Water wonders: wetland and ponds in Singapore parks

A special wetland and dry ponds are among the award-winning water features at two parks
tay suan chiang Straits Times 12 Jul 10;

Housewife Tan Bee Lian watches over her four-year-old grandson while he dabbles gleefully in water at a park.

A resident at Woodlands Drive 62, she has been visiting the seven-month-old park in the evenings. Called Greenwood Sanctuary @ Admiralty, it is a five-minute walk from her home.

The pond - one of 11 in the park - is a hit with the boy, Jun Jie. Madam Tan, 63, says: 'The water is not crystal clear but I don't mind him dipping his toes in it.'

Certifying the cleanliness of such water spots is as easy as ABC. Well, sort of.

Since 2006, national water agency PUB has had an Active, Beautiful, Clean (ABC) Waters programme that encourages the cleansing of rainwater and supports human interaction with waterways here.

Last week, which was also Singapore International Water Week, the first ABC Waters certificates were handed out to 14 projects around Singapore. Greenwood Sanctuary @ Admiralty was one of them.

Ms Angela Koh, PUB's assistant director for catchment and waterways, says the certification scheme recognises developers who 'take the effort to introduce ABC Waters design features into their projects'.

Under the 'Active' category, points are awarded for facilities that allow people to get close to the water. 'Beautiful' refers to the project's aesthetics, how surface drainage spaces are integrated with nature as well as the plant variety and biodiversity of the project. And 'Clean' refers to the measures that have been put in place to treat rainwater.

Other projects that received the certificate were Sengkang Riverside Park, the upcoming boardwalk from VivoCity to Sentosa and public residential project Sky Terrace @ Dawson.

Dry ponds fill up after rain

Greenwood Sanctuary @ Admiralty

This 1.5ha, $2.1-million park at Woodlands Drive 62 was opened to the public in January. Developed by the Housing Development Board (HDB), it is the first eco-park in Singapore with dry ponds and swales.

While conventional ponds are constantly filled with water, dry ponds fill up only after it rains. Swales are shallow depressions on the ground.

Unlike other parks which have concrete drains for rainwater to run off, this park has none. Instead, the swales lead the rainwater to the 11 dry ponds that are scattered around the park.

A HDB spokesman says that in place of concrete drains, the swales give the park a more natural look. She adds that the park's topology has contours that channel rainwater to the swales.

When it rains, water runs off the surrounding ground to the dry ponds and filters to underground percolation tanks wrapped in permeable membranes. On rainy days, only eight ponds can be seen as a few are connected.

In dry weather, the rainwater collected will slowly permeate the surrounding land to keep the ground moist. This helps provide water for the park's plants.

The spokesman says the board can save $500,000 in construction costs by introducing swales and dry ponds instead of building concrete drains. 'The savings are, in turn, spent on better quality play equipment, sculptures and plants in the park,' she adds.

Signs on how the swales and dry ponds work have also been put up so visitors can better understand the green features.

Recycled rubber mulch is used for the running track to allow rainwater to percolate into the ground.

Wetland and wild

Sengkang Riverside Park

For most families, especially those with kids, a visit to the Sengkang Riverside Park in Anchorvale Street is not complete without a stop by its pond. There, they toss in bits of bread to feed its inhabitants such as soft-shell turtles.

But the 21ha park, which opened in February last year, has also drawn non-human visitors. Birds, such as the purple heron and the collared kingfisher, which were previously not seen in the area, now drop in to feed on the fish in the pond.

A spokesman for the park's developer, National Parks board (NParks), says it had specially constructed a wetland, a first of its kind in Singapore. The park's design of contours and slopes lets rainwater flow naturally into the pond, which is divided into different sections.

In the sedimentation basin, larger particles such as soil sink to the bottom. The water then flows into a main section where micro-organisms in it are absorbed by aquatic plants via their roots. This natural process treats the water by further clearing it of pollutants. The water is then pumped out to irrigate the park's flora.

NParks sees the set-up cost of about $300,000 as an investment: The pond enhances the area's biodiversity and rainwater is recycled. In the long run, it saves water.

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Green bus for Youth Olympic Village

Hydrogen-electric hybrid bus to be used to ferry participants around the NTU campus
Grace Chua Straits Times 12 Jul 10;

ATHLETES in town for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) next month will ride around the Olympic Village in Singapore's latest green vehicle: a hydrogen- electric hybrid bus.

The bus, developed by engineers from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and China's Tsinghua University, will be used to ferry participants along the steep slopes of the NTU campus, where the Youth Olympic Village is situated.

The 72-passenger, single-deck vehicle is likely to be Singapore's first fuel-cell vehicle in practical use, though a Singapore team in last year's Shell Eco-marathon car race in Germany drove a hydrogen fuel-cell car 484km on a single litre of fuel.

The bus has eight hydrogen tanks on its roof, which hold about 128kg of pressurised hydrogen; the fuel is channelled into fuel cells, which split the hydrogen into charged particles. Those charged particles then flow through a circuit to generate a current, which supplies power for the vehicle.

That current also charges a lithium-ion battery, like those used in electric or ordinary hybrid cars.

By using hydrogen, the bus emits no carbon dioxide, or sulphur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain. In comparison, a normal diesel bus produces 1.39kg of carbon dioxide per kilometre.

By using a battery as well as a fuel-cell stack, the bus needs fewer fuel cells, slashing running costs.

The project's funding of about $225,000 comes from the Land Transport Authority's Innovation Fund, a $50million kitty for transport development.

NTU electrical engineer Soh Yeng Chai said the project was first mooted about two years ago, when the university was designated the Olympic Village. It is part of NTU's clean-energy research programmes, which include fuel-cell research, Professor Soh said.

During the YOG, the bus will run modest trips - a total of 80km a day, four days a week. After the Games, it will be used to shuttle between NTU and a transit interchange. Details have not been finalised.

But the main challenges to fuel-cell vehicles becoming mainstream here include the high cost of fuel cells, their short two-year lifespan, and their performance, Prof Soh said.

He did not give a cost estimate, but producing power from fuel cells costs $4,000 per kilowatt-hour, by some estimates. In comparison, electricity from natural gas typically costs a fraction of that, at a few cents per kWh.

Among other fuel-cell applications being planned here: developer JTC will install hydrogen power for a building at its upcoming CleanTech Park near NTU.

Internationally, other fuel-cell vehicles being developed include Toyota's fuel-cell hybrid car and bus, and Honda's FCX Clarity, a fuel-cell car already available for lease in the United States.

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Plan to Save Indonesia's Forests Hits Snags

Environmentalists Warn of Loopholes as Industries Lobby for Land Rights
Patrick Barta The Asian Wall Street Journal 12 Jul 10;

JAKARTA, Indonesia—A widely hailed new project to restrict forest-clearing in Indonesia over the next two years is turning out to be more complicated than expected and could leave large areas of the country unprotected, as environmentalists and industry groups fight over terms of the deal before it takes effect in January.

Announced by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a conference in Oslo in late May, the plan was part of an international agreement aimed at reducing Indonesia's greenhouse gases by curbing deforestation. Indonesia is among the world's biggest sources of greenhouse gases, largely because of rampant burning of peat and forest land for palm oil plantations and other industries.

Norway pledged to invest up to $1 billion in Indonesian conservation projects and local authorities agreed to boost forest-monitoring efforts and other steps in addition to the two-year moratorium. Advocacy group WWF called the partnership "a huge step" toward saving Indonesia's forests, and Greenpeace hailed it as "a great start" toward reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

But the letter of intent underpinning the plan was vague about which forests would be covered, environmentalists and industry officials now say. It indicated the moratorium would cover "all new concessions" for clearing of peat and natural forest but didn't specify what constituted "natural" forests or whether unused permits in virgin areas would be honored.

Government officials have since said that some areas, including lands around important infrastructure and renewable energy projects, won't be covered. Other forested areas may not be included because of power-sharing rules between the central government and local provincial officials, environmentalists say.

Meanwhile, industry leaders are gearing up to make sure they retain the right to clear areas they were already planning to develop. Environmentalists say more loopholes could emerge.

"We could still see quite a lot of deforestation happening over the next two years" despite the moratorium, says Moray McLeish, a project manager for the Washington-based World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank. "This I think is against the spirit of the deal."

Government officials acknowledge the program may not cover as much land as environmentalists had hoped and that many elements remain uncertain. But they argue—with some agreement from environmentalists—that the program still represents major progress in a country famous for out-of-control logging.

Government leaders also long ago admitted they weren't able to fully police land-clearing in more remote areas.

"We'll get through this and the confusion will be settled" before January, says Agus Purnomo, head of secretariat for the National Council on Climate Change in Indonesia and one of President Yudhoyono's top officials on climate-change policy. He predicts the plan will ultimately protect about 123 million acres. Indonesia lost roughly 1.2 million acres of forest per year from 2000 to 2010, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. About 49% of Indonesia's roughly 320 million acres of forest land is still pristine, the Forestry Ministry says.

Mr. Purnomo says many of the complaints over the deal "are created by elements of industry that would like to curtail this effort," while environmentalists are pressing for "radical" interpretations that could block acceptable development. "We will settle somewhere in the middle," he says.

Forested areas are critical to Southeast Asia's largest economy and a major source of revenue for many of its biggest companies, including Asia Pulp & Paper Co. and PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology, which produces palm oil.

Palm oil industry officials in particular have ambitious plans to expand so they can keep up with rising demand for a commodity that is used to make products as varied as shampoo, cookies and alternative fuel.

"We fear that the government regulation practically will stop all the possible expansion of oil palm," says M. Fadhil Hasan, executive director of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association. "We have to fight to make sure this moratorium resolves into something in accordance with our interests."

Concerns about deforestation deepened on Tuesday, when Greenpeace issued a new report alleging that Asia Pulp & Paper is acquiring and destroying rainforest and peat land areas to feed pulp mills in Sumatra, despite promises to adopt more sustainable business practices, and despite the planned moratorium. Greenpeace called on international supermarket retailers to stop dealing in the company's products.

Aida Greenbury, managing director for sustainability and stakeholder engagement at Asia Pulp & Paper, said the reports were "totally baseless" and "totally illogical." She said the company gets 85% of its pulpwood from sustainable plantations, compared with about 50% in 2006, and intends to increase that percentage in the future.

One of the biggest questions is whether the moratorium will prevent the use of land-clearing permits that haven't yet been acted on. Indonesian companies have built up giant banks of undeveloped land in recent years; according to Greenpeace, there are least 44.5 million acres of forest on the island of Sumatra alone that can be developed under prior pulp and paper concessions if they aren't affected by the moratorium.

The language of the agreement focuses on "new concessions," and suggests such lands won't be covered. But environmentalists say failing to include them would undermine the benefits of the moratorium.

Mr. Purnomo, the Indonesian climate-change official, says the government intends to honor existing permits but may offer compensation in some cases if companies willingly agree to leave already-permitted areas untouched.

The long-term solution, environmental groups and government officials say, is for palm oil and other companies to meet their growth targets by boosting productivity on existing plots and expanding onto "degraded" land, including areas that have already suffered some deforestation, rather than clearing new stretches of forest.

But officials haven't yet fully defined such areas, which are estimated to cover anywhere from 15 million acres to more than 99 million acres. An accounting of the lands is slated to occur as part of the Norway pact, but industry leaders say they can't be expected to assess the suitability of such land until it is properly identified.

—Yayu Yuniar contributed to this article.

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Irrawaddy dolphins in Thai freshwater threatened by extinction

MCOT online news 12 Jul 10;

Harmful fishing practices in Thailand are pushing the rare Irrawaddy dolphin, an aquatic mammal known scientifically as Orcaella brevirostris, toward extinction here in southern Thailand, according to the Southern Marine and Coastal Resources Research Center and a team of Irrawaddy dolphin researchers and watchers.

The aquatic animals live in Southeast Asia's freshwater areas and estuaries, and are critically endangered according to the World Wildlife Fund. In Thailand, the animal is found only in the northern part of Songkhla Lake called 'Talay Luang' in the southern provinces of Phatthalung and Songkhla.

However, the death rate of the animals there has continually increased, which raises concern for their survival.

According to Thailand's marine centre survey conducted in 2006-2008, on average some four to seven dead dolphins washed up on shore, while the number of the animals has dwindled to as few as 36. In January this year alone, six Irrawaddy dolphins were found dead, entangled in fishing nets.

Apart from incorrect fishing practices, the shallow condition of Songkhla Lake, a reduction in marine natural resources, and environmental degradation are all factors which have led to habitat loss for the animals, and which consequently affects their continued existence.

Fishermen in Songkhla's Krasae Sin district said their grandparents in years past normally saw hundreds of Irrawaddy dolphins in the lake, and the creatures were not shy when they encountered humans. For several years, however, the number of dolphins has dramatically decreased, and recently the have not been seen at all.

"In the past, those guarding boats at night said they saw dolphins that were very used to people, but now they say the animals have become frightened of fishing trawlers during these past 3 or 4 years," said Uthai Yodchan, a local fisherman who affirmed the disappearances, noting their disappearance entirely this year.

An academic at the Southern Marine and Coastal Resources Research Center said it had taken the dolphins over a century to adapt to live in freshwater zones.

"Irrawaddy dolphins in Songkhla Lake are able to survive in freshwater. It took them about a hundred years to adapt to live in this kind of water," said Santi Nilawat, an academic.

Together with the surveyors' team for the dolphins, the Centre recently followed the animals' situation. The survey recorded the specific location where dolphins were found so that data could be collected as useful tools for the conservation of the Irrawaddy dolphins, and that inappropriate fishing practices can be monitored to prevent the species from becoming their victims.

"We focus on building and raising awareness among [the local population] that Irrawaddy dolphins have been the signature animal in Phatthalung. We are also thinking of developing the dolphins' territory here in order that it becomes a tourist attraction for Songkhla Lake's Talay Luang," said protection officer, Jamnong Glaicharoen, in the Talay Luang Non-Hunting Area.

Buoys were placed to indicate dolphin territory contained within 100 square kilometres as a dolphin-protection zone. The markers are also signs for fishermen to avoid fishing in that specific area where legal action can be taken for violations.

However, sadly for the searching team, on a recent day of searching for dolphins at the boundary line of those zones in the lake, a calf dolphin less than one year old and a giant catfish were found dead on the water surface, but not one living Irrawaddy dolphin.

An initial assumption by Santi, the academic, said the fish may have been caught in fishing nets in the protected area.

"There might have been some fishing trawler coming into the premises 4-5 days before we found the two fish. Technically, if the mother dolphin has been dead for, say, a couple of days, the calf will have no milk to consume, then it will also have to die," according to Santi.

The number of fishing nets and other improper fishing gears have been increasingly used by fishermen despite their danger to this vulnerable species.

"Not many people were using trawlers or fishing nets in the beginning. But as fishing for giant catfish generally makes high profits of more than Bt100,000 each time (US$3,300), several others have followed the action. They have bought more and more trawlers to catch the fish, which also accidentally affects the decreasing number of dolphins," said Jesada Tangmanee, officer, Southern Marine and Coastal Resources Research Center.

How to preserve the number of Irrawaddy dolphins in Thai freshwater is not only a question for officials and related agencies, but also for fishermen and all of us to be aware of this critical situation and to realise the beauty and the enjoyment when we can appreciate the sea creatures.

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Wildlife trade in Malaysia: Fancy crocodile part for RM250?

New Straits Times 12 Jul 10;

SERIKIN (Bau): "Are you looking for crocodile penis?" the Indonesian trader whispered to a journalist couple whom he thought was looking for an aphrodisiac to spice up their lives.

The cost of the appendage? RM250.

The trader, popularly known as "Bapak Mat" at this border bazaar on the Kalimantan-Sarawak border here, is discreet in what he sells on this side of the border.

If he is caught by wildlife protection officers, he faces a fine of RM10,000 and a year's jail as the crocodile is a protected reptile in Sarawak.

Bapak Mat is one of several traders here who play hide-and-seek with officers of the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) daily to carry out their trade on protected animals.

It is the ugly side of the bazaar that is popular with Malaysians from as far as the peninsula, who come here for the cheap branded fakes.


Serikin is about 55km from Kuching.

Now feeling safe knowing that the couple were not SFC officers, Bapak Mat became persistent in what he wanted to sell even though he could only deliver it in a week.

He made it clear to the journalists why he could not keep it in stock as the risk was high.


Crocodile penis is not the only exotic item he offers.

He has eagles, mynas and parakeets, all RM250 each before bargaining.

Mynas and parakeets are also protected birds in Sarawak.

When asked what he had available on the spot, Bapak Mat said only turtle eggs, which he sold at RM10 for nine eggs.

Even then, Bapak Mat's wife had to stealthily take the journalists to a dark store behind the wooden stall to get the eggs.

They were wrapped in black plastic bags.

Trade in protected animals is thriving despite the law.

Restaurants offering dishes such as river terrapins, wild boar meat, frogs and flying foxes, dot rural Bau and Kuching.

These dishes are, however, only available after office hours when wildlife protection officers are not on duty and, therefore, the chances of getting caught are slim.

Most restaurants offer them only to their best customers.

But such exotic meals are expensive affairs.

A river terrapin dish for two costs RM18.

So is the frog meat. A wild boar dish is RM12.

State Forest director and Wildlife controller Datuk Len Talif Salleh said that trade in protected species was still taking place in rural Sarawak.

However, he added that it was less rampant than before.

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Rising sea drives Panama islanders to mainland

Sean Mattson, Reuters 12 Jul 10;

CARTI SUGDUB Panama (Reuters) - Rising seas from global warming, coming after years of coral reef destruction, are forcing thousands of indigenous Panamanians to leave their ancestral homes on low-lying Caribbean islands.

Seasonal winds, storms and high tides combine to submerge the tiny islands, crowded with huts of yellow cane and faded palm fronds, leaving them ankle-deep in emerald water for days on end.

Pablo Preciado, leader of the island of Carti Sugdub, remembers that in his childhood floods were rare, brief and barely wetted his toes. "Now it's something else. It's serious," he said.

The increase of a few inches in flood depth is consistent with a global sea level rise over Preciado's 64 years of life and has been made worse by coral mining by the islanders that reduced a buffer against the waves.

Carti Sugdub is one of a handful of islands in an archipelago off Panama's northeastern coast, where the government says climate change threatens the livelihood of nearly half of the 32,000 semi-autonomous Kuna people.

The 2,000 inhabitants of Carti Sugdub plan to move to coastal areas within the Kuna's autonomous territory on the Panama mainland. They are eyeing foothills a half-hour walk from the swampy beach areas.

"The water level is rising. The move is imminent," said Preciado, who has been leading a group of villagers clearing tropical forest for the new settlement.

World leaders have failed so far to reach a global accord to curb the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change. A U.N. climate change conference later this year in Mexico aims to make progress toward a binding agreement.

If the islanders abandon their homes as planned, the exodus will be one of the first blamed on rising sea levels and global warming.

Scientists warn that sea level rise in the next century could threaten millions with a similar fate and some communities as far apart as Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji have already been forced to relocate

"This is no longer about a scientist saying that climate change and the change in sea level will flood (a people) and affect them," said Hector Guzman, a marine biologist and coral specialist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "This is happening now in the real world."

CLIMATE CHANGE REFUGEES

The fiercely independent Kuna, famed for rebellions against Spanish conquistadors, French pirates and Panamanian overlords, have accelerated their fate by mining coral, which they use to expand islands and build artificial islets and breakwaters.

Guzman, based at a Pacific island research center on the edge of Panama City, has warned of the risks of coral mining for a decade but says speaking out against a legally permitted traditional activity is "taboo."

"(The Kuna) have increased their vulnerability to storms, wave action, and above all, the action of the rise in sea level," he told Reuters.

When Kuna speak in their native language the Spanish words for "climate change" are often among the few foreign words used. While some elders warn that sea level rise will get worse, many locals believe God will keep them safe.

"I don't know where they get that from -- that the land is going to sink and we'd better leave before it happens ... Those who want to go, can go. I'm staying here," said Evangelina, 60, who would not give her last name because she hasn't told local leadership she's opposed to moving.

Sea levels rose about 17 cm (about 7 inches) over the last century and experts say the rate is accelerating. In 2007, the United Nations predicted a rise of 18 to 59 cms (7-23 inches) by 2100 but that did not include the accelerated melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that seas could rise 2 meters (6.5 feet) by the end of the century, threatening millions of people in cities from Tokyo and Shanghai to New Orleans.

"It's something you're going to be seeing more and more," said Albert Binger, the scientific adviser to the 42-member Alliance of Small Island States, referring to potential victims as "climate change refugees."

Binger said the Kuna's coral extraction is a portent for what climate change has in store for other low-lying islands protected by reefs. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide makes oceans more acidic, killing coral struggling to survive in warmer seas.

SLOW MOVE

While Kuna leaders say their move from cool breezy islands to stuffy forests is imminent, progress has been slow so far and the government does not have a support plan in place.

Carti Sugdub's islanders have used machetes to carve out a patch of tropical forest but lack machinery to clear the land.

Leaders at nearby Carti Mulatupu are working on an environmental impact study for their move. They reckon setting up a mainland community for 600 people could cost $5 million.

The Panamanian government, which supports the islanders financially by paying for health clinics, schools and poverty programs, has done little to support the relocation plans but officials back the idea.

"Sometimes the community is flooded up to the knees," said Helen Perez, the schoolmaster at Carti Mulatupu, as his 120 students ran around a sandy school yard by an eroded concrete pier. "The community has taken the decision to move to land."

Chani Morris, an 82-year-old fisherman, is ready to abandon the islet of Coibita he helped build out of coral 33 years ago. He said he doesn't sleep well since a flood engulfed the island, destroyed huts and carried away dugout canoes.

"The sea is very bothersome, sometimes it scares me at night," said Morris, as he fashioned fish traps out of chicken wire. "I'm just waiting for the others to decide when we can move and I'm going to go with them."

(Editing by Catherine Bremer)

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'Soulless corporations are the enemy of the environment,' says Pavan Sukhdev

It is up to society and its leaders to ensure that companies do not become cancerous, says leading UN official
Juliette Jowit, The Guardian 12 Jul 10;

Modern businesses are "soulless corporations" that are in danger of becoming a "cancer" on society, a leading UN environmental official warns today.

Companies usually take a short-term view of the importance of the environment, said Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN's investigation into how to stop the destruction of the natural world. This short-term thinking is seen in their lobbying against new policies that could slow environmental devastation, he said.

Sukhdev, formerly an adviser to the Indian government and now on sabbatical from Deutsche Bank, spoke as he prepares to publish tomorrow one of the most eagerly awaited parts of his report – The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Business.

The report will be launched at the first Global Business of Biodiversity Symposium in London, where speakers will include environment secretary Caroline Spelman. She will highlight examples of businesses causing damage which imposes a huge cost on themselves and society – including an estimate that global destruction of forests costs the world's economies $2tn-$5tn (£1.3tn-£3.3tn) a year.

She will also speak of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "BP's shares have halved since the spill began in mid-April – there will be no dividends this year," she is due to say. "While the real impact on the local economy, wildlife and marine health may not be fully known for years ... What's bad for biodiversity is bad for business."

Sukhdev told the Guardian that private businesses were too important as employers and payers of taxes to embark on a revolution, calling instead for society to take a greater responsibility for regulating the behaviour of companies. When the final report is published, at a biodiversity conference in October in Japan, Sukhdev will recommend major changes in the way companies are regulated.

"We have created a soulless corporation that does not have any innate reason to be ethical about anything," he said. "The purpose of a corporation is to be selfish. That is law. So it's up to society and its leaders and thinkers to design the checks and balances that are needed to ensure that the corporation does not simply become cancerous, and that's something that sometimes we do and sometimes we really don't."

TEEB was set up after the success of the groundbreaking 2006 report by Sir Nicholas Stern for the UK government. The Stern report argued that the cost of tackling climate change would be 1-2% of the global economy, while the cost of doing nothing would be 5-20 times that. Sukhdev's team says that the failure of governments and businesses to put a "price" on ecosystem services provided by nature – from flood protection and pollination of crops, to carbon take-up by forests and the sheer wonder of nature – has led to widespread destruction of whole ecosystems and of the variety of all life on Earth.

Previously, Sukhdev has called for governments and businesses to be forced to report their environmental and social impacts alongside – not separately from – their financial accounts. He has also called for stricter limits on extraction and pollution.

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Best of our wild blogs: 11 Jul 10

Reef walk with SMU and check up on Tanah Merah
from Psychedelic Nature

Sisters Island: bleaching not so bad
from wild shores of singapore

Back in CCNR and wet again
from Urban Forest

Families enjoying Chek Jawa Boardwalk
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Colugo, Clouded Water Monitor, Clidemia hirta and Cries
from Psychedelic Nature

Olive-winged Bulbul nesting
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Raffles Museum Treasures: Golden orb web spider
from Lazy Lizard's Tales and Tiger Cowrie

Butterfly Bunkers
from Butterflies of Singapore

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'Instant killers' in a storm

After a heavy storm on June 25, 25 trees fell but NParks says it is stepping up measures to cut down such incidences
Huang Huifen Straits Times 11 Jul 10;

The trees along the road provide shade and beautify the surroundings but recent thunderstorms turned some into 'instant killers'.

On a single day last month - June 25 - torrential rainfall toppled 25 trees. The result was massive highway jams, hefty property damage and at least four people injured.

Two of them were hurt when a Khaya Senegalensis tree fell across four lanes of traffic on the Central Expressway (CTE).

In response to queries, National Parks Board (NParks) told LifeStyle that it is a myth that 'instant' trees - a common name for grown trees that are transplanted from nurseries - are more susceptible to collapse in rainstorms.

'Transplanted trees are not more vulnerable in storms,' says director of NParks' Streetscape Simon Longman. There are more than a million trees under NParks' care.

He explains that transplanted trees are supported with sticks attached along the stem till they stabilise.

Sceptics may argue that transplanted trees may have shallow and weak root systems, and are thus easily uprooted.

But Mr Longman points out that the trees are grown in bags to prevent damage to the roots during the transplanting process, 'hence increasing their stability in their new environment'. He adds that a new soil mix consisting of organic matter and sand helps transplanted roots to grow better.

Instead, he attributes the recent spate of toppling trees to saturation of the soil with a huge volume of accumulated rainwater underground. The soil becomes soft and the tree cannot anchor itself to it.

NParks is taking steps to reduce falling trees in storms. These include inspecting trees more often. Those along expressways will be inspected once every nine months instead of once a year now. Trees along major roads will get annual checks instead of once every 18 months.

Crown reduction - a process where branches and leaves are trimmed to reduce the weight of a tree's foliage - will also be carried out on more trees.

Ultrasound and radar technology are used to assess unhealthy-looking trees for signs of decay. Roots are checked using a Tree Radar Unit which shows a clear layout of the tree's underground root system.

Stormy weather is not the only reason trees keel over. Some experts whom LifeStyle spoke to blame urbanisation.

Trees have to co-exist alongside roads and infrastructure, which can intrude into the space they have to grow in, says landscaping projects manager Chan Hon Mun.

Mr Chan, who works at landscaping firm Horti- Flora Services, adds: 'As a result, roots are not anchored properly. When these trees experience atypical wind conditions, they will be more likely to tip over.'

This is especially true for trees planted on roadsides and centre dividers. Rapid construction works, such as road widening, cable laying and pipelining, are also believed to be taking a toll on the trees' health.

The area these trees can set down roots in is already limited, says Mr Veera Sekaran, managing director of arboriculture consultancy firm Greenology. 'They cannot venture much beyond the limits of the concrete kerb or tarmac.'

He adds that many trees have roots no deeper than 80cm to anchor them.

NParks' response to this is that a 2m-wide road coast designated for tree-planting is allocated whenever new roads are built - and that is sufficient.

'There is also no limit to how deep the root can grow. If the road curves above canals or underground MRT stations, we will make sure that there is at least 2m of soil depth,' says Mr Longman.

But he agrees with the experts that soil compaction could affect tree stability. Soil compaction is when the soil is pressed down tightly by heavy weights such as vehicles or constant trampling, reducing its ability to allow the roots to absorb nutrients essential for growth.

It can be solved by using organic matter to break down the soil.

NParks' view is that one can only do so much when it comes to preventing trees from falling.

Mr Longman says: 'Trees are living things, unlike street signs where you can apply engineering solutions to prevent them from falling over. Our job is to keep falling trees to a minimum.'

Storm-vulnerable trees

What: Albizia (Paraserianthes falcataria)

Why: The fast growing tree has soft branches which are likely to snap.

Location: On vacant land and slopes along the Pan Island Expressway and Bukit Timah Expressway

What NParks has done: 650 trees have been removed or replaced over the last three years in areas with public access.


What: Andira inermis

Why: The fast growing tree tends to rot at the pruning points and fall off in storms.

Location: Most have been culled.

What NParks has done: The trees along roads were removed over the last six years.


What: Tabebuia rosea

Why: Borer beetle, a species of wood worm, tends to eat the bark of the tree and weaken the branch attachment, causing it to snap.

Location: North Buona Vista and Beach Road

What NParks has done: Insecticide is used to kill the borer beetles.


What: Angsana (Pterocarpus indicus)

Why: Heavy foliage at the end of the branch may cause it to snap.

Location: Orchard Road, Upper Serangoon Road, Ang Mo Kio housing estate, Changi Village and Yishun

What NParks has done: Regular crown reduction has reduced such incidences common in the 1980s.

The Khaya Senegalensis on the CTE near Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 fell on June 25 because a huge volume of rain water had accumulated underground, saturating the soil. The soil became too soft and the roots of the tree were loosened. When strong winds blew, the tree was easily uprooted.

NParks to up checks and even plant sturdier ones
Wee Ling, Lynda Hong Channel NewsAsia 10 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE: The National Parks Board will increase checks on Singapore's trees and even plant sturdier ones to reduce the incidence of fallen trees.

The sight of fallen trees was evident during the recent heavy rains resulting in traffic woes for motorists and Singaporeans in general.

In fact, 68 trees were uprooted in a three-week period last more than double the number for the whole month of June last year.

NParks said it will increase the number of checks on trees especially those along the expressways from once a year to once every nine months.

Tree crowns will also be trimmed to ensure they can withstand the weather and trees found to be too fragile will be replaced with sturdier species.

Over the past three years, NParks has replaced some 850 such fragile trees. - CNA/vm

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Bee swarms set residents abuzz

Shuli Sudderuddin Straits Times 11 Jul 10;

They coat the facade of walls, stairwells and even windows, causing a buzz in the neighbourhoods they infest.

Bee sightings are becoming more frequent this month, as the pests have been spotted in the housing estates of Hougang, Serangoon and Pasir Ris.

Two weeks ago, interior designer Edmund Lim, 29, was shocked to see thousands of bees clustered densely on the facade and inner wall of a stairwell at Block 698D, Hougang Street 52.

'The bees were still at first, but when pest controllers started smoking them, they flew in all directions. We ran into our homes and shut the doors,' he said.

His alarm was nowhere near what senior system analyst Charis Chin, 38, experienced two weeks ago.

She was horrified to find a thick 'coating' of bees on the window of her 11th-floor HDB flat in Pasir Ris.

As the air-conditioner was switched on, the window was shut. Still, she and her husband ran through the flat shutting all other windows and making sure their son, aged five, was not stung.

They then contacted the town council, which eradicated the bees.

In another stir at Serangoon Central, systems analyst Sunny Lye, 53, was shocked to find 'thousands' of bees swarming around his parents' 12th-floor flat.

Shown pictures of the bees, Mr Lesster Leow, a Singapore bee-keeper who is based in Uganda, said they looked like a species of honey bee known as Apis dorsata, which is the size of a little finger.

These migratory bees may have stopped over in residential areas after the destruction of trees they would otherwise have settled on.

'They might have found a new site which is quite a distance, in which case they would find a resting place before they continue their journey,' he said.

There are apparently three species of honey bees in Singapore. Their stings can be dangerous if people are allergic to the toxins.

Town council spokesmen said Housing Board residents should contact them so they can call pest-control specialists to trace the bees.

At condominiums, residents should alert the management office, while those living in landed homes can contact a pest controller.

A spokesman for Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council said feedback about bees is higher during the months of April to June.

This is typically the flowering season, and flowers attract bees.

She added that while the town councils understand residents' concern over bees flying near their homes, honey bees are generally harmless if people do not disturb them.

Stung by a bee? Do not squeeze
Straits Times 11 Jul 10;

When a bee stings, its stinger is left in the skin.

Remove the stinger by scraping it off with a fingernail or with the edge of a thin object.

However, do not force it out as it is barbed and will release more venom if you squeeze it.

Apply a cold compress or ice to reduce the swelling.

The more times one is stung, the more severe the reactions.

Swelling usually disappears within 24 hours.

If you experience difficulty in breathing, giddiness, break into a cold sweat, or faint, seek medical attention immediately.

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Green Surf rejects EIA on Sabah coal power plant

The Star 11 Jul 10;

KOTA KINABALU: Conserva­tionists have rejected a Detailed Environmental Impact Assess­ment (DEIA) report on the controversial Lahad Datu coal-powered energy plant.

Sabah Environmental Protec­tion Association president Wong Tack slammed the report, saying it was “shoddy” with poor in-depth studies carried out on the long-term effects of the proposed 300MW coal-powered plant, planned to be built along the coast of the marine eco-sensitive Sulu Sulawesi triangle.

“It is done without professionalism and they used too many general statements on a very sensitive project,” he said yesterday.

The DEIA report by UKM Pakarunding Sdn Bhd has been on public display for a month since June 18 and, among other things, it stated that the project was not environmentally sensitive and adverse impact could be mitigated.

The report, however, admitted that the coal-powered plant would raise sea surface temperatures by 4°C in certain areas.

It also noted that the project was detrimental to nearby communities, who depend on fishing and seaweed farming, while some 70 families would be displaced by the power plant to be situated at Kg Sinakut about 100km from Lahad Datu.

Wong, whose organisation is standing together with other environmental groups calling themselves Green Surf, will meet Department of Environment (DOE) officials on July 27 to highlight anomalies in the report.

“We will impress upon the DOE that it should not approve the report just because they have to,” he said.

“We will protest,” he said, adding that they would put their written objections “point-by-point” before July 18.

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Eco warrior's Pacific journey shows how 'dumb plastic' is killing our seas

David de Rothschild set out on a mammoth ocean crossing aboard his recycled yacht to highlight pollution of Earth's waters – but even he was shocked by what he found
Tim Adams The Observer 11 Jul 10;

"After 100 days at sea," David de Rothschild suggests, "you realise that it should be called planet Ocean rather than planet Earth." De Rothschild is speaking from the island of New Caledonia – "an odd little bit of France in the South Seas" – the night before his boat, the Plastiki, embarks on the final leg of a voyage that should finish in Sydney harbour in a fortnight.

The Plastiki, a revolutionary catamaran, is kept afloat by 12,500 plastic bottles in its hulls; the "eco-adventure" has been designed to draw attention to our systematic pollution and over-fishing of oceans. In the three and a half months since De Rothschild, the refusenik 31-year-old son of the banking dynasty, and his crew of five set out from San Francisco they have discovered many things, but mainly, he says, they have learned about the sea, about its power and about its fragility.

The power was amply demonstrated on the leg of the journey just completed, the 1,700 miles from Samoa, during which the vessel's unconventional construction was rigorously tested by 13ft swells and 35-knot winds for days on end. It is hard not to be reminded of your insignificance in the universe, De Rothschild says, when hanging off the side of a yacht made partly of plastic bottles, 1,000 miles from land in the pitch dark, while the Pacific breaks over you.

The ocean's fragility they witnessed in the place where much of the world's discarded plastic ends up, the "eastern garbage patch". This, the focus of their voyage, is a floating "continent" of debris. Nothing that the crew had read in advance could prepare them for what they found navigating an area twice as large as the North Sea. "You don't see it at first," De Rothschild says. "But when you get into the sea, and under the water, you realise that it is all like a soup, millions and millions of tiny fragments of plastic, suspended in the water. It is mostly microscopic, but once your eye adjusts you start to see the reflectiveness of some of the larger pieces. The red fragments stand out most clearly."

The garbage patch was first identified 12 years ago within the "North Pacific gyre" – a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of light wind and extreme high pressure systems. Oceanographers have since suggested that perhaps 100 million tonnes of plastic are held in suspension in these waters. One of the things that the Plastiki voyage has demonstrated is just how durable modern polymers are: the pressurised bottles of its hull have hardly been knocked out of shape, let alone broken up by the 8,000-mile voyage. "That's why just about every plastic bottle that has been made still exists," De Rothschild says.

The voyage has been overshadowed by the more graphic pollution of the BP oil spill, but even that is dwarfed by the scale of the problem the Plastiki highlights. While the deaths of seabirds and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico are still being measured in the hundreds, according to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, and more than 100,000 marine mammals. Back in 2006, the UN concluded that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. Since then the problem has only grown.

"One of the difficulties in conveying it to people," De Rothschild says, "is that you can't photograph it, the flecks are too small. What perhaps makes it most relevant and real for individuals is the health aspect of it. These particles are ingested by marine life and pass into our food chain. We all do it: we throw this stuff, this packaging, what I call dumb plastic, into the bin, and we think it has gone. But it comes back to us one way or another. Some of it ends up on our dinner plates."

The voyage was inspired by Thor Heyerdahl's Pacific journey on the Kon-Tiki in 1947. Olav Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer's grandson, has been aboard for part of the Plastiki adventure. The comparison between the two voyages illustrates other aspects of the ocean's fragility, De Rothschild believes.

"When you watch the film of Kon-Tiki and read Heyerdahl's account, you are struck by how alive the ocean seemed then," he says. "They were literally having to throw fish off the raft." That has not been the Plastiki experience at all. "For us it has been much more, where is everybody? We have seen a couple of dolphins, a couple of distant whales, a few flying fish, [but] other than that, nothing." Heyerdahl could survive on fish, but on board the Plastiki they have caught only a couple of tuna in three months, despite having their lines in the water every day. "When you start reading about 80% of the world's fish stocks being gone, it's hard to believe," De Rothschild says. "But then you come out here."

Even in the middle of the world's largest ocean it is hard to avoid some of the habits that have created the problem. At Christmas Island, where much of the food arrives in American packaging, "popsicle bags are a scourge". On Samoa, villages compete over recycling plans, but as soon as villagers were out of their backyard De Rothschild watched young and old throwing plastic bottles into the sea.

One of the more gratifying aspects of the voyage has been the way that the message seems to have been communicated. Plastiki has a vivid ship-to-shore blog – "talking about the ocean from the ocean" – and there has been excitement wherever they have docked. In New Caledonia, De Rothschild says, perhaps three quarters of the people who have seen the boat in the harbour said they had read about it and supported the project. That didn't stop him witnessing one "supporter" subsequently chucking bags full of rubbish over the side of his boat. "None of us likes the idea of fouling our own nest," he says. "But we are not good at thinking of the whole world as our nest."

The Plastiki team do not do pessimism, though sometimes De Rothschild admits he feels like he is banging his head against a brick wall. Their own on board efforts at self-sufficiency have gone well, composting waste, powering batteries with a mixture of solar panels and bicycle-powered turbines. Even so, he is confronted by the fact that, however good your intentions, it is hard to live a life without plastic. When we speak, De Rothschild has just done the shopping for the Sydney leg of the voyage. In the supermarket all the vegetables and all the salad were wrapped in plastic. "It's like a disease," he says. "But we have to believe the argument can be won. Getting rid of dumb plastic, bags in particular, could be a very simple piece of legislation; making supermarkets use reusables is not so hard."

The crew's website is full of stories of people "doing their own Plastiki", pledging to eliminate plastic bottles from their school or workplace, or creating a zero waste policy. De Rothschild hopes the voyage can be a metaphor for this. "We are just a bunch of citizens, we are not scientists or marine biologists, but we want to show that if we work together we can do something."

That sense of teamwork has no doubt been tested on board the catamaran. I saw the Plastiki in San Francisco before it set off, and was struck by how limited the space was – a tiny geodesic dome of cabin – not least for the 6ft 4in de Rothschild: how have they coped?

"Usually you are so exhausted by the end of the day that you could sleep anywhere," he says. "It's a really odd contrast, you are on this tiny platform and yet you have this enormous space around you. It becomes a little dance, in a way: you are fantastically aware of the other people, how they move. But we have a rule that if you say 'fuck, you are annoying me', which we all do, then it has to be done in a spirit of jest."

Sydney is not so far away, but there are some rough seas and weather forecast, so he is trying not to look too far ahead. "It will be a chapter over," he says. "But we are only just beginning to get this message across. The boat will go around the world, I hope, as a symbol of that. I feel, in every sense, that we are in the calm before the storm."

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