The Hantu Bloggers: Opening others' eyes to what lies beneath

Photojournalist aims to raise awareness of rich marine life in Singapore's waters
Straits Times 4 Dec 10;

SINGAPORE is not the first place that springs to mind if you are a diver looking for a rich and diverse underwater habitat - but photojournalist Debby Ng hopes to change that.

Ms Ng, who is also a keen diver, has spent the past eight years trawling the seas around the island to chronicle its abundant marine heritage.

Like others in the volunteer world, she has a mission: to get more people to realise that Singapore has many hidden natural treasures off its coast and that these deserve to be preserved.

Most of these gems are concentrated in the waters around the southern island of Pulau Hantu.

Ms Ng, a nature enthusiast who loved hiking and bird-watching before she got into diving, set up The Hantu Bloggers (www.pulauhantu.org) in 2003, where she posts pictures and descriptions of her underwater discoveries. She also gives talks in schools and has taken more than 800 divers on undersea expeditions.

It all started innocuously enough in 2002 when the then rookie diver began visiting blogs and forums to learn more about good diving spots.

Ms Ng, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic communications graduate, found that most divers raved about regional spots, so she began asking what was wrong with diving in Singapore.

The response was pretty blunt, with divers telling her 'there was nothing but trash down there'.

The 'negative reaction' did not surprise her. 'A lot of people used to say the same things about Singapore's biodiversity before Chek Jawa happened,' she says, referring to ecologically fertile wetlands on the south-eastern tip of Pulau Ubin. The Government put reclamation plans there on hold in 2001 after a survey by local volunteers showed the area to be rich in biodiversity.

With that in mind, Ms Ng began diving around Hantu on her own, hoping to prove sceptics wrong about Singapore's marine heritage.

She admits the water is silty but found starfish, nudibranchs, pufferfish and molluscs among the corals in Hantu's waters.

The marine life is concentrated in a 12ha patch of the sea, about the size of 16 football fields.

She began writing about her experiences on blogs in 2002, but was confronted with sheer dis-belief. 'People told me I was lying. There is no way I could have seen such things in Singapore's waters.'

Unperturbed, she bought a cheap underwater camera and with the help of friends set up The Hantu Bloggers and began taking sceptics on guided dive tours. She has done more than 500 dives off Hantu.

Unlike many others, volunteering is not something this photojournalist with an online magazine does in her 'free time'. 'It is something I make time for, simply because I believe in the cause,' she says.

Her passion is slowly bearing fruit. While Pulau Hantu will never rival the Great Barrier Reef for spectacular diving, she takes heart from the fact that awareness of its marine life is on the rise.

Experts now believe that while Singapore's reefs are 0.05 per cent the size of the Great Barrier Reef, they contain a third of its marine biodiversity.

She acknowledges that diving in Singapore is not always a pleasant experience. 'It's sometimes like trekking in the forest on a rainy day. But just because you can't see something does not mean it doesn't exist,' she says.

Ms Ng and a team of volunteers have been working with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity and an Australian natural history museum to catalogue their finds.

She also holds talks in schools to make students aware of what lies beneath Singapore's shores. 'I still meet secondary school students who don't know what a coral reef is, let alone that it may need to be protected,' she says.

While she believes Singapore's marine wealth deserves to be safeguarded, her primary work is to spark awareness, not activism.

'Awareness will eventually lead to concern - and hopefully proactiveness to protect what we have,' she says. 'But right now, we are still very much spreading awareness.'

RADHA BASU

Debby Ng, 28
Day job: Photojournalist
After hours: Diver and chronicler of Singapore’s marine life
How long: Eight years

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Growing trend of eating local produce in Singapore

Sales up as more buyers trust farmers here; some keen to grow own food
Jessica Lim Straits Times 7 Dec 10;

RECENT food contamination scares have brought Singaporeans' taste buds closer to home as locavorism - a trend in eating locally produced food - takes off here.

At supermarkets, sales of local produce - mostly vegetables, eggs and fish - have gone up by as much as 40 per cent over the past three years.

At Cold Storage, the sale of locally farmed fish, eggs and vegetables has increased 30 per cent in that period.

At FairPrice, demand for local fish and vegetables has increased by about 40 per cent in the past three years.

And sales of local vegetables and eggs at Sheng Siong have increased by 5 per cent to 10 per cent over the past year.

Being able to trace the source of the produce is a big factor fuelling the trend, said experts.

'Talk to anyone, the trust in local produce is increasing in tandem with doubts over imported food,' said senior lecturer Sarah Lim from Singapore Polytechnic's business school.

The episode involving melamine-tainted milk powder from China, which triggered product recalls worldwide in 2008, still resonates among consumers here, she pointed out.

'People trust local farmers now. They are starting to question and care about where their food comes from.'

Mr Allan Tan, former president of the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association, said consumers are also starting to realise that it is a win-win situation.

'When people buy directly from local farmers, their dollars stay within the local community and strengthen it.

'It also helps farmers have an income and continue to keep their farms,' he said. 'With more education, maybe more people will think that way and in the long run, Singapore will be more self-reliant when it comes to food.'

Figures from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) show that the 54 vegetable farms here harvested 19,584 tonnes of vegetables last year, up from 18,967 tonnes from 65 farms in 2008.

As for fish, 5,689 tonnes were produced locally last year, up from 5,141 tonnes in 2008.

For eggs, demand has remained relatively stable. Last year, the five farms here produced 333 million eggs, a dip from 338 million in 2008.

AVA said all produce from local vegetable and chicken farms is for local consumption while a portion of produce from the fish farms is exported.

Currently, the local production of fish, eggs and leafy vegetables make up 4 per cent, 23 per cent and 7 per cent respectively of total local consumption.

AVA hopes to strengthen Singapore's food resilience by raising local production of fish to 15 per cent, eggs to 30 per cent, and leafy vegetables to 10 per cent of consumption here. The Republic imports 90 per cent of the food consumed here.

Meanwhile, there are other signs pointing to the fact that the locavore movement - a term coined by an American food writer in 2005 - is catching on here.

The group Locavore Singapore, which was founded in May, already has 200 members. Its founder Christina Crane, 39, owner of Dapao - a restaurant in Amoy Street that serves home-grown food - has seen business expand.

She sells an average of 50 meals a day now, up from 20 meals a day when she first opened early last month.

More people are also interested in farming their own food.

Mr Tay Lai Hock, founder of Ground-Up Initiative, a non-profit organisation that aims to get people to reconnect with land, has attracted 1,000 volunteers since April. These volunteers tend herbs, vegetables and fruit trees at the Bottle Tree Park in Yishun.

The National Parks Board, which runs the Community in Bloom programme to promote gardening projects, now has 390 community gardens under its belt - up from 100 in 2005 when the project was first launched.

Consumers like Miss Olivia Choong started going local about two years ago.

'I don't think it's good to always buy imported food. Eating local food reduces my carbon footprint,' said the 31-year -old, who eats only local vegetables and rears her own egg-laying hens at home.

'We have a lot of good produce here and I trust our farmers.'

A different view on carbon footprint
Straits Times Forum 11 Dec 10;

TUESDAY'S report ("Growing trend of eating local produce") quoted a 31-year-old who believed that avoiding imported food was a way to reduce her carbon footprint.

Assuming carbon footprints do matter, they should, of course, include the carbon released in transportation, as well as that required in producing the commodity.

But as Singapore's farms operate on such a small scale, many food items grown elsewhere, where key inputs are spread across significantly larger areas, account for considerably less carbon.

Another factor, though less relevant to the situation here, concerns efficiency. So, lamb from New Zealand shipped to England still accounts for less carbon than the local variety due to conditions being more conducive for its production in the former.

Dr Bill Durodie

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The Tarzan and Jane of the animal world

David Attenborough and Jane Goodall talk about their friendship, shared passions and their latest project - to raise awareness of apes

Celia Walden The Telegraph 2 Dec 10;

'I don’t mean to be rude,” says Sir David Attenborough, the voice of my childhood, “but that’s the kind of question an eight-year-old would ask.” We’re sitting by a log fire in the celebrated broadcaster’s west London home. There’s tea on the table and a plate of shortbread, but the atmosphere is not quite as cosy.

I rephrase my question: which single moment has been the most memorable, the most fulfilling of Sir David’s 58-year career? “I have lots of favourite moments, but tell the eight-year-old that and they feel let down. Look, I don’t believe in list-making. Lots of lovely things happen and lots of horrible things happen but I can’t list them in priority.”

That Sir David’s insatiable intelligence should be paired with a slight impatience is no surprise. I had been forewarned that small talk should be avoided (and not, under any circumstances, to bring up the 'national treasure’ epithet), and it’s fair to say that the 20 minutes we spend waiting for his life-long friend, the renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall DBE to arrive, won’t top any lists in terms of comfortable tête-à-têtes. Still, once we get on to Hope 4 Apes – the conservation charity Sir David is publicising – the cantankerous manner subsides into something a little closer to his kindly on-screen persona.

It never ceases to amaze the 84 year-old how much we want to make the animal world about us. “Animals have nothing to teach us,” he maintains, “that we can’t learn by looking at ourselves, yet some people think that the only thing we have to learn from animals is to do with humans. That seems to me to be an extraordinarily egocentric view.”

I wonder aloud whether the resurgence of youthful interest from young people in wildlife programmes (Sir David’s First Life series was watched by 3.16 million viewers) can partly be explained by this egocentrism. But despite the lure of technology and the instant gratification of reality TV, Sir David doesn’t believe that an interest in the natural world ever fell away. “It’s always been the case as far as I’m concerned. Of course adolescents are interested in iPods and iPads, but I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive.”

The former controller of BBC2 doesn’t watch reality TV (“no, not even I’m a Celebrity”) but is unexpectedly mild on the subject. “I think it’s cheap and cheerful, so who am I to say people shouldn’t watch it? It really costs absolutely nothing to make, whereas if you look at a programme I’m making at the moment about the earth’s Poles, which has been three years in production with 15 camera men living out there for most of the time…”

TV has changed a lot from the days the grammar-school and Cambridge-educated young man from Isleworth – the younger brother of actor and director Lord Richard Attenborough – worked as a production assistant at the BBC Alexandra Palace headquarters. “Still, it was thrilling because there were only a dozen people responsible for all the non-fiction programmes in Europe.” When Sir David stepped out from behind the desk to present, his infectious enthusiasm and distinctive tones of hushed awe captivated audiences. His Life series changed the course of wildlife documentaries. Far from being observational, Attenborough inspired debate about our role in terms of conservation and the environment. Which was where Jane Goodall has just come in amid a blizzard of apologies.

Brought together by their mutual passion for conservationism (Goodall is a UN Messenger of Peace), the pair are jokingly referred to as “Tarzan and Jane” by their colleagues. I can see why. From the moment she enters the room, Sir David relaxes, swapping his tea for the “warming whisky” Goodall begs for and his frown for a smile. Birch-haired and fine-featured, the 76-year-old daughter of a businessman and a novelist from London was known by reputation to Sir David well before their first meeting.

“I’d heard that she was a saint,” he laughs gruffly, his eyes on hers, “a woman who had turned the world of zoology upside down.” Academics were either suspicious or downright rude about the beautiful, Cambridge graduate, he goes on. “She had the effrontery to give animals names. It was also a fact, Jane, that you weren’t a bad looking girl.”

Those looks (she became a National Geographic cover-girl in 1963) were a help rather than a hindrance, she claims, giving her the opportunity to work with the world-famous anthropologist, Dr Louis Leakey. “He didn’t take on any females who weren’t good looking,” she smiles, “but he also felt with good reason that the patience and sympathy required to work with chimps was possessed naturally by women. It’s true that if you’re a good mother, in the old-fashioned primate sense, you have to be patient and understand needs put forward in non-verbal ways.”

I put it to Sir David that Goodall’s admission that she adopted some of the mothering techniques she had observed in female chimpanzees when raising her own son, Hugo, seems to contradict his earlier assertion that we have nothing to learn from animals. “When Leakey studied chimps in the Sixties, it was about providing a greater understanding about early, Stone Age man,” he counters. “It wasn’t about applying those learnings to modern man.” Back then, it hadn’t been proven how close the links between man and ape were, but Goodall talks warmly of the sense of humour she detected in chimps and their natural “altruistic sense,” citing one of her most rewarding professional memories as “the moment Greybeard [a male chimpanzee she befriended] squeezed my finger in reassurance after turning down a fruit he didn’t want.”

Despite a career which has taken both of them from the planes of Africa to the Canadian glaciers neither can remember a moment of abject fear. “Of course you get scared if you’re being charged by an elephant, but actually I’ve been most frightened not by animals but by human beings. When a man is standing there, drunk, holding a gun, and unable to speak a word of your language…” Sir David takes a sip of his whisky, and Goodall murmurs assent. “I have friends who like adrenalin, but I don’t. I live a very peaceable life. My job is to make films about animals behaving naturally, so I’m as unobtrusive as possible.”

The discomfort of expedition life doesn’t become any easier to bear as they get older, the pair concede. “When you’re standing on the top of a mountain in the pouring rain waiting for a helicopter that’s not coming and it looks like five of you are going to have to sleep in a two-man tent, you do wonder what keeps you going.” And what does? “Everything,” Goodall shrugs. “Anything worth doing has got moments of discomfort or even pain,” Sir David finishes. “And the pleasure so grossly outweighs everything else that you don’t even notice the rest.”

For Goodall, her belief in “a greater spiritual power,” is an additional source of strength. And although Sir David is a well known agnostic, I’m curious to know whether William Paley’s watchmaker analogy [that as with a watch found on the heath, a designer must exist] ever comes to mind when he’s examining the intricate workings of an exotic creature at close range. “Evolution can explain all that,” he says briskly, “although sometimes when I’m looking down on termites in their nest going about their business, I do wonder whether someone is looking down at us thinking: 'By golly they’re making a mess of things.’ “Not they,” reprimands Goodall. “We.”

Population control, both agree, is the only way to save our environment. “There are three times as many people on earth as when I first started making television programmes,” says Sir David, “all of whom require food and a place to live. And many of us, including me, take more than our fair share. And while the answer is unclear, one thing is obvious: where women are educated and have the vote, birth rates drop.” Still he feels privileged to “be able to go where the rainforest is, not where it isn’t,” and has no plans to retire. “One day I will fall over….” “And one day I won’t be able to walk,” shrugs Goodall. “But until then,” Sir David smiles, speaking for his old friend too, “we’re enjoying ourselves.”

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World coastlines can act as 'carbon sink'

Ellalyn B. De Vera Manila Bulletin 6 Dec 10;

MANILA, Philippines – Just as scientists search for better and immediate solutions to counter the impacts of climate change, international experts bared that the world's coastlines, which include mangroves, sea grasses, and tidal salt marshes, could potentially act as a major "carbon sink" in storing massive quantities of carbon for a long period of time.

It pointed out that mangroves, sea grasses, and tidal salt marshes could serve as immediate and cost-effective tool to offset the impact of climate change.

Conservation International (CI) and the International Union of Conservation Scientists (IUCN) explained that total carbon deposits per square kilometer in these coastal systems can be up to five times the carbon stored in tropical forests, resulting from their ability to sequester carbon at rates up to 50 times those of tropical forests.

"What we've seen is that these three main systems – mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes – are phenomenally efficient at storing carbon below ground in the sediment for centuries at a time," Dr. Emily Pidgeon, Marine Climate Change Program Director for CI, said.

"So it seems natural to us that oceans should be part of the climate change solution. It's been a bit puzzling to me as to why they haven't so far," she added.

Scientific analysis show that coastal systems globally are being lost at an alarming rate, with approximately two percent removed or degraded each year, which is four times the estimates of annual tropical forest loss.

Likewise, the analysis show that 29 percent of the world's seagrasses, and 35 percent of the world's mangroves have been either lost or degraded.

It also noted that 35,000 square kilometers of mangroves were removed globally between 1980 and 2005 or an area the size of Taiwan.

"The loss of mangroves is like a one-two punch to our planet: first, it results in the rapid emission of carbon stores that in many cases have built up over centuries and the lost opportunity of future carbon sequestration from these areas, and second, it destroys habitats that are critical for fisheries around the world," Pidgeon said.

In a related development, a new international consortium of scientists led by CI called the Blue Carbon Initiative, whose members include CI, IUCN, the World Conservation Monitoring Center of the United Nations Environment Program (WCMC-UNEP), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO), and Restoring America's Estuaries have joined together to study the mitigation possibilities and economic value of coastal marine ecosystems.

"This is because they potentially give us one of the few low-cost options for actually removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, right now," Pidgeon said.

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From mangroves to cloud forests, scientists look to create list of threatened ecosystems

Ian James Associated Press Los Angeles Times 5 Dec 10;

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — From mangrove swamps in Venezuela to lowland forests in Indonesia, entire communities of plants and animals are under threat. Now scientists are figuring out how to catalog and map the world's most threatened ecosystems — just like their familiar list of endangered species.

Some experts say drawing up a global "Red List" of vanishing ecosystems would help them spot looming crises caused by everything from climate change to the cutting of forests, and would sharpen their focus on areas to conserve.

Along the shore of Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo, runoff filled with sediment and pesticides has been smothering animals that once lived among the roots of the mangrove trees, including crabs, fish hatchlings and shellfish, said Luz Esther Sanchez, a marine biologist and ecologist. She said saving the mangroves requires a comprehensive effort to reduce water pollution and halt the clearing of other forests upstream.

"Declaring the mangrove ecosystem threatened would be very useful for conservation," Sanchez said. "People stand up to defend dolphins. People stand up to defend turtles. But I've never seen them defend the mangrove forest with the same vehemence."

An international working group of biologists and conservation experts has been developing a system for classifying threats to ecosystems.

"If we can get a good, rigorous scientific system in place that is relatively easy to monitor worldwide ... you can follow these changes and describe them and ring the alarm bell where things might go wrong," said Dutch conservation expert Piet Wit.

He chairs the Commission of Ecosystem Management of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, which maintains the Red List of thousands of threatened plants and animals worldwide.

Some scientists caution that agreeing on precise categories to divvy up habitats would be a monumental task. But many already agree on some ecosystems that are threatened or endangered, including many coral reefs, salt marshes, mountain habitats threatened by rising global temperatures, grasslands in southern Russia and Brazil's Atlantic forest.

Logging poses a serious threat to the lowland forests on Indonesia's Borneo Island that are home to endangered orangutans. In the Andes, expanding farmland has fragmented the cloud forests where spectacled bears live.

"You usually get ecosystem decline occurring first, and then species decline later on," said Jon Paul Rodriguez, a conservation biologist at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research who is leading the IUCN working group. He and 20 other experts laid out their proposals in an article published online by the journal Conservation Biology in November.

The list of habitats devastated by people has been growing. The once-vast Aral Sea between the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan shrank by about 90 percent due to diversions of water, leaving behind a salty wasteland and abandoned fishing boats, and ruining the local economy. North American tall grass prairies have largely vanished, along with the game animals that once thrived in them. Some rivers, such as the Rio Grande, have been strangled by heavy pumping and now barely reach the sea.

Today, some efforts to save threatened species appear to be working. Humpback whales, for instance, have rebounded from "vulnerable" to being at low risk of extinction due to the international ban on commercial whaling. Strict regulations have helped the recovery of some fish that were once heavily overfished, such as striped bass along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast.

One study released in October by a large international team of researchers found that efforts to save endangered animals are making a difference for dozens of species. The report concluded that the overall march toward extinction would have been about 20 percent faster if no conservation steps had been taken.

"Species Red Lists have already been a huge policy success, so there's reason to think that ecosystem Red Lists could be too, and could complement them," said Kathryn Rodriguez-Clark, an ecology and conservation specialist at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research who is part of the IUCN effort.

Scientists and environmentalists have previously come up with their own systems for targeting habitats in danger of disappearing. Researchers in South Africa, Australia and Venezuela have begun to list and map out threatened ecosystems.

But the new effort aims to come up with a uniform, standard system of classifying habitats. Rodriguez said such a system could help identify new conservation goals, drawing on data from satellite images.

Stuart Pimm, a Duke University professor and expert on preventing species extinction, called the effort a good idea but said he is skeptical about how it can be put into practice.

"It's much, much more difficult to define an ecosystem than it is to define a species," Pimm said. "And the more finely you define things, the more tricky it's going to be."

Pimm said he is concerned it would be difficult to come up with "a consistent set of definitions that will survive political pressure" and hold up when tough environmental management decisions need to be made.

In the case of the mangroves that line Lake Maracaibo near the Venezuelan coast, Sanchez said species-focused conservation efforts alone won't work because the habitat is being degraded by muddy water from areas where mountain forests have been felled. She said runoff filled with pesticides is also likely taking a toll, and that in some parts of western Venezuela — which is dotted with oil rigs — leaks from oil pipelines have done damage.

"If the watershed isn't protected ... it's inevitably going to die, which is what's happening," she said. "It's all connected."

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Sumatran 'tiger map' reveals tiger population higher than expected

Tiger population may be the second largest in the world, but it remains under threat
Wiley-Blackwell EurekAlert 6 Dec 10;

Scientists have created the highest resolution map of the Sumatran tiger distribution ever produced, revealing that the island now hosts the second largest tiger population on earth. The research, carried out with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia Program and Forum HarimauKita, will be published in a special issue of Integrative Zoology, on tiger conservation and research methodologies.

Hariyo T. Wibisono and Wulan Pusparini conducted a questionnaire-based survey across the island to identify the status of Sumatran tiger distribution. They found that tigers still occupy a large majority of the remaining available habitat in Sumatra. Of the 144,160 square kilometers (55,660 sq mi) of remaining potential habitat, tigers are present in over 97% (140,226 sq km; 55,141 sq mi). However, only 29% of the habitat found to contain tigers is protected.

"These findings imply that Sumatran tiger population might be much larger than we believed, and could potentially be the second largest tiger population in the world after India," said Wibisono.

The survey also revealed that tigers occupy a great diversity of ecosystems. Tigers were found from 0 meters above sea level in coastal lowland forests, to 3200 meters (10,500 feet) above sea level in high mountain forests and in every eco-region in between.

"There is a need for further scientific population assessment," said Wibisono, "but if the population is indeed as large as this new survey suggests then real actions and more support from tiger experts and the international community should be mobilized in the conservation of Sumatran tigers."

Based on their findings, the scientists recommend that at least five habitats should be reassessed as Tiger Conservation Landscapes (TCLs). A TCL is an area where there is sufficient habitat for at least five tigers and in which tigers have been confirmed to be present in the last 10 years.

These habitats include: 1.) Leuser Ecosystem which contains lowland to montane habitat in the northwest, 2.) Berbak-Sembilang containing lowland peat swamps and coastal habitat in southeast, 3.) Ulu Masen Ecosystem containing lowland to montane habitat in northwest, 4.) Batang Gadis containing lowland to lower montane habitat in central Sumatra, and 5.) Giam Siak Kecil in the central part of the island.

Mr. Wibisono sought to undertake this survey because he believed, based on his extensive experience working on the ground in Sumatra, that previous studies underestimated tiger population distribution. He and his colleague's findings verify his hunch and demonstrate that tigers are present at an island-wide scale in Sumatra.

The world tiger population has declined by 50% since 1998, and only an estimated 3,200-3,600 remain in the wild. The presence of tigers over a wide area of habitat in Sumatra is one of the few bright spots in the current state of wild tigers, but more protection is needed to ensure a viable future for this magnificent animal.

"Although tigers are clearly in peril, I am encouraged by the historic commitments made at the recent global tiger summit to increase the number of tigers worldwide," said Zhibin Zhang, editor-in-chief of Integrative Zoology. "At the end of November, the International Tiger Conservation Forum was held in St. Petersburg, Russia. The governments of the 13 tiger range countries agreed to double tiger numbers by 2022."

"By publishing this special issue on tiger conservation and research methodologies we hope to contribute to the efforts by governments, scientists and conservationists to brink tigers back from the brink."

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Malaysia: Deploying cheese reefs to save beaches

Ha Mee Mee New Straits Times 5 Dec 10;

There is every likelihood that our beautiful sandy beaches will be nonexistent in the distant future, as a result of coastal erosion. More and more stretches of beach are lost every year.

Tourists and scuba enthusiasts who have toured some of the country's scenic islands would have noticed the phenomenon. Strong monsoon winds and high frequency waves, especially during the northeast monsoon which occurs between November and March, do a lot of damage to the nation's beaches.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) has spent about RM20,000 to install artificial reefs, known as cheese reefs, on the sea floor off Beach One, Sibu Island in Mersing.

This was done with the cooperation of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and the Sibu Island Resort (SIR).

Ten artificial reefs were deployed and more are planned for the future.

Each unit, which is 15 metres long, weighs 800kg.

They were placed about 50 metres offshore to dissipate the wave energy to slow the process of beach erosion.

"We are deploying the reefs in stages to see the change in the marine life's growth and wave reactions," said senior UTM lecturer Dr Mohd Murtadha Mohamad, whose team designed the artificial reefs.

He said the cheese reefs had reduced the wave transmission by 60 per cent.

At the recent launch of the project at SIR, Mosti national oceanography directorate director Professor Dr Noraieini Mokhtar said the artificial reefs had made a direct impact on the fisheries by creating habitats for marine life around the islands.

Also present at the launch were UTM Offshore Engineering Institute director Professor Dr Ahmad Khairi Abd Wahab, Johor Corporation chief operating officer (hospitality division) Mohamad Mazlan Ali and SIR manager Abdul Latiff Sahat.

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Indonesia: Deforestation may be behind Serang's deadly flash floods

Antara 6 Dec 10;

Serang (ANTARA News) - Flash floods that killed a resident of Padarincang subdistrict, Serang district, Banten province, on Monday, might be caused by the deforestation on Wangun hill, a local government official said.

"The deforestation can be observed from the signs of cut trees and wood logs carried away by the flood water and then getting stuck in residents` houses," Head of Padarincang subdistrict, Suhaemi Muhit, said.

Speaking to newsmen while visiting the flood-hit areas, Muhit said that Wangun hilly areas was widely known by local people as a water catchment area.

He said Wangun hill`s forests belonged to a state owned forestry company, PT.Perhutani, but irresponsible people might have involved in illegal logging activities inside the enterprise`s concession areas.

"I don`t know who has caused deforestation. But, the forest concession areas belong to PT.Perhutani," he said.

Deputy Head of Serang district, Ratu Tatu Chasanah, had asked residents whose villages were inundated by the flash floods to preserve the remaining forest.

"If the trees are continuously toppled, the villagers themselves will suffer losses. Flooding will hit their villages," she said.

Chasanah also said that the local authorities would investigate the wood logs used by local sawmills. "If the wood logs are taken from Padarincang subdistrict`s forest areas. This is an outlawed activity," she said.

The fash floods that submerged several thousand houses in seven villages of Padarincang subdistrict had killed a local resident and caused two others to go missing.

The flood waters was triggered by the overflowing of the Cikoneng river, Suhaemi Muhit said.

"Until Monday at 07.00 PM, the two missing residents have yet to be found," he said.
The flash floods that had been inundating various parts of the villages of Barugbug, Ciomas, Batu Kuwung, Cisaat, Cipayung, Citasik, and Sukamaju, Suhaemi Muhit since Monday at 10.00 AM shocked his people, he said.

On early Monday at 02.00 AM, heavy rains had showered the Padarincang subdistrict`s areas but the torrential rainfall was not expected to bring disaster, he said.

At least 1,500 houses were inundated, and about a thousand of them got minor damages, he said adding that the subdistrict government officials still calculated the number of seriously-damaged houses.

Due to the ongoing rainfalls, he said local residents remained alert to another flooding, he said.

Over the past year, Indonesia has been undergoing an extreme weather phenomenon, which partly characterizes with heavy rains and whirlwinds.

As the consequences of the torrential rains and whirlwinds, various vulnerable parts of the country have experienced flash floods and landslides.

Wasior town in Teluk Wondama, West Papua Province, for instance, was struck by flash floods on October 3 and 4. The Wasior flooding was the worst which had reportedly killed at least 150 people, and left a few hundreds of others still missing.

Wasior town was covered with mud, logs and rocks following the flood.(*)

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Japanese fishermen celebrate rare court victory against sea dyke

Yahoo News 6 Dec 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – In a rare defeat for the Japanese government in its own courts, fishermen Monday won an order keeping the gates of a sea dyke open, despite authorities saying it was a defence against flooding.

Japanese governments have for decades invested heavily in public works projects, concreting hillsides, riverbanks and coastlines, in projects that have often been criticised as environmentally damaging pork-barrel exercises.

Among them is the dyke at Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture.

Japan's central government first planned the seven-kilometre (4.3-mile) sea dyke in the 1950s to reclaim a coastal wetland for rice cultivation, and later argued that it also served as a protective barrier against floods.

But environmentalists say that enclosing the wetland, a key habitat for migratory birds, damages it.

Similarly, commercial fishermen who trawl the bay outside the wetland argue that it provides important nutrients for ocean marine life such as seaweed as its mud is flushed into the sea with the daily ebb and flow of the tide.

Over the years fishermen staged sit-ins to try to prevent the dyke's construction, and in a 2008 district court ruling the government was ordered to keep open two of the dyke's drainage gates for five years.

On Monday the Fukuoka High Court upheld the decision, in the latest stage of the long-running battle.

Presiding Judge Hiroshi Koga said: "It is illegal for the state to infringe upon the fishing rights by keeping the gates shut," Japanese media reported.

"While the plaintiffs' fishing rights are greatly violated, the effect of the sea dyke against disasters is limited."

Outside the court supporters rejoiced, punched the air with their fists and shouted "banzai" (hurrah!), holding up banners reading "Victory in court" and "The agriculture and fisheries ministry condemned again".

The centre-left Democratic Party government that took power over a year ago has decried the public works habit that has also seen hundreds of dams and so-called bridges to nowhere built, pledging instead to put "people before concrete".

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Sabah wants progress but not at cost of natural heritage

The Star 7 Dec 10;

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is facing a heavy responsibility in balancing its thrust for economic growth and sustainable preservation of its natural heritage.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said economic considerations alone could not be used to exploit its rich natural resources.

He said Sabah was blessed with natural beauty and rich wildlife, dense forests and world class marine life and coral reef.

“We have a responsibility to ensure any decision on any exploitation of the state’s natural resources cannot be taken on economic grounds only,” he said when launching the Shell Malaysia sustainable development grants for NGOs here yesterday.

Masidi said the state must evaluate the environmental risks and ensure that the principle of balance was maintained to ensure environmental and social damage was prevented.

Masidi said the government was working to address the environmental and social issues arising from the rapid and fast development of the state.

“We believe that only by working with NGOs and corporate organisations will we be able to minimise the negative environmental and social impact and create economic opportunities for our locals,” he said.

Shell Malaysia chairman Anuar Taib announced that the company had increased its annual commitment of grants for sustainable development to RM500,000 from RM300,000.

He said the grants would be used to assist 13 non-governmental organisations for environmental conservation and sustainable livelihood projects in Malaysia.

Of the 13, seven were environmental conservation projects, five sustainable livelihood projects and the last a combination of both.

Three of the NGOs were carrying out projects in Sabah, four in Sarawak and another six in the peninsula.

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Graphic details of climate change for Latin America and the Caribbean

UNEP 6 Dec 10;

Cancun (Mexico), 6 December 2010 - The climate change challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean have been laid out in graphic detail in a new publication by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Using charts, graphs and maps, Vital Climate Change Graphics for Latin America and the Caribbean depicts the major signs of climate change in the region, its physical impacts (such as environmental damage and a rise in diseases), as well as calculating current levels of greenhouse gas emissions and possibilities for mitigation.

Among dozens of climate facts and figures, the report shows that the number of people in Latin America and the Caribbean affected by extreme temperatures, forest fires, droughts, storms and floods grew from 5 million in the 1970s to more than 40 million from 2000 to 2009. Overall, adverse weather conditions have cost the region more than US$40 billion in the last ten years. For Mexico the estimated annual cost of dealing with the effects of climate change will be 6.22% of current GDP net present value by 2100 . Such costs will intensify budget constraints across Latin America and the Caribbean and may complicate attempts to reduce poverty and to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

The report, which was produced in collaboration with the Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and UNEP's Polar Research Centre GRID-Arendal, also forecasts future climate scenarios for the region. Graphics show that by 2050, rises in the temperature of ocean surfaces will result in more frequent bleaching of coral reefs, with a negative impact on tourism and fishing.

Climate change has effects on health, not only through heat waves and waterborne diseases, but also as a result of the expansion of geographical areas conducive to the transmission of vector-borne diseases. The report shows that in 1970, only a small number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean were home to mosquitoes that transmit yellow fever, dengue fever and malaria, but that by 2002, the vast majority of the region was affected by these tropical diseases.

Although the contribution of Latin America and the Caribbean to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions represents only 8% of global emissions (excluding those related to land use change), the expected changes in climate during the present century are certain to have a significant impact on the region.

Drawing on historical analysis of variables such as temperature, precipitation and sea levels, Vital Climate Change Graphics for Latin America and the Caribbean outlines for decision makers, academics and the general public the effects and causes of these climate change phenomenon. The report shows that countries in the region will require major resources and assistance to reduce their vulnerability and enhance their resilience to the harmful impacts of climate change.

At the same time, the report highlights the growing need for regional coordination and sharing of best practices in defining sustainable policies, technologies and investment options to reduce GHG emissions, through expanding the sources of clean and renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency and adopting energy-saving measures.

With regard to the region's forest resources, the graphics show the need for rapid advances in reducing emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation, in order to reverse the prevailing negative trends and deal successfully with a key challenge to the region's prosperity by working to counteract the effects of climate change.

In the three main areas of the report - manifestations of climate change, effects of climate change and GHG emissions and mitigation measures - many countries in the region have already initiated concrete policies, investment strategies and solutions to deal with the challenge. These success stories and best practices must now be expanded and incorporated at the national and regional levels, in order to foster growth, job creation and sustainable development strategies to help combat poverty.

Key messages

* Any solution to climate change, as a global problem, must be based on the participation of all countries, with recognition of common and differentiated, responsibilities. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region will have to gradually make the transition to a sustainable development strategy that pursues a low-carbon path and promotes equity and social inclusion.

* Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole emitted fewer tons of CO2 per capita than the world average. However, when considering total emissions and including land-use change, LAC rates poorly compared to other regions with regard to emissions of CO2 equivalent per US$1 million of GDP. The region emits 1,152 tonnes of CO2 equivalent for every US$1 million of GDP compared to 481 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per US$ 1 million emitted by the OECD countries.

* The effects of climate change in the region are already significant (albeit with differences from one country to another), particularly in terms of the agricultural sector, the health of the population, the availability of water, tourism, urban infrastructure, and biodiversity and ecosystems.

* Latin America and the Caribbean has seen a recent increase in extreme climatic events, and with it a rise in the number of people affected. The estimated cost of damage from these extreme climate events in the last ten years exceeds US$40 billion.

* For Central America, estimates of the economic costs of climate change, accumulated up to 2100 , are equivalent to approximately 54% of the 2008 subregional GDP under scenario A2, and 32% of its 2008 GDP under scenario B2.

* At present, LAC has 1003 projects in various stages, within the framework of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The countries in the region with the greatest number of CDM projects are Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. The largest number of CDM projects (87% of the total) are in the areas of renewable energies and methane reduction.

* Between 2000 and 2007, the region received, from Official Development Assistance (ODA), approximately US$1.4 billion (in current dollars) to combat climate change.

* The importance of forests with regard to climate change lies in its great potential for mitigation. Panama, Bolivia and Paraguay are part of the UN-REDD programme that helps developing countries formulate and implement national REDD+ strategies. In addition, a number of countries in the region are carrying out conservation and forest management initiatives.

* Climate projections under the different emissions scenarios indicate that forms of production, distribution and consumption must be profoundly altered, in order to move towards economies with lower levels of CO2 emissions and greater social inclusion.

Notes to Editors

The full report - Vital Climate Change Graphics for Latin America and the Caribbean - can be downloaded from: http://www.grida.no/publications/vg/lac2

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Brazil Farmers Eye Forestry To Stem Climate Change

Inae Riveras PlanetArk 7 Dec 10;

Brazil's leading agriculture lobby is recommending that farmers in the world's emerging bread basket plant trees as a way to boost financial returns while offsetting carbon emissions, according to a report it released on Monday.

Parts of Brazil's agricultural sector have come under fierce criticism from the country's international competitors for allegedly expanding output at the cost of destroying native forests.

CNA, an influential farm lobby that represents over 1 million farmers, is investing 40 million reais ($23.7 million) to fund a more detailed, nine-year study that will propose technical solutions for farmers to protect the environment and raise their income.

The initiative may signal a gradual change in outlook in a sector that until recently has been slow to adapt to growing international demand for green products.

Planting and preserving trees not only helps rebuild environmentally fragile rural properties but also allows farmers to diversify their business and reduce market-related risks, the report on the Biomes Project said.

"We aim to correct possible mistakes (made by farmers), educate them and make sustainable research (more available)," Katia Abreu, CNA president, told Reuters before traveling to present the project to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Mexico.

"Our idea is to set models adapted to each biome that could serve as a guide for farmers to adapt their properties, mainly medium and small ones, who don't have money to hire their own consultants," said Abreu, who is a senator and a farmer.

The Biomes project is being developed in cooperation with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp (Embrapa).

LEGAL REFORM

The study coincides with a fierce public debate over a bill in Congress to overhaul Brazil's 1965 forestry code. If approved, it would give amnesty to farmers fined for deforesting beyond current limitations. It could also cut the amount of forest land owners would be required to conserve.

A new forestry model for farmers would be a major contribution to ensure long-term sustainability of Brazil's agriculture, Abreu said.

Brazil has nearly 5.2 million rural properties, the majority of which are owned by small-scale farmers.

The South American giant is a major producer of agricultural commodities and also home to the world's largest rainforest and other biologically diverse ecosystems.

The Amazon forest is seen as a vital global climate regulator because of the vast amount of carbon and fresh water that it stores. It is threatened mainly by loggers and cattle ranchers.

Agricultural expansion elsewhere in the country may also fuel deforestation by drawing displaced farmers and ranchers into the forest in search of cheaper land, environmentalists say.

Research on two biomes -- the Atlantic rainforest and savannas -- started earlier this year, and a third one will begin in 2011, Embrapa said.

(Editing by Raymond Colitt and Jim Marshall)

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