Pakistan floods seen worsening as heavy rains loom

* Heavy rains expected over flood areas
* Zardari damages his political career
* Rains complicate relief efforts
Waseem Sattar Reuters AlertNet 6 Aug 10;

SUKKUR, Pakistan, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Heavy rains are expected to lash areas of Pakistan already devastated by the worst floods in 80 years, probably intensifying a calamity that has cast more doubts about the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari.

"We're forecasting widespread rains in the country, especially in flood-affected areas," Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of the department, told Reuters, adding the downpours are expected in the next two days.

At least 1,600 people have been killed by the flooding. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 12 million people have been affected in two provinces hit by the floods and figures were not yet available for southern Sindh.

The floods have stoked popular anger at absent Zardari, who went ahead with state visits to Europe at the height of the disaster, which swallowed up entire villages.

"This trip seems to have been the litmus test, and any benefit of the doubt that the president had remaining in his favour, has now entirely ceased to exist in the eyes of the public," said Fasi Zaka, a radio talk show host and columnist.

The floods have also inundated crop-producing areas, dealing a crippling blow to the agricultural-based economy.

Floods are expected to heavily damage mainly rural areas in Sindh after roaring down from the northwest and through the central agricultural heartland of Punjab, along a path at least 1,000 km (621 miles) long.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, addressing the nation for the first time since the disaster struck after visiting flooded areas, described the loss of human life and infrastructure as "colossal" and appealed for international aid.

Many Pakistanis were already critical of Zardari's leadership of a country where militants pose a security threat despite offensives, poverty is widespread and corruption is rampant.

U.S. officials, aware of the impact hurricane Katrina had on the fortunes of former President George W. Bush, have privately expressed frustration with Zardari's refusal to return to Pakistan and personally handle the crisis.

In a conference call with U.S.-based journalists, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson sidestepped questions over the political impact of Zardari's absence.

Pressed on whether it would have been more helpful if Zardari had stayed in Pakistan, she said: "I don't know whether that would have been helpful or not. What we are trying to do is focus on getting supplies to people stranded by the flood and that is what the Pakistani government is trying to do."

Pakistan is a key U.S. ally, and its stability is seen as crucial to battling a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Food supplies are becoming a serious issue. In many areas, drinking water wells are also full of mud. U.N. officials said more than half a million people had been evacuated in Sindh.

ZARDARI ABSENT

One Punjab village saw a mass exodus, as families piled carts, pulled by camels or tractors, with their livestock, belongings and relatives and headed for higher ground.

Some people were reluctant to leave collapsed villages for safer ground.

"I didn't intend to leave but they sent me out forcibly. I don't know what will happen to my hens," said an elderly woman being led through deep water by her son in a Punjab village.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces alone, 650,000 houses have been either damaged or destroyed in the floods. Reconstruction will require at least $2.5 billion, said NDMA.

Zardari is currently in Britain for a visit, where he and Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to do more to fight Islamist militancy, brushing over a diplomatic spat that followed British criticism of Pakistani efforts in countering extremism. [nLDE675108]

Many Pakistanis, however, were not impressed.

"Our president prefers to go abroad rather than supervising the whole relief operation in such a crisis," said Ghulam Rasool, a resident of the town of Sukkur. "They don't care about us. They have their own agendas and interests."

The army's spearheading of the relief efforts reinforces a view that only the military can take charge in crises.

Nevertheless, the military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, is unlikely to make a grab for power. For one, analysts say, it is preoccupied with the threat of Taliban insurgents who have survived several army offensives.

Islamabad is also heavily dependent on Western countries such as the United States, which want a stable Pakistan to help end the war in Afghanistan.

Across the country, Pakistanis fended for themselves.

Many are out in the open and are likely to be displaced again, just like cattle-breeder Khair Mohammad. "We don't have anything, no one has given us even a single penny," he said, standing under a rain that had not stopped all morning. (Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider in ISLAMABAD and Junaid Khan in Swat Valley; Stephanie Nebehay in GENEVA; Sue Pleming in WASHINGTON; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff)

Read more!

UN talks flounder as climate impacts mount, say delegates

Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 6 Aug 10;

PARIS (AFP) – UN climate talks tasked with curbing the threat of global warming are backsliding, delegates from both rich and developing nations said Friday at the close of a week-long session in Bonn.

Even as evidence mounts that deadly impacts are upon us, negotiators said, chances for a compromise deal under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are slipping away amid furious finger pointing.

"These negotiations have if anything gone backwards," said the EU's climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

"This imbalance is not helpful and could seriously endanger the prospects of securing the successful outcome the world needs from the Cancun climate conference next December" in Mexico.

"At this pace the world will simply collectively miss the train," she warned.

Record global temperatures, forest fires in Russia, lethal floods in Pakistan "are all consistent with the kind of changes we could expect from climate change, and they will get worse if we don't act quickly," said US negotiator Jonathan Pershing.

"Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over this week is that some countries are walking back from the progress made in Copenhagen," he told journalists, referring to the 11th-hour accord hammered out at the climate summit in December.

The Copenhagen Accord enshrined the goal of capping the increase of global temperatures at 2.0 degree Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit), but did not muster the commitments needed to attain it.

It also pledged long-term financing to the tune of 100 billion dollars a year to help poor countries green their economies and cope with climate change impacts, but without specifying where the money would come from.

Dessima Williams of Grenada, speaking for the 43-nation Association of Small Island States, said she was "greatly concerned" by the slow pace of the talks.

"The situation on the ground for all our countries is worsening," she said at a press conference.

But even in areas where agreement had been reached, such as technology transfer and forest management, "there seems to be some backsliding. This is very lamentable and very unhealthy," she said.

The likely failure of the US Congress to pass climate legislation this year has also cast a pall over the negotiations, many delegates said.

"I've heard a lot of people say it is not encouraging for the process," Wittoeck said.

Major emerging nations such as China and India have resisted legally binding requirements to cut emissions, saying that rich countries historically responsible for global warming must take the lead.

Efforts to hammer out a draft negotiating text ahead of the next major climate summit at the end of the year in Cancun also suffered a blow, with many countries throwing in last-minute additions.

Only one more negotiating session -- from October 4-9 in Tianjin -- remains before Cancun, which is expected, at best, to finalise some of the building blocks for a future, legally-binding deal.

The first six months of 2010 registered the warmest combined global land and ocean surface temperatures since 1880, when reliable temperature readings began, according the US government scientists.

Arctic ice cover -- another critical yardstick of global warming -- had also retreated more than ever before by July 1, putting it on track to shrink beyond its smallest area to date.

Without steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the global thermometer could rise by 6.0 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels, making large swathes of the planet unlivable, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned.

Voluntary national pledges made in Copenhagen would likely cap that increase at 3.5 C to 4.0 C (6.3 F to 7.2 F), still fall far short of the 2.0 C (3.6 C) limit that most scientists agree is the threshold for dangerous warming.

U.N. climate deal retreats as Bonn talks end
* Countries mull new text, seen larger than needs to be
* Backtracking, insertions, U.S. blamed for slow progress
* Lot of work left to do in China, then Mexico
Nina Chestney Reuters AlertNet 6 Aug 10;

BONN, Aug 6 (Reuters) - U.N. climate talks have moved backward rather than forward toward a hoped-for deal later this year as nations make slow progress on pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and add more proposals to the working document.

As talks in Bonn on a new climate treaty draw to an end on Friday, there is still a lot of work to be done at remaining meetings in Tianjin, China and Mexico at the end of the year.

"I came to Bonn hopeful of a deal in Cancun, but at this point I am very concerned as I have seen some countries walking back from progress made in Copenhagen," said Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. deputy special climate envoy.

A new climate text under discussion has increased to 34 pages from 17 as new proposals are added or old ones reinserted.

The blueprint contains a set of draft decisions for final U.N. talks in Cancun, Mexico in November, including the impact of agriculture on emissions, carbon market mechanisms and the mechanics and impact of moving to a low-emissions future.

The European Union's co-lead negotiator, Artur Runge-Metzger, accused some countries of adding text in a "tit for tat" way and said, "It is important in Tianjin to turn that spirit around."

U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said the text would not be allowed to grow further and that some progress had been made towards deciding on the shape of a future deal.

"If you see the bigger picture, we have progress here in Bonn. It is hard to cook a meal without a pot, and governments are much closer to actually making the pot," she said.

But the Climate Action Network, a coalition of about 500 non-profit organisations, said heads of state need to give their representatives clearer direction to concentrate on areas where they can find convergence to make real progress in Cancun.

SLOW PACE

The pace of negotiations has slowed as some countries have gone back on issues agreed last year in Copenhagen such as monitoring and measuring greenhouse gas emissions and ways of cutting emissions from rich nations and developing countries.

"The mitigation discussion even went backwards and became more polarized," said Gordon Shepherd at campaign group WWF.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) was also reopened over the definition of what it covered.

The Alliance of Small Island States complained rich nations' pledges to cut emissions fell short of what was needed.

"We cannot anticipate any major shift from what we had in Copenhagen, which was a 12 to 18 percent reduction when the IPCC called for 25 percent. We are far from that in the aggregate figures," said the group's chair, Dessima Williams.

The U.S. said the talks focused too much on putting the onus only on rich nations to deliver cuts, rather than all countries.

Climate finance is also an area of disagreement. The Copenhagen Accord last December set a long-term goal of raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to avert the effects of climate change and a short-term goal of $10 billion a year by 2012.

The architecture of that finance is far from defined and Pershing said some countries were seeking "staggering sums out of line with reality."

Another setback to the talks arose from the lack of legislation to curb emissions in the United States.

The U.S. Senate dropped efforts to put emissions curbs in an energy bill that is now focused narrowly on reforming offshore drilling, but the country has said it will stick by its 2020 target for reducing emissions.

"It has been taken as a signal by some that the process should be slowed or we should wait for the U.S.," Williams said. (Editing by Jane Baird)

Climate talks appear to slip backward
Arthur Max, Associated Press Yahoo News 6 Aug 10;

BONN, Germany – Global climate talks appeared to have slipped backward after five days of negotiations in Bonn, with rich and poor countries exchanging charges of reneging on agreements they made last year to contain greenhouse gases.

Delegates complained that reversals in the talks put negotiations back by a year, even before minimal gains were scored at the Copenhagen summit last December.

"It's a little bit like a broken record," said European Union negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger. "It's like a flashback," agreed Raman Mehta, of the Action Aid environment group. "The discourse is the same level" as before Copenhagen.

The sharp divide between rich and poor nations over how best to fight climate change — a clash that crippled the Copenhagen summit — remains, and bodes ill for any deal at the next climate convention in Cancun, Mexico, which begins in November.

"At this point, I am very concerned," said chief U.S. delegate Jonathan Pershing. "Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over this week is that some countries are walking back from progress made in Copenhagen, and what was agreed there."

Dessima Williams of Granada, who speaks for island states, charged that rich countries were "backsliding" on pledges of help to the poorest countries. Devastating floods in Pakistan, deadly fires and drought in Russia, a food crisis in West Africa — and reports that the first decade of this century was the hottest on record — provided a stark backdrop to the talks.

"The situation in all of our countries is worsening," Williams said.

In Bonn, negotiating text doubled in length over the last week as countries put forward claims that had been deleted last year and delegations jockeyed for last-minute advantage before heading into the final stage of negotiations before Cancun.

Christiana Figueres, the top U.N. climate official, said the Bonn meeting was the last chance for countries to put forward maximum national demands, but they must "radically narrow down their choices" at the next meeting. One more round of talks is scheduled for October in China.

Expectations for Cancun already have been deflated to avoid the sense of fiasco that followed Copenhagen, which had been invested with high hopes of a comprehensive deal and with the efforts of 120 world leaders who attended, including President Barack Obama.

Copenhagen ended with a three-page political statement pledging to limit the rise of the Earth's average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 F) above levels recorded before industries began pumping carbon dioxide into the air 200 years ago. It promised rich nations would help developing countries slow the growth of their emissions, while reducing their own.

Figueres said the objective of Cancun was a set of operational decisions that could later be turned into an international treaty. They include the transfer of billions of dollars a year and cutting-edge energy technology from industrial to developing countries and giving them the skills to adapt to changing weather patterns, she said.

She challenged the view that the Bonn talks were a step backward. Delegates may feel let down if their issues of interest had not advanced, "but if you see the bigger picture, we have progress."

Some of the problems occurred when countries tried to translate the intentions of the Copenhagen Accord into legal documents. Runge-Metzger, the EU delegate, said China objected to U.S. suggestions on monitoring Chinese actions to contain emissions, saying they went too far in infringing on Chinese sovereignty.

Pershing declined to give details of disputes raised in closed-door negotiations, but he said major developing countries were backing away from commitments to slow the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, and now say emission controls should apply only to industrial countries.

China, India, Brazil and South Africa were among the major developing nations at the Copenhagen summit. Since then, China has become the world's largest consumer of energy, to add to its earlier position of being the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluter.

Another point of contention, Pershing said, was an agreement in Copenhagen for wealthy countries to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Now poor nations say that is not enough.

Williams, the Granada delegate, confirmed the $100 billion figure was likely to be challenged.

"It sounds very large," she said. "For the donor countries it is a lot to ask taxpayers to pay. But you must weigh that against the need" of countries that may be devastated by the effects of global warming.

Williams said one of the reasons for the setback in the talks was the recent failure of the U.S. Congress to pass a climate bill.

Some countries argued for a slowdown in the talks because the lack of legislation cast doubt on Washington's international commitment.

"That has been taken as a signal by some that nothing can occur," Williams said.

Pershing assured the negotiators, in public and in private talks, that Obama remained committed to reducing U.S. carbon emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and he had not given up on passing a sweeping climate and energy bill.

In the meantime, "we have multiple tools at our disposal. We will use all of those tools," he told reporters.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 6 Aug 10

Mega Marine Survey of Singapore
brand new blog with more background about the survey and an associated facebook page.

White-throated Kingfisher entangled by kite line
from Bird Ecology Study Group

kingfishers
from into the wild

Read more!

Cruel display of tortoises and turtles at museum

Straits Times 31 Jul 10;

MY MOTHER is visiting Singapore and has had a very enjoyable few weeks being out and about every day, taking in the wonderful sights and sounds that the city has to offer.

However, recently, she had, in her words, 'one of the worst experiences of her life' when she visited the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum of Singapore.

Many of the tortoises were displayed alone in very confined spaces on bare concrete floors without access to food or water.

One of the museum's highlights is an 82-year-old tortoise that is sadly destined to spend the rest of its life - potentially another 118 years - confined to a concrete tank, without seeing another tortoise.

The turtles are treated no better, cruelly displayed in stark tanks without space to swim - an inexcusable confinement for these beautiful creatures.

In the words of the museum's website, 'it is a common Chinese belief that turtles and tortoises represent longevity and good fortune' - but that definitely isn't the case for any of the unfortunate animals kept at this facility.

There should be no place in modern, vibrant Singapore for this morally reprehensible, exploitative 'tourist attraction' that harms the international reputation of the city.

Isn't it time for the Government to intervene?

Russell Eley

Museum's tortoises, turtles well cared for
Straits Times Forum 6 Aug 10;

I THANK Mr Russell Eley for his letter last Saturday ('Cruel display of tortoises and turtles at museums').

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has checked on the tortoises and turtles kept at the museum to ensure that their welfare is not compromised. They are kept in large ponds or in glass tanks with sufficient space for them to move about. These enclosures are cleaned and maintained. In addition, the ponds have demarcated dry areas for the tortoises and turtles to rest. We have advised the owner of the museum to increase tank sizes accordingly as the tortoises and turtles grow bigger.

The tortoises and turtles are fed regularly. Many at the museum are captive-bred and it is not advisable to release them as they will be vulnerable in the wild.

As for the 82-year-old tortoise, it was found injured many years ago and was rescued. The tortoise is kept apart from the other tortoises as it requires special care and attention.

Goh Shih Yong
Deputy Director, Media Division
for Chief Executive Officer
Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority

Read more!

Higher Green Mark standards for new buildings from December

Joanne Chan Channel NewsAsia 5 Aug 10;

SINGAPORE : Higher Green Mark standards will apply to new buildings in Singapore from December.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said the move will guide the industry towards more sustainable and energy efficient practices in building design, construction and maintenance.

An award made of recycled glass was conferred to BCA by international think tank Aspen Institute for its efforts in promoting "green" practices in Singapore's buildings.

And the use of recycled materials is one area of sustainable construction practices that's encouraged under the revised Green Mark criteria.

Other revisions include requiring air-conditioning systems that are more energy efficient, and incorporating natural ventilation into the design.

To meet the minimum certification level, new buildings or those undergoing major retrofitting will need an energy efficiency standard that is 28 per cent higher than 2005 levels. This is also a 10 per cent point jump over the current standard.

BCA had consulted the industry over the last year in its review, and concerns about high costs and the lack of expertise were raised.

"We've been having quite a lot of training programmes, even those at the Masters level, to build up this green collar professional capability in the industry," said Dr John Keung, CEO of BCA. - CNA /ls

Green Mark standard for new buildings to be raised
Minimum energy efficiency standard will be 28 per cent higher
Jessica Cheam Straits Times 6 Aug 10;

SINGAPORE'S regulators are raising the energy efficiency bar for new buildings from December as they step up the drive for a leaner and greener economy.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) announced yesterday that all new buildings will soon have to comply with a more demanding Green Mark standard that calls for an additional 10 per cent of energy savings on top of those required by the current standard.

Under the latest revision, the minimum energy efficiency standard will be 28 per cent higher than that set out in the first building code released in 2005 when the Green Mark - which measures a building's environmental performance - was originally launched.

The standards for higher Green Mark levels - Gold, GoldPlus and Platinum - will also be raised accordingly.

BCA chief executive John Keung said at a briefing yesterday that other changes to the new standard will require building owners to install more energy-efficient air-conditioning systems, along with monitoring devices to track their performance.

For the first time, the rating system will take into account the use of recycled materials such as recycled concrete aggregate, and will encourage the use of so-called 'passive design' to integrate natural ventilation into a building.

Mr Keung said the higher standards will help Singapore achieve its goal of cutting its carbon emissions by 7 per cent to 11 per cent below business-as-usual levels by 2020 - a target set by a national sustainability blueprint in April last year.

'The added emphasis on energy-efficient building systems will gradually guide our industry towards more environmentally sustainable practices,' he added.

Singapore Green Building Council president Lee Chuan Seng said the move will keep Singapore at the forefront of the green building design and construction arena, adding that 'if we don't improve standards, we'll be left behind'.

Under BCA's green building masterplan, 80 per cent of all Singapore buildings should have the Green Mark by 2030. All new buildings were mandated to achieve the minimum Green Mark standard in April 2008.

A $600 million incentive fund was provided by the Government to spur building owners to green their assets.

To date, Singapore has 450 properties with Green Mark certification, representing 8 per cent of the Republic's total built-up floor area.

Last week, BCA's green building drive won it international recognition.

It was awarded the Energy and Environment Award (Government) by the Aspen Institute, a Colorado, US-based international non-profit organisation.

This was the first time the award was given to an organisation outside North America. Board chairman Bill Dirks of the Aspen Institute's awards said that BCA had demonstrated leadership 'at the national level in this very critical area of renewable energy standards and green buildings'.

'We saw a clear outstanding example of disruptive innovation, creative and breakthrough solutions in Singapore's entry, which could be reproduced around the globe to tackle large-scale energy and environment issues,' he said.

BCA said details of the latest revision to the Green Mark will be unveiled to industry later this month, with briefing sessions held before implementation.

Read more!

Flood mitigation works threatening Malaysian firefly colonies

Tan Cheng Li, The Star 6 Aug 10;

PETALING JAYA: Firefly colonies in Negri Sembilan and Malacca are in danger of being wiped out following river engineering works to alleviate flooding in low-lying areas.

A three-year research showed that clearing of riverine vegetation to widen and straighten Sungai Rembau and Sungai Linggi had adversely affected populations of the insect, which congregate on mangrove trees and synchronously light up in a dazzling display.

Of the 122 colonies of fireflies recorded in 2008 in the Rembau-Linggi estuary, only 64 were observed by June 2010, according to surveys by Wan Faridah Akmal Wan Jusoh, who did her masters programme on firefly ecology at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia.

Presenting her findings at the International Firefly Symposium here, she said river modification for flood mitigation had drastically changed the mangrove ecosystem by destroying trees on which fireflies gathered to mate.

“The construction of bunds along rivers have also disturbed the ecology of the river, soil and vegetation,” she said.

Her research showed the Rembau-Linggi estuary to have abundant colonies of fireflies, with four of the six rivers there – Rembau, Linggi, Ramuan Cina Kecil and Ramuan Cina Besar – hosting the insect, but populations had diminished following the destruction of mangroves.

Since 2007, Wan Faridah has surveyed a total of 13km of the rivers. Unfortunately, at least 64 mangrove trees where she had observed congregating fireflies were felled during river engineering work by the Drainage and Irrigation Department.

She said tourism activities in the area, which included fishing as well as firefly and crocodile sighting, had declined due to changes in the habitat.

Read more!

Green turtles return to Malaysia but future bleak

(AFP) Google News 5 Aug 10;

KUALA LUMPUR — Green turtles are returning to Malaysia in their hundreds after being nearly wiped out, but experts warned Thursday that the species is still headed for oblivion if habitat loss is not stopped.

Thousands of turtles used to land every year on Malaysian beaches, but their numbers plummeted in the 1980s due to rampant coastal development and the plundering of eggs from their sandy nests.

However, landings have increased in the past few years in the eastern resort strip of Cherating, and some 350 -- mostly green turtles but also some hawksbills -- now arrive there each year, officials said.

Mohamad Mat Saman, fisheries department director in central Pahang state, said that initiatives such as new hatcheries and efforts to promote conservation had led to the improvement.

"This year up until June we had 200 turtles coming to lay their eggs," he told AFP.

"About 70 percent of them had previously landed in Cherating and we believe others were born here. All turtles which land are tagged."

"We received support from the locals and fishermen who collect turtle eggs and hand them to the sanctuary," he said.

Mohamad said that authorities have proposed introducing a new law to ban turtle egg consumption in Pahang state by the end of this year.

Turtle nesting sites are dotted along peninsular Malaysia's east coast, but the leatherbacks which were once common have now virtually disappeared.

Elizabeth John from conservation group Traffic said that while some turtle populations now appear stable, their numbers have dropped dramatically since the 1970s.

"Habitat loss is a major threat to green turtles and all other marine turtles that nest on Malaysian beaches. Infrastructure development along the coast near key nesting sites has impacted populations," she said.

"The local trade and consumption of turtle eggs is another threat to green turtles," she added.

John said green turtles are facing "the double whammy of losing their homes and their young", much as leatherback turtles did during the past few decades.

"It?s heartening to see green turtles still returning to nest on Malaysian shores, but if we fail to address the threats that face them, we will be pushing them go down the same path towards destruction," she said.

Read more!

Groups Urge Action Against Top Actors in Indonesian Illegal Logging

Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 5 Aug 10;

Indonesia. Environmental groups on Thursday urged the government to arrest two businessmen allegedly involved in smuggling rare timber from Papua to China.

“We want more action to be taken against these people because we believe that the issue of illegal logging has not really been touched,” said Julian Newman, campaign director of the Britain-based Environmental Investigation Agency.

Newman said local authorities had only arrested chainsaw operators, truck drivers and other “low-level men,” rather than high-level illegal logging operators. “We’d want to see some action on that,” he said.

In an investigative report, the EIA and an Indonesian group, Telapak, said two businessmen were illegally exporting merbau logs to China, India and South Korea.

According to the report, in mid-October in 2009, customs officers in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, discovered 23 containers carrying 400 tons of merbau logs allegedly belonging to one of the businessmen.

It alleged that the containers were shipped from Makassar, South Sulawesi, where the businessman “runs a massive merbau timber company.”

The other businessman was described as an “old player” in the merbau timber-smuggling business who had received a special government dispensation to export the rare and slow-growing tree species to China in 2008.

The report, “Rogue Traders: The Murky Business of Merbau Timber Smuggling in Indonesia,” was released after detailed and undercover investigations by the environmental watchdogs starting in 2005.

Indonesian laws only allow the export of semi-finished wood products, but the groups claim the two businessmen illegally exported rough-sawn timber.

Newman said merbau timber could fetch about $1,000 per cubic meter in China, while the logs could be obtained for Rp 3 million each ($335) from local brokers.

“Those businessmen could actually face charges under the Forestry Law and could be locked up in jail for 10 years, ” he said.

Merbau is endemic to Papua, and is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Papua has the last remaining intact merbau forest in the country.

Hapsoro, program director at Telapak, said the government should list merbau in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna so to help it limit the trade in the species.

“That does not necessarily mean banning all trade in merbau. But it would limit how much merbau could be traded because we are losing billions of dollars here,” he said.

Newman said China, one of the biggest importers of merbau timber, should also sanction illegal traders. “It is not up to Indonesia alone. It is also up to China, which is wide open to importing illegally logged timber,” he said.

Indonesia 'woefully inadequate' on illegal loggers: probe
(AFP) Google News 5 Aug 10;

JAKARTA — Indonesia is allowing powerful businessmen to get rich from smuggling rare timber to China despite its pledges to crack down on illegal logging and preserve its forests, environmentalists said Thursday.

An undercover probe by the independent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and local group Telapak found rampant smuggling of merbau, a valuable hardwood found mainly in Papua.

The probe tracked the illicit trade from the forests to the ships where the wood was being illegally exported, mainly to China, with the help of corrupt officials.

Complaints to authorities about the two alleged kingpins in the trade had achieved nothing, the groups said in a report.

"While the huge quantity of illegal timber flowing from Indonesia during the first half of the decade has declined, effective law enforcement against those responsible -- the financiers, company bosses and corrupt officials -- has been woefully inadequate," EIA campaign director Julian Newman said.

The groups called on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make good on his promises to crack down on what he has called the "logging mafia" that is accused of destroying much of the country's pristine forests.

Indonesia is one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, mainly through deforestation.

Yudhoyono has pledged to slash its emissions by more than 40 percent over 2005 levels by 2020, as long as foreign donors pour billions of dollars into the country for forest preservation.

"The illegal trade of merbau is symptomatic of the wider problems and the governance failure in the forest sector in Indonesia," Newman told reporters.

"It is not only the problems of Indonesia. China has been wide open to illegal timbers. We hope China will follow the US and the EU in banning illegal timber in a bid to protect forests."

Telapak representative Hapsoro said the government was allowing the kingpins of the illegal trade to run riot.

"It is time for Indonesia to redouble its efforts to combat timber smuggling by going after the main culprits," he said.

Read more!

$1000 fine in Australia for having dugong net

The Cairns Post 6 Aug 10;

A MAN has been fined $1000 for illegally possessing a net designed to trap large mammals, such as dugongs.

The on-the-spot fine, issued at Yarrabah, comes after the deaths of five dugongs in Far Northern waters in two separate incidents in April.

The third $1000 fine for illegal netting offences issued in the Cairns area since July 2009 has been welcomed by traditional owners and conservationists.

A Fisheries Queensland spokesperson said the man had a large cord net specifically designed to target sharks or large mammals.

"Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers have seized the net involved in the incident as this type of net is illegal – because of its size and design it cannot be used by any commercial, recreational or indigenous fisher," the spokesperson said.

The maximum penalty for illegally using a net is $100,000; two prosecutions relating to netting offences in the Cairns area are pending in court.

On-the-spot fines of up to $1000 can also be issued for unlawful use of a net. Investigations into the deaths of five dugongs in April are continuing.

They were found dead in nets.

Yarrabah Mayor Percy Neal said illegal fishers should be prepared to meet the consequences.

Cairns and Far North Environment Centre co-ordinator Steve Ryan said any successful action against illegal fishing activities was good.

"Nets, both legal and illegal, can catch dugong, turtle, dolphins and other wildlife," Mr Ryan said.

Anyone with information on a suspected breach of fishing rules should phone the 24-hour Fishwatch hotline on 1800 017 116.

Read more!

Is Africa's wildlife being eaten to extinction?

Mark Jones BBC Green Room 3 Aug 10;

The rapid growth in the global demand for bushmeat is leaving many African species facing the possibility of being eaten out of existence, says Mark Jones. In this week's Green Room, he calls for western nations to do more to tackle the problem of illegal imports of bushmeat.

We've all heard how the illegal trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn and other high value products is threatening Africa's wildlife.

However, the impact of these products is dwarfed by the trade in bushmeat, defined as meat from Africa's wild animals traded for human consumption.

According to the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, the hunting of and trade in bushmeat represents "the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa".

Traditionally, bushmeat hunting was a subsistence activity.

It is now a multi-billion dollar international trade involving hundreds of species, from forest herbivores such as duikers and other antelopes to wild pigs, rodents, elephants and primates.

The exponential increase in the trade over recent years is being driven by demand from the exploding and ever more urbanised human population in Africa, and the increasing international value and demand for bushmeat products.

Commercial logging and the associated infrastructure development and expansion have given hunters easy access to previously impenetrable African forests, and ready-made transport routes to towns and cities.

Unsustainable consumption

The term bushmeat is normally used in reference to the illegal trade.

The trade may be illegal because the species concerned is protected under national or international laws, the method of killing is prohibited, or because the animal is taken from a protected area.

The food source was originally exploited because of its low cost, lack of ownership issues, weak law enforcement and the lack of alternatives.

Now, the increasing value of bushmeat has attracted criminal syndicates, with sophisticated and efficient logistical capabilities.

Law enforcement agencies in many African countries do not have the resources to keep up, and in some cases high level involvement in the trade may protect it from official interference.

This makes accurate estimates of the trade difficult to obtain, although Central African consumers alone may be eating more than 2.5m tonnes each year.

Many target species have already been extirpated from parts of West Africa. Wildlife in Eastern and Southern African countries is increasingly being targeted, and Kenya is estimated to have experienced a loss of about 50% in its wildlife in recent decades, largely as a result of the bushmeat trade.

A recent study, involving researchers from the Zoological Society of London, estimated that as much as 270 tonnes of bushmeat might be coming through a single airport in Paris annually, destined both for personal consumption and to supply the lucrative trade in high value products.

It is also estimated that more than a quarter of all mammal species hunted for bushmeat are threatened with extinction.

Feeling the loss

Widespread hunting of animals for bushmeat depletes populations of affected species, and can lead to local population crashes or extirpation.

There are, however, much wider potential impacts.

Species have functions: as prey for other species, seed dispersers or forest rebuilders. So reductions in certain species can have far reaching impacts on others, causing a loss of biodiversity and a crisis within ecosystems.

The loss of biodiversity leaves us with a predominance of a few so-called "weedy species", such as those that thrive in continually disturbed, human-dominated environments.

Small populations of highly endangered animals can be disproportionately affected.

Although the number of Great Apes involved in the bushmeat trade is small, their removal can have devastating impacts on populations, and Great Ape species in Africa are thought to be at risk of extinction over the next two decades if the trade continues at its current rate.

The commercial bushmeat trade also threatens the livelihoods and food security of indigenous rural people, which can result in social and political instability.

Bushmeat can also carry potentially devastating diseases - from anthrax to ebola, monkey pox to retroviruses - that may have disastrous impacts on livestock and far-reaching consequences for human health.

Food for thought

For the bushmeat trade to be controlled so that it does not cause further decimation of Africa's wildlife, multi-faceted solutions need urgently to be put in place.

As renowned conservationist Ian Redmond suggests, we need to aim for the trade to be Legal, Sustainable, and Disease Free.

Until recently, most conservation projects concerned with bushmeat have tended to focus on research, education, and enforcement, with few attempts to provide alternative livelihoods or food sources.

Many of the countries central to the trade are poor and suffer from corruption.

These countries need resources, incentives and training if they are to apply and enforce national and international regulations.

Prosecution of illegal traders often fail because of inadequate availability of resources to identify the type of meat concerned, so laboratories need to be set up to enable simple and inexpensive forensic services.

In importing countries, bushmeat is often not considered a high priority by customs authorities when compared with, for example, drugs or arms; so the profile of bushmeat in the international enforcement arena needs to be raised.

Extensive public awareness programmes are required, aimed at educating people at all levels of the trade.

A number of umbrella organisations have been established in recent years to try and improve local education, such as the Bushmeat-free Eastern Africa Network (BEAN) initiative. Some have been very successful.

However, far more effort is needed, with co-ordination at an international level.

Perhaps most importantly, people who currently rely on the illegal bushmeat trade for their livelihood or as an essential protein source need to be given alternative options; and herein lies arguably the greatest challenge.

Some good initiatives exist, including the development of fish farms, apiaries, and arable agriculture projects. Many more are required if the trade is to be significantly reduced.

Local actions to curb the bushmeat trade need to be resourced through global responses, requiring significant investment at a time of international financial instability and introspection.

If Africa's unique wildlife, and its rural communities, are to survive the impacts of the bushmeat trade, continued well-directed development aid for the poor countries of Africa throughout this period of global financial uncertainty is essential.

Mark Jones is programmes and fundraising director of Care for the Wild International, a UK-based conservation charity

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

Read more!

Indonesian President: prioritized Montara oil spill`s compensation for fishermen, farmers

Antara 5 Aug 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would give priority to compensate fishermen and farmers experiencing the direct impact of Montara oil spill in Timor sea, East Nusa Tenggara.

The president said so during the National Meeting in Bogor Palace, West Java, on Thursday.

Yudhoyono added the National Team for Ocean Oil Spill Emergency Situations had reached several progress in its effort to claim for compensation to the local people.

Minister of Transportation as well as the chairman of the National Team for Ocean Oil Spill Emergency Situations, Freddy Numberi, said representative from Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta had met and exchanged data related to the case.

Numberi added while waiting for the result of internal meetings of parties responsible to the Montara oil-mill Indonesia would continuously renew its data about the contamination in the Timor sea as well as the number of material loss caused from it.

"We are planning to claim not only about the environmental damage but also the cost of restoring the natural resources there," said the minister.

Last August 2009, Montara oil field which was developed by the Norwegian and Bermudan-owned Seadrill company and operated by PTTEP Australasia (a unit of Thai state-owned oil and gas company) was blowout leaving a massive spill of 500,000 liters, or 1,200 barrels, of crude oil covered the Timor Sea everyday. The oil spill also flowed to the waters around Rote Ndao district and Sawu sea especially the areas around Sabu Raijua district and Southern coastal area of Timor Island.

Rote Ndao, District Head Lens Haning had frequently expressed their complaints relating to the pollution such as shrinking yields of local fishermen? fish catch and difficulty faced by local residents on Rote Island in cultivating seaweed because of polluted sea waters.

Rote Ndao district head also said the oil spill had also polluted around 16,420 km in square meters of sea waters of Timor Sea which also covered the Indonesia?s economic exclusive zone.

The damaged sea ecosystem and death of sea biota had also cause a drop in the income of local seaweed farmers and fishermen.

The oil spill, seaweed farmers in Rote Ndao could produce at least 7,334 tons of seaweeds per year. In 2009, after the pollution-related oil spill, their production drastically dropped to 1,512 tons and till June 2010, the production of seaweed only stood at 341.4 tons.(*)

Read more!

Scientists think Gulf can recover from oil spill

Seth Borenstein And Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Yahoo News 6 Aug 10;

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Want to know the future of the oil-stained Gulf of Mexico ecosystem? Look first to its muddy, polluted past.

The recent ecological history of the Gulf gives scientists reason for hope. In an extensive survey of Gulf of Mexico researchers by The Associated Press, at least 10 of them separately volunteered the same word to describe the body of water: "resilient."

This is buttressed by a government report that claims that all but 53 million gallons of the leaked oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon well are gone. The report issued Wednesday says the cleanup extracted a lot of it, but the natural processes that break up, evaporate and dissolve oil took care of 84 million gallons — more than twice the amount human efforts removed.

At the same time, more progress was made in sealing the well for good as BP finished pumping cement into it on Thursday.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — It will take time to see the full effects of one of history's largest oil spills on the Gulf of Mexico, but a survey of 75 scientists offers reason for hope. First in an occasional series, "Gulf Survival."

___

The Gulf's impressive self-cleanup makes sense given its history and makeup. The Gulf regularly absorbs environmental insults: overfishing, trawlers raking sea floors, frequent hurricanes. And then there's the dead zone, an area starved of oxygen because 40 percent of America's runoff pours from the Mississippi River into the Gulf.

And yet the Gulf remains America's most biologically diverse place, with 15,419 species. It is the nation's buffet of life as well as its gas station and septic tank.

It's too soon to know the full effects of the BP disaster. But to get a sense of where the Gulf has been and where it's going, the AP surveyed 75 scientists about the health of the Gulf of Mexico before the spill. On a 0-to-100 scale, the scientists graded its general health a 71 on average. That's a respectable C, considering 100 would be considered pristine and untouched by civilization.

"If having a strong system in place pre-spill makes a difference, and I think it might, then I think the system may bounce back sooner than expected," said Brian Crother, a Southeastern Louisiana University wetlands biologist.

But nothing about the Gulf is simple. Just as often as scientists use the word "resilient," they use the word "stress."

"The Gulf of Mexico has been fairly resilient, but it's been under stress," Michael Carron, director of the Northern Gulf Institute, said as he steered his boat around the Bay St. Louis waters.

In the survey, which was sent to scientists through several research institutions and scientific societies, sea turtles, manatees, wetlands and water quality hovered around or below the failing point. Doing well were beaches and birds, including the once-endangered brown pelican, Louisiana's state bird.

While others are optimistic, Jeremy Jackson, director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is worried.

"You have an ecosystem that's already severely stressed, then you add this major disturbance," he said. "We're going to pay for our sins double-time because we've neglected the environment of the northern Gulf so badly for so long."

Yet the Gulf's water is warm, which is good for microbes that eat oil. The currents and drainage are right to flush and dilute tainted water. And the Gulf has long been exposed to natural gas, oil and a host of other contaminants.

While BP's well dumped 172 million gallons into the Gulf over three months, the muddy Mississippi brings in 198 million gallons of water — replete with urban and farm runoff — every minute. The National Research Council estimates that 41 million gallons a year of oil naturally seep into the Gulf from below.

A thriving microbial ecosystem has developed to consume the oil.

"The Gulf has been immunized many times by environmental insults," said Larry McKinney, director of a Gulf research center at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. "Because of that resilience we see here — and not in other places — it also may be the best place" to cope with a gigantic spill.

It's still early in damage assessments, but so far about 600 miles of coast has been fouled with oil. The official government death toll so far: 3,606 birds, 508 endangered sea turtles and 67 marine mammals. More than 2,100 birds, turtles and marine mammals have been found oiled, but alive.

But those are only the losses seen. Scientists suspect many more animals have died, but their bodies have not been found.

Federal and BP officials are scurrying to conduct damage assessments from the spill. The first and crucial step to such assessments is figuring out the condition of the Gulf before the spill. It's also key in calculating just how much BP will have to pay.

"A baseline is the medical history of the environment," said Smithsonian scientist Nancy Knowlton. "Without a baseline you can't say anything about what the impact of anything is."

What makes the Gulf so rich in marine life is what surrounds the Gulf: river wetlands. And yet those wetlands are among the most troubled aspects of the Gulf, ranking an unhealthy 65 on the AP survey.

For the past century, Louisiana's wetlands have been chopped of cypress and tupelo, drained for farms and split by oil canals. On average, Louisiana loses about 25 to 35 square miles a year of wetlands.

Another worsening problem, the dead zone, starts with the farms of the Midwest and fertilizer runoff that carries too much nitrogen. It goes into the Mississippi and then into the Gulf. That heavy dose of nitrogen every summer encourages algae to grow, which results in a huge feast for bacteria that use up oxygen there, leaving little for fish or anything else.

"It's getting bigger over the years, and it's extending more into Texas," said Nancy Rabalais, director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

This year's Dead Zone is the size of Massachusetts, not quite as large as the biggest ever, which was in 2002.

"Organisms are resilient," said John Dindo of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. "Habitats are not. Habitats do not bounce back as fast as organisms."

The Gulf of Mexico averages three times more species per square mile than the seas around Hawaii, according to the Census of Marine Life.

Among those creatures are shrimp, which are still plentiful in the Gulf and have not shown any early signs of oil damage.

"The reputation of (the Gulf) being a sportsman's paradise is not far off the mark," said Rusty Gaude of Louisiana State University's agricultural center. If anyone living along the Gulf coast goes hungry, "it is his own fault," he jokes.

Twenty-nine Gulf species are on the endangered list, and nine others are on the threatened list. They include five species of sea turtles. Scientists in the AP survey ranked sea turtles as among the species struggling most in the Gulf.

After a cold winter that killed hundreds of turtles in Florida, the BP spill hit at the worst time and place for sea turtles both young and old, said Karen Bjorndal of the University of Florida. That's because the young turtles often are caught up in the parts of the water where the oil is and can't easily escape, while the older turtles that spend more time under water get covered with oil when they come up for air, she said.

The most vulnerable species of sea turtle is the loggerhead, and its nests have drastically declined in recent years, but scientists don't know why. There are loggerheads around the world, but the oil spill could drive the Florida or Alabama populations to zero, Bjorndal said.

As for delicate and threatened coral, coral in the Florida Keys is on the decline, while the Flower Garden Banks coral in deep waters off the coast of Texas is far healthier than most of the world's reefs, said C. Mark Eakin, who runs the federal government's coral reef watch.

Ocean scientist and explorer Sylvia Earle said one key indicator of the health of the Gulf is the bluefin tuna. It has been in trouble worldwide from overfishing, and the Gulf is one of its two primary spawning grounds. Because of its timing, the spill could devastate this year's spawn of bluefin, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco said Wednesday.

Other fish species that during the 20th century were overfished and dropping to near dangerous levels have started to come back, such as king mackerel and red snapper, said Clay Porch, director of sustainable fisheries for NOAA's Southeast division.

The lasting image of the spill has been oiled birds. Yet, overall, birds along the Gulf are in good shape, earning a seemingly robust grade of 76 from scientists in the survey.

"There are still lots of healthy birds there," said Marc Dantzker, a Cornell University ornithologist. "At this point the system has a good chance of a strong recovery."

An analogy that many of the experts said is apt for the entire Gulf is one of a champion boxer who takes devastating hits.

The Gulf "keeps getting knocked down. You can only get knocked down so many times before you don't get back up," Texas A&M's McKinney said. "The Gulf has gotten knocked down many, many times. You've got dead zones, habitat loss, you've got overfishing. You've got hurricanes keep coming. At what point do you get the tipping point?"

Read more!