Indonesia May Open More Forests to Palm Oil

Arti Ekawati, Jakarta Globe 15 Feb 10;

As Indonesia looks for ways to meet its ambitious emissions-reduction targets, the Ministry of Forestry on Monday said it plans to issue a new regulation that would allow commercial forestry companies to plant crops such as palm oil in new concession areas.

The ministry said the “mixed forest” regulation was intended to help companies survive the current low timber prices and would enable them to grow biofuel crops to help alleviate the country’s energy shortage.

Environmental groups warned that the plan would accelerate deforestation, which contributes to global warming.

Hadi Daryanto, director general of forest production at the ministry, said the regulation would be issued soon and would only apply to forestry concessions granted after it took effect.

Indonesia has 36.8 million hectares of commercial forests, with the government holding another 44.3 million hectares available.

The regulation would stipulate that at least 49 percent of forest concessions in question be used for planting commercial forests, while up to 21 percent could be planted in crops. The remaining 30 percent would be set aside for conservation and the use of local communities.

A similar regulation was issued in 1999 but was withdrawn after many forestry companies planted more of their land in palm oil than permitted.

Hadi said he was optimistic that companies would adhere to the rules this time because the ministry had a much more sophisticated monitoring system.

Elfian Effendi, the executive director of Greenomics Indonesia, said the group opposed resurrecting the failed policy.

“The ministry will repeat the failure, since forestry companies will prefer to plant palm oil because it’s more profitable than planting commercial forests,” Elfian said.

Even without such a regulation many forestry companies had illegally planted palm oil in commercial forest areas, he said.

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Indonesia's Foreign Ministry Fights Corruption Allegations

Nivell Rayda& Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta Globe 15 Feb 10;

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa on Monday issued an all-out defense against accusations that a number of senior ministry officials, including the man he recently replaced, were allegedly involved in a corruption scam involving inflated travel expenses.

The country’s most prominent antigraft watchdog, Indonesia Corruption Watch, had reported to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) that former Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and current ministry Secretary General Imron Cotan received Rp 1 billion and Rp 2.35 billion ($107,000 and $251,000), respectively, in the graft scheme. The Attorney General’s Office and the KPK are investigating the allegations.

Marty, although admitting to graft within the ministry, claimed that Wirajuda and Imron were named by low-ranking officials to cover their trail. “There are people who abused [high-ranking] ministry officials’ names,” Marty said.

“We have severely sanctioned those who were involved. We have also imposed new methods and taken steps to prevent similar scams from ever occurring again.”

Marty, however, declined to reveal how many ministry officials had been punished.

ICW deputy chairman Emerson Yuntho immediately blasted the ministry’s response, saying its decision to dismiss officials was meant to protect the higher-ups who were involved.

“The case has been handled as though it was merely a case of poor administration,” Emerson said. “This is purely criminal and violated the law on corruption because the state has been defrauded for years.”

Emerson also criticized the speed with which the minister had dismissed the possibility that senior officials might have been involved.

“There was never any internal inquiry against NHW,” he said, referring to Wirajuda by his initials. “How could the ministry come to the a conclusion that he was not involved?” he asked.

Neither Wirajuda nor Imron, a former ambassador to Australia, could be reached for comment on Monday night.

The ministry has launched an internal investigation into the scam, which cost the state an estimated Rp 30 billion per year.

Several ministry officials allegedly collaborated with seven travel agencies appointed by the ministry to inflate the total travel budget by as much as 80 percent.

The majority of the budget mark-up stemmed from diplomats assigned overseas. Foreign service employees have the option of buying their tickets first at approved travel agencies and then applying for reimbursement.

The travel agencies charged the diplomats the true price, but then billed the ministry far above the regular fare or made it appear that more expensive airlines or classes were used. In return, some of the illicit profit was kicked back to the diplomats. The ministry also discovered fictitious travel tickets.

Ministry officials were also accused of inflating the size of the claims the ministry made to the treasury. The ministry’s findings have been submitted to the AGO.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said it would coordinate with the AGO to avoid any overlaps in their probes. “We will monitor the AGO’s progress.”

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NGOs seek to scrap Indonesian law on coastal management

Pandaya, Jakarta Post 16 Feb 10;

The 2007 Coastal and Islet Management Law is yet to be functional, but an alliance of activists are already seeking to shoot it down.

An alliance of NGOs have filed for a judicial review with the Constitutional Court to have the law revised or even scrapped as they claim it will see the state surrendering its sovereignty to capitalists.

The group says the law gives business entities the right to manage a particular area and share the profits with the local government, which will effectively rob indigenous po-pulations of their ancestral homes and livelihood.

“The law will only create legal certainty because in some ways the law is in conflict with the Constitution, which gives the right to control natural resources to the state to ensure the well being of the people,” said Taufiqul Mujib from the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice.

The law the House of Representatives passed in 2007 is intended as an umbrella for the existing 20 or so lower regulations pertaining to the management of coastal and minor islands.

It also aims to help improve the livelihood of customary communities and islanders who have been living in the area for several generations.

Even though the law allows public participation in developing and managing the coast and islands, it requires bureaucratic procedures that only powerful capitalists can afford.

The concession holders are entrusted with a high degree of autonomy to manage and profit from the project. The activists agree that it is good that businesses are required to fulfill various obligations in relation to environmental protection, but argue that experience has shown that such contracts usually end up with bureaucrats bowing to the will of capitalists.

The government has given concessions to tourism businesspeople to develop and manage such places in Jakarta, Bali and a Tukangbesi Islands in Southeast Sulawesi.

Although the government is yet to make regulations and implement the law, activists warn that conflict between locals and businesspeople has already been brewing in many areas.

In Southeast Sulawesi, a simmering conflict has erupted between a pearl company and fishery communities who lost their fishing areas, which are now controlled by entrepreneurs.

Similar conflicts are also common along the coast between Surabaya and Banyuwangi in East Java, Taufiqul said.

In Togian Islands, Central Sulawesi, and Tukangbesi Islands, the economic welfare of fishermen has been on the decline after local administrations granted concessions to tourism operators, the NGOs noted.

In Tukangbesi, the indigenous popoulation has been barred from catching fish from coral reefs — something they have done all their life — after the tourism investor claimed the territory as theirs, said M. Riza Damanik, the secretary-general of Kiara (the People’s Coalition for Justice in Fishery).

“As compensation for the lost fishing area, the businessman set aside Rp 5 million a month for the locals and Rp 50 million for the local administration a year from its estimated Rp 5 billion in annual income,” Riza said.

In Ancol, a famed beach resort in North Jakarta, he said that no fisherman could even pass the area without putting up sails provided by the Ancol tourism management as a candid way of promoting the spot and the beach that is closed to the non-paying public.

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Indonesia ‘Working to Reopen’ Closed Mine

Jakarta Globe 15 Feb 10;

The government is trying to resolve a land-permit problem that has resulted in the closure of a coal mine in Kalimantan owned by Thai coal miner Banpu.

Last week, police temporarily closed the Jorong coal mine in South Kalimantan because it does not have a valid permit.

“We are holding talks at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy on how to settle this issue,” Bambang Setiawan, director general of coal, minerals and geothermal at the Energy Ministry, said on Monday.

Bambang said the owners of the Jorong mine had already put in a request to the Forestry Ministry to extend its permit, but one had not yet been issued.

“Because of a need to continue production, the producer went on operating without the extension permit,” he added.

Banpu confirmed in a statement last Thursday that operations at the mine had been shut but said it would only have a slight impact on production at its Indonesian unit — PT Indo Tambangraya Mega.

“The stoppage was [caused] mainly by the overlapping of related regulations from different ministries,” Indo Tambangraya said last week.

Indo Tambangraya has six coal mining concessions in Indonesia, including Jorong.

Another official at the Energy Ministry said problems like this over land permits could hit mining output by increasing investor uncertainty regarding the industry in Indonesia.

“Indonesia needs more coal to supply coal-fired power plants, especially in Java from this year,” said the official, who declined to be identified.

“If there are many of these type of problems in the sector then it will cut coal production in future,” the official said.

The Jorong mine produces sub-bituminous coal, which is supplied to local power plants as well as being exported.

According to estimates from Indo Tambangraya, the Jorong mine produced 2.85 million tons of coal in 2009, with 2.3 million tons targeted at the overseas market.

The company said it did not know when it would be able to resume operations.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Jan. 10 the ministry had revoked the land use permits for 23 mining and other firms operating in forested areas.

Zulkifli said at the time the ministry might crack down further as it took a tougher stance on environmental protection.

However, the government has also pledged to resolve bottlenecks and other bureaucratic obstacles that frequently hamper investment projects and have discouraged foreign investment in the country’s mining sector. Reuters

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Controversial dam Hatgyi in Myanmar will go ahead

Watcharapong Thongrung, Chularat Saengpassa, The Nation 16 Feb 10;

The Energy Ministry will proceed with the construction of the Hatgyi dam and hydropower plant in Burma, despite a local requirement to enhance the environmental impact assessment and information disclosure for greater transparency.

"There will be more studies. Although this may lead to a delay, the project is not scrapped," Energy Permanent Secretary Pornchai Rujiprapa said yesterday.

Most of the electricity from the 1.36 gigawatt plant will be supplied to Thailand.

Pornchai, as chairman of the subcommittee on power cooperation with neighbouring countries, said the Energy Ministry is ready to heed the advice of the committee led by PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey. Sathit's committee said the environmental impact assessment be extended while information disclosure must be improved.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, as the representative of Thailand and the dam operator, will take care of the two issues.

The committee last month submitted the list of recommendations to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, in a bid to make the investment project more transparent. The committee was set up following the National Human Rights Commission's complaints that the project would directly impact dozens of Karen villages and the villages may have to be relocated from the dam's floodplain.

Thousands more will suffer abuses from the Burmese army's attempts to secure the site, which have resulted in several military offensives and a large build-up of troops in the area.

All of the dams planned on the Salween River will greatly disrupt the riverine ecosystem and destroy the livelihoods of those peoples living along the river.

Sathit said in a telephone interview that the hold-up of the project should not cause diplomatic displeasure with Burma. He also referred to the cool response from Egat towards the proposals.

"The committee's concern was the repercussions on Burma, not the impacts on Egat's investment," he said. Next week, the committee will convene to monitor Egat's reactions to the suggestions. It will also work on the structure of the information disclosure unit, as well as its scope of responsibility.

Montree Chantawong, coordinator of Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (Terra), was pleased with the Sathit committee's resolutions, which should create a more transparent disclosure channel.

Egat has so far refrained from releasing the full EIA, claiming that it needed Burma's consent to submit the full report, he said. The civic groups received only a brief summary in English.

The civic groups actually want the government to terminate the investment outright, he said. While people in the Karen State would be saved, Egat does not need power from Burma. However, the construction will fuel fighting and suppression of the minority tribe.

He also urged the government to ask for parliamentary approval for the project's EIA, if it continues to support the project. Since the dam will lead to alterations in river flows, which could change Thai territory in Tak's Sob Moei district, the contract needs parliamentary approval under Article 190 of the Constitution, he said.

"The Human Rights Commission earlier even urged Egat to conduct a separate EIA on the Thai border, for a clearer impact," he said.

The Burma Rivers Network, comprising organisations representing various dam-affected communities in Burma, said on its website that "large development projects in Burma bring an expanded Burma army presence and the increased use of forced labour. Villagers living downstream from the dams will also face difficulties."

Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul insisted that Abhisit has not yet ordered a delay of Hatgyi Dam.

Pornchai stressed that Thailand has followed international human rights and environmental accords. The Energy Ministry has worked closely with the Foreign Ministry on the project. Once the negotiations are completed, the issue would be submitted to Parliament under the Constitution, he said.

Pornchai, as chairman of Egat, said Egat's board of directors recently approved the investment with Sinohydro from China.

A joint venture is being set up. Sinohydro will hold a bigger stake than Egat, as it is in charge of securing the loan, while the Burmese government will be a minority partner, he said.

The hydropower plant was expected to start commercial operations and export power to Thailand in 2015 or 2016. However, due to controversies, the project has been stalled and has not yet been included in the Power Development Plan.

On July 14, 1997, Thailand signed a framework agreement for 1.5GW from Burma by 2010. The first project was My-Kok Dam, with Italian-Thai Development and partners as the developer.

The lignite-fuelled dam, with 405MW capacity, is located in Shan State, 80 kilometres from Chiang Rai. It is scheduled to start feeding power to Thailand in January 2016. The power rate throughout the 25-year purchase contract averages Bt2.3 per unit, at the exchange rate of Bt34 to the US dollar.

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Whale shark found "without its fins and tail" in the Philippines

Whale shark dies along Batangas shores

Marrah Erika Lesaba, Inquirer Southern Luzon 16 Feb 10;

BATANGAS CITY – A Bantay Dagat (sea patrol) team buried Tuesday morning a whale shark, which was found without its fins and tail along the shores of the village of Maricaban in Tingloy Island here on Monday morning, said a team official of the Bantay-Dagat.

Rey Manalo, Bantay-Dagat head in Tingloy, 44 kilometers away from the city, said he received information about the whale shark at around 9:30 a.m. Monday.

A group of foreign and local divers from Mabini town found the whale shark along the shores of Maricaban.

“The whale shark was very weak when we left it at 5 p.m.,” he said.

Manalo believes the whale shark was accidentally trapped in a net of fishermen who were at the area at the time.

The whale shark could not have been removed from the net by the fishers’ bare hands so they needed to have its fins cut, said Manalo.

He added that the whale shark’s tail was gone.

Manalo said the group of fishermen might be from nearby places or from the island itself.

The whale shark was placed in waters with cool temperature with the Bantay-Dagat people watching but it died on Monday night, said Manalo.

Divers find whale shark with fins, tail sliced off
Marrah Erika Lesaba, Alcuin Papa Philippine Daily Inquirer 17 Feb 10;

BATANGAS CITY—A dead whale shark without fins and a tail was buried on the shores of Tingloy Island on Tuesday morning, inscribing a sad epilogue to a Manila conference of 50 nations for the protection of the endangered fish species.

Locally known as “butanding,” the juvenile whale shark (Rhincodon typus) was found at 9:30 a.m. on Monday by a group of foreign and local divers in Barangay Maricaban on the island, 44 kilometers from this city.

It was still alive but “very weak” when the group left it at 5 p.m., said Rey Manalo, head of the Bantay-Dagat (sea patrol) in Tingloy.

Manalo said the whale shark, measuring 18 feet, could have gotten accidentally entangled in a net laid out by a group of island fishermen who were catching fish nearby.

They must have tried to rescue the creature with their bare hands but could not do so without cutting its fins and tail, he said.

Since it could no longer swim, the hapless giant fish was placed in cool waters with Bantay-Dagat personnel watching over it, Manalo said. Unfortunately, it died on Monday night and was buried on the shore the next morning, he said.

SHARKS III

Last week, representatives of some 50 countries attended the third meeting of the International Cooperation on Migratory Sharks (SHARKS III) hosted by the Philippines in Manila. Eleven of them signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging to protect the whale sharks.

The participants also agreed to advance the protection of seven shark species that needed protection—the Basking Shark, Great White Shark, Whale Shark, Spiny Dogfish Shark, Porbeagle Shark, and Shortfin and Longfin Mako Sharks.

SHARKS III falls under the Convention on Migratory Species and Wild Animals (CMS), otherwise known as the Bonn Convention.

“The memorandum of understanding on the butanding is a breakthrough since this is the first international cooperation that would ensure the protection and conservation of the sharks all over the world,” said Dr. Mundita Lim, chief of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau and conference chair.

The document was signed by the Philippines, China, United States, Costa Rica, Palau, Congo, Senegal, Republic of Guinea, Togo, Liberia, Kenya and Ghana. At least 10 signatories are needed to make it enforceable, Lim said

Conservation plan

Lim said the forging of the memorandum of understanding was important in crafting a conservation plan that included strengthening the policies of countries on shark conservation, possible funding for shark protection, and the enforcement of transboundary regulations to ensure the welfare of migratory sharks.

The plan will cover a ban on “shark finning,” or the practice of simply harvesting the fins of sharks with the still-alive marine creatures thrown back into the sea, she said.

Studies have identified “shark finning” as one of the reasons for the rapid decline in shark population worldwide. It is estimated that 100 to 200 million sharks are killed annually for their fins—the prime ingredients for the shark-fin soup delicacy.

Lim said that the international conservation plan would be finalized in the next meeting of member-signatories to the Bonn Convention.

No coordination

“The sharks can freely swim across waters of any country. That’s why this cooperation is very important to sustain efforts for their conservation. It is important for countries to come together toward the goal of ensuring the safety of the migratory sharks that may pass by their waters,” the official said.

In Batangas, Lea Villanueva, provincial chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said the most common reasons for the death of whale sharks “are climate change and people who use illegal means to kill and earn from marine mammals.”

Villanueva said the City Environment and Natural Resources Office did not coordinate with her office about the latest butanding death.

She said she did not even see the fish before it was buried and that those who found it must have at least gathered basic information, such as length, size and width.

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Pollution creating acid oceans

The world's oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 65 million years, threatening marine life and food supplies across the globe, according to a new study.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 15 Feb 10;

Researchers from the University of Bristol looked at how levels of acid in the ocean have changed over history.

They found that as ocean acidification accelerated it caused mass extinctions at the bottom of the food chain that could threaten whole ecosystems in the future.

The rapid acidification today is being caused by the massive amount of carbon dioxide being pumped out by cars and factories every year, which is absorbed by the water. Since the industrial revolution acidity in the seas have increased by 30 per cent.

The last time such a fast change occurred is thought to be 65 million years ago, when some natural event caused ocean acidification and the dinosaurs died out.

The study looked at sediments from around 55 million years ago, when temperature rose by up to 6C and acidification was occurring at a similar rate as today.

It found widespread extinction of tiny organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean. Ocean acidification can dissolve the carbonate shells of marine organisms and cause muscle wastage and dwarfism in other species.

Andy Ridgwell, lead author of the paper published in Nature Geoscience, said it could mean problems for humans in the future.

"Unlike surface plankton dwelling in a variable habitat, organisms living deep down on the ocean floor are adapted to much more stable conditions. A rapid and severe geochemical change in their environment would make their survival precarious.

"The widespread extinction of these ocean floor organisms during the Paleocene-Eocene greenhouse warming and acidification event tells us that similar extinctions in the future are possible," he said.

Dr Ridgwell said acidification is actually occurring much faster today than in the examples they looked at from the past therefore "exceeding the rate plankton can adapt" and theatening the basis of much of marine life. This would mean fish and other creatures further up the food chain that human beings eat may be affected as soon as the end of this century.

"There is lots of concern about major disruption to ecosystems. Certainly coral reefs will be eroded, that has an impact on other species. We could see marine ecosystems affected this century," he said.

:: A separate study published in Geoscience found that the glaciers on Greenland are melting much faster than expected because of ocean currents bringing warm water into the area. If the warming continues it could cause sea levels to rise by 3ft, three times as much as previous estimates, by 2100.

Oceans' acidity rate is soaring, claims study
Steve Connor, The Independent 15 Feb 10;

The rate at which the oceans are becoming more acidic is greater today than at any time in tens of millions of years, according to a new study.

Rapidly rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere mean that the rate of ocean acidification is the fastest since the age of the dinosaurs, which became extinct 65m years ago, scientists believe.

The oceans are likely to become so acidic in coming centuries that they will become uninhabitable for vast swathes of life, especially the little-studied organisms on the deep-sea floor which are a vital link in the marine food chain.

Scientists have concluded, in a study published today in the journal Nature Genetics, that the current rate of ocean acidification is up to 10 times faster than 55m years ago – the last time the deep oceans became so acidic.

This is because of the speed at which carbon-dioxide concentrations are rising in the atmosphere. This carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater at the sea surface to form carbonic acid. The increased acidity of the water affects the amount of dissolved carbonate minerals that are available for marine organisms to use in forming their shells and hard skeletons.

When the oceans became acidified in a similar way about 55m years ago, it resulted in a mass extinction of deep-sea marine organisms, especially those living in the sediments of the sea floor, which can be studied geologically through changes to rock formations, said Dr Andy Ridgwell of the University of Bristol.

"Unlike surface plankton dwelling in a variable habitat, organisms living deep down on the ocean floor are adapted to much more stable conditions. A rapid and severe geochemical change in their environment would make their survival precarious," he said.

Studies also suggest that temperatures of the surface ocean rose, and carbon-dioxide levels increased over a period of a few thousand years.

The latest study compared these changes with predicted changes to ocean acidity resulting from continuing increases in concentrations of man-made carbon dioxide expected this century.

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Seeds of discontent: the 'miracle' crop that has failed to deliver

A new 'ethical' biofuel is damaging the impoverished people it was supposed to help
Cahal Milmo and Andrew Wasley, The Independent 15 Feb 10;

A "miracle" plant, once thought to be as the answer to producing renewable biofuels on a vast scale, is driving thousands of farmers in the developing world into food poverty, a damning report concludes today.

Five years ago jatropha was hailed by investors and scientists as a breakthrough in the battle to find a biofuel alternative to fossil fuels that would not further impoverish developing countries by diverting resources away from food production.

Jatropha was said to be resistant to drought and pests and able could grow on land that was unsuitable for food production. But researchers have found that it has increased poverty in countries including India and Tanzania.

Millions of the plants have been grown in anticipation of rich returns, only for growers to be hit by poor yields, conflict over land and a lack of infrastructure to process the oil-rich seeds.

Oil giant BP, which planned to spend almost £32m on a joint venture to set up jatropha plantations, has now pulled out and the charity ActionAid today warns that jatropha needs to be cultivated on prime food-growing land to produce significant yields.

According to one estimate, up to one million hectares of jatropha – an area equivalent to Devon and Cornwall combined – are being cultivated around the globe, despite little evidence that it can produce enough oil to make the crop commercially sustainable.

Meredith Alexander, head of trade at Actionaid and co-author of its "Meals per Gallon" report, said: "Jatropha is a real gold-rush crop, and the same amount of common sense that applies in a gold rush has been applied to the jatropha rush.

"Jatropha was the subject of an explosion of fabulous propaganda. But this was an untried crop at commercial levels and the many thousands of marginal farmers who have gone into production have been experimented on with disastrous results. They are simply not getting the income they were promised and now cannot afford food for their families," she said.

A native of central America, Jatropha curcus was brought to Europe in the 16th century and subsequently spread across Africa and Asia. Until recently, its few uses included a malaria treatment and an indigestion remedy.

But despite jatropha's much-lauded ability to grow where food crops cannot flourish, campaigners say there is evidence that commercially viable yields can only be obtained in fertile soil.

In India, forecasted annual yields of three to five tonnes of seeds per hectare have been scaled back to 1.8 to two tonnes. The Overseas Development Institute, a leading international development think-tank, has stated that "as the mainstay of people's livelihoods, jatropha looks distinctly marginal".

ActionAid said its researchers found repeated cases of farmers being left with jatropha crops they could not sell and land previously used to grow food crops being taken over by sub-contractors who then employed locals on wages that could not compete with rises in the price of foodstuffs partially caused by biofuel production.

Raju Sona, a farmer in north-east India who gave up land that usually produces vegetables to grow jatropha, said: "No one will buy jatropha. People said if you have a plantation then surely you have a good market. But we didn't see such a market. I threw the seeds away."

A number of British companies are continuing to market jatropha as a "highly ethical and green" investment. One fund offers investors three packages for prices ranging from £7,500 to £15,600 in a brochure entitled "Money really does grow on trees". That company says it has funded the planting of 32 million jatropha shrubs worldwide through a London-based provider called Carbon Credited Farming (CCF) Plc.

Jeff Reeves, head of global operations for CCF, which estimates it will have 300 million jatropha shrubs planted on 120,000 acres worldwide by the end of 2010, admitted that there had been problems establishing the crop.

He told The Ecologist magazine: "In many cases it is government policy and people that are to blame, rather than jatropha itself. Well-managed, jatropha ... can work. But there have been countries where poor management has meant this is not the case."

D1 Oils, a London-based biofuels company which has invested heavily in jatropha, said insisted it was too early to write off the crop as a long-term biofuel source. But its former co-investor, BP, disagreed. A spokesman said: "As other [renewable fuel] technologies came up, we looked again at whether jatropha was going to be the best biofuel source that could be scaled up. There were problems with it. We have decided to look elsewhere."

* Some of this research appeared in the Ecologist

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Cold snap killing Florida's coral reefs

Yahoo News 16 Feb 10;

MIAMI (AFP) – The polar snap enveloping much of the United States in record cold has been killing off coral reefs in the normally balmy warm waters off the Florida Keys, experts said Monday.

The unusually chilly weather so far this year has seen sea temperatures plummet in southern Florida -- a fatal development for the coral, which dies when exposed for an extended time to temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit).

Especially in the lower Keys, "temperatures have been lower... there is higher mortality," Diego Lirman, a University of Miami expert on coral, told AFP.

Florida's usually mild and sunny winter weather has given way to record low temperatures during the historic cold snap in recent weeks.

In Miami, the thermometer in January and February regularly dropped below 35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 Celsius), the coldest temperatures since 1970.

The cold snap also has led to "bleaching," in which the coral loses pigmentation and ultimately dies.

Destruction of coral having a negative effect on delicate tropical eco-systems in the region, Lirman added, with micro-algae living within the coral forced to leave their habitat for lack of a food source.

Some of the worst affected species are the large brain and star coral, which can take several hundreds of years to grow into the vibrant underwater colonies.

"The Keys have not seen a cold-water bleaching event like this since the winter of 1977-78, when acres of staghorn coral perished," said Billy Causey, southeast regional director of NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

Florida's coral reefs are considered a unique natural heritage area in the United States for their proximity to the coast and their expansiveness, running from north of Miami in the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

The state's myriad of tropical animals also have been impacted by the cold snap so far this year, with iguanas dropping from trees and manatees huddling around waters warmed by power plants.

The cold-blooded iguanas' comfort level begins at 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 Celsius) and they positively thrive at 95 degree Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius).

But when temperatures drop below about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius), they become immobile, and below about 40 degrees Fahrenheit (five degrees Celsius), they become completely immobile due to a lack of blood flow.

Unable to hold on, the helpless mohawked lizards that shelter in tree branches have been seen falling to the ground, and wildlife officials have offered guidelines to revive them.

Cold weather kills off Florida wildlife
Iguanas, pythons and other non-native species are freezing to death as temperatures plummet in the Sunshine State
Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk 15 Feb 10;

Comatose iguanas have been dropping from the trees and pythons have frozen to death in their tracks in Florida's unusually harsh winter, wildlife officials said today.

Parts of the Sunshine State saw their second snowfall of the season this weekend, with the extended cold spells killing off a host of tropical intruders, including iguanas, Burmese and African pythons and invasive fish.

State wildlife officials said more than half of the green iguanas, which are native to South America, could have been killed off. "The iguanas up in the trees just got so cold, they kind of went very, very sluggish, and just fell down," said Jenny Tinnell, a biologist with Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Residents of south Florida, who have discovered the animals on their patios, have tried to warm them back to life.

Local newspapers, meanwhile, have been warning homeowners not to let their dogs gnaw on iguana corpses, which may be poisonous.

In the Everglades, trackers licensed by the state have discovered the decaying corpses of three African rock pythons, which can reach over 20ft and can kill people. State officials believe up to half of the Burmese pythons have also died, along with large numbers of invasive fish.

The python die-off could be helpful to wildlife officials. The alien constrictors, many of them abandoned pets, have been taking over portions of the Everglades, threatening native species.

Last month, the Obama administration said it was considering a ban on nine species of giant snake.

"The fish and wildlife commission has no problem with nature naturally knocking back those populations," said Tinnell.

But the harsh winter is also harming natives such as the manatee, which is an endangered species. Long periods of cold weaken their immune systems. Officials said about 200 manatee carcasses have washed up on shore since the beginning of the year. Dozens of crocodiles have also died.

The extreme temperatures also prompted a rescue effort last month for endangered sea turtles. Officials plucked more than 4,000 from chilly waters, bathing them in warm salt water to revive them.

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Decrease in fog threatens California's sequoias: study

Yahoo News 16 Feb 10;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – California's coastal fog has decreased significantly over the past 100 years, potentially endangering coast redwood trees dependent on cool, humid summers, according to a new study made public Monday.

The study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists said it was unclear whether this phenomenon was part of a natural cycle or the result of human activity.

But it warned the change could affect not only the redwoods, but the entire redwood ecosystem.

"Since 1901, the average number of hours of fog along the coast in summer has dropped from 56 percent to 42 percent, which is a loss of about three hours per day," said study leader James Johnstone, who worked at the University of California's Department of Geography before becoming a post-doctoral scholar in the campus's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management.

"A cool coast and warm interior is one of the defining characteristics of California's coastal climate, but the temperature difference between the coast and interior has declined substantially in the last century, in step with the decline in summer fog," Johnstone continued.

The loss of fog and increased temperature mean that "coast redwood and other ecosystems along the US West Coast may be increasingly drought-stressed, with a summer climate of reduced fog frequency and greater evaporative demand," said co-author Todd Dawson, a Berkeley professor of integrative biology.

"Fog prevents water loss from redwoods in summer, and is really important for both the tree and the forest. If the fog is gone, we might not have the redwood forests we do now."

The report will be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Less Fog in California Could Stress Redwoods
Andrea Thompson, livescience.com Yahoo News 16 Feb 10;

Significantly less fog is drifting in along the Pacific Coast these days, a new study finds. The shift force a decline in redwood trees, which rely on the fog to keep them supplied with water during the arid summer months.

Climate models have predicted that with the warming caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, California's coastal fog would increase as a result of changing atmosphere and ocean circulation patterns.

But weather records that just recently became available have shown the opposite trend of a significant decrease in fog over the past 100 years.

"Since 1901, the average number of hours of fog along the coast in summer has dropped from 56 percent to 42 percent, which is a loss of about three hours per day," said study leader James A. Johnstone, who conducted the research while working on his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Warmer, too

And the decline in fog isn't the only change to affect the coastal area where redwoods reside.

"A cool coast and warm interior is one of the defining characteristics of California's coastal climate, but the temperature difference between the coast and interior has declined substantially in the last century, in step with the decline in summer fog," Johnstone said.

Both of these changes could impact the health of the iconic coast redwood (Sequoia semperviren), one of the tallest and longest-lived tree species in the world, with some individual trees passing the 2,000-year mark.

Elsewhere, global warming is causing some trees to grow faster. But a warmer world is bad news for redwood trees.

Redwoods aren't very good at regulating their water use. At night, they leave open their stomata - the pores on leaves that plants use to exchange gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide with the air - which allows water to leave, but doesn't give them any of the benefits of photosynthesis, since there is no light shining on them.

Fog helps the redwoods conserve water, because it increases the humidity of the air around the trees, so less water escapes from their leaves.

A decrease in fog cover and an increase in coastal temperature could combine to make the trees lose more water and become drought-stressed.

"Fog prevents water loss from redwoods in summer, and is really important for both the tree and the forest," said Todd Dawson, also of UC Berkeley, who co-authored the study that describes the fog changes. "If the fog is gone, we might not have the redwood forests we do now."

Broader impacts

And any change in the redwood forests, could have broader impacts on the regional ecosystem.

"As fog decreases, the mature redwoods along the coast are not likely to die outright, but there may be less recruitment of new trees; they will look elsewhere for water, high humidity and cooler temperatures," Dawson said. "What does that mean for the current redwood range and that of the plants and animals with them?"

The study, detailed this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to show that fog is not as ephemeral a phenomenon as it may seem and that it in fact is a systematic process connected to the larger Pacific Coast climate, Johnstone told LiveScience.

The work was supported by the Save the Redwoods League and the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center.

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Bangladesh PM seeks early climate fund disbursement

Nizam Ahmed, Reuters 15 Feb 10;

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged donors countries to come up quickly with promised funds to help her country limit the effects of climate change.

World leaders pledged an initial $10 billion fund at the December climate summit in Copenhagen to help least developed countries (LDCs) most vulnerable to climate change, particularly low-lying costal states like Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh needs quick disbursement of the fund promised in Copenhagen ... as we have already started mitigation programs," she told a donors' conference.

"We have built 100 new cyclone shelters and more are on the way, under 134 climate change action plans."

Opening the two-day meeting called Bangladesh Development Forum, she urged participants to increase the pledged climate fund. Bangladesh, she said, had earmarked a $100 million Climate Change Fund in its 2009-10 (July-June) fiscal budget in addition to a $150 million fund raised with assistance from donors.

The environment ministry has said Bangladesh is entitled to ask for at least 15 percent of the climate adaptation fund pledged at the Copenhagen summit.

Climate experts say at least 20 million of Bangladesh's more than 150 million people will be displaced, and one-fifth of the country's 140,800 sq. km (55,000 sqm) land surface will be inundated if sea levels rise by one meter by 2050.

Donors in attendance included the United States, European Union, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The meeting is to review Bangladesh's development programs, including plans to reduce poverty and help donors select areas of cooperation.

Disaster management officials said Bangladesh has more than 2,500 shelters for some 2.5 million people. But these are insufficient for more than 20 million coastline residents.

The meeting is the first of its kind since Hasina returned to power following a December 2008 parliamentary election that ended a two-year period of rule by an army-backed interim government.

Bangladesh annually receives some $1.5 billion in assistance from donors.

(Editing by Anis Ahmed and Ron Popeski)

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UN Panel Approves 32 China Wind Farms, Blocks Six

Nina Chestney and Michael Szabo, PlanetArk 16 Feb 10;

LONDON - A United Nations climate panel approved 32 Chinese wind farms for carbon financing under the Kyoto Protocol late last week, but blocked another six after rejecting eight similar projects in December.

The approved wind farms will cut greenhouse gas emissions by some 11.3 million metric tones by the end of 2012, the year the current Kyoto pact expires, according to UN data.

Under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), companies can invest in clean energy projects in emerging economies, and in return receive offset credits, only if they can show the projects would not have gone ahead without the prospect of revenues from selling those credits.

After noting a drop in financial support from Beijing in the form of tariffs, the CDM's executive board rejected 10 wind farms in December, saying they were profitable and capable of cutting emissions without receiving the offsets, called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs).

The board on Friday said two of those were rejected by mistake, bringing the total rejected in December to eight.

At its latest meeting, the board fully registered 13 Chinese wind farms while conditionally approving another 19 subject to minor corrections in their applications.

The latest six rejected Chinese wind farms, five of which were in the province of Heilongjiang, would have generated 2.1 million metric tones of CERs by 2012. The panel also rejected six other clean energy projects, four of which were in China.

According to UN data, the 12 rejected projects would have generated around 3.8 million CERs before 2012, worth 44 million euros ($59.91 million) based on Friday's closing spot CER price of 11.58 euros a tonne.

The projects' investors included U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, Japanese government agency NEDO, Dutch firm Essent Energy Trading and UK-based Climate Change Capital.

Companies participating in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme rely on a steady flow of offsets to help them meet emissions cut targets, and disruptions to the CER supply can cause carbon prices to rise.

The board also fully registered 17 hydro projects including 15 from China, which will generate 8.2 million CERs by 2012.

Experts had said the projects faced similar registration risks to those plaguing the Chinese wind projects.

DEFERS REGISTRATION FEES

In an effort to extend the reach of the CDM, the board agreed to defer registration fees for projects in countries that are home to less than 10 registered projects. Registration fees are due only after the projects have been issued their first CERs, the board said.

Of the 80 developing countries participating in the CDM, 53 nations, or two thirds, fall into this category, UN data showed.

The CDM's board also said it is waiving registration fees for projects in the world's least developed countries (LDCs).

The UN made $56.6 million in CDM revenues in 2009 including $17.1 million in registration fees, the board said in its meeting report.

At its last meeting in December, the board said it would conduct spot checks on emissions auditors TUV-Sud and TUV-Nord.

On Friday it said it would review the outcome of these spot checks at its next meeting in Bonn, Germany on March 22-26.

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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