Indonesia to Seek Damages For Timor Sea Oil Spill

Jakarta Globe 31 Dec 09;

The government says that it will seek compensation from Australia for environmental damage in the Timor Sea caused by a leak at the Montara well.

“We have finished calculating our material loss due to the Timor Sea’s contamination and will ask the Australian government for compensation soon,” Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said on Wednesday.

The well is said to have spewed at least 500 million liters of oil into the sea over a 10-week period before it was successfully plugged last month.

Hatta said he recently informed his Australian counterpart that Indonesia was calculating its material losses as a result of the pollution. Hatta added that he expected the Australian government to be serious about resolving the matter to prevent further damage in the affected area.

The minister credited Canberra with taking steps to try and resolve the issue, but said Indonesia needed to take firm action by seeking compensation based on international law.

It is claimed that the leak, which first began on Aug. 20, has contaminated thousands of square kilometers of ocean and killed vast amounts of wildlife.

World Wildlife Fund Australia warned that the spill — the worst in Australia for 40 years — and chemicals used to disperse it, could affect fish stocks and other marine life for generations. The group has described the disaster as an overwhelming environmental tragedy.



Antara

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Indonesian students grow mangroves to prevent erosion

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post 31 Dec 09;

More than 30 students from the SDN 1 Bedono state elementary school in Demak, Central Java, 15 students from the SMK Demak fishery school and 15 university students have planted 5,000 mangroves in a former shrimp farm in Bedono village, Sayung district in Demak, Central Java.

They expect the flourishing mangrove trees will prevent coastal erosion, which has continuously eroded the coastline and damaged residents’ homes.

“The mangrove planting drive is a routine program carried out annually. We have been doing it for the past five years and have grown mangrove trees in a 260-hectare plot of land along the Demak coast.

However, around 20 hectares of the young trees have been swept away by the waves.

“Now, in the second year of the 5-year program we will grow mangroves in a 50 hectare area,” Karis, a member of the Demak Bahari Mangrove Group, told The Jakarta Post.

The elementary school and Japanese students from the Organization for Industry, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA) in Japan, immediately jumped into the pond that was filled with waist-high mud, while a number of the Demak students crawled adeptly from one point to another while planting the mangrove seedlings.

Many of the mangrove forests along the north coast of Demak have been damaged due to huge waves and people felling the trees to make space for shrimp farms.

“There are many land certificates here, but the plots of land are no longer visible because they have been submerged by the sea. In 1990, I owned a 4-hectare shrimp farm, but now it has vanished. I had to move from Senik hamlet to Tambaksari Baru, because it was swallowed by the sea,” said Nurohman, 40.

Nurohman is also aware of rising sea levels due to the impact of global warming from his environmentalist friends.

“The reclamation project in the Tanjung Emas Port area in Semarang has exacerbated the condition.

Its impacts have immediately affected our area because the sea water has engulfed and will eventually submerge our village,” he said.

Nurohman, who was born and raised in Bedono village, is clearly aware of coastal erosion in his area.

Now, the entire village floods during major high tides.

“But where would we move to? I’m old and don’t have money to buy land and build a house. This is the only house that I can live in with my two children. When high tide comes, we are forced to get wet.

So we are used to this condition,” said Abdul Muin, 62.

Bedono village chief Mualipin said that most of the 1,250 families, or 4,500 residents, were familiar with the high tides.

“Only a few of the houses are not affected by the high tides because they are built up high. A number of residents of hamlets located along the coast had to move to new areas because their villages have been swamped,” he said.

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Rising waters threaten Vietnam national park

Cong Thanh, Vietnam News 30 Dec 09;

Taking flight: Birds in Xuan Thuy National Wetlands Park in Nam Dinh Province are at risk due to climate change. — VNA/VNS Photo Truong Vi

Xuan Thuy National Park has been struggling with rising sea levels, which have been attributed to climate change.

Last year, 8ha of casuarina forest was flooded by sea water, which caused losses estimated at over VND400 million (US$21,000).

The 7,100ha forested wetlands in Nam Dinh Province, about 150km south of Ha Noi, are home to a wide range of migratory waterfowl and other species. It is as a Ramsar Convention site – a wetland area recognised internationally for its ecological importance. The only such site in Southeast Asia.

"We are aware of the problem that has been getting worse over the last two years. Last year we were forced to replant 6ha of casuarina trees," said Nguyen Viet Cach, the park director.

"However, we are seeking bigger and higher plants from the south to replace current mangrove forest, which will be devastated in one or two years," Cach said.

Mangrove trees are abundant on the 7,100ha wetland park, which affords it some protection against storms and floods – but there numbers are also decreasing.

Hundreds of shrimp and oyster farmers in the park face losing their incomes.

Annually, income from the park generates a revenue of VND30 billion to VND40 billion ($1,500-$2,000).

As a result of rising sea levels, dams need to be built and roads raised by between 15cm and 20cm park officials said.

"Roads in the park, which cost about VND3 billion ($158,000) last year, have to raise at an additional cost of VND6 billion ($316,000)," Cach said.

Doan Van Trieu, who farms a 16ha part of the farm, said he had seen his income dwindle over the last few years.

"I earned VND100 million ($5,200) this year from my farm, just half what it used to generate in previous years. Aquaculture is very vulnerable to rising sea levels," Trieu said.

He added that he farmed just one tonne of prawns this year – the worst for five years.

"Shrimp breeding, which is easily affected by polluted water, has been badly impacted by sewage from villages around the park. Chemicals have grown increasingly popular over the last two decades," the 44-year-old farmer said.

Trieu, who is from Giao An Village, said he had to fork out VND20 million ($1,000) a year on building embankments against rising water levels.

Managers of the park, which is recognised by UNESCO as a Red River Biosphere Reserve, plan to plant new trees such as avicenniaceae and cypress on an 80ha area at a cost of around VND128 billion ($6.7 million) over a three- to five-year period.

The park’s wildlife, which include as estimated 215 bird species – such as black-faced spoonbills, western white pelicans, black-headed gulls and redheaded egrets – are listed as endangered.

However, the number of bird species has declined over recent years, a fact attributed to global warming.

Park staff Vu Xuan Anh said there were still about 50 black-faced spoonbills visiting the park in winter but that many other species were dwindling in number. — VNS

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Thailand sets health rules to tackle industrial row

Kitiphong Thaichareon, Reuters 29 Dec 09;

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand on Tuesday approved regulations on health and environment assessments for industrial projects, a step toward allowing suspended operations to go ahead at the world's eighth-biggest petrochemical hub.

A court has suspended 65 new plants at Map Ta Phut, Thailand's biggest industrial estate, for their owners' failure to carry out health impact assessments (HIA). The government was blamed because it had not set up a body to oversee the HIAs.

The ruling stoked concern about legal uncertainty and government competence in a country once seen as a safe haven for investment but now mired in five years of political strife.

"The cabinet has approved the draft regulations ... about guidelines to comply with environment and health impact assessments," a deputy government spokesman told reporters.

The government's move at least clarifies what companies need to do to get health impact clearance, but an independent commission to carry out the assessments has still not been set up and some companies fear this could be the main sticking point.

A panel chaired by former premier Anand Panyarachun has agreed to form that body but there are concerns about delays if parties in the dispute challenge who sits on the commission.

Analysts say the credibility of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's embattled pro-business government and its economic revival efforts could be hurt if it fails to resolve the dispute quickly.

DELAYS COSTLY

The central bank says the suspensions could cut GDP growth by up to 0.5 percentage point next year, while an industry ministry estimate last week said a protracted legal standoff could cost as much as $18 billion.

According to the new regulations, companies building plants are now required to hold public hearings into the environmental and health impact. Local people were not previously consulted.

The court injunction followed complaints from local people and environmentalists that state agencies and ministers had failed to issue proper operating licenses at the 6.5 sq km (4,086 acre) estate in eastern Thailand. A local lobby group says some 2,000 cancer deaths were caused by pollution from the estate.

On December 2, a court allowed 11 of 76 suspended projects at Map Ta Phut to proceed, but the other 65 projects worth an estimated $8 billion remained frozen.

Last week the court allowed a venture partly owned by Siam Cement, Thailand's top industrial conglomerate, to resume operations because its license had been granted prior to the promulgation of the 2007 constitution.

Companies at the estate include top energy firm PTT, PTT Chemical and utility Glow Energy. Among the foreign companies are a Thai unit of Germany's Bayer and Australia's BlueScope Steel Ltd.

The government agreed last week to back court appeals on 19 projects it deems safe enough to resume operations, while state-controlled PTT will seek the go-ahead for its nine suspended projects, given that they, too, received operating licenses before the 2007 constitution.

(For a Q+A on the Map Ta Phut dispute:)

(Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Martin Petty)

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China speeds up resettlement in water mega-scheme

Reuters 29 Dec 09;

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will use stimulus spending to speed up shifting 330,000 people slated to be displaced for a vast water transfer project, accelerating work on the troubled scheme, an official newspaper said on Tuesday.

The displaced residents, mostly poor farmers in central China's Henan and Hubei provinces, are being moved for the South-North Water Transfer Project, which will draw water from southern rivers for the country's dry north.

The construction of two long canals in central and eastern China has been troubled by chronic pollution, troubles relocating displaced residents and engineering hitches.

But now Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the project, has "urged local authorities to complete all migrant displacement by the end of 2011," the China Daily reported, citing an official meeting on Monday. The earlier deadline was 2014.

Half the residents will be relocated by the end of 2010, when 48 billion yuan ($7.03 billion) will be spent on the project, boosted by funding from China's blitz of stimulus spending to counter the financial crisis, said Zhang.

Big dams and hydro projects have been a lightning rod for discontent in China. Around the Three Gorges Dam, the nation's other mighty hydro project, clashes dogged the move of 1.4 million residents.

The South-North Project is the latest of these ambitious efforts, and the push to speed up resettlement could stir more complaints from farmers, especially near the Danjiangkou Dam that will feed the main central route.

Most of the people displaced by its rising waters will be sent to less fertile farmland. Resettlement there began earlier this year.

"Nobody really wants to move," said Ma Feng, a villager from Machuan Village near the dam, who was moved earlier this year to a new home hundreds of kilometers away.

"We were forced to accept it in the end, because the officials and police made us," she told Reuters by telephone. "But if they move all the dam residents, that will be much more difficult."

The central route will wind along 1,421 km (883 miles) of canals and tunnels from Danjiangkou to Beijing, as well as the nearby port city of Tianjin and surrounding areas. The separate eastern route cuts through coastal provinces up to Tianjin.

The planned completion for the first stage of the central route was pushed back to 2014 after it became clear that earlier deadlines of 2010 and 2008 could not be met.

A proposed western route, which would tap rivers on the Tibetan highlands to feed northwest areas, is still being examined by experts.

($1=6.829 Yuan)

(Editing by Dean Yates)

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Famous San Francisco sea lions leave in droves

Evelyn Nieves, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Dec 09;

SAN FRANCISCO – Two mysteries surround a huge herd of sea lions that were hanging out on a pier in San Francisco Bay: Why did so many show up, and why did so many leave at once?
Just last month, Pier 39, famous in San Francisco for its sea lions and the throngs of tourists they attract, was groaning under the weight of more than 1,500 of the animals. The record number delighted tourists and baffled experts.

Marine experts suspect the sea lions came and stayed for the food, then left largely for the same reason.

"Most likely, they left chasing a food source," said Jeff Boehm, executive director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which runs an information center and gift shop at Pier 39. "It's probably what kept them here in the first place."

The animals began leaving in droves the day after Thanksgiving, almost as if someone had issued an order. But Boehm said the fact that so many sea lions stayed for so long is even stranger than their disappearance.

"They do move off," Boehm said, adding that in the fall, older sea lions head to breeding colonies in the Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel. Younger sea lions, he said, "don't mind those rules and tend to travel far and wide."

On Tuesday, 10 sea lions lounged and swam and dove from the docks, spreading themselves out where the animals were stacked three and four deep just a month ago. The bulk of the herd probably followed their favorite foods, sardines and anchovies, Boehm said.

The younger ones still sticking around Pier 39 were enough to satisfy hordes of visitors huddled against the wind to watch them. The sea lions huddled together, dove off the docks, and honked and barked.

"We're happy with what we see," said Carmen Fernandez of Miami Beach, Fla., who was watching the sea lions with her husband Carlos.

Despite the sea lions' abrupt disappearance, Boehm said the Marine Mammal Center is not concerned that they have departed for good. While more than the usual number have left — usually about 40 remain — it is very unlikely, Boehm said, that they won't come back. By spring, the herd will probably be back, as usual, he said.

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Australian bushfires destroys almost 40 homes

Reuters 30 Dec 09;

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A major bushfire in the west Australian outback has destroyed almost 40 homes, officials said on Wednesday, as firefighters end a third month of fighting bushfires across the country.

Fire officials say the Australian summer could be one of the worst bushfire seasons, with a series of catastrophic warnings already issued for big fires in at least three states.

Australia's most deadly bushfires occurred last February, when the "Black Saturday" infernos killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the southern Victoria state.

As a result of the "Black Saturday" fires, officials adopted a "catastrophic" warning which advises residents to evacuate homes in the face of major bushfires.

Until the west Australian fire this week, property losses had been few. No one has died in the fires this summer.

Three firefighters and a woman from the wheat-belt town of Toodyay, in Western Australian state, suffered minor injuries in the latest bushfire, which burned 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres).

"It's a devastating fire with great destruction," Western Australian state Premier Colin Barnett told reporters.

Bushfires are a natural phenomenon in Australia, due to its hot, dry environment. Lightning strikes over dry land are the most common cause, followed by human intervention such as fires that get out of control.

Australia's bushfire danger period is from October to March, covering the end of spring, all of summer and the start of autumn, when temperatures are highest and humidity lowest.

A decade-long drought and hot, dry interior outback winds have left much of Australia a tinderbox.

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

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South Korea To Launch Emissions Scheme In January

Cho Mee-Young, PlanetArk 31 Dec 09;

SEOUL - South Korea will launch a pilot carbon emissions trading scheme from January after the environment ministry received applications from 641 public and private organizations, the ministry said on Wednesday.

A ministry official said trading mainly among local municipalities will be done online next year, and from 2011 at Korea Exchange, the country's bourse.

The ministry has not yet decided its price for emissions per ton, she said.

A statement released from the ministry on Tuesday said the scheme will provide a base for the country's voluntary 2020 emissions reduction target. South Korea has pledged to cut emissions by 30 percent from its forecast under a "business as usual" scenario.

"The scheme is designed to meet the country's mid-term emission reduction target and connect with international carbon markets," the statement said.

South Korea, one of the world's fastest growing polluters, said in August it hopes to become Asia's trading hub for carbon emission certificates and related products under its plan for a new carbon exchange from 2011.

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)

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Brazil keeps climate targets despite failed summit

Reuters 28 Dec 09;

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil will make its ambitious 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets legally binding even though global climate talks failed this month, the country's environment minister said on Monday.

"We will fully comply with the targets. It doesn't matter that Copenhagen didn't go as well as we had hoped," Environment Minister Carlos Minc told reporters after meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula will veto three items from a climate bill approved by Congress last month but would maintain the emissions targets, Minc said.

"The targets were maintained, which is the most important. Brazil will have a strong climate change policy," he said.

Brazil aims to reduce its projected 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by as much 39 percent. That amounts roughly to a 20 percent reduction from 2005 levels.

According to the bill Lula is expected to sign into law later on Monday, those targets will be quantifiable and verifiable.

Latin America's largest country had tried to prod other developing and industrialized countries into adopting bold targets at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen earlier this month. But the meeting failed to produce a new framework agreement on climate to follow the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Brazil is one of the largest carbon emitters, largely due to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Deforestation, which has fallen sharply in recent years, releases carbon as trees burn or decompose.

Among the items Lula will veto were proposals to limit the construction of small hydroelectric plants and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

(Reporting by Fernando Exman; Writing by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Brazil's Lula signs law cutting CO2 emissions
Yahoo News 29 Dec 09;

BRASILIA (AFP) – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Tuesday signed a law requiring that Brazil cut greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent by 2020, meeting a commitment made at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

Brazil announced at the summit a "voluntary commitment" to reduce CO2 emissions by between 36.1 and 38.9 percent in the next ten years.

The new law, however, is subject to several decrees setting out responsibilities and regulations for the farming, industrial, energy and environmental sectors.

Lula is expected to sign the decrees in January after consulting scientists and other experts, officials said.

Despite its ambitious targets, Greenpeace's top representative in Brazil, Sergio Leitao, called it merely a list of good intentions and accused Lula of using double standards in environmental issues.

"Brazil usually makes good speeches on the international stage, as in Copenhagen, but in practice it doesn't keep its word," he told reporters.

Before signing the new law, in fact, Lula vetoed three of its provisions, including a reference to "promoting the development of clean energy sources and the gradual phasing out of energy from fossil fuels."

Environment Minister Carlos Minc said he was was pleased with the new law because it showed Brazil's determination to respect the pledges it made in Copenhagen.

"It doesn't matter if the Copenhagen summit didn't get the results we wanted. We will still meet our goals," he told reporters.

The climate change conference held in the Danish capital ended last week with a non-binding agreement that exposed the stark divide between rich and developing nations.

A total of 30 billion dollars was pledged from 2010-2012 to help poor countries in the firing line of climate change, and rich nations set a goal of providing 100 billion dollars annually in aid by 2020.

It established a goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but did not impose binding targets to reduce the emissions of gases that scientists say are heating up the world's atmosphere to dangerous levels.

The Copenhagen agreement was put together by leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and major European nations, after it became clear the 194-nation summit was in danger of failure.

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Best of our wild blogs: 30 Dec 09

Thoughts after the EAS Congress
from Psychedelic Nature

2010 TeamSeagrass monitoring dates
from teamseagrass

Ugly Side of Langkawi Mangroves Tours Part I
from Nature Is Awesome

A Visitor With Aplomb
from Life's Indulgences

Nesting behaviour of Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Kung Fu monkey fights off crows in tree
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

How Algal Biofuels Lost a Decade in the Race to Replace Oil
from Wired: Wired Science

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Poachers still continue to hunt Sumatran tigers

Antara 29 Dec 09;

Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - Poachers still continue to hunt the remaining Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris) in the Bengkulu forest, conservationist Radius Nursidi of the Profauna nature conservation organization said.

"Based on its survey in March, Profauna found at least 12 tiger traps in the Seblat Elephant Conservation Center (PKG) in North Bengkulu," Radius said here on Tuesday.

He said that Profauna conducted the survey only in one area, namely around the PKG forest park where it found at least 12 tiger traps." he said.Poachers also hunt elephants in the Seblat forest park, he said.

Due to the illegal hunting of elephants and tigers in the Seblat PKG forest park in Putri Hijau subdistrict, North Bengkulu, the population of the protected species was increasingly threatened.

"Since 2004, Profauna has recorded that at least eight elephants have been killed," he said.Tiger and elephant poaching in the Bengkulu forest was a serious threat to the population of the protected animals, he said.(*)

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Dengue Should Be Priority for Indonesia, Not Swine Flu: Indonesian lawmaker

Dessy Sagita, The Jakarta Globe 29 Dec 09;

The avian and swine flu strains may have caused the most panic, but combating tuberculosis, dengue fever and malnutrition should top the Ministry of Health’s priorities for 2010, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.

“Our government is sometimes too preoccupied in handling imported diseases such as bird flu or swine flu, they neglect the other diseases that have caused far more fatalities in Indonesia,” said Ribka Tjiptaning from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The H1N1 swine flu scare most likely distracted health workers from dealing with outbreaks of dengue fever, which continued to be a serious threat across the country, she added.

The ministry’s records show that from January through to July this year, there were 585 deaths from dengue from a total of 77,000 cases. The data also shows that on average, 88,000 people die of tuberculosis every year across the archipelago.

In comparison, the bird flu virus has only claimed 119 lives throughout the country since 2003. About 1,000 people were infected by swine flu, which reportedly claimed 10 lives.

Dr. Kartono Muhammad, a noted public health expert and former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association, said on Tuesday that Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih had done nothing significant in her first 100 days in office, outside of her plans to broaden the coverage of a health insurance scheme for the poor, known as Jamkesmas.

“The scheme, however, is giving the public an unrealistic view about our health services,” Kartono said. “In the end, I won’t be surprised if the public will be disappointed when expectations fall short.”

The government wants to expand Jamkesmas to include victims of natural disasters and people at social institutions such as orphanages, nursing homes, disabled care centers, drug rehabilitation centers and in prisons.

Kartono said that during her first 100 days in office, Endang could have focused on a number of health issues, including setting pricing limits on generic medicines, issuing regulations to assist the implementation of the recently endorsed Health Law and the aggressive promotion of family planning programs.

Ribka said Endang could have also better handled last month’s filariasis incident in West Java, in which nine people died allegedly from consuming anti-filariasis medication as part of the ministry’s mass treatment program, a charge Endang has dismissed.

“She should have settled the filariasis issue first before she made her ministerial visit to another province,” Ribka said.

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