Water woes in Malaysia during the dry spell

Johor resorts to cloud seeding
Shahrum Sayuthi, The New Straits Times 19 Mar 10;

JOHOR BARU: Cloud seeding operations have been started to tackle the current drought in central Johor.

State Energy, Water, Communication and Environment Committee chairman Tan Kok Hong said cloud seeding started on Saturday and will go on for a month.

It is being jointly carried out by the Bahagian Kawalselia Air Johor which coordinates water resources in the state, the Meteorological Department and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage.

"There will be 15 cloud seeding operations over one month," said Tan when contacted yesterday.

Tan said the flights would be carried out based on the weather, suitable cloud formations and wind direction to target the affected water catchment areas.

He advised the public, especially those residing in central Johor, to use water sparingly until the dry spell ends, expected to be by the end of this month or early next month.

Bakaj director Idris Kaprawi said the cloud seeding was done by an independent contractor appointed by the Meteorological Department.

"The state government has allocated RM500,000 for the exercise in an attempt to improve the water levels at several dams and water catchment areas.

"So far, the past two seeding sessions faced problems because of the lack of cloud formation, but we will keep on trying ," he said.

The aircraft used for the cloud seeding is based at the Batu Berendam Airport in Malacca.

State water management company, SAJ Holdings Sdn Bhd's corporate communication head Jamaluddin Jamil said water levels at catchment areas in other areas of the state were under control.

"In central Johor, the Bekok and Chengok dams are below the critical level," he said.

Yesterday, Bekok dam, which supplies Batu Pahat district, was at 9.92m. Its critical mark is 10m.

Chengok dam, which supplies Mersing, registered 4.14m, 0.56m below the critical level.

Jamaluddin said despite the alarming water level, SAJ Holdings could still manage the situation in Batu Pahat and Mersing without the need to ration water.


However, water is still being rationed in Kluang, the hardest hit district.

The water level at Sembrong Barat dam fell to to 8.11m, but still above the 7.4m critical mark.

The district's other water source, Sungai Sembrong Timur, is the worst hit with a level 0.1m. The river's critical level is 0.5m.

Perlis farmers told to delay sowing
The New Straits Times 19 Mar 10;

PADANG BESAR: The level of Timah Tasoh dam has declined by more than a metre.

State agriculture authorities have advised farmers to start their planting season at the end of next month instead of the scheduled end of this month.

State Department of Irrigation and Drainage director Nishad Mohamed Shaffy said the normal level of the dam was 29.1m but with the current extreme hot weather, it had now gone down to 27.9m.

"The current water level is sufficient for domestic use only but not enough for irrigation.

"This morning, we have informed the state government and relevant agencies about the situation. We suggested that they defer the planting season to the end of next month."

The dam irrigates almost 3,100ha of farmland and supplies 54 million litres of drinking water every day.

If the situation continued, he said more than 385 farming families, especially padi planters, would be affected.

Padi-planting season causes rivers to run dry
New Straits Times 19 Mar 10;

ALOR STAR: The state's padi fields are parched and rivers are running dry, but the current dry spell is not entirely the cause.

Muda Agricultural Development Authority general manager Datuk Abdul Rahim Salleh said the arid appearance in many parts of Kedah's farming region was caused by water being drawn from waterways and padi fields for the first padi-planting season of the year next week.

"We have started pumping out water from the padi fields and waterways to allow farmers to prepare their land for the first padi-planting season.

"This is the normal practice this time of the year and because of the extremely dry weather, it is not unusual for one to find the ground bone dry and waterways reduced to a trickle," he said when asked on the effects of the current dry spell on the state's agriculture.

He said the first padi-planting season for the year in many parts of Kedah and Perlis would begin on March 25.

Rahim said there was ample water at the Pedu, Muda and Ahning dams.

"There is enough water in all our dams since we have stored enough during the wet spell last year.

"In fact, water from the dams is sufficient to irrigate our rice fields for the next two padi-planting seasons."


Fires, haze and water shortages plague Sabah
The New Straits Times 19 Mar 10;

KOTA KINABALU: A host of problems has emerged as a result of the prolonged drought in the state.


Haze, bush and open fires, water shortages, dried up rivers and poor visibility have been plaguing the headlines recently.

An eight-car pile-up was also reported yesterday at the Beaufort-Menumbok highway at 7.30am, believed to be caused by hazy conditions.

No one was hurt in the incident involving trucks and a car but police have advised motorists to be careful and to switch on the headlights when travelling.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman has also called for water rationing for areas severely affected by drought, particularly Nabawan and Kuala Penyu.

Bernama quoted the state Water Department director, Ag Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib, as saying that the water situation in the state was manageable and supply could last until April or May.

He said the current situation was not as bad as the drought in 1997 but the hot weather was quite abnormal.

He also said so far, there would be no state-wide water rationing except for ongoing rationing in areas where water shortages normally occurred.

It was recently reported that about 500 villagers in Nabawan faced water shortages due to Sungai Penawan drying up, but Mohd Tahir said the district had been facing problems for quite sometime.

Villagers said they were turning to nearby rivers for bathing and cooking.

The situation is not expected to improve soon as Sabah Meteorological Department director Abdul Malik Tusin said that the El Nino phenomenon was expected to last until May.

"Luckily, the haze is not so bad as it is a localised source and not a transboundary haze. It is usually confined to areas where there is open burning."

The Fire and Rescue Department has been kept busy putting out bush and forest fires, with 822 fires reported in the state up till March 17. This month alone saw 440 fires.

Dry spell not affecting supply and price of greens
Florence A. Samy, The Star 20 Mar 10;

PETALING JAYA: The supply and price of vegetables have not been affected by the current dry spell.

However, the Federation of Malay­sian Vegetable Growers Association secretary-general Chay Ee Mong said the situation might change if it continued.

“There is no problem in Cameron Highlands as it has been raining over the last few days.

“But the effect will be felt if there is no rain the next week or for 10 days,” he said.

Chay, who is also the Cameron Highlands Vegetable Growers Assoc­iation secretary-general, said farmers in Johor were feeling the effect as the rivers were drying up.

“Farmers have to irrigate almost daily due to the current hot weather. In Johor, the water is not enough.”

According to the Meteorological Department, no rain has been forecast in Perlis, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, west Johor and Sabah over the next week.

The dry spell is expected to last until May due to the El Nino phenomenon, which has brought drier than usual weather conditions.

Several dams and rivers have recorded low water levels including the Bekok dam in Johor, which has less than 1% of its water left.

Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) said there would be no water rationing in the Klang Valley for now, although all seven dams had shown a drop in water levels.

In a statement, Syabas said an emergency response plan would be activated to tackle water shortage if the need arose.

“Rivers such as Sungai Labu, Sungai Langat and Sungai Selangor that supply water to treatment plants in Selangor also recorded lower levels but they have not reached an alarming stage.

“But if the hot and dry weather continues until May, it can cause river pollution levels to increase including higher ammonia content due to lower dilution.

“This can cause water treatment plants to cease operations because the tainted raw water cannot be treated. It will cause supply disruptions,” said Syabas.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environment director-general, Datuk Rosnani Ibrahim, urged the public to refrain from open burning or throwing cigarette butts indiscriminately.


Secondary water source vital in crisis
The Star 20 Mar 10;

KUALA LUMPUR: Harvesting rainwater and using groundwater are two ways to alleviate shortages in times of drought, said the Council for Water and Green Technology Professionals.

“A secondary water source provides more security, especially in times of crisis,” said its secretary-general Mohmad Asari Daud at a roundtable discussion on “Clean Water for Our Future” on Thursday.

Currently, he said, only 1% of the country’s water supply is from groundwater while 99% is derived from surface water.

He said that in Malaysia the quality of groundwater was generally better than surface water.

“The storage of rainwater should be encouraged as it can be utilised for cleaning purposes and watering plants at home,” added Mohmad Asari.

World Water Day falls on Monday and in discussing ways to obtain clean and an undisrupted supply, Malaysian Water Partnership chairman Datuk Syed Muhammad Shahbudin emphasised the need for an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) system.

“There are 11 ministries as well as agencies and operators involved but they are not co-ordinated,” he said, adding that the IWRM system was not moving at the moment.

Other panellists at the discussion were Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association information secretary Zulkefli Muhammad and the Institute of Geology Malaysia’s hydro-geology expert Mohd Nazan Awang.

Malaysian Water Association immediate past president and Syarikat Air Terengganu’s former chief executive officer Datuk Wan Ngah Ali was the moderator.

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Sturgeon's plight stokes conservation row

Anne Chaon Yahoo News 19 Mar 10;

DOHA (AFP) – A catastrophic fall in wild sturgeon numbers even as more and more of its lucrative caviar is farmed has stoked a bitter row over the best means of conservation -- managed catch or outright ban.

No one disputes the sturgeon is in big trouble.

In a report issued on the sidelines of a UN wildlife conference in the Qatari capital Doha, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned the sturgeon is now the single most endangered group of animals on its Red List of Threatened Species.

"Eighty-five percent of sturgeon, one of the oldest families of fishes in existence, valued around the world for their precious roe, are at risk of extinction," the report said.

"Four species are now possibly extinct," it added.

But there the consensus ends.

Some conservationists want to see a prolonged trade ban under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to allow the wild sturgeon stocks to recover.

"An Appendix I listing of highly endangered sturgeons, such as beluga, would ban the global trade of sturgeon products for an extended period of time," said Professor Ellen K. Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York.

"An Appendix I listing would greatly reduce the illegal capture and trade of sturgeon, it would make monitoring and enforcement much simpler and much more effective," said Pikitch.

"At present, it can be very difficult for enforcement officers to determine if a particular shipment is legal or not.

"An Appendix I listing would also give sturgeon the long-term protection they require in order to recover. Given the great longevity and late maturity of sturgeons, recovery would take decades under the best of circumstances.

"It has been disappointing that CITES failed to use its authority over these past 12 years," she said.

But CITES itself and industry experts disagree, arguing the best way of conserving the remaining wild stocks is through careful management that gives local populations on the shores of the Caspian Sea and the great Russian rivers that are its homeland an interest in its protection.

CITES secretariat spokesman Juan Carlos Vasquez said counterintuitively the growing share of farmed sturgeon in the profitable caviar market was damaging the protection of wild stocks.

"Many countries are farming and this is not necessarily good for sturgeon in the wild, because they withdraw the value of the fish in the Caspian and there is no incentive for the countries to do more research control and protection," he said.

"It won't help," he added, referring to calls for an Appendix I listing.

"CITES' job is not to have tigers in zoos and sturgeons in farms. Our job is to keep the species healthy in the wild, and it's not always by banning trade that you will achieve this objective.

"If you ban for ever, they accommodate to the ban and create illegal trade and the countries disengage."

French Armenian Armen Petrossian, whose caviar house accounts for between 10 and 15 percent of the world market and who heads the International Caviar Importers Association, agrees.

He says his business now relies 100 percent on farmed sturgeon as its output has risen from just 500 kilogrammes (1,100 pounds) of caviar in 1998 to between 150 and 160 tonnes now.

During the same period the volume of legally produced wild caviar has fallen from as much as 180 tonnes to practically nothing as zero quotas have been imposed in many areas.

"Technically, we could completely dispense with wild caviar, but it would be a terrible mistake. The malign effect of farming has been to remove any incentive for managing the Caspian," Petrossian said.

"CITES would have done better to preserve an area of controlled exploitation to remove the pretext for a black market and provide a livelihood for local fishermen who currently have no alternative to the black market."

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Cheetahs return to Angola's south

Yahoo News 19 Mar 10;

LUANDA (AFP) – Wild cheetahs have returned to southern Angola for the first time in decades, having disappeared during decades of civil war, a researcher said Friday.

"I was in southern Angola to make a survey, looking for signs of cheetahs, and we were just ecstatic to find cheetahs there," said Laurie Marker, from the Cheetah Conservation Fund in neighbouring Namibia.

"I actually saw two wild cheetahs, which is very rare, to visibly see them," she said.

"To be able to see wildlife starting to come back is a huge benefit for Angola and it is wonderful news at a biodiversity level in general," she added.

The cats were seen in the Iona region in southern Namibe province, home to Angola's biggest national park, which was badly damaged during the 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

Angola's environment ministry in January declared 2010 the "year of biodiversity", saying it wanted to restore its parks and create new conservation areas.

Marker said southern Angola could develop eco-tourism, which is the backbone of the tourist trade around the region.

"There is a great potential for tourism. But they have to be very cautious and delicate" not to destroy this wildlife that is only slowly returning.

Last year researchers discovered a rare Angolan antelope that had been feared extinct, spotting three of the giant black sable that are a national symbol.

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China says drought now affecting 50 million people

Reuters 19 Mar 10;

BEIJING (Reuters) - A severe drought across a large swathe of southwest China is now affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters see no signs of it abating in the short term, state media said on Friday.

The drought began last autumn, and is the result not only of less rainfall but also unseasonably high temperatures, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a central government meeting on the situation.

It is affecting the provinces and regions of Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan and the municipality of Chongqing. These parts of China are known for their sugar and rubber plantations.

Some areas have received 90 percent less rainfall than they should have at this time of the year, and the drought has caused economic losses of 19 billion yuan ($2.78 billion), the report said.

More than 16 million people are having difficulty accessing safe drinking water, it added.

"The drought has lasted for more than five straight months and is still developing," Xinhua said. "It is having a serious impact upon people's lives, industry and agriculture as well as general economic development. Losses are severe."

The area will experience no significant rainfall for at least the next 10 days, the report cited weather forecasters as saying.

Traders told Reuters in December they estimated sugar output in Guangxi, the country's largest sugar producing area, would fall by about 300,000 tonnes from 2008's 7.63 million tonnes. Guangxi produces 60 percent of China's sugar output, which totaled 12.43 million tonnes in 2008.

The drought is the worst in Yunnan in six decades, and has affected 85 percent of the province's agricultural land.

The drought has also been partly blamed for cracks appearing at one of the region's busiest airports, at Yunnan's provincial capital of Kunming.

($1=6.826 Yuan)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Perils of plastics: Risks to human health and the environment

Arizona State University EurekAlert 19 Mar 10;

Plastics surround us. A vital manufacturing ingredient for nearly every existing industry, these materials appear in a high percentage of the products we use every day. Although modern life would be hard to imagine without this versatile chemistry, products composed of plastics also have a dark side, due in part to the very characteristics that make them so desirable—their durability and longevity.

Now Rolf Halden, associate professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University and assistant director of Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute has undertaken a survey of existing scientific literature concerning the hazards of plastics to human health and to the ecosystems we depend on. His findings, which appear in the latest issue of the Annual Review of Public Health, are sobering.

Today, plastics accumulate in garbage dumps and landfills and are sullying the world's oceans in ever-greater quantity. And plastics and their additives aren't just around us, they are inside virtually every one of us— present in our blood and urine in measureable amounts, ingested with the food we eat, the water we drink and from other sources.

Halden's study reiterates the fact that the effects to the environment from plastic waste are acute. Measurements from the most contaminated regions of the world's oceans show that the mass of plastics exceeds that of plankton sixfold. Patches of oceanic garbage—some as large as the state of Texas—hold a high volume of non-biodegradable plastics. Aquatic birds and fish are increasingly victims because biodegradation processes are inadequate to eliminate this durable refuse.

The magnitude of society's burden of plastic waste is only beginning to be fully appreciated. In the U.S., the average person produces a half-pound of plastic waste every day. Around the world, some 300 million tons of the material are produced each year—a figure poised to expand, as new forms of plastics are devised to serve a voracious global appetite. As Halden points out, this annual production alone would fill a series of train cars encircling the globe. "We're doomed to live with yesterday's plastic pollution and we are exacerbating the situation with each day of unchanged behavior," he said.

Adverse effects to human health remain a topic of fierce controversy, though a growing consensus is emerging that plastics and their additives are not always the benign companions we once assumed them to be. Halden says he accepted the invitation to write about plastics and human health "because the topic showcases the bigger problem of how to create a sustainable future for modern civilization."

Two broad classes of plastic-related chemicals are of critical concern for human health—bisphenol-A or BPA, and additives used in the synthesis of plastics, which are known as phthalates. Halden explains that plastics are polymers—long chains of molecules usually made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and/or silicon, which are chemically linked together or polymerized. Different polymer chains can be used to create forms of plastics with unique and useful properties.

BPA is a basic building block of polycarbonate plastics, such as those used for bottled water, food packaging and other items. While it has been considered benign in the form of a heavily cross-linked polymer, its bonds can break down over time, when plastics are repeatedly washed, exposed to heat or other stresses, liberating the building blocks of the chemical, which are toxic. BPA has been recognized since the 1940s as an endocrine disrupting chemical that interferes with normal hormonal function.

Adding to the health risks associated with BPA is the fact that other ingredients—such as plasticizers—are commonly added to plastics. Many of these potentially toxic components also can leach out over time. Among the most common is a chemical known as di-ethylhexyl phthalate or DEHP. In some products, notably medical devices including IV bags or tubing, additives like DEHP can make up 40 or 50 percent of the product. "If you're in a hospital, hooked up to an IV drip," Halden explains, "the chemical that oozes out goes directly into your bloodstream, with no opportunity for detoxification in the gut. This can lead to unhealthy exposure levels, particularly in susceptible populations such as newborns."

What are the overall effects of the plastics we unwittingly ingest? The literature Halden surveyed is ambiguous on this point, despite more than half a century of study. Part of the difficulty lies in the absence of good controls for studying health outcomes, as plastic exposure is a global phenomenon, and finding unexposed subjects for comparison is nearly impossible. It is known however that health effects vary depending on who is exposed—and when. Infants and pregnant or nursing mothers are at heightened risk for toxic exposure or passage of BPA and additives like DEHP.

This January, the FDA announced an important reversal of its 2008 claims regarding the safety of bisphenol-A, expressing new concern about "potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children," and pledging to collaborate with other federal health agencies to reevaluate the chemical's safety.

Studying the effects of low-dose exposure is tricky, usually requiring a very large number of study subjects. Instead, epidemiologists tracking the problem frequently base their conclusions on data gathered from individuals known to have unusually high levels of a chemical—often the result of high-level occupational exposure. Halden insists that further study on low-dose exposure is essential to settle the matter of health risks, noting some evidence in the literature suggests that high-dose studies may be inadequate to properly understand toxic effects from continuous low-level exposures.

Halden explains that while plastics have legitimate uses of benefit to society, their brazen misuse has led to a radically unsustainable condition. "Today, there's a complete mismatch between the useful lifespan of the products we consume and their persistence in the environment." Prominent examples of offending products are the ubiquitous throwaway water bottles, Teflon-coated dental floss and cotton swabs made with plastic PVC sticks. All are typically used for a matter of seconds or minutes, yet are essentially non-biodegradable and will persist in the environment, sometimes for millennia.

Despite the scourge of discarded plastics and the health risks these substances pose, Halden is optimistic that society can begin to make wiser choices and develop more sustainable products, formed from biodegradable, non-toxic chemical building blocks.

New forms of polymer, some made from renewable materials that are digestible by microorganisms, are being explored.

Ultimately, converting to petroleum-free construction materials for use in smart and sustainable plastics will become a necessity, driven not only by health and environmental concerns but by the world's steadily declining oil supply. As Halden emphasizes, the manufacture of plastics currently accounts for about 8 percent of the world's petroleum use, a sizeable chunk, which ultimately contributes to another global concern—the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"We are at a critical juncture," Halden warns, "and cannot continue under the modus that has been established. If we're smart, we'll look for replacement materials, so that we don't have this mismatch—good for a minute and contaminating for 10,000 years."

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China's urban elite fights trash wars

Reuters 19 Mar 10;

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of China's urban elite took to the streets last year in protest against expanding garbage incinerators, angered by the threat to both their health and the value of their homes, a report launched on Friday said.

The stability-obsessed government fears growing public anger among the country's middle class, who once focused largely on securing jobs and homes but are becoming increasingly assertive -- sometimes forcing authorities to back down on unpopular plans.

City residents in the capital Beijing and the relatively well-off coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Guangdong all came out in 2009 to try and block new constructions or expansions of incinerators, an annual review by one of China's oldest and best known environmental groups, Friends of Nature, said.

"Health and safety are people's bottom line. When they feel threatened, and there's no other way to defend themselves, they protest," said Yang Changjiang, a journalist and co-author of the fifth annual "Green book of the Environment" report.

Some of the protests are successful. The government in southern Guangzhou city put off plans to install one incinerator when hundreds of people demonstrated, demanding that the facility be relocated.

But China has already surpassed the United States as the world's largest producer of household garbage as increased prosperity brings increased consumption.

The government is struggling to find new ways and places to dispose of the growing heap of rubbish, the report said. With space already at a premium in a country struggling with a shortage of farmland, incineration is an obvious alternative.

Beijing and Guangzhou now generate around 18,000 tons of garbage per day, but only have capacity to process 10,400 tonnes and 12,000 tonnes respectively, state media have reported.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

Protests included rallies, petitions, sit-ins, online forums and group efforts to dig into the financial affairs of officials who might be benefiting from any construction.

"We're tired of what the experts and officials said," one user of an anti-garbage-burning forum set up by residents of southern Guangdong province wrote. "We had no choice but to obey their decisions. It's time for change."

They are part of a sea-change in the nature of environmental protests that first gained widespread attention with efforts to block a chemical plant planned for the port of Xiamen in 2007.

Previously, most of those who challenged officials were farmers living with huge levels of pollution. The impact on their lives or livelihood was disastrous enough to outweigh the potential risks of taking on the government.

The concerns of the middle classes, about the future of their health or assets, brought a different kind of protest.

"Many people involved in 2009 cases are rich," said Xie Xinyuan, project coordinator at Friends of Nature.

"They are able to hire people to do professional research and present it to the public. Or they are so well-educated that they can do it by themselves," Xie said.

"People who live in less developed areas may also be harmed by the garbage crisis, but there is not so much they can do." So far Beijing at least has stuck to plans for more incinerators, adding three by 2012, and a further four by 2015.

By then, 8,200 tonnes of garbage could be going up in smoke -- much of it foul-smelling and potentially toxic -- around the capital each day.

"I'm not optimistic about the situation this year," Yang said. "Nationwide, 41 new incinerators will be built. It could cause some very serious problems."

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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The No-Growth Fantasy

Europe's attack on capitalism
Stefan Theil, Newsweek 19 Mar 10; from the magazine issue dated Mar 29, 2010

Take the worst economic crisis in 60 years. Combine it with the erosion of the West's predominance. Add apocalyptic warnings of climate change. What you'll get are some radical new ideas.

One of those now swirling through the European zeitgeist turns out to be a very old one, albeit in new garb. It's the revival of the assertion that economic development is and should be finite—limited today by scarce resources, overpopulation, and rising sea levels.

In Britain, a government commission has drawn up plans for a "steady state economy" that forgoes future economic growth in the name of sustainability by cutting work hours and banning TV commercials (to reduce consumerism). In Germany, new bestseller called Exit: Prosperity Without Growth is just the latest in a growing body of literature pleading for Germans to learn to live with less. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy—who once came to power exhorting the French to work harder and earn more—has thrown his weight behind an expert report that declares the pursuit of GDP growth a "fetish" and strives to replace the GDP statistic with a broader measure of national contentment.

Few would argue the world can just go back to the old go-go economy, where a large part of what was taken as growth was financed by unsustainable bubbles in credit and asset prices. The 2008 spike in the cost of food and oil reminded us that the present rate of resource depletion can't go on forever. And the debate over whether GDP statistics are really the proper measure of human progress is perfectly valid—and not new. Economists are the first to admit that GDP is at best a proxy for prosperity, not an end in itself.

Yet today's no-growthers seem to make the same mistakes as their many predecessors, from Thomas Malthus—who predicted in 1798 that rising populations would inevitably starve—to the Club of Rome, a group of scientists who warned in 1972 that the world would start running out of key resources in the 1980s. Such movements extrapolate growth rates for resource use and pollution but don't take enough account of technical innovation, environmental regulation, greater efficiency, and behavioral change. Take Exit author Meinhard Miegel's claim that the world is running out of food. It largely ignores, among other things, the barely tapped potential of genetic engineering and other plant-breeding technologies.

Such faults are often overlooked because the no-growthers resonate in Europe today for intellectual and political reasons, not economic or technological ones. Critiques of growth have always been, at their core, about uneasiness with capitalism itself. That this critique becomes mainstream when capitalism seems to be failing us is no surprise. After all, the Club of Rome made its first splash in the 1970s, during a long slowdown when people were also becoming newly aware of environmental degradation.

It's also no surprise that the movement is now centered in Europe and led by a French president. In no other country on earth is public disapproval of the market economy, as measured by opinion polls, deeper. French children, in a widely used and by no means exceptional schoolbook, learn that "economic growth imposes a hectic form of life that produces overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease, and cancer." To the 2.6 billion people worldwide trying to stay alive on less than $2 a day, the idea that economic growth causes stress may sound crazy. But in Europe, even conservatives have widely bought into the Marxist idea of "economism"—the notion that capitalism has reduced our lives to a series of market transactions.

There's something to these critiques. But the no-growthers are unrealistic about how painful a no-growth reality would be. As the Harvard scholar Benjamin Friedman argues eloquently in The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, a society that gives up on growth invites nasty fights over the distribution of limited resources and paves the way for intolerance and populism. That economic growth isn't everything—it doesn't measure the value of our relationships, our communities, our culture—is obvious. But so is the correlation between prosperity and quality of life, including health, longevity, and the freedom to pursue happiness. Even if the critics are right and growth is going to be harder to attain post-crisis, that's no reason to give up on it. Just the opposite: all the more reason to spend our energy coming up with the right policies—from education and innovation to entrepreneurship and competition—that will help foster it.

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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Mar 10

Dolphin? Dolphin?? DOLPHIN!!!
from Psychedelic Nature

TeamSeagrass is Three!
from teamseagrass

Bagging Barbets: Red-Crowned Barbet
from Life's Indulgences

A walk on Chek Jawa Boardwalk in February
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Does Earth Hour matter? NUS SAVE says why
from the kent ridge common

The Asian Animal Crisis
from Mongabay.com news

Status of the Bali Starling
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Tuna defeat's hypocritical roots
from BBC NEWS blog by Richard Black

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Dubai Atlantis whale shark freed

7 Days 18 Mar 10;

The whale shark being held captive at the Atlantis hotel on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah has finally been released.

After being confined to the tank in the hotel’s aquarium for almost 17 months a statement released by the Atlantis today said the female whale shark has been returned to the Arabian Gulf.

The five-star hotel has faced a wave of criticism since it plucked the creature from the sea on August 28, 2008, with thousands joining facebook groups to free it and numerous environmental groups also lobbying for its freedom along with actress Pamela Anderson.

Since its capture the hotel had refused to comment on when the whale shark would be released. In today’s statement it said the creature would be monitored with a tracking device.

“We will continue to track her progress through a tagging program co-developed with The Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida (the world’s largest scientific research organization dedicated to the study of sharks and their relatives)”, commented Steve Kaiser, Vice President, Marine and Science Engineering. “This will give us the opportunity to continue to learn from her and share that research within the whale shark community.”

Dubai hotel releases whale shark back into wild
Associated Press 18 Mar 10;

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A resort hotel on Dubai's main palm-shaped island says it has released back into the wild a whale shark whose captivity had been criticized by environmentalists.

The Atlantis hotel on the city-state's manmade Palm Jumeirah island said Thursday it released the 13-foot-long female shark back into the Persian Gulf. It says the shark has been tagged so it can be tracked for research purposes.

The hotel did not say when the shark was released. A spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.

Environmentalists and a local newspaper began calling for the shark's release shortly after the hotel announced it had rescued it from the shallow waters off Dubai's coast in 2008.

Whale sharks are considered a threatened species.

Sammy the whale shark freed in Dubai
An animal of this size cannot be kept in captivity for such a long time, said president and founder of the Emirates Marine Environment Group
Emmanuelle Landais, Gulf News 18 Mar 10;

Dubai: Sammy, the whale shark that had been held in captivity in the Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah aquarium for the past eighteen months, is freed.

The release comes almost a year after a popular Gulf News led campaign had thousands of Dubai residents calling for the hotel to release Sammy. The campaign involved badges, bumper stickers, jingles and a Facebook group that attracted several thousand members.

Atlantis issued a press release stating that the mammal had already been released.

"After several months of planning, Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai has returned a female whale shark to the waters of the Arabian Gulf from where she was rescued. The Atlantis Fish Husbandry Team utilised their experience and skill to save the animal in compliance with all CITIES regulations."

Whale sharks are listed in appendix 2 of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), which stipulates that they can only be held for scientific purposes provided that it does not harm the survival of the species.

A UAE delegation is attending the CITES conference currently taking place in Doha.

Ali Bin Saqr Al Suwaidi, president and founder of the Emirates Marine Environment Group [EMEG], confirmed that the whale shark was set to be released.

“An animal of this size cannot be kept in captivity for such a long time,” he said.

The animal was being transported in a boat carrying a sufficient amount of water to allow Sammy to swim.

According to Atlantis, the hotel had been “preparing the animal for return to the ocean” during the time that it was being held. “The seasonal elements affecting water temperature, salinity and migratory patterns were perfect for enhancing her survival in the open ocean,” said the hotel.

Environmentalists had been appalled when Sammy was first captured because it is a female and a juvenile.

Whale sharks are categorized as “vulnerable” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of threatened species.

Al Suwaidi said that EMEG had increasingly been campaigning for Sammy’s release during the past few months.

"We will continue to track her progress through a tagging programme co-developed with The Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida (the world’s largest scientific research organization dedicated to the study of sharks and their relatives)," said Steve Kaiser, Vice President, Marine and Science Engineering. “This will give us the opportunity to continue to learn from her and share that research within the whale shark community.”

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Undercover investigations in the illegal trade in tiger parts in Singapore

Acres Press Release 19 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE, 19 March 2010 – A 3-month undercover investigation by ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society) has revealed that 59 out of 134 jewellery and antique shops visited in Singapore offered alleged tiger parts for sale. Evidence of the 59 shops selling alleged tiger parts was recorded on video.

Approximately 159 alleged tiger claws, 303 alleged tiger teeth and 38 pieces of alleged tiger skin were found on sale during the investigation, which was conducted from December 2009 until February 2010. Tiger parts are used for various purposes such as traditional medicine, jewellery, lucky charms and novelties.

Singapore has previously been recognised as playing a role in the trade of tiger products from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, for both domestic trade and international re-exports.1

Although all commercial tiger trade has been banned since 1987 by CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which Singapore is a party to, there has been an approximate 50% decrease in wild tiger populations since the ban.

Less than a century ago, more than 100,000 tigers roamed the world’s jungles and forests. Today, less than 3,200 remain in the wild. Three subspecies of tiger have become extinct within the last 50 years and, despite the inclusion of Asian big cat species in Appendix I of CITES, the illegal trade in specimens of nearly all these species has escalated and further threatens their long-term survival in the wild.

Singapore joined CITES in 1986 and ratified the Convention in 1987. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority is the CITES authority in Singapore. AVA administers the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act (ESA), which lists all CITES species in its Schedules. Under the ESA, it is an offence to import, export and re-export any CITES species without a permit from AVA. The possession, sale, offering or exposing or advertising for sale or displaying to the public of any illegally imported CITES specimen is also an offence. The penalties, on conviction, are a fine of $50,000 (per species), not exceeding an aggregate of $500,000 and/or 2 years imprisonment.

Under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) (Prohibition of Sale) Notification, the domestic sale of tiger specimens is prohibited. Any person who sells, offers or exposes for sale or displays to the public any tiger parts and products, commits an offence. The offender shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000 for each species (but not to exceed in the aggregate $100,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year or to both.

“It is important to note that anyone who advertises for sale any tiger parts contravenes the above Act, even if the products turn out to be not authentic. By making a claim that the product is from tigers, the dealer is potentially driving up the demand for tiger parts, which directly contravenes the spirit of CITES and the local legislation meant to enforce CITES” said Ms. Anbarasi Boopal, Director of ACRES Wildlife Crime Unit.

Key findings of the investigation include:

• The demand for tiger parts and the amount of tiger parts being stocked by the shops appeared to be higher over the Chinese New Year period in this year of the tiger, as reported by a shopkeeper.
• 28 shopkeepers mentioned that an order for more tiger parts could be placed with them, and the delivery time ranged from one week to three months or more.
• 7 shopkeepers recognised that tigers are protected animals, that it is illegal to sell tiger parts, and that tiger parts are customs-controlled items.
• The alleged tiger parts were claimed to originate from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Lao and Cambodia.

“The investigation findings showed the presence of an illegal trade in alleged tiger parts in Singapore and that there is an immediate need for continued serious efforts to curb this illegal trade. The investigation findings and footage have been submitted to the AVA and we look forward to working closely with the AVA” said Mr. Louis Ng, Executive Director of ACRES.

“As long as there is demand, there will be supply. Legislation alone is insufficient to bring a complete halt to the illegal trading of endangered species and their parts. We must do more public education and awareness so demands for them can be curbed and supply will then terminate” said Dr. Lim Wee Kiak, Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC.

Contact:
Louis Ng (ACRES Executive Director)
Email: louis@acres.org.sg Hp: +65 9796 8592


- ends -

Notes to editors

• Photographs and video footage of the investigation are available on request.
• In 2003, ACRES, in collaboration with The New Paper, conducted undercover investigations into the illegal trade in tiger parts in Singapore. The investigations revealed that alleged tiger parts, including tiger bones, tiger paws and tiger penises, were on sale at Traditional Chinese Medicine stores in Chinatown.
• Between 2008 and 2009, ACRES received 3 tip-offs regarding the sale of alleged tiger parts in Singapore. ACRES investigations confirmed alleged tiger parts being sold as lucky charms in all three cases. Enforcement action by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority followed.
• ACRES is a local animal protection charity and Institution of Public Character aimed at fostering respect and compassion for all animals. It currently has more than 18,000 individuals on its supporter database.

1. Chris R. Shepherd and Nolan Magnus, 2004. Nowhere to hide: The trade in Sumatran tiger. A TRAFFIC South-east Asia report.


Year of the Tiger fuels demand for tiger parts
Sia Ling Xin, My Paper AsiaOne 19 Mar 10;

THE Year of the Tiger seems to have driven up demand for tiger parts - even though trading in them is illegal here.

People think that they make an apt gift this year, and the dwindling tiger population has led to a rise in their value, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shops said.

The parts most in demand: the penis, believed to be an aphrodisiac; and the bones, believed to cure rheumatism.

Posing as a potential buyer, my paper spoke to eight TCM shops in Chinatown, five of which had received more enquiries for tiger parts this year. The rest did not get any queries.

Of the five, two shops said that they usually get an enquiry every two or three months, but, since January, they have received two queries each month.

The other three reported a doubling in the number of enquiries, from a couple each month to four or five.

The enquiries are made by both Singaporean and foreign men and women, who are usually middle-aged.

Only one shop admitted to dabbling in tiger parts. The rest denied doing so.

That store's shopkeeper said that although he gets a few enquiries every month, only two or three deals a year are closed because he does not keep any stock.

He susses the market out when customers request certain parts, he said. year, so he advises those who want to get their hands on the parts urgently to look elsewhere first, he said.

The client has to pay a deposit.

The shop will give an estimated price, but the client may have to pay more, depending on the season and middlemen, he said.

A tiger's penis is priced at about $25 per liang, a traditional unit of measurement equivalent to 37.5g. Typically, the organ costs about $450, he said.

The shop also gets requests for eyeballs, believed to cure convulsions; and paws and pelts for decorative purposes, he said.

Paws are rare, as they are usually damaged by poachers' snares, so a perfect pair can cost "more than a thousand", he said.

TCM physician Kwek Mei Lin, who has never used tiger parts in her treatments, said that while it is believed that tiger parts can cure ailments, many herbs are much better alternatives, as they are effective, easily available and cheaper.



Singapore jewellers selling tiger parts - report
Reuters Alertnet 19 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) - Some jewellery shops in Singapore are illegally selling tiger parts, helping fuel the disappearance of the big cat from Asia, a local animal protection group said on Friday. A three-month investigation by Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) found that 59 out of 134 jewellery and antique shops it visited in the Southeast Asian city-state were allegedly selling tiger parts, including claws, teeth and pieces of skin.

All commercial tiger trade has been banned by the international CITES convention that Singapore has signed, and under domestic law the sale of tiger specimens is prohibited, even if the products turn out not to be real, ACRES said. Shopkeepers told ACRES that demand had been higher over Lunar New Year -- the start of the Year of the Tiger -- and more orders could be placed for parts that could take from a week to three months to be delivered.

The parts came from Southeast Asia, China and South Asia, they said.

Tiger parts are used to make jewellery and Chinese medicine.

Tigers in the Greater Mekong region face extinction, conservationists say. Global tiger populations are at an all-time low of 3,200, down from about 100,000 a century ago, as forest habitats disappear and the animals are killed for their body parts, used in traditional Chinese medicine. [ID:nSGE60P06P]

Asian countries are a hotspot for the illegal wildlife trade, which the international police organisation Interpol estimates may be worth more than $20 billion a year.

"As long as there is demand, there will be supply," said Singapore member of parliament Lim Wee Kiak. "Legislation alone is insufficient to bring a complete halt to the illegal trading." (Reporting by Neil Chatterjee; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Tiger parts sold openly as jewellery
Some unaware of ban and penalties; AVA seizes 320 items from 30 shops
Grace Chua, Straits Times 20 Mar 10;

JEWELLERS and antique dealers here are openly selling jewellery and amulets made from tiger claws, skin and teeth, an animal welfare group said yesterday.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), which investigated 134 jewellery or antique shops between December and last month, found 59 selling body parts of the highly endangered big cat.

And of the 59, only seven knew of the ban on trade in tiger ornaments; they produced the objects from under the counter, or from a safe, in front of undercover Acres investigators.

One shopkeeper advised: 'When you take it out of Singapore, just say it is a talisman. Don't say it is a tiger part.'

Another admitted to having 'just stocked up' for the Chinese New Year because of hotter demand for the items this Tiger year.

These retailers either do not know or are ignoring the heavy penalties that come with selling, advertising or buying the parts of such an endangered animal.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) subsequently checked 161 retail outlets, including Acres' 134, and seized 320 items from 30 shops.

It was the biggest seizure of alleged tiger parts here to date, in terms of quantity netted.

The AVA is now examining the items for authenticity.

Selling tiger parts is banned. All six tiger species are protected under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

Singapore ratified the Cites convention in 1987.

Under the Endangered Species (Import & Export) Act, importing, exporting, re-exporting or possessing any Cites species without a permit can land one a fine of up to $50,000 per species, with a cap of $500,000, and/or two years in jail.

And here is the rub: Even if the parts are fakes, the same penalties apply.

This is because trading even in fakes drives up the demand for tiger parts, said Acres executive director Louis Ng.

In Asia and some parts of the world, amulets or ornaments made of tiger claws, teeth and skin are carried or worn for protection. Tiger skin, for instance, may be inscribed with prayers and rolled up in glass capsules. Some people believe that wearing such 'lucky charms' gives them power and authority.

The demand for tiger parts for ornaments and traditional medicine, coupled with tigers' loss of habitat, have caused wild tiger populations to plummet worldwide.

By some estimates, only 3,400 to 5,140 tigers were left in the wild in 2008, down from 5,000 to 7,000 in 1999.

Animal conservationists deem this critical, and yet, the continuing demand for tiger parts is fuelling its supply.

Shopkeepers told Acres that they sourced the tiger parts mainly from Thailand, India and China.

The prices for these charms ranged from $3 for a tiger tooth, to $350 for a piece of skin, to $4,800 for a tiger claw set in gold.

Given the rising demand and shrinking supply, these prices can only go up.

Acres' investigation targeted clusters of jewellery shops and antique dealers in Little India, Chinatown, Geylang and Bugis.

The actual size of the market for tiger parts is unknown, since their sale is not limited to jewellery and antique shops, said Mr Ng.

AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong said the agency has an ongoing programme to check shops for the sale of illegal Cites species and to educate traders and members of the public.

He said: 'We must acknowledge Acres for being our eyes and ears on the ground.'

The number of people nabbed for selling alleged tiger parts has been on the rise. There was one case in 2007 and another in 2008, but four last year.

All turned out to be fakes made of materials like horns or hooves and the sellers were fined between $100 and $500.

Those with information about shops selling tiger parts and other endangered species may call the AVA hotline on 6227-0670 or Acres' hotline, 9783-7782.

Smuggled tiger parts sold as jewellery in Singapore
Wang Eng Eng Channel NewsAsia 19 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE - Tiger parts that have been smuggled into Singapore are being openly sold as jewellery and amulets in the retail capital of Southeast Asia, an animal welfare group said Friday.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) said it conducted an investigation of more than 130 jewellery and antique shops and found just under half offered products made from tiger parts like claws, teeth and fur.

Of the 59 shops selling such items, 52 were openly displaying the items for sale, the group said at a news conference.

The shops investigated were located in various places, such as Chinatown, Little India and Bugis.

Shopkeepers offered ACRES activists posing as buyers hundreds of items purportedly from tigers but the group said it could not verify whether all of them were authentic.

"Whether it's real or it's fake, it's actually driving up the demand for tiger parts in this region," said Louis Ng, the executive director of ACRES.

The products included claws set in gold or silver and worn as jewellery, amulets made of teeth with a piece of prayer paper rolled into them, and cuts of skin said to have been blessed for protection or strength.

A claw set in gold costs between S$20 and S$5,000.

The sale of tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), of which Singapore is a signatory.

Fewer than 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 a century ago, and that number is still declining, ACRES said in a statement.

Butchered for traditional medicine, deprived of their habitat and killed for encroaching on villages, the onslaught has already seen three sub-species wiped out and the South China tiger has not been sighted for decades.

Video evidence from the investigation, which was conducted from December 2009 to February, showed one shopkeeper offering a piece of "blessed" tiger skin that he said came from Songkhla in Thailand.

Another shopkeeper was caught on camera offering a necklace made from a tooth that he said came from Thailand, while a third said he had to stock up on tiger parts due to the pick-up in demand during the Lunar New Year.

Shopkeepers named Thailand, China and India as their main sources.

Mr Ng said Singapore played a key role in the illegal trade. "It's critical especially for Singapore because all our neighbouring countries have tiger populations. We don't want to be driving up the demand for these products at this time when they are so critically endangered," he added.

Singapore is the shopping capital of Southeast Asia and welcomed 9.7 million tourists in 2009.

Asked for its comments, Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it carried out its own checks on 161 shops this year, including the 134 ACRES visited. Its investigations found some of the tiger parts to be fake.

However, 26 shops did violate the Endangered Species Act and were fined between S$500 and S$3,000. Under the Act, those caught selling tiger parts can be fined up to S$10,000 and/or jailed for up to one year, even if the parts are fake.

ACRES is calling for stiffer sentences. Mr Ng said: "It's time we hand out deterrent sentences, whether the product is real or fake. Under our law, it's illegal to advertise for the product. Even if it's fake, they are driving up the demand for these products."

ACRES had earlier uncovered the use of illegal tiger parts in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

- AFP/CNA/ir

Are tiger parts being sold openly here?
AVA acts on animal protection group's findings
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 20 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE - Want to buy a pendant with a tiger's claw?

Apparently, it is not that difficult to get your hands on one here - either real or fake - despite a commercial trade ban since 1987.

The illegal sale of alleged tiger parts like claws, teeth and skin for aesthetic purposes appears fairly widespread here, probes by a wildlife protection group have revealed.

Of the 134 jewellery and antique shops surveyed by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) between December last year and February this year, 59 offered alleged tiger parts for sale.

Of these, 52 openly displayed the tiger parts, and 49 claimed their goods were the real thing. Shopkeepers claimed the goods originated from places like Thailand, Sri Lanka, China and Myanmar.

Tiger claws and teeth are set in gold pendants, and pieces of skin are used as amulets in the belief that they could ward off evil.

Releasing these findings on Friday, Acres' wildlife crime unit director Anbarasi Boopal said: "It was shocking for us to see so many of these products on sale."

The Singapore Jewellers Association lists over 300 members and there are hundreds of antique shops in Singapore.

The shops Acres surveyed are clustered in Ang Mo Kio, Bugis, Chinatown, Geylang, Lavender and Little India.

The group had to trawl the shops opportunistically - checking out all antique or jewellery outlets along Serangoon Road, for instance - as there was no way of determining how many shops sold tiger parts, said Acres executive director Louis Ng.

The Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) has since acted on Acres' findings and confiscated some goods from the shops. It has also done checks on 27 other shops not covered by Acres.

A total of 320 pieces of alleged tiger parts from 30 shops have been seized, said AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong.

While it is now determining if the parts are authentic, some appear to be carved from horns or hoofs of domestic animals like cattle and goats, Mr Goh said. Meanwhile, it has fined 26 of the shops sums of between $500 to $3,000.

Since 1987, Singapore has been a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which aims to protect endangered wildlife species.

The commercial trade of all six tiger species is banned.

Anyone who sells or displays to the public alleged tiger parts and products can, for each species, be fined up to $10,000, jailed up to a year, or both.

"Whether real or fake, it's driving up demand for tiger parts," said Mr Ng.

Fewer than 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 a century ago, and that number is still declining.

To increase chances of nabbing those who bring tiger parts into Singapore, Mr Ng suggested having wildlife detector dogs at checkpoints.

Those with information on illegal wildlife trade may call AVA on 6227-0670, or Acres on 9783-7782. Neo Chai Chin

Smuggled tiger parts sold as jewellery in Singapore
Idayu Suparto Yahoo News 19 Mar 10;

SINGAPORE (AFP) – Tiger parts that have been smuggled into Singapore are being openly sold as jewellery and amulets in the retail capital of Southeast Asia, an animal welfare group said Friday.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) said it conducted an investigation of more than 130 jewellery and antique shops and found just under half offered products made from tiger parts like claws, teeth and fur.

Of the 59 shops selling such items, 52 were openly displaying the items for sale, the group said at a news conference.

Shopkeepers offered ACRES activists posing as buyers hundreds of items purportedly from tigers but the group said it could not verify whether all of them were authentic.

"Whether it's real or it's fake, it's actually driving up the demand for tiger parts in this region," said Louis Ng, the executive director of ACRES.

The products included claws set in gold or silver and worn as jewellery, amulets made of teeth with a piece of prayer paper rolled into them, and cuts of skin said to have been blessed for protection or strength.

Fewer than 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 a century ago, and that number is still declining, ACRES said in a statement.

Butchered for traditional medicine, deprived of their habitat and killed for encroaching on villages, the onslaught has already seen three sub-species wiped out and the South China tiger has not been sighted for decades.

Video evidence from the investigation, which was conducted from December 2009 to February, showed one shopkeeper offering a piece of "blessed" tiger skin that he said came from Songkhla in Thailand.

Another shopkeeper was caught on camera offering a necklace made from a tooth that he said came from Thailand, while a third said he had to stock up on tiger parts due to the pick-up in demand during the lunar new year.

Shopkeepers named Thailand, China and India as their main sources.

Ng said Singapore played a key role in the illegal trade.

"It's critical especially for Singapore because all our neighbouring countries have tiger populations. We don't want to be driving up the demand for these products at this time when they are so critically endangered," he added.

Singapore is the shopping capital of Southeast Asia and welcomed 9.7 million tourists in 2009.

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Don't use wild animals for entertainment

Straits Times Forum 19 Mar 10;

THE recent drowning of a trainer at SeaWorld, Orlando, Florida was indeed a tragedy, with many horrified people witnessing the violent act by Tilikum, a killer whale and long-term resident of the amusement park.

The animal had just finished performing at a noon-time show. It was reported that this was not the first time the same killer whale had been implicated in a death.

If one watches documentaries on these creatures (also known as orcas), they are naturally violent and aggressive towards their prey. They are also highly intelligent. Years of abuse in the captivity process - from capture and training to compulsory performance - no doubt provide the right climate for lashing out against the humans involved in the cruelty.

What goes on behind the scenes in the training process, one can only imagine - withholding or rewarding with food must surely be one way that the animals are bribed and forced into submission.

One can only hope, on hearing of this latest incident, that a universal review would be carried out to stamp out the insidious cruelty of capturing or breeding wild animals for human entertainment and amusement, for which ultimately some humans will pay the price, as in this case.

Closer to home, there have been incidents where wild animals used in performances have let loose their frustrations. As long as these creatures are placed near unsuspecting and excited audiences, there will always be a risk they will attack because they are inherently wild and unpredictable.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) supports the call by animal rights group Acres ('Wild animals are dangerous', Forum Online, March 5) for captive establishments here to be the leaders and refrain from using wild animals (including whales, dolphins, elephants and snakes) to perform or be handled by members of the public, in the interest of the latter's safety, and to protect the animals from unnecessary stress.

We also hope the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority will review SPCA's request in 2002 to extend the ban on the use of wild animals in travelling circuses (on public safety and animal welfare grounds) to captive facilities or other entertainment mediums in Singapore.

Deirdre Moss (Ms)
Executive Officer
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

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Singaporeans acquire taste for exotic produce

Straits Times 19 Mar 10;

IT IS white asparagus season in Europe and North America now, but Singaporeans are getting about 1,200 tonnes of the pale stalks, never mind that the weather here is far from wintry.

Achachas from Bolivia, acai berries from the Amazon, Italian blood oranges, Korean Shingo pears and ice salad from France are just some of the exotic items foodies here are heading to grocers for, as they buy into the worldwide craze for fresh seasonal produce.

Demand is so high that FairPrice, for one, is importing 20 per cent more fresh seasonal foods than two years ago - with a 60 per cent jump over the past decade.

Cold Storage and Jasons Market Place count ice salad, a wild plant found mostly on the French coast, among the new items they introduced recently, including doughnut peaches, broccolini and fresh figs. The variety of produce they offer has increased by 15 per cent in the last two years.

It is the same for major fruit importing company Ban Choon Marketing, which brought in only 15 varieties of seasonal fruit a decade ago. It now imports 50 new types of seasonal fruit, including Japanese kumquats, apriums and kiwi berries.

Last year, small-time food importer Garnet and Peridot became one of the first importers of acai berry products - made from the pulp of the purple fruit - which have risen in popularity globally because of their antioxidant properties.

According to figures from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, acai imports have increased from 280kg in 2008 to 711kg now.

The trend, say industry players, is facilitated by free trade agreements signed in recent years, commercial farming of exotic foods, and lower transport costs.

More than 10 free trade agreements - legally binding contracts between countries that eliminate trade barriers such as tariffs - have been signed between Singapore and countries such as Japan and New Zealand in the past decade.

'It is also cheaper to import fruits and vegetables now because there are so many airlines flying in and competition has brought costs down,' said Ban Choon Marketing owner Tan Chin Hian, who reckons the cost of importing a tonne of fruit into Singapore has dropped by more than 30 per cent in the past decade.

A spokesman for the Dairy Farm group, which owns the Cold Storage and Jasons Market Place chains, attributes the growing demand to an increased supply.

Achacha, an exotic fruit that has its roots in Bolivia where it was farmed in relatively small quantities, for instance, is now commercially grown in Australia.

The reason for Singaporeans' increased demand for the exotic: They are now more well-travelled and open to acquiring new tastes. The prominence of cooking shows by celebrity chefs has also drummed up demand - which continues to be high despite higher prices.

For example, purple cauliflower from the United States costs about $10 per kg, treble that of the regular crop from China. White asparagus from North America costs $29 per kg, $15 more than regular green asparagus, while Korean strawberries cost about $2 per 100g, 70 cents more than the normal ones from the US.

Profit margins for exotic fruits are higher, with grocers reporting a 15 per cent profit, up from the 10 per cent for regular produce. But Mr Tan warned that the big margins could change once more importers get in on the act.

Most meat and fish importers, however, are missing out on the seasonal fad. Apart from specialised produce like grass-fed spring lamb, seasons are rare in the meat market due to improvements in animal husbandry, which mean these animals can be farmed all year round, they say.

But consumers here seem happy enough as it is.

'There is much more variety at supermarkets now, and at more affordable prices,' said Mr Thomas Chiam, 40, who has bought seasonal items like black truffles, white asparagus and Japanese oranges. 'When I go grocery shopping, I try to pick seasonal foods. Why not? My meals will be more unique.'

However, housewife Jenny Lin, 34, thinks more can be done.

'Yes, there is more variety now, but I want to see more supermarkets and even wet markets selling these things,' said the mother of one, who cooks at least one meal a day. 'If I want something really special, like yellow dragon fruit, I still don't know where to start looking for it.'

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