New housing guidelines developed for Tianjin Eco-city

East Asia Bureau Chief Maria Siow Channel NewsAsia 25 Jan 11;

TIANJIN, China: New housing guidelines have been developed for the Tianjin Eco-city, which is a joint collaboration between China and Singapore.

Under the new framework, at least 20 per cent of residential units will be set aside for public housing.

On a visit Tianjin, Singapore's Minister for National Development, Mah Bow Tan, said the new model of public housing will tap on Singapore's housing experience.

These include home ownership, with emphasis on affordability, subsidies for eligible families, and centralised management and maintenance of housing estates.

The construction of the first public housing project in the Eco-city is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

Apart from energy saving features, it will include community malls and common areas for social integration.

Mr Mah said: "What we would like to see in the Tianjin Eco-city is not just physical development, not just environmental development, in terms of energy efficiency, but in terms of the social harmony aspect.

"I think this is what will make Tianjin Eco-city stand out from the many other eco-cities that are developed not just in China but also in other parts of the world."

The city's water management will also be based on the Singapore experience.

It was recently announced that Singapore would set up a Ministerial Committee on the Tianjin Eco-city Project.

Mr Mah said this would strengthen and coordinate efforts among various ministries.

He said: "I think it is important to renew the signal of commitment to this project and to make sure that the next phase of development will go beyond the traditional hardware aspects, such as buildings, roads, and so on, into the softer - not necessarily easier - parts of the project."

Mr Mah also witnessed the signing of agreements to develop an integrated logistics distribution centre, water treatment projects, and an innovation centre.

Even though the development of the start-up area is said to be well on track, analysts have expressed concerns that getting people to move in will be highly dependent on the completion of the public transport network, as well as the creation of jobs.

- CNA/ms

Tianjin Eco-City approves transport masterplan
Grace Ng Straits Times 26 Jan 11;

BEIJING: The Tianjin Eco-City has kicked off the new year with newly revamped plans for a green transport system, as well as fresh progress in its goal to create a more harmonious social environment.

It has approved a new masterplan to combine rail and tram services in a transport system aimed at making 'green' trips a predominant way of life for 350,000 residents in the 30 sq km city.

Begun about two years ago and expected to be completed in 10 to 15 years, the project is jointly developed by China and Singapore.

The joint venture has also created two frameworks - one for public housing policy and another for waste water management - that draw on Singapore's experience in these areas.

These fit into the joint venture's progress from rapid construction of buildings and infrastructure to the intangible aspects of creating a sustainable city, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told reporters during a visit to the 4 sq km start-up area yesterday.

'The Tianjin Eco-City is not just (about) the physical development or... energy efficiency,' he noted. 'It is also the 'social harmony' aspect that I think will make it stand out from the other eco-cities being developed, not just in China but also in other parts of the world.'

Mr Mah was speaking after visiting the showflat for a new 569-unit public housing estate, as well as other developments such as a waste water treatment area and a neighbouring industrial park.

The 60 sq m units, which are slightly smaller than three-bedroom Housing Board flats, are 'an adaptation of the Singapore model to the needs of young families here', said Mr Mah.

They feature smaller kitchens but bigger bathrooms compared with Singapore flats, and only lower-income, married couples are eligible to buy them.

Buyers must live in their flat for a minimum period before they can sell it to other eligible applicants. Such a system is unprecedented in China, where resale public housing units join the stock of private units and can be sold to richer people.

The completed eco-city is expected to have about 25,000 public housing units, equivalent to 'one Toa Payoh, if you reference it to Singapore', Mr Mah said.

He was accompanied by five other ministers, including Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua and Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu. They are part of a new ministerial committee set up to enhance support and coordination for the eco-city, and were here on a three-day trip ending today.

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Malaysia releases GM mosquitoes in landmark trial

Sin Chew Jit Poh 26 Jan 11;

KUALA LUMPUR, Wednesday 26 January 2011 (AFP) - Malaysia has released 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes designed to combat dengue fever, in a landmark trial slammed Wednesday by environmentalists who say the experiment is unsafe.

In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, about 6,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released at an uninhabited site in the central state of Pahang, the government-run Institute of Medical Research (IMR) said.

The IMR, which was tasked with carrying out the trial, said the experiment was conducted on December 21 to "study the dispersal and longevity of these mosquitoes in the field".

"The experiment was successfully concluded on January 5, 2011," the institute said in a statement dated Tuesday, adding that no further releases are planned until the trial results are analysed.

The insects in the experiment have been engineered so that their offspring quickly die, curbing the growth of the population in a technique researchers hope could eventually eradicate the dengue mosquito altogether.

Females of the Aedes species are responsible for spreading dengue, a deadly disease which killed at least 134 people last year in Malaysia alone.

The trial has sparked widespread concern among environmental groups and non-government organisations (NGOs), and had been postponed due to their protests as well as unfavourable weather conditions.

"I am surprised that they did this without prior announcement given the high level of concerns raised not just from the NGOs but also scientists and the local residents," said researcher Lim Li Ching from Third World Network.

The network is part of 29 public health and environmental groups which have repeatedly demanded the government cancel the trial, saying it was risky and could lead to unintended consequences.

"We don't agree with this trial that has been conducted in such an untransparent way. There are many questions and not enough research has been done on the full consequences of this experiment," she told AFP.

Critics have also said that too little is known about the Aedes mosquito, and how the genetically modified insects would interact with their cousins in the wild.

Authorities have dismissed the fears and said the trial would be harmless as the GM mosquitoes can live for only a few days.

Dengue infection leads to a sudden onset of fever with severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, and rashes, which can lead to death if left untreated.

Malaysia releases lab mosquitoes to fight dengue
Julia Zappei, Associated Press Yahoo News 26 Jan 11;

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia released about 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes into a forest in the first experiment of its kind in Asia aimed at curbing dengue fever, officials said Wednesday.

The field test is meant to pave the way for the use of genetically engineered Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to mate with females and produce no offspring or ones with shorter lives, thus curtailing the mosquito population. Only female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread dengue fever, which killed 134 people in Malaysia last year.

A similar trial in the Cayman Islands last year — the first time genetically modified mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild after years of laboratory experiments and hypothetical calculations — resulted in a dramatic drop in the mosquito population in a small area studied by researchers.

The plan has sparked criticism by some Malaysian environmentalists, who fear it might have unforeseen consequences, such as the inadvertent creation of uncontrollable mutated mosquitoes. Critics also say such plans could leave a vacuum in the ecosystem that is then filled by another insect species, potentially introducing new diseases.

Government authorities have tried to allay the concerns by saying they are conducting small-scale research and will not rush into any widespread release of mosquitoes.

The Malaysian government-run Institute for Medical Research said it released about 6,000 sterile male lab mosquitoes in an uninhabited forest area in eastern Malaysia on Dec. 21. Another 6,000 wild male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were also placed in the area for scientific comparison, it said in a statement.

The institute provided few details of the experiment, but said it was "successfully" concluded Jan. 5, and that all the mosquitoes were killed with insecticide. It said it is not planning to release any more mosquitoes until it analyzes the results.

It was the first such trial in Asia, an official in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements.

Duane Gubler, a professor specializing in infectious diseases at Singapore's Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School who was not involved with the research, said the plan is likely to be effective in fighting dengue if it is combined with other biological control methods.

"We need new tools. Nothing we've done in the past 40 years has had an impact" on dengue, Gubler told the AP.

Using genetically altered sterile male insects against fruit flies and other flies that cause damage in cattle has been successful in places like the United States, Gubler said. He added that environmentalists should not be concerned, because the genetically modified mosquitoes would die quickly.

In the Cayman Islands, genetically altered sterile male mosquitoes were also set loose by scientists in a 40-acre (16-hectare) region between May and October last year. By August, mosquito numbers in that area dropped by 80 percent compared with a neighboring area where no sterile mosquitoes were released.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said last year the project was an "innovative" way to fight dengue after a lack of success in campaigns urging Malaysians to keep neighborhoods free of stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed.

The number of dengue-linked deaths in Malaysia increased 52 percent last year from 88 in 2009. The total dengue infections rose 11 percent from 2009 to more than 46,000 cases last year.

Dengue fever is common in Asia and Latin America. Symptoms include high fever, joint pains and nausea, but in severe cases, it can lead to internal bleeding, circulatory shutdown and death. There is no known cure or vaccine.

Associated Press writer Sean Yoong contributed to this report.

Malaysia releases GM mosquitoes in landmark trial
Yahoo News 26 Jan 11;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia has released 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes designed to combat dengue fever, in a landmark trial slammed Wednesday by environmentalists who say the experiment is unsafe.

In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, about 6,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were released at an uninhabited site in the central state of Pahang, the government-run Institute of Medical Research (IMR) said.

The IMR, which was tasked with carrying out the trial, said the experiment was conducted on December 21 to "study the dispersal and longevity of these mosquitoes in the field".

"The experiment was successfully concluded on January 5, 2011," the institute said in a statement dated Tuesday, adding that no further releases are planned until the trial results are analysed.

The insects in the experiment have been engineered so that their offspring quickly die, curbing the growth of the population in a technique researchers hope could eventually eradicate the dengue mosquito altogether.

Females of the Aedes species are responsible for spreading dengue, a deadly disease which killed at least 134 people last year in Malaysia alone.

The trial has sparked widespread concern among environmental groups and non-government organisations (NGOs), and had been postponed due to their protests as well as unfavourable weather conditions.

"I am surprised that they did this without prior announcement given the high level of concerns raised not just from the NGOs but also scientists and the local residents," said researcher Lim Li Ching from Third World Network.

The network is part of 29 public health and environmental groups which have repeatedly demanded the government cancel the trial, saying it was risky and could lead to unintended consequences.

"We don't agree with this trial that has been conducted in such an untransparent way. There are many questions and not enough research has been done on the full consequences of this experiment," she told AFP.

Critics have also said that too little is known about the Aedes mosquito, and how the genetically modified insects would interact with their cousins in the wild.

Authorities have dismissed the fears and said the trial would be harmless as the GM mosquitoes can live for only a few days.

Dengue infection leads to a sudden onset of fever with severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, and rashes, which can lead to death if left untreated.

Read more!

Tiger numbers could triple if large-scale landscapes protected: study

WWF 25 Jan 11;

Asia's tiger reserves could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that allow for connectivity between core breeding sites, a new paper from some of the world’s leading conservation scientists finds.

The study, co-authored by WWF scientists, is the first assessment of the political commitment made by all 13 tiger range countries at November’s historic tiger summit to double the tiger population across Asia by 2022.

“A Landscape-Based Conservation Strategy to Double the Wild Tiger Population” in the current issue of Conservation Letters, finds that the commitment to double tiger numbers is not only possible, but can be exceeded. However, it will take a global effort to ensure that core breeding reserves are maintained and connected via habitat corridors.

“In the midst of a crisis, it’s tempting to circle the wagons and only protect a limited number of core protected areas, but we can and should do better,” said Dr. Eric Dinerstein, Chief Scientist at WWF and a co-author of the study.

“We absolutely need to stop the bleeding, the poaching of tigers and their prey in core breeding areas, but we need to go much further and secure larger tiger landscapes before it is too late.”

Wild tiger numbers have declined from about 100,000 in the early 1900s to as few as 3,200 today due to poaching of tigers and their prey, habitat destruction and human/tiger conflict. Most of the remaining tigers are scattered in small, isolated pockets across their range in 13 Asian countries.

“Tiger conservation is the face of biodiversity conservation and competent sustainable land-use management at the landscape level,” said study co-author Dr. John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

“By saving the tiger we save all the plants and animals that live under the tiger’s umbrella.”

Past examples show that an increase in tiger numbers is possible

The authors found that the 20 priority tiger conservation landscapes with the highest probability of long-term tiger survival could support more than 10,500 tigers, including about 3,400 breeding females. They also looked at historical examples to prove that a doubling or tripling is possible using large landscapes:

* In the jungles of lowland Nepal, tiger numbers crashed during civil conflict from 2002 to 2006. However, tigers did not disappear because Nepal and India’s tiger reserves are linked by forest corridors, which likely allowed for replenishment from India;
* In the Russian Far East tigers, almost disappeared in the 1940s but the region was re-populated by tigers moving in from northeastern China. Recently designated habitat corridors across the Sino-Russia border are helping tigers re-establish themselves in China’s Changbaishan mountains, where they had disappeared in the 1990s.
* In India’s Nagarahole National Park, tiger numbers are “healthy and resilient” because the park is connected to other reserves in the region. Tigers number almost 300 in this large landscape of connected parks and reserves.

And population declines are also possible without connectivity between habitats

In contrast, the authors point to two of India’s premier tiger reserves to show how lack of connectivity can preclude tiger population recovery. Tigers disappeared from Sariska and Panna tiger reserves in 2005 and 2009 due to poaching and were not able to re-colonize because these reserves are not connected to other reserves through habitat corridors. Consequently, wild tigers had to be translocated into these reserves to attempt to re-establish populations.

Besides poaching and habitat loss, the $7.5 trillion in infrastructure projects like roads, dams and mines that will be invested in Asia over the next decade threatens tiger landscapes. A focus only on core sites and protected areas like reserves, instead of larger landscapes, could be seen by developers and politicians as a green light to move forward with harmful infrastructure projects outside of core sites.

“Without strong countervailing pressures, short-term economic gains will inevitably trump protection of the critical ecosystems necessary for sustainable development,” said Keshav Varma, Program Director of the Global Tiger Initiative at the World Bank.

The authors insist that conservationists and governments must be involved in helping design infrastructure projects to mitigate their impacts on tigers both inside core sites and in current and potential forest corridors. A recently built oil depot in India’s Terai Arc, for example, severed a vital elephant and tiger corridor. Conservationists are now in litigation to remove the depot. Early intervention could have avoided this.

"Following the St. Petersburg Declaration, Nepal has committed to the goal of doubling wild tiger numbers across our country by 2022,” said Deepak Bohara, Nepal’s Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation.

“This analysis shows that it can be done, not just in Nepal, but, if done right with careful study and planning, across the entire tiger range. It is also worth noting that the tiger conservation provides carbon credits, protects water resources, and complements community development efforts. Thus, it is important to promote regional cooperation to maintain a healthy tiger corridor between different reserves.”

Read more!

Gujarat whale shark campaign

Mangrol adopts whale shark as mascot
The Times of India 25 Jan 11;

AHMEDABAD/MANGROL: Mangrol, a small fishing town situated along Gujarat coast, now has whale shark as its mascot. The announcement was made during the Whale Shark Day celebrations on Tuesday, marking the culmination of six years of successful Save The Whale Shark campaign.

Mangrol is the seventh town in Gujarat to have adopted whale shark as a city mascot. Earlier, Porbandar, Diu, Okha, Ahmedabad, Veraval and Dwarka had adopted the whale shark as their official mascot.

The whale shark campaign, launched in January 2004, is an initiative of Gujarat forest department and Wildlife Trust of India-International Fund for Animal Welfare (WTI-IFAW). The campaign is supported by Tata Chemicals Limited.

The species was previously hunted in hundreds in Gujarat for their liver oil which is used to water-proof boats, and the by-products including meat and fins were exported. The whale shark is now safe on the shores of Gujarat because of the fishing community, the Indian Coast Guard, the local people and popular spiritual leader Morari Bapu.

"Since the launch of the campaign, over 240 whale sharks accidentally caught in the fishing nets were freed by the people," said Anita Karn, DCF, Junagadh.

The Whale Shark Day celebrations kicked off with a rally by hundreds of children. A 40-feet long inflatable whale shark was taken from Parmeshwar Vidyalaya to the venue of the event at Mangrol. The event was chaired by chief conservator of forests S K Chaturvedi and was attended by MLA Rajgi Jatwa among others.

Chaturvedi said, "The city of Mangrol has been closely associated with whale shark conservation for the last four years. The fisher folk have carried out many rescues. It is a matter of great pride that they are now taking their dedication to the next level by officially adopting the Vhali."

On March 12, 2005, the postal department of Gujarat came out with a special whale shark postal cover and TCL awarded the BNHS Green Governance award on November 10, 2005, for the whale shark campaign.

Rajbir Singh Saini, head administration, TCL, said, "Over the years, the Whale Shark Conservation Project has grown in leaps and bounds. TCL is committed to saving the flora and fauna."

The campaign`s overwhelming success lay in its multiple strategic approach which connected human emotions to socio-cultural beliefs. Morari Bapu established a comparison of the whale shark to a daughter returning home to give birth. This message was spread across the coastal towns through street plays and awareness campaigns and proved instrumental in the success of the project.

"There is no other species in India that has a `day` dedicated to it, and no other species, let alone a fish, has been adopted by so many cities as their mascot," said Rahul Kaul, senior director at WTI. "The campaign has covered one aspect of whale shark conservation in India. Now, the focus will be on generating scientific information on the species for its conservation," he added. The forest department, WTI-IFAW and TCL are currently undertaking scientific studies on whale sharks.

Read more!

Birds vanishing in the Philippines

Cecil Morella Yahoo News 25 Jan 11;

CANDABA, Philippines (AFP) – The number of birds flying south to important wintering grounds in the Philippines has fallen sharply this year, with experts saying the dramatic demise of wetlands and hunting are to blame.

Despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass, some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the tropical islands have been completely absent, said Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen.

"The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in constant and dramatic decline," Jensen, who advises the Philippine government on species conservation, told AFP.

"Hence the urgent need to establish real and well-managed, hunting-free waterbird sanctuaries along the migratory flyways."

Candaba, a swamp two hours' drive north of Manila that has long been used as a pit stop by hundreds of species as they fly staggering distances between the Arctic Circle and Australia, appears emblematic of the downfall.

Jensen said that bird watchers routinely counted 100,000 ducks at Candaba in the 1980s as they stopped there for a rest while traversing the East Asian-Australasian flyway.

But volunteers recorded just 8,725 waterbirds and 41 species during the annual census last weekend, Wild Bird Club of the Philippines president Michael Lu told AFP at Candaba at the end of the count.

Northern pintails, common pochards, and green-winged teals were absent, and just one tufted duck was seen, while numbers for northern shovellers shrank and only garganeys were easily seen along with resident Philippine ducks.

Lu said the number of waterbirds counted at Candaba was down from more than 11,000 last year.

"The main threat is hunting," said Lu, amid occasional loud bangs that were apparently gunfire or firecrackers set off by local residents seeking to flush out the birds.

But Lu also pointed to the dramatic shrinkage in the size of the swamp over the past 50 years as the region was converted into farmland, mainly rice fields.

The swamp two generations ago covered 27,000 hectares (66,690 acres), but it is now just 77 hectares -- or less than one percent of its original size -- according to figures provided by Lu, Jensen and the local government.

Hunters, farmers, and watersports also threaten Paoay Lake, another wild bird habitat in the far north of the Philippines that is close to southern China.

The lake lacks surface plant life after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered the water lilies removed so he could jetski from his lakeside mansion, while a former local official used to shoot ducks there, Lu said.

Since the water lily purge, water levels have continued to drop as farmers siphoned off water to irrigate farmland, while poor residents around the lake cut down trees, which they burnt to sell as charcoal, local bird watchers said.

The government has banned hunting of ducks on the lake, but things could still get worse with plans for a wakeboarding park, Lu said.

In the annual Paoay bird census this month, fewer than 700 waterbirds were counted compared with more than a thousand the previous year, said Elsie Nolasco, an official at the local environment ministry office.

The scenarios at the Paoay and Candaba wetlands are a microcosm of the general state around Asia, said Carlo Custodio, head of the coastal and marine management office at the Philippines' environment ministry.

"If you look down the coasts from China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and down to Australia, you can see fast economic development, especially in China," Custodio told AFP.

"In the course of this development, habitats are destroyed as big segments of the populations move to the coasts. This also increases the chances that the birds will be hunted."

Environment group Wetlands International reported last year that waterbird populations in Asia were shrinking at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world because their habitats were being destroyed.

"The combination of rapid economical growth and weak conservation efforts (in Asia) appears to be lethal," Wetlands International said.

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Southeast Asia facing new 'health crisis'

Rachel O'Brien Google News 25 Jan 11;

BANGKOK — Southeast Asia's 600 million people are facing a raft of new health challenges as the disaster-prone region undergoes some of the world's fastest social change, medical papers published Tuesday said.

"A health crisis is transpiring right before our eyes," warned a paper in the series, published by The Lancet journal, which said chronic diseases such as cancer now account for 60 percent of deaths in the region.

It was also dubbed a "hotspot" for emerging and difficult-to-control infectious diseases, with outbreaks in avian flu fuelling fears about the possibility of new pandemics spreading from Southeast Asia.

"The pace of demographic change in the region is one of the fastest worldwide, whether it is due to population ageing, fertility decline, or rural to urban migration," said the papers.

"As elsewhere, the disease burden continues to shift from infectious to chronic diseases, yet increased urban population density has created concerns about emerging infectious diseases."

The reports also point to Southeast Asia being one of the world's most disaster-prone regions, with the environment responsible for up to a quarter of all deaths in an area regularly hit by monsoons and typhoons.

Weather phenomena such as El Nino also "intensify the annual variation of the hot and wet climate, leading to droughts, floods and the occurrence of infectious diseases such as malaria and cholera," said one of the papers.

"Climate change could exacerbate the spread of emerging infectious diseases in the region, especially vector-borne diseases linked to rises in temperature and rainfall," such as dengue, it added.

Deforestation and other human encroachment on wildlife habitats were said to heighten the potential for germs to cross species barriers, as they increase interactions between wildlife, humans and livestock.

Controlling these diseases is difficult given the variety of economies and health systems across the nations analysed: Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

City state Singapore, for example, has a gross domestic product per head of $37,500, while in largely rural Laos the equivalent figure is $890.

Political tensions within and between countries "have the potential to further hinder control" of emerging infections, said the papers, which called for improved surveillance of these health threats across the region.

They also called for urgent action to tackle Southeast Asia's "epidemic of non-communicable disease", including heart disease, stemming from environmental factors promoting tobacco use, unhealthy diet and inadequate physical activity.

"Unless nations recognise the problem and take appropriate action, premature death and disability will continue, hindering development where development is needed most."

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Indonesian government urged to declare extreme weather national disaster

Antara 25 Jan 11;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The People`s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (Kiara) has asked the government to declare the current extreme weather conditions a national disaster as they were preventing thousands of Indonesian fishermen from making their living.

"There are 53 districts and cities in Indonesia which have been impacted by the present extreme weather conditions and 550,000 people are being victimized. Looking at the facts, we urge the government to declare present extreme weather conditions a national disaster," Kiara Secretary General M Riza Damanik said here on Tuesday.

Riza also criticized the divergence between the data collected by Kiara and those issued Marine and Fisheries Ministry where the latter stated extreme weather had impacted 41 districts and cities in Indonesia and a total of 473,983 people.

"The ministry fails to count the damage done in several areas. In Jakarta province, for example, the ministry only studies areas such as Muara Angke and Thousand Islands while there are also other areas like Cilincing, Marunda and Kali Baru where the fishermen cannot go to the sea due to bad weather," Riza said.

Meanwhile Secretary to an NGO called Coalition of Indonesian Traditional Fishermen (KNTI) Dedy Ramanta said the government was slow in handling the problem faced by fishermen.

He suggested the government to set up an insurance system for Indonesian fishermen to help them survive when harsh conditions happened. He also said the government must accurately note the number of fishermen impacted by extreme weather in Indonesia. Such action was needed to ensure that aid was given to the right persons, he said.

Extreme weather in Indonesia is predicted to last until April 2011.

Fishers’ Empty Nets a Indonesia Disaster: Activists
Elisabeth Oktofani Jakarta Globe 26 Jan 11;

Environmental activists on Tuesday called on the Indonesian government to declare the inability of fishing families nationwide to earn a living because of months of bad weather a national disaster.

“The national disaster status is crucial because it would smoothen the coordination process between the central government and the regional government for the distribution of relief aid,” said Riza Damanik, the secretary general of the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara).

Raising the current social disaster status to national disaster would allow the state to provide more relief assistance to the affected fishermen.

“The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency [BMKG] has said the bad weather will last at least until April,” Riza said.

Earlier, the Social Affairs Ministry had said that to help nearly 474,000 fishermen — and their families — whose livelihoods have been affected, the maritime affairs and fisheries minister, Fadel Muhammad, had asked district heads and governors to dip into rice reserves and funds from the Social Affairs Ministry.

Salim Segaf Al Jufri, the social affairs minister, said his ministry had already distributed about Rp 540 billion ($60 million) in development funds to regional governments to help the fishermen and their families.

However, environmental watchdogs say this isn’t enough, arguing that the government first has to get its numbers right.

Selamet Daryoni, the director of urban environment at the Indonesian Green Institute, questioned the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries’ data on the number of fishermen.

“The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, for instance, has only listed 3,084 fishermen in the Thousand Islands and Muara Angke [in Jakarta],” Slamet said. But he added there were other fishing villages in Jakarta, with more than 6,000 fishermen in places such as Marunda, Muara Baru, Kali Baru, Cilincing, Muara Tawar and Kamal Muara.

“If more than 6,000 fishermen living only 20 kilometers from the Presidential Palace are ignored by the government, what about the other fishermen in other parts of Indonesia?” he said.

The government’s mistakes in this regard, Slamet suggested, should not be tolerated. Oversights could have disastrous effects on the lives of thousands of citizens, he said.

Riza concurred, adding that many more fishing families were suffering than the government suggested. He said the actual number of fishermen across the country who had been unable to catch fish in the past months was far larger than what the state had estimated.

He said that at least 550,000 fishermen in 53 districts and municipalities across the archipelago had been affected by freakish weather conditions.

“At the moment the government only provides 13,721 tons of rice every two weeks,” he said, adding that more was needed.

Riza also said inaccurate data would influence the kind and amount of aid the government would provide.

“The government needs to do a lot more to help out more than 550,000 fishermen and women during bad weather conditions,” said Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, the coordinator of the Alliance for Prosperous Villages.

Dedy Ramanta, the national secretary of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Association (KNTI), criticized the government for only reacting to deteriorating conditions and not preparing a long-term strategy to deal with the effects of climate change, especially for fishermen whose livelihood options are limited.

“The government needs to implement an insurance program and also give capital assistance so they can build small businesses,” he added.

Tiharom, 35, a traditional fisherman from Marunda in North Jakarta, said that in order to feed his family, he was now making sandals and doormats from garment industry waste.

He said that as a fisherman he could earn up to Rp 80,000 in one outing, enough to feed his family of six.

“However, now that the bad weather has really stopped me from going out to sea, I am trying to build a small business by turning garment waste into strong ropes and then producing sandals and doormats,” he said.

However, supply of materials and marketing posed serious problems, he added.

“I am not sure if this job will go anywhere or whether it will just keep me busy during the bad weather,” he said.

Read more!

Climate ‘driver of extinction’

The University of New South Wales Science Alert 26 Jan 11

Climate change this century is expected to place substantial strain on the integrity and survival of some of the world's biologically important conservation regions, with most experiencing monthly climate conditions that were considered extreme in the recent past, says a new study.

Within the next 60 years, almost all of the Global 200 "ecoregions" – those selected for priority conservation for their irreplaceability or distinctiveness - will experience extreme monthly temperatures with a local warming of up to 2 °C, the study has found.

Tropical and subtropical ecoregions - including some in northern Australia - and mangroves face extreme conditions earliest, with those in Africa and South America thought to be particularly vulnerable to even relatively small temperature increases, according to a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study team, led by Dr Linda Beaumont of Macquarie University, includes UNSW's Professor Andy Pitman, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science.

They found that Amazon rainforests are vulnerable to reduced rainfall and higher temperatures but, in contrast, few ecoregions within boreal forests and tundra biomes will experience such extremes this century.

The study used actual climate records between 1961 and 1990 as a baseline and looked at projections of climate change through to 2070.

"Biodiversity and the maintenance of associated ecosystem goods and services are vital for human well-being, yet despite increases in conservation activity, the loss of biodiversity continues," the report says.

"Although habitat degradation, fragmentation and destruction, over-exploitation and invasive species have driven recent biodiversity loss, climate change is projected to be a major driver of extinction throughout the 21st century, both directly and via synergies with other stressors."

Ultimately, the ability of species and ecosystems to respond positively to climate change will depend on the capacity of species to rapidly adapt or to disperse to other habitats and the natural resilience of biological systems to such changes, it says. But those responses will also depend on pressures due to human activity and the extent to which future climate regimes present conditions beyond those previously experienced.

Deforestation of mangroves is occurring at a rate of 1 to 2 per cent a year, for example, with sea-level rises threatening up to 15 per cent of the world's mangroves this century: but the study found that mangroves require only a small rise in local temperatures of less than 1.3 °C for monthly climatic conditions to become extreme and expose the trees to heat stress.

"The sustainability and protection of the Global 200 would be of immense value to conservation efforts worldwide because of their richness in endemic species, high taxonomic uniqueness, unique ecological or evolutionary phenomena, global rarity and their representation of biomes.

"Most of them, however, are already threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, with 147 of 185 terrestrial and freshwater regions being classified as either vulnerable or critically endangered.

"Exposure of these ecoregions to significant climate change—in particular, extreme or novel conditions—will further undermine efforts to protect them. The identification of those ecoregions that in the future may commonly experience climate patterns that would be considered 'extreme' could lead to reprioritization of conservation efforts."

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Polar bear's epic nine day swim in search of sea ice

Ella Davies BBC News 25 Jan 11;

A polar bear swam continuously for over nine days, covering 687km (426 miles), a new study has revealed.

Scientists studying bears around the Beaufort sea, north of Alaska, claim this endurance feat could be a result of climate change.

Polar bears are known to swim between land and sea ice floes to hunt seals.

But the researchers say that increased sea ice melts push polar bears to swim greater distances, risking their own health and future generations.

In their findings, published in Polar Biology, researchers from the US Geological Survey reveal the first evidence of long distance swimming by polar bears (Ursus maritimus).

"This bear swam continuously for 232 hours and 687 km and through waters that were 2-6 degrees C," says research zoologist George M. Durner.

"We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold. It is truly an amazing feat."

Although bears have been observed in open water in the past, this is the first time one's entire journey has been followed.

By fitting a GPS collar to a female bear, researchers were able to accurately plot its movements for two months as it sought out hunting grounds.

The scientists were able to determine when the bear was in the water by the collar data and a temperature logger implanted beneath the bear's skin.

The study shows that this epic journey came at a very high cost to the bear.

"This individual lost 22% of her body fat in two months and her yearling cub," says Mr Durner.

"It was simply more energetically costly for the yearling than the adult to make this long distance swim," he explains.

Mr Durner tells the BBC that conditions in the Beaufort sea have become increasingly difficult for polar bears.

"In prior decades, before 1995, low-concentration sea ice persisted during summers over the continental shelf in the Beaufort Sea."

"This means that the distances, and costs to bears, to swim between isolated ice floes or between sea ice and land was relatively small."

"The extensive summer melt that appears to be typical now in the Beaufort Sea has likely increased the cost of swimming by polar bears."

Polar bears live within the Arctic circle and eat a calorie-rich diet of ringed seals (Pusa hispida) to survive the frozen conditions.

The bears hunt their prey on frozen sea ice: a habitat that changes according to temperature.

"This dependency on sea ice potentially makes polar bears one of the most at-risk large mammals to climate change," says Mr Durner.

The IUCN red list identifies polar bears as a vulnerable species, citing global climate change as a "substantial threat" to their habitat.

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Atlantic Weather May Be Key Culprit In Fish Decline

Christopher Joyce NPR 25 Jan 11;

The striped bass is in trouble again.

During the 1980s, wildlife managers said these big, full-bodied fish — favorites of anglers along the East Coast — were overfished. So they laid down severe catch limits. The population recovered, and fishing resumed in what is considered one of conservation's great success stories.

But now catches are down again, and some biologists say the problem may not be overfishing this time: It could be the weather.

Brad Burns, who started fishing for striped bass in 1960, says he and his fellow anglers, Stripers Forever, are singing the blues about striped bass.

"What we hear from people that go striped bass fishing — the general trend very decidedly is down," Burns says.

Stripers live in the ocean as well as in estuaries and some rivers. Burns says members have been reporting fewer fish for the past five years. As for the cause?

"Well I don't know," he says, "and I don't know that anybody does."

A New Theory On Fish Levels

But Bob Wood thinks he might. Wood is a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He studies his fish in a boxy little building on the Maryland shore of the Chesapeake Bay. In the semi-darkness, you can make out several vats with bubbling oxygen hoses. Each vat is home to striped bass or white perch, two species that spawn in the bay. This is where Wood's team studies the fish to figure out why striper numbers go up and down.

They thought they had the 1980s crash figured out: "The striped bass crashed because of overfishing," says Wood, "and then it recovered because we closed the fishery."

But now Wood has a new idea that's just taking shape. "This research, at first glance, seems to call that into question," he says.

This idea focuses not so much on fish but on the weather, and especially the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or the AMO. The AMO is a mashup of wind and ocean currents, a flip-flop that happens every 35 years or so in the North Atlantic.

"Circulation changes in a way that warms the entire basin," Wood explains. "And you can imagine if you warm the entire North Atlantic basin, you're changing the weather because the air and circulation patterns above the ocean are affected."

Ed Martino, a fisheries scientist who works with Wood at NOAA, says when the AMO shift happens, it affects the local weather along the Atlantic Coast.

"You are talking about differences in temperature and precipitation, and therefore river flow or salinity, ultimately all affecting the base of the food chain," says Martino. "It's the way that the climate affects the microscopic plankton." Plankton are tiny plants and animals in the water, and that's what young stripers eat.

Understanding The Weather-Fish Relationship

Here's how Wood and his team think the AMO is messing with fish food. When it's in a warm phase, springtime along the East Coast actually tends to be wet and cool — more rain, more water, more food. In the years following that phase, striper numbers tend to go up. Then the AMO flips — drier springs, less rain, less food. After a lag, it looks like striper numbers start to decline.

Wood says the past 100 years of fishing records show that very trend. And currently?

"It hasn't been so good in say the last five years," Wood says. "And it just so happens this is also the time when the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation seems to be switching phase."

Wood suspects it's switching into a "bad for stripers" phase, and he thinks it was also a down cycle that caused the striper crash in the 1980s. When that cycle ended, stripers recovered — not just owing to the fishing limits but because the weather bcame more favorable.

Janet Nye, who studies fish stocks for the Environmental Protection Agency, thinks this research could help fisheries managers.

"We would be able to say, 'OK, for the next 35 years or so we're pretty certain that the AMO is going to be more positive or warm,' and we would be able to say, 'These are the fish that respond favorably to that — you might be able to fish those more,' " she says.

Conversely, fish less in a down cycle, Wood says. "If we know that there is this cycle coming up," he says, "a trend that we are beginning to enter, we can keep that in our heads as we set limits."

If Wood's research is correct, it may take tougher catch limits to bring striper numbers back up again.

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La Nina weather pattern to last for months: UN agency

Yahoo News 25 Jan 11;

GENEVA (AFP) – The weather pattern behind floods and extreme conditions in Australia, Asia, Africa and South America is one of the strongest ever and could last for four more months, the UN weather agency said Tuesday.

"In atmospheric terms it has to be termed one of the strongest ever La Nina episodes," said Rupa Kumar Kolli, head of world climate services at the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

"The most important impacts we have witnessed in recent months have been the devastating floods in Australia," he told journalists.

The Geneva-based WMO said in its latest update that "a significant La Nina episode" was continuing in the tropical Pacific Ocean "with effects extending onto adjacent ocean basins."

All scientific predictions forecast "a continuation of the current La Nina for at least the next two to four months," it added, although the climate pattern was likely to progressively weaken over that period.

"Even if we expect La Nina to weaken over the next few months, the impacts are likely to continue," Kumar Kolli cautioned.

Apart from flooding in Australia and wetter weather in western Pacific, the WMO is linking La Nina to wetter than normal conditions in southern Africa, drought in east Africa and the western seaboard of South America.

Kumar Kolli also drew a direct link with deadly landslides in Brazil and flooding in Sri Lanka for the first time even though they were "atypical impacts" of the disruptive weather pattern.

La Nina atmospheric currents that emerged last summer probably combined with other local influences from the Atlantic or Indian Oceans in those instances, he suggested.

La Nina is characterised by unusually cool ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific and typically lasts about nine months.

However, the complex interaction between shifting ocean currents and the atmosphere, and its range remain little understood by scientists, who are also reluctant to establish a clear tie with climate change.

In term of its atmospheric effects -- such as on winds, clouds and pressure systems -- the current La Nina ranked about third strongest for the past century on one scale, while its cooling of Pacific Ocean temperatures was rated as moderate to strong, Kumar Kolli explained.

La Nina Likely To Persist Through First Quarter
Stephanie Nebehay PlanetArk 27 Jan 11;

The weather pattern known as La Nina, blamed for floods in Australia and drought in parts of Latin America, is expected to persist through the first quarter of 2011, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.

La Nina, which cools the Pacific Ocean, could possibly even continue into April or early May, further affecting weather around the globe, the United Nations agency said in its latest update.

"Almost all forecast models predict a continuation of the current La Nina for at least the next 2-4 months, through the first quarter of 2011 and possibly into the second quarter (April or early May)," the WMO said.

"The strength of the event is likely to decrease during the course of the coming 4 months," it added.

La Nina began last June following a strong El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean, a naturally occurring and opposite weather phenomenon associated with warmer-than-normal water.

In terms of its effects on the atmosphere -- sea level pressure, stronger trade winds and much reduced cloudiness -- this La Nina is "one of the strongest of the last century," according to the WMO.

However, in terms of its oceanic effects, it is rated to have been moderate to strong. It caused sea surface temperatures to average around 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) less than normal in the eastern and central tropical Pacific.

"We know that even if the La Nina is likely to weaken over the next few months, the impacts are likely to continue in the regions typically influenced by this phenomenon," WMO expert Rupa Kumar Kolli told a news briefing.

"The most important impacts that we have witnessed during the recent weeks have been devastating floods in Australia."

Floods have ravaged huge areas of eastern Australia, killing at least 25 people, submerging parts of the nation's third-largest city, Brisbane, shutting vital coal mines and destroying crops.

La Nina had also led to above-average rainfall in Indonesia, southeast Asia and southern Africa.

"La Nina is not associated with floods alone, it is also associated with droughts in some parts of the world, particularly in South America, in the coastal regions, particularly the west coast of Peru and Ecuador and adjoining areas," Kolli said.

But some impacts had been unusual, including floods in Sri Lanka and Brazil, where conditions in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans may have also played a role, he said.

La Nina occurs every 2-7 years, lasting 9-12 months, but there is no clear information on long-term trends, he said.

"The available information -- we have more than 100 years of recorded data -- does not indicate any clear evidence of these events being more frequent or more intense," he said.

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Mark Trevelyan)

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Amnesty slams Shell over oil spills in Nigeria

Yahoo News 24 Jan 11;

LAGOS (AFP) – Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth Tuesday said they had filed an official complaint against Ango-Dutch firm Shell for shirking responsibility for oil spills in Nigeria and wreaking havoc on the environment.

A joint statement said Shell's operations in the southern oil-rich Niger Delta breached the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s guidelines for responsible business.

"The organisations claim that Shell's use of discredited and misleading information to blame the majority of oil pollution on saboteurs in its Niger Delta operations has breached the OECD guidelines for multi-national enterprises," it said.

They filed the complaint with the British and Dutch government contact points for the OECD, the statement said.

Shell's operations in Nigeria spanning more than 50 years have "left an appalling legacy of environmental harm," it said.

"Water that people use for fishing and drinking is polluted with oil, while farm land and crops have been destroyed."

Shell will on Wednesday be under scrutiny for its environmental and human rights impacts during a hearing in the Dutch parliament on the company's activities in Nigeria, the statement added.

Nigeria, the eight largest oil exporter, recorded at least 3,000 oil spills between 2006 and June last year, Environment Minister John Odey has said.

The oil giant, which in the mid-1990s accepted causing much of the oil pollution in the Niger Delta, now "blames sabotage by communities and criminals", the statement said.

Under Nigerian law, compensations are not paid on damages caused by sabotage, it said.

The organisations accused Shell of "citing misleading figures that purport to show as much as 98 percent of oil spills being caused by sabotage."

"Shell's figures are totally lacking in credibility", said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty's director of global issues.

"Widespread oil pollution is a key problem caused by oil industry in the Niger Delta, but the oil spill investigation system is totally lacking in independence," Gaughran said.

Shell said in a reaction that it "has reported oil spill data since 1996. Every oil spill is independently assessed by a joint inspection team comprising SPDC (Shell), the DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources)...and community members who agree on the cause and the volume of the spill."

The director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Nnimmo Bassey, said: "We monitor spills regularly and our observations often contradict information produced by Shell."

"Several studies have placed the bulk of the blame for oil spills in the Niger Delta on the doorsteps of the oil companies, particularly Shell," said Bassey, who also chairs of Friends of the Earth International.

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