegetables for our families and use all this moisture in the fog which would otherwise be wasted rather than having to buy water," said Noe Neira Tocto.

The vegetables helped to feed the low-income families but they still had to buy water for domestic uses such as washing and cooking, he said.

They are also growing Tara trees, whose fruit contains tannins which are used for treating furniture leather.

The community hopes the money earned from selling the fruit will help pay for the maintenance of the fog-catching nets.

"Our dream is to make this water fit for drinking," he said.

Sustainable living

Although they live on the fringes of the city, the residents of Bellavista are all from rural areas who migrated to the capital to find work.

The newest arrivals get the land further up the hill which is not connected to the municipal water supply.

Farming comes naturally to residents like Olga Arce, who migrated to Lima two decades ago.

"Everyone who lives here is originally from the countryside. For us it's natural to plant crops and we all have our vegetable gardens," she said.

Tens of thousands more Peruvians could end up migrating to the city as climate change appears to be already disrupting the rhythm of the seasons in the Andes.

Peru, home to 70% of the world's tropical glaciers, is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

As the glaciers shrink, there is increasingly less melt-water flowing into the rivers which supply the arid coast, home to almost three-quarters of the population.

Climate change models predict that eventually they will disappear altogether.

Chaotic growth in Lima is also posing a serious threat to already scarce water resources.

The population of the city of 8.5 million has more than doubled in the last 30 years.

It is one of the world's largest desert cities and around a quarter of its inhabitants lack basic water services.

On the other side of the city in San Martin de Porres, a very different picture from Bellavista emerged.



There is no piped water and also far less fog.

"Here we are 15 minutes from the government palace and the people have been living here for 50 or 60 years without water," said Abel Cruz who heads the campaigning group Peruvians without Water (Peruanos Sin Agua).

"It's incredible that this is happening, there's internet, telephone and cable TV connections but no water - the most basic necessity for human life," he said.

More than 250,000 people in this neighbourhood rely on private water trucks. They pay up to 10 times more than residents of middle-class Lima suburbs like Miraflores who have water on tap.

To fill up one barrel costs around 50 cents.

"My children suffer from parasites and intestinal infections because the water we pay for isn't even treated, it's from a well," said Amanda Solis, another community leader campaigning for the government to lay water pipes in her street.

"We've spent half a lifetime waiting for what is a basic service - something essential to a have a decent standard of living.

"Realistically speaking it will probably be 2012 before we get running water here."

Water for all?

Guillermo Leon, director of Lima's water board, Sedapal, said they are committed to making sure 100% of Lima residents have running water and are connected to a sewerage system by 2011.

"We understand that democracy means access to basic services.

"But we have to appeal for the solidarity of the people who already have water to reduce their consumption - there's no point in laying new water pipes just to deliver a trickle."

Lima residents who are lucky enough to have running water consume some 250 litres a day, according to Sedapal.

This is simply incompatible with the capital's water resources. If residents cut down consumption by 10 litres a day, officials say they could supply a further 130,000 families with water.

Sedapal's centre of operations is a comfortingly blue glass building set on an irrigated grass lawn next to an artificial lake.

Practically all of the capital's main river, the Rimac, is dammed and treated as it runs through the Sedapal's grounds.

But it is a trickle compared to the River Nile which provides Cairo, a desert city with almost twice the population of Lima, with vastly more fresh water.

"When Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lima he never imagined there would be so many people living here," said Mr Leon.

A third of Peru's population now lives in the capital and it continues to be swelled by new waves of new migrants.

Even with plans to build tunnels to bring fresh water from the Amazon on the other side of the Andes, plus desalination plants for seawater and an overhaul of the capital's leaky water pipes, there still won't be enough water, said Mr Leon, unless Lima residents change their habits.

"Without these and other changes, Lima will be totally unsustainable and we'll probably just have to change the capital."

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Greenpeace hails Indonesian President's climate change posture

Antara 21 Oct 09;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Greenpeace hailed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s intention to assume a leading role in the battle against climate change by reducing Indonesia`s greenhouse emissions by 21 percent by 2020.

Greenpeace here on Tuesday delivered a letter and a bouquet of flowers also to congratulate Yudhoyono on his inauguration for his second presidential term, a press statement of the environmental NGO, said.

"As president of the country with the largest remaining tropical forests in the region and therefore, with most to lose, his words are a sign of hope for the millions of people who are already suffering under the impact of climate change and the region`s rich biodiversity," wrote Von Hernandez, Executive Director Greenpeace Southeast Asia in the letter.

The NGO also called on President Yudhoyono to personally attend the crucial Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December and honor his commitments while prioritizing the implementation of a moratorium on deforestation in his first one-hundred-days program.

"Such a Presidential declaration would be legally enforceable and a necessary step to protect Indonesia`s forests and peat lands effectively," it said.

As one of the most important leaders in South East Asia - the region recognized as one of the most exposed and least prepared for the impact of climate change, President Yudhoyono`s pledge, when turned into action, will herald the much needed cooperation between the developed and developing world on funding for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

At last month`s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, US, President Yudhoyono pledged a 26-percent cut in Indonesia`s carbon emissions by 2020 - rising to 41 percent with international support. By doing so he demonstrated Indonesia`s willingness and the kind of strong leadership that is critical to helping the world avoid climate chaos.

As part of his presidency, Greenpeace expects President Yudhoyono to turn his G20 commitment into reality by outlining concrete steps to implement a national plan that should ultimately lead to a carbon-neutral, sustainable development with zero deforestation.

In doing so, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will make history as a President, and the global leader, who was responsible for stopping the irreversible impact of runaway climate change.

"Greenpeace wishes President Yudhoyono good luck in his endeavor to do the right thing for the people of Indonesia and use the historic opportunity presented to him to do the right thing for all living things on the planet," the letter concluded.

Greenpeace is an independent, global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behavior, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace.(*)

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UN predicts flash floods in parched East Africa

Yahoo News 20 Oct 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – The UN warned on Tuesday that flash floods could hit East Africa over the coming months and deal a devastating blow to hundreds of thousands of people who are already reeling from severe drought.

The UN's humanitarian coordination office predicted that the El Nino climate pattern in the Pacific basin could trigger heavy rain in the Horn of Africa after the region was hit one of the worst droughts in a decade.

"El Nino could create in the coming weeks and months extremely serious floods in the Horn of Africa with mudslides, destruction to crops, and illnesses linked to water," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The UN estimates that 750,000 people in Kenya and some 450,000 people in Somalia's Shabelle and Juba river basins could be affected, while 50,000 people in Tanzania would be at risk of a repeat of the devastating 2006-07 floods.

Some areas might see water reserves replenished by the expected torrential rains and a recovery in their parched pastures, according to OCHA.

But the downpour is not expected to relieve food shortages in the region until harvests in 2010, it added.

British charity Oxfam said last month that more than 23 million people face severe hunger and destitution across East Africa because of the direct or indirect effects of the drought, which has lasted five years in some areas.

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