India launches Tigernet

TRAFFIC 7 Jan 10;

Delhi, India, 7 January 2009—A website launched this week by Mr Jairam Ramesh, Hon. Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Environment and Forests will give Tiger reserve directors and chief wildlife wardens in India the ability to key in crucial information about Tiger deaths, poaching and seizures.

The Tigernet website, at www.tigernet.nic.in, will be the first consolidated database on mortality and poaching related to Tigers and other protected species within Tiger reserves.

Gathering accurate information on such Tiger activities is crucial to assisting anti-poaching efforts.

The new system will allow enforcement officers to record information on Tiger mortalities, to monitor patterns of where poaching incidents are occurring and use this information to strengthen anti-poaching efforts.

TRAFFIC has helped develop the new website, in collaboration with the government's National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The information will be available in the public domain, while Field Directors and Chief Wildlife Wardens will be required to log in to key in information on Tiger-related issues.

The accurate reporting of Tiger deaths and the circumstances surrounding them has been a contentious issue in India, with conflicting information from official sources and NGOs, and accusations of secrecy over some findings.

It is anticipated the new website will simplify the whole Tiger death reporting system and allow a more accurate and transparent picture to be generated of the poaching and other threats facing the nation's Tiger population. Automatic reminders will be sent to official staff to upload details surrounding any Tiger mortalities, including the findings of post mortem examinations. The NTCA recently made funding available for the purchase of cold storage facilities so Tiger carcasses can be preserved until a thorough post mortem can be carried out.

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Emergency declared for Britain's wildlife

Michael McCarthy, The Independent 8 Jan 10;

Britain is facing a winter wildlife emergency, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said yesterday, as the longest period of freezing weather for nearly 28 years looks set to continue for at least another week.

The severe chill which has gripped the country for nearly a fortnight shows no signs of easing, with easterly winds likely to bring more snow this weekend and beyond, and temperatures in most places staying stubbornly below zero, in the most enduring cold snap since the winter of 1981-82.

A "blocking anti-cyclone", a static area of high pressure over Greenland, is preventing warmer Atlantic winds from reaching Britain, with very cold air from the north and east predominating over the country. There is no sign of warmer conditions before the end of next week at least, the Met Office said yesterday.

And the sheer length of the freeze is now becoming critical for many wildlife species, said the RSPB – above all, birds, which are finding it impossible to feed, as the ground and many water bodies are frozen solid.

"This is a wildlife emergency," said Mark Avery, the RSPB's director of conservation. "Many birds cannot feed at all as the ground is frozen, and in many places their feeding places are also covered in deep snow. The long frozen period is even beginning to resemble the winter of 1962-63, which did more damage to Britain's birds than anything else in our lifetimes."

At the end of that winter, the coldest in the UK in the 20th century, many populations of common birds such as wrens had plummeted to tiny levels, and rare birds were hit even harder: when spring 1963 came, only 11 pairs of Dartford warblers were left in the country. The RSPB is appealing to people everywhere to put out food for birds in their gardens, and is going further: for the first time it is attempting emergency feeding for three rare and recovering species which will miss out on any garden food bonanza.

They are the Dartford warbler, found on heathlands, which will be fed on mealworms left on low-level bird tables in Suffolk and Dorset; the cirl bunting, found on farmland in south Devon, which will be fed on grain; and the bittern, the shy relative of the heron, which only eats fish and is finding life tough on frozen lakes and meres. RSPB volunteers are going to leave sprats out on top of the frozen ice at several nature reserves, where it is hoped that hungry bitterns will find them.

Other wildlife organisations, including the British Trust for Ornithology, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Natural England are urging people to minimise disturbance to birds such as ducks, geese and wading birds, as they need more energy than normal to keep warm. Disturbing birds by getting too close to them can cause them to fly off, expending their energy needlessly, and if they cannot find sufficient food to replace the lost energy they are "existing on borrowed time", conservationists warn.

Following 14 continuous days of freezing conditions, a temporary ban on shooting ducks, geese and wading birds has been introduced in Scotland, and for the first time in Northern Ireland. While the cold spell in England and Wales has not yet lasted long enough to trigger a legal ban, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation is calling on people to show restraint. "We are urging all shooters to assess their local conditions, and if they see birds in poor condition, or conditions are harsh, they should hold back from shooting ducks, geese and waders," said BASC spokesman Simon Clarke.

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Brr! Florida Manatees Warm Up At Power Plant Hot Tub

Carlos Barria, PlanetArk 8 Jan 10;

RIVIERA BEACH - An offline Florida power plant is providing a warm-water refuge for several hundred manatees who like the Sunshine State's human residents are shivering in record low cold temperatures.

Close to 400 of the bulky, wrinkly and endangered sea mammals, including mothers and young, have congregated at an outlet on Florida's Intracoastal Waterway where heated water flows from the Riviera Power Plant operated by the Florida Power and Light Company, a unit of the FPL Group Inc (FPL.N).

The oil- and gas-fired plant was taken off line last year for modernization but FPL has installed a special heating system to keep waters at an attractively balmy temperature for the manatees who have been gathering at the outlet for years.

"The water that discharges into the area where the manatees gather comes out at 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius). It gives a nice combination by the time it mixes with the natural water ... it's very comfortable for them and they enjoy it," FPL spokesperson Sharon Bennett told Reuters.

Viewed from the dock, dozens of manatees, their gray bodies huddled close together, lolled in the warm greenish waters around the power plant outlet. Some lifted their bewhiskered faces out of the water to gaze back at onlookers.

Many of the manatees had scars on their bodies caused by boat hulls and propellers.

Florida's wildlife and human inhabitants are currently shivering in frigid temperatures that are even threatening the state's multibillion-dollar citrus crop. Though hardly on par with frozen northern states such as North Dakota, where Thursday's high was expected to be minus 11 F (minus 24 C) in Bismarck, temperatures in the 30s and 40s are rare in subtropical south Florida.

RECORD NUMBER OF DEATHS

The West Indian manatee, related to the African and Amazon species and to the dugong of Australia, grows to 10 feet (3 metres) and more than 1,000 pounds (450 kg).

Although they have no natural enemies, manatees are routinely crushed or drowned in canal locks, run over by speeding boats or hurt by fishing line and hooks. They are also vulnerable to cold water in winter and to deadly blooms of "red tide" algae.

Bennett said FPL was working with local fish and wildlife authorities to maintain the warm water refuge for the manatees while the power plant was being upgraded into a more modern and efficient unit, a process that could take several years.

"It's less expensive for us to operate it this way during this down-time than to run the generators to heat the water," she said, calling the special heating system FPL's contribution to the preservation of the environment and its wildlife.

Bennett said the company hoped to eventually install a public viewing area at the plant to allow visitors to see the gathering of the sea mammals.

Although state scientists counted a record high number of 3,807 manatees in Florida waters last year, topping the previous high in 2001 by more than 500, local wildlife officials say 429 manatees died in Florida last year.

This was a record number of deaths for one year, higher than 2006, when 417 deaths were documented in Florida.

Of the 2009 deaths, 56 were caused by cold stress.

A lower-than-average total of 337 manatee deaths was reported in 2008.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Sandra Maler)

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Penang government should subsidise green bags

Tunku Shahariah Tunku Yusoff, The Star 7 Jan 10;

THE Penang Government should subsidise the cost of bio-degradable green bags for supermarkets to give them free to shoppers in order to boost the ‘No Plastic Bags Day’ campaign.

Student Rebecca Dawson, 22, from Sungai Ara, said if shoppers were given bags, they would get used to the idea of using them and discard the ‘use plastic bag’ mindset altogether.

“My family and I stopped using plastic bags since the ‘No Plastic Bags Day’ campaign kicked off last June. The state government should not consider doing it phase by phase and should just implement the campaign at one go as a policy.

“It’s not at all troublesome for us to stop using plastic bags and supermarkets should take it a step further by giving away free bio-degradable green bags initially to coax people into doing away with plastic bags,” she said when met at the Cold Storage outlet in Gurney Plaza, Penang, yesterday.

The retail outlet, operated by GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, is now implementing the campaign from Monday to Thursday while its sister outlet, Giant, is running it from Monday to Wednesday.

Briton Catherine Burrell, who lives in Batu Ferringhi and is a regular shopper at Cold Storage Gurney Plaza, said Britain stopped using plastic bags a long time ago.

“It’s a very good move. Hopefully, the campaign can be adopted by all stores and shops soon,” she said.

Former Penang Water Authority general manager Datuk Lee Yeow Ching, who was spotted shopping at the same outlet, described the campaign by the state government as “a good move”.

“It’s about time too,” said Lee who shops there twice weekly.

Housewife Ooi Sow Teoh, 63, who shops there every Wednesday said she was willing to pay RM2.70 for the green bag.

“This little effort will go a long way to saving the environment,” she added.

Cold Storage Gurney Plaza assistant division head Nasrul Hafiz said the outlet launched the four-day week campaign on Monday.

“We give away a green bag for free to shoppers who spend above RM100,” he said.

“For those who wish to buy our green bags, we’re selling them for RM2.70 each. We have them in green and brown.

“For those who insist on buying plastic bags, we sell them at 20 sen and donate the money to charity,” he added.

He added that the outlet collects an average of RM2,000 per month from the sale of plastic bags.

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Greenpeace Calls for Moratorium on Logging in Indonesia

Ulma Haryanto & Arti Ekawati Jakarta Globe 7 Jan 10;

Save the environment or lose up to $7 billion a year in revenue — as well as tens of thousands of jobs — from the forestry sector?

For environmental group Greenpeace, the answer is simple: Implement a moratorium on logging this year to allow the government time to clean up its act, and give the environment a breather from rampant deforestation. But the Forestry Ministry says the country cannot afford to do so.

“A logging moratorium means taking a break from logging activities, and by this we mean all logging activities,” Bustar Maitar, a Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigner, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. “While the country is taking a break from logging activities, the government should check any overlapping laws between central regulations and regional application, which conflict most of the time.”

During the hiatus, Bustar said the government could also look for nonforest areas in which plantations and production forests (HPI) could be developed.

Peatland forest conversion for development contributed 40 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, he said. “So why don’t they use empty areas for these plantations and HPI?”

According to Bustar, other deforestation activities, such as logging, contributed an additional 40 percent to the country’s carbon emissions.

“A logging moratorium and putting a stop to peatland [conversion] and deforestation should be included in the 2010 national roadmap to reach the country’s emission reduction targets,” he said, referring to the government’s commitment to a 26 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.

But Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said Greenpeace’s call for a moratorium was impossible.

“What should we do with our industry? Can [Greenpeace] provide any solutions for the logging industry and people who make their living from forestry sector?” the minister said on Wednesday.

According to Zulkifli, the moratorium would cause economic stagnation. Besides, he said, the country already had programs in place for sustainable forestry management.

“If we want to blame somebody because of deforestation, blame the illegal loggers and their buyers,” he added.

Nanang Roffandi Ahmad, executive director of the Indonesian Forest Concessionaires Association (APHI), said the logging moratorium was not the right solution to reduce carbon emissions because it would have a negative multiplier effect if there was not any proper forestry management activity.

“The forestry sector contributed about $7 billion a year to the state income, with pulp industries contributing some 50 percent,” he has said previously. “If it was stopped, the country would lose significant income.”

Nanang said the government should also think about the workers who earned their livings from forestry activities, right down to those who transported the logged products.

“On average, there are more than 40,000 employees at forestry companies and we pay them about $3 a day. If there was a logging moratorium, how would these employee live?” he said.

Greenomics Indonesia, a nongovernmental organization that assesses the economic impact of the environment, had previously released data showing that a moratorium would cost the country at least Rp 75.24 trillion ($8.13 billion) from economic losses over the next eight years.

Elfian Effendi, executive director of Greenomics, said a moratorium needed to be supported by developed countries in the form of funds to compensate for the restrictions on the forestry sector.

At present, there are 187 companies holding forestry concessions. Of those, 110 firms have rights to log natural-growth forests, which have a potential value of Rp 65.96 trillion to 2018; and 77 companies have rights to log HPIs, which have a potential value of Rp 9.28 trillion to 2018.

“In total, the country needs to cover Rp 75.24 trillion, which must be paid by [international] donors and other developed countries as compensation for protecting our forest from exploitation,” Elfian said.

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Mosquito attacks kill dozens of cattle in the Riaus

The Jakarta Post 7 Jan 10;

An unidentified species of mosquito has emerged as the number one enemy of farmers in the Riau regency of Inderagiri Hulu, as the insect has killed dozens of their cattle over the last month.

Local veterinarians have been unable to identify the type of the mosquito to find what caused the cattle’s deaths.

“We are still conducting a laboratory examination of the species,” head of the provincial husbandry agency Patrianov told Antara on Thursday.

He said the mosquito was most active at night, targeting mostly cows and goats.

“Local farmers have protected their cattle with mosquito nets, but to no avail,” Patrianov said.

There have been a few reports of chicken fatalities due to the mosquito, he added.

A resident, Ruli, said the mosquito bit humans, but caused no fatalities.

“But its bite causes more pain than common mosquitoes,” Ruli said.

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Deadly 'cattle plague' set to be wiped out: world farm agency

Yahoo News 7 Jan 10;

PARIS (AFP) – A cattle disease that has been a curse for millennia is likely to be declared eradicated next year thanks to a global vaccination campaign, the world's paramount veterinary agency said on Thursday.

Rinderpest, also called cattle plague, can wipe out entire herds of cattle and buffalo, inflicting economic disaster and malnutrition in villages in poor countries.

But an arduous effort to vaccinate animals against the virus that causes the disease is bearing fruit, the head of the World Organisation for Animal Health, known by its French acronym of OIE, said in Paris.

"We are very close to wiping out rinderpest around the world," the OIE's director-general, Bernard Vallat, said, comparing the achievement in veterinary terms to the eradication of smallpox among humans.

"This disease has been a historic curse for humanity. It has been around since the dawn of time," Vallat said

In 2000, nearly half of the OIE's rollcall of 175 countries still had rinderpest, a tally that has fallen in 2010 to 17.

Assessments are underway for these remaining countries, of which Somalia is the most problematic, but hopes are high that the OIE will be able to declare the disease eradicated at a meeting in 2011, he said.

Vallat said a key question was where virus samples would be stored, to be used for research purposes and as a source for vaccines if the disease ever rebounded.

"Two or three" high-security reference laboratories are being considered, he said.

Samples of smallpox virus continue to be held in US and Russian labs, raising fears in some quarters that they could be stolen or used to make a bioterror weapon.

"Hopefully, it won't be the same for rinderpest," said Vallat.

The pathogen that causes rinderpest is a member of the paramyxoviridae family of virus.

Sheep and goats are susceptible to the virus but are much less affected by it compared to cattle. The symptoms among animals are fever, diarrhoea and dehydration, often leading to death within 10 to 15 days. There is no risk for humans.

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South Korea reports foot-and-mouth outbreak

Yahoo News 7 Jan 10;

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea Thursday confirmed an outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease on a cattle farm and ordered a halt to pork and beef exports.

Six of 185 milk cows at a farm in Pocheon, 30 kilometres (18 miles) northeast of Seoul, had tested positive for the virus, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

Foot-and-mouth disease affects animals with cloven hooves such as cattle, pigs, deer, goats and sheep. The virus can be spread between animals, through the air and on clothing. However, it is rarely transmitted to humans.

"All animals with cloven hooves found within a radius of 500 metres (yards yards) from the affected farm will immediately be culled," the ministry's livestock bureau director Lee Chang-Buhm told journalists.

"Exports of such animals will also be halted" until further notice, he said.

South Korea last year exported some 13,000 tonnes of swine products, mostly intestines, skin and lard.

A total of 346 milk cows, 1,500 pigs, 30 deer and 12 goats were being raised at seven farms within the 500-metre radius, he said.

Movement restrictions were also put in place to help contain the disease within a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius from the contaminated farm, he added.

The disease was reported South Korea in 2000 and 2002, resulting in the slaughter of infected animals at a total cost of about 450 billion won (400 million dollars).

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World veterinary agency to probe meat-climate link

Yahoo News 7 Jan 10;

PARIS (AFP) – The world's top authority in farm animal health announced on Thursday it would launch a study into the role of meat in climate change.

The report, carried out by independent experts, is expected to be published "by the summer," Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organisation for Animal Health, known by its French acronym of OIE, said in Paris.

It is the first time in its nearly 85-year history that the 175-nation OIE is to carry out an environmental investigation.

The agency swaps information about diseases in farm animals and issues recommendations in veterinary scares such as H5N1 avian flu.

The probe coincides with mounting interest in the role of meat-eating in stoking climate change.

Farm animals are significant sources of greenhouse gases, either directly through methane emissions from digestion or indirectly, such as clearing forests for pasture and inputs used in raising cattle.

Vallat, who is the OIE's director general, said there had been a "very strong request" from member-states for the report.

The investigation's scope will be limited, and it will not seek to rival or replicate the work of the UN's global-warming scientists, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), he said.

By some estimates, there will be a 50-percent surge in demand for animal protein by 2020 in order to feed the world's burgeoning population and demands from emerging economies, he said.

"Whatever happens, we are going to have to produce more animals to feed the planet," he told a press conference.

Celebrity vegans such as Paul McCartney are urging consumers to boycott meat as a personal contribution to fighting climate change.

A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef causes more greenhouse-gas and other pollution than driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on back home, according to a 2007 study led by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan.

Animal Health Body To Study Meat Impact On Climate
Gus Trompiz, PlanetArk 8 Jan 10;

PARIS - The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) is to study the impact of meat output on climate change in the light of debate about meat's contribution to greenhouse emissions, the Paris-based body said on Thursday.

The initiative, which will be the OIE's first on an environmental issue, follows requests from its member countries to look at a question that has prompted calls to eat less meat.

Meat production is estimated to account for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, and some scientists have cited lower meat consumption as a way of tackling climate change.

A campaign led by former Beatle Paul McCartney to get people not to eat meat one day a week has also drawn attention to the issue.

But OIE Director-General Bernard Vallat warned against oversimplifying the issue, stressing factors such as the carbon-stocking role of pasture land would have to be evaluated.

"It's a question that needs to be studied with a lot of distance," he told a news conference. "We want to make a modest and independent contribution."

People also needed to be aware that livestock production generated milk and eggs as well as meat and so could not be sacrificed at a time of fast-growing protein demand among the world's population, he said.

"There is not yet a scientific model that can prove that our planet could do without milk, eggs or meat."

The study would thus likely recommend further research to find ways of limiting the direct effects of meat production on the environment, such as methane emissions, Vallat added.

Another focus for the OIE this year would be reducing cases of rabies, which kills 50,000 people worldwide annually, mainly following dog bites.

The body was notably calling for developing countries to devote more money to vaccinating dogs rather than just treating infected people which was much more expensive, Vallat said.

(Editing by Keiron Henderson)

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Experts: Cold snap doesn't disprove global warming

Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press Yahoo News 6 Jan 10;

Beijing had its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap since 1981. And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South, including Florida's orange groves and beaches.

Whatever happened to global warming?

Such weather doesn't seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn't disprove global warming at all — it's just a blip in the long-term heating trend.

"It's part of natural variability," said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. With global warming, he said, "we'll still have record cold temperatures. We'll just have fewer of them."

Deke Arndt of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., noted that 2009 will rank among the 10 warmest years for Earth since 1880.

Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes, such as heat waves, storms, floods, droughts and even cold spells. But experts interviewed by The Associated Press did not connect the current frigid blast to climate change.

So what is going on?

"We basically have seen just a big outbreak of Arctic air" over populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere, Arndt said. "The Arctic air has really turned itself loose on us."

In the atmosphere, large rivers of air travel roughly west to east around the globe between the Arctic and the tropics. This air flow acts like a fence to keep Arctic air confined.

But recently, this air flow has become bent into a pronounced zigzag pattern, meandering north and south. If you live in a place where it brings air up from the south, you get warm weather. In fact, record highs were reported this week in Washington state and Alaska.

But in the eastern United States, like some other unlucky parts of the globe, Arctic air is swooping down from the north. And that's how you get a temperature of 3 degrees in Beijing, a reading of minus-42 in mainland Norway, and 18 inches of snow in parts of Britain, where a member of Parliament who said the snow "clearly indicates a cooling trend" was jeered by colleagues.

The zigzag pattern arises naturally from time to time, but it is not clear why it's so strong right now, said Michelle L'Heureux, a meteorologist at the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The center says the pattern should begin to weaken in a week or two.

Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather Underground, a forecasting service, said he expects more typical winter weather across North America early next week.

That will be welcome news in the South, where farmers have been trying to salvage millions of dollars' worth of strawberries and other crops.

On Miami Beach, tourists bundled up in woolen winter coats and hooded sweatshirts Wednesday beneath a clear blue sky. Some brazenly let the water wash over their feet and a few even lay out in bikinis and swimming trunks. A brisk wind blew and temperatures hovered in the 50s.

"Last year we were swimming every day," said Olivia Ruedinger of Hamburg, Germany. "I miss that."

__

Raphael Satter in London, Cara Anna in Beijing, and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.

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Frustrated Carbon Traders Try Other Commodities

Nina Chestney, PlanetArk 8 Jan 10;

LONDON - Some carbon emissions trading desks are expanding or diversifying into other commodities as continued low carbon prices and a weak U.N. climate deal have dulled the market.

Several large banks in the European Union's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) already operate in other energy or commodities markets. Some smaller participants are seeking to diversify as well.

Paris-based COER2 Commodities will start trading crude oil futures, natural gas, gold and base metals from mid-January, adding to its existing carbon emissions trade. "This was part of our strategy since last September. We want to be more involved in the futures commodities markets which is our real core business," a company spokesman said.

Fortis Bank Netherlands started to diversify into other European energy markets toward the end of last year.

"I have put my best people on soft commodities and oil. At the moment I don't see there is a proper business to be had in carbon," Seb Walhain, the bank's head of environmental markets, told Reuters this week.

EU permit prices, considered the global benchmark, fell by 21 percent last year and are now down nearly 60 percent from 2008's highs.

The economic downturn reduced industrial output considerably, which dampened the need for emissions permits.

A watered-down climate agreement in Copenhagen last month depressed the market further as many players hoped for tougher carbon emissions caps, which would increase permit demand and send prices higher.

Analysts expect prices to remain depressed at least until the second half of this year, mainly because industrial companies have a large number of surplus permits. Mass selling could drive prices even further south.

The global market for carbon credits edged up to $136 billion last year, compared with a World Bank estimate of $126 billion for 2008, Oslo-based Point Carbon said on Wednesday.

Last year, several trading firms decided to expand their emissions desks in anticipation of a new global climate agreement followed by a U.S. cap-and-trade market.

(Editing by William Hardy)

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Best of our wild blogs: 7 Jan 10

Life History of the Colour Sergeant
from Butterflies of Singapore

NSS Kids’ Fun with Migratory Birds at Ubin
from Fun with Nature

Calling all green groups!
from Green Drinks Singapore

black sea cucumbers
from sgbeachbum

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