Malaysia: Palm oil plantations to have clusters of forests

New Straits Times 15 Feb 11;

STABILITY of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project scientific coordinator Dr Edgar Turner said that among the goals of the project was to discover whether modified forests were capable of supporting biodiversity.

The central element of the SAFE project will be the creation of clusters of forest patches within an oil palm plantation, in addition to the establishment of research plots categorised into primary forest, logged forest, logged and fragmented forest in addition to oil palm plantation.

The fully integrated research programme will run for an initial period of 10 years and focus on six key areas:


- Animal diversity and communities (birds, mammals, invertebrates).

- Plant diversity and communities (diversity, growth rates and carbon sequestration, etc).

- Water and soils (including water quality, stream flows, erosion, water budgets).


- Carbon cycling (carbon storage in soils and plants, and sophisticated measurements of carbon dioxide fluctuations using a carbon flux tower).

- Nutrient cycling (nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, decomposition rates).

- Microclimate (including air and soil temperature, humidity).


Dr Turner explained that in order for researchers to understand how the ecosystem works, they must first attempt to gain a greater understanding of the linkages in an ecosystem and see how they affect one another as forests undergo changes and become fragmented.

"For example, a 24-hour sampling of temperature in an oil palm plantation shows that it has higher and more varied temperatures compared with a primary forest.

"This may be a problem to the communities living in a plantation. We want to examine how things like these affect the ecological stability in a particular research plot."

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Twisted Tropics: Growth of Vines Imperils Ecosystem

Wynne Parry livescience.com Yahoo News 15 Feb 11;

Trees are the backbone of a forest, but in tropical forests throughout the Americas, trees appear to be losing ground to the woody vines that climb them in a race to reach the sunlight above. This shift could have important implications for tropical ecosystems and for the globe, according to researchers.

"This is the first major structural change in tropical ecosystems that we have witnessed. That is key," said Stefan Schnitzer, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Schnitzer is one of the two researchers who pulled together evidence from eight studies that, collective, show a pattern of woody vine growth in American tropical and subtropical forests.

"That is going to have cascading effects on things like species diversity, tropical forest functioning in carbon storage and whole forest water use — really important and practical things that will change the way these forests work," said Schnitzer, who is also a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Evidence climbs

The first evidence of this pattern emerged in 2002, when a 23-year study showed that woody vines were becoming more abundant relative to trees in the Amazon rain forest, northwest South America and Central America. Since then, other studies have shown an increase in woody vines in Panama, French Guiana and the Bolivian Amazon. For instance, on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, the relative abundance of vines in tree crowns has more than doubled over the past 40 years.

In places like these, the vines are native species, but farther north in subtropical places such as Florida and South Carolina, invasive species, like the infamous kudzu, contribute to the problem, Schnitzer said.

The colder weather of higher latitudes keeps the vines in check, write Schnitzer and his fellow researcher, Frans Bongers from Wageningen University in The Netherlands, in an article published online today (Feb. 14) in the journal Ecology Letters.

The researchers speculate about possible causes: Drier weather in the tropics may aid vines, which, unlike trees, can continue to grow during the dry season. Woody vines are also adept at taking advantage of disturbances in the forest, such as openings created when a tree falls. Once they find a gap, their growth rate far exceeds those of trees. Logging and other human alterations to forests may give woody vines an advantage, and there is also evidence that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — the most prominent greenhouse gas — may benefit woody vines more than trees, they write.

And not only do woody vines possess all these advantages; the presence of more woody vines appears to slow tree growth and increases tree death.

An altered ecosystem?

As the world faces global warming linked to increased greenhouse gas emissions, tropical forests provide an important "carbon sink," by tying up the carbon from the dominant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide in their wood as they grow, according to Schnitzer.

By interfering with the growth of trees, and increasing tree deaths, the vines reduce the amount of carbon the trees can sequester, but the vines themselves have less wood and store less carbon than the trees they are replacing.

"Vines use tree architecture to ascend to the light. They are more like structural parasites. They use trees to get their leaves to the sun, they don't store very much carbon," he said.

It's possible an increase in woody vines could change the nutrient dynamics of forests, in part because of differences between their leaves and the leaves of tropical trees, all of which ultimately fertilize the forest floor. Water dynamics may also be affected because woody vines appear to exhale more water vapor through their leaves during dry times, researchers said.

The growth of woody vines does not appear to be a worldwide phenomenon, however. Two studies in Africa found evidence of decreases or stable growth.

Tree Stranglers Overtaking Tropical Forests
Andrea Mustain LiveScience.com 7 Apr 11;

A creeping menace is taking over the planet's tropical forests, a brand of tree-hugging vine whose embrace — if you're a tree — is of the sinister kind.

Lianas, a type of woody vine, are increasingly abundant across forests in Central and South America, according to new research on the plants.

"They seem to be increasing while trees are not," said Stefan Schnitzer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and co-author on a recent study, the first of its kind, which combined data from eight previous investigations of lianas across Central and South America.

In fact, some parts of the Amazon are now called liana forests, Schnitzer said, because the climbing vines have taken over. "And they're not particularly pretty forests, I may add," Schnitzer said.

Schnitzer said it's a scene that would be familiar to anyone who has spent time in the southeastern United States, where another type of prolific liana — kudzu — is taking over the trees.

However, the creeping abundance of lianas has implications beyond mere aesthetics.

"Lianas prevent trees from growing," Schintzer told OurAmazingPlanet. "They're really good competitors."

Tree backstabbers

Lianas use the sturdy trunks of trees as a kind of living trellis, allowing the vines to slither up the length of a tree and reach the canopy, beating out the trees for resources such as water and sunlight.

And a shift in the makeup of forests — a higher percentage of lianas, a lower percentage of trees — can have big ramifications for everyone on the planet, because trees are an excellent carbon sink (meaning they suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for many years), whereas lianas are not.

Trees put a lot of their energy into growing sturdy trunks. "That's where all the carbon is stored, and it can be stored for hundreds and hundreds of years," Schnitzer said.

Lianas don't have to bother — because they hitch a ride on tree trunks. "They have a lot less wood volume, so they don't store nearly as much carbon," Schnitzer said.

What's to blame

Schnitzer said the study data suggest there are several main culprits behind the increase in lianas.

First, if trees are removed from forests, whether by natural or human means, more sunlight penetrates the darkness of the forest floor, which allows lianas to flourish. In addition, it appears that lianas can thrive in drier conditions, and when greater amounts of carbon dioxide are found in the atmosphere, two conditions now seen in some places in the Amazon.

Schnitzer said more study is required to see how big a part all these factors play, and how they may be intertwined.

However, the invading vines aren't bad news for all the residents of the tropics.

Sloth highway

"Lianas are important for animals in tropical forests, because they connect from one tree to the next tree, and provide a lot of resources," Schnitzer said.

Because the hardy vines can thrive in the dry season, they can flower and produce fruit when other plants don't, providing a source of food.

In addition, lianas' vast network of entangled tendrils provide an inter-tree expressway, allowing creatures to climb from tree to tree with relative ease, and providing more real estate for nesting, sleeping and eating.

"These things are really important structural components of the forest for animals," Schnitzer said. "Monkeys, sloths, they're always climbing on lianas. So you can't go in and say, 'Let's just cut down all the lianas, and the forest will be OK.''

Schnitzer said the increase of the vines is a more nuanced issue. "We're hoping that this study will get people to realize this is an important phenomenon," Schnitzer said, "and in another five or 10 years, we'll have more data."

Schnitzer spoke with OurAmazingPlanet from Panama, where he works with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The study he co-authored is published in the journal Ecology Letters.

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Butterflies make partial comeback in Mexico

Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Yahoo News 15 Feb 11;

MEXICO CITY – The number of monarch butterflies migrating from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico has increased this year, a hopeful sign following a worrying 75 percent drop in their numbers last year, experts reported Monday.

The total amount of forest covered by the colonies — millions of orange-and-black butterflies that hang in clumps from the boughs of fir trees — more than doubled from last year's historic low.

But concerns persist about the monarchs' long-term survival, because their numbers remain well below average.

This winter, there are 9.9 acres (4 hectares) of colonies, more than double the 4.7 acres (1.9 hectares) last year, the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began in 1993.

"These figures are encouraging, compared to last year, because they show a trend toward recovery," said Omar Vidal, director of the conservation group World Wildlife Fund Mexico, which sponsored the study along with the government Commission on Natural Protected Areas and the cell phone carrier Telcel.

Despite the rebound experienced by this mysterious scientific phenomenon, historically a huge tourist draw, the latest numbers are well below the almost 20 acres (8 hectares) covered in the 2008-09 winter season and the record high of 45 acres (18.2 hectares) in 1996-97.

"Fluctuations in insect populations are normal in nature," the study's sponsors said in a statement. "With regard to the monarch butterfly, these fluctuations could be due mainly to climatic conditions," including especially cold or dry years in the United States and Canada, where the butterflies that make the trip are born.

But experts said natural variation doesn't fully account for a long-term decline in average numbers.

The butterfly population also has been hurt by deforestation of the mountaintop pine forests in Mexico's western Michoacan state that serve as "blankets" to protect the insects against winter rain and cold.

The WWF, private companies, international groups and Mexican state and federal governments have been battling deforestation over the past decade. They sent police to raid illegal sawmills and started alternative income projects, such as tree nurseries, for the farm communities that own land in federally protected reserves.

Lincoln Brower, an expert on monarch butterflies and zoology professor at the University of Florida, said this year's recovery is good news, but adds that each time the butterflies "recover," they slip to lower and lower numbers.

"What is ominous is that all of the last seven years have been below average," he said.

Brower points to several possibilities for the decline: climate changes, deforestation, and the existence of genetically modified crops and pesticides, which crowd out the milkweed plants where monarchs lay their eggs.

Brower also noted monarchs have disappeared from some forest patches where they traditionally wintered. The study released Monday said two traditional wintering areas — Cerro Prieto in Michoacan and La Mesa in neighboring Mexico State — had no butterfly colonies this year.

No monarch lives long enough to make a round trip from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico. That is what makes the return of new butterflies each year more fascinating: No single butterfly "remembers" the route.

Some colonies return to patches of forest that have been dangerously denuded by logging or severe storms. The preference for areas they "know" can create a death trap as they try to winter in inadequate surroundings rather than seeking better patches of woodland nearby.

Brower is investigating the hypothesis that if butterflies somehow "mark" their wintering grounds, perhaps chemically, that marker could be replicated and used to lead the monarchs to areas where they would be safe.

Mexico appears to be winning its battle against logging in the monarch reserve. Illegal tree-cutting amounted to 3.7 acres (1.5 hectares) last year, down 97 percent from two years ago. At its peak in 2005, logging devastated as many as 1,140 acres (461 hectares) annually.

Regardless of the area's comeback, the 193,000-acre (56,259-hectare) reserve in Michoacan faces other threats: Drug-fueled violence in the state has prompted travel warnings by foreign governments and cut tourism revenues that farm communities need to offset income lost from logging.

Rosendo Caro, director of the reserve, said the number of tourists has fallen as much as 50 percent in recent years — even though no violence has taken place within the reserve. Previously, more than 110,000 people visited each year.

"The many people who visit realize that, while there is undeniably an atmosphere of violence, that's really more of a problem of perception," Caro said. "The people in the region are friendly and respectful."

Monarch Butterfly Count Bounces Back From Bad Year
Patrick Rucker PlanetArk 16 Feb 11;

Monarch butterfly colonies in Mexico more than doubled in size this winter after bad storms devastated their numbers a year ago, conservationists said on Monday although the migrating insect remains under threat.

Millions of butterflies make a 2,000-mile journey each year from Canada to winter in central Mexico's warmer weather but the size of that migration can vary wildly.

Fewer of the orange and black insects arrived in Mexico last year than ever before, researchers said, but the butterfly colonies increased by 109 percent this year to cover roughly 10 acres of forest. Researchers estimate the size of the butterfly colonies based on the area they occupy in a forest.

"Certainly this is good news and indicates a recovering trend," said Omar Vidal, director of the Mexico branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

But while the monarch colonies rebounded this winter, it is still the fourth-lowest year for the butterfly since researchers started census-taking in 1993.

Illegal loggers have picked away roughly 3 percent of a 138,000 acre reserve since it was created in 2000 but officials say they now have that illicit harvest under control.

Severe winter weather linked to climate change is more of a long-term threat, along with large-scale farming that crowds out the milkweed that the butterflies dine on during their cross-continental flight.

"The caterpillars feed on milkweed so changing soil use in the United States and Canada is definitely having an impact on the butterflies," said Vidal, who helps manage the authoritative study on monarch populations in Mexico.

Michoacan state is home to the country's monarch butterfly reserve as well as many violent drug gangs that have carved smuggling routes through the often-arid terrain.

While the government is confronting drug gangs on many fronts, smugglers are not inhibiting conservation work, one official said.

"We are being a bit more careful but have not had any security incident to date," said Humberto Gabriel Reyes, who oversees the butterfly reserve for the federal commission for protected areas.

While the uptick in butterfly numbers is heartening, U.S. researcher Lincoln Brower said the insects are still susceptible to harsh conditions.

"The weather conditions we saw last year were among our worst-case scenario," said Brower, 79, of Sweet Briar College in Virginia who has studied the monarch butterflies since the 1950s.

"If there were more harsh weather in Texas or more forest loss in the Mexican reserves, the butterflies could be tested even more severely," said Brower who was one of the first researchers to see the Mexican overwinter sites after they were identified by scientists in 1975.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Scramble to stockpile rice in Asia has started

Hanim Adnan The Star 15 Feb 11;

OF late, there is this massive pressure on Asian nations to stockpile rice as part of their national food security efforts.

With the weather pattern wreaking havoc on food crops leading to dwindling supplies and rising food inflation, there is looming fear the current price of rice may soon revisit the all-time record price in 2008, which at one time saw the grain price surging by 200%.

The global rice market has been on the rise again over the past few months after hitting a two-year low in early August 2010. The price of the Asian rice benchmark, Thai 100% grade-B white rice, has steadily risen by about 4.5% since Dec 29 to reach about US$558 per tonne.

Despite the assurance of ample rice supply by the world's largest rice producers Thailand and Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh have become among the earliest Asian nations to extensively boost their rice imports for 2011.

Early this month, Indonesia had ordered its state procurement agency Bulog to secure imports to gradually boost its rice stockpiles to two million tonnes from the current 1.5 million tonnes. Indonesia surprised the market recently by purchasing 820,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand for prompt shipment.

Bangladesh has also said it was buying 200,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from Thailand in the first government-to-government deal for the grain.

Malaysia has also been steadily stockpiling rice. After the bitter experience of 2008, Bernas the local rice custodian has been procuring rice over the past two years via active buying both on the spot and forward contract for two to six months to build up stocks.

According to some quarters, more Asian nations would likely make similar move to boost their rice stockpile should drought-striken China, the world's largest rice consumer, start to procure more rice externally in the near term. China has been self-sufficient of the grain.

Interestingly, Vietnam, the second world largest rice producer, is also stockpiling its rice at about one million tonnes but Thailand intends to reduce its volume of it domestic stockpile to only 100,000 tonnes and export 900,000 tonnes from its stockpile.

Meanwhile, the Thai government is not overly worried about lowering its stockpile as new harvest will start soon. It is likely to export 10.73 million tonnes of the 2010-11 crop, up slightly from 10 million for 2009-10.

So what will be in store next as the scramble to stockpile rice hots up among Asian countries?

Given such a dire situation, it seems the proposal to create a permanent rice emergency reserve by the 10-member Asean together wth China, South Korea and Japan (Asean plus three) may likely be speeded up.

A meeting is slated in Jakarta later this year to discuss the supply and financing, and the mechanism to the countries should a hike in prices occur.

In addition, a blueprint will also be put up for the establishment of a 800,000-tonne strategic rice storage facility with pledges from Asean members, Japan, China and South Korea to protect the region's two billion people from an environmental disaster and a runaway inflation.

# Deputy news editor Hanim Adnan is all for the rice emergency reserve as it will certainly help secure price and food security as well as rice development in the region.

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Rising food prices will spark next big Asian crisis

William Pesek Jr Business Times 15 Feb 11;

FORGET Egypt for a moment. Skip the water crisis in China. Look past angst on the streets of Bangladesh. If you want to see how extreme the effects of surging food prices are becoming, look to wealthy Japan. So big are the increases that economists are talking about them pushing deflationary Japan toward inflation. Yes, rising costs for commodities such as wheat, corn and coffee might do what trillions of dollars of central bank liquidity couldn't.

Yet the economic consequences of food prices pale in comparison with the social ones. Nowhere could the fallout be greater than Asia, where a critical mass of those living on less than US$2 a day reside. It might have major implications for Asia's debt outlook. It may have even bigger ones for leaders hoping to keep the peace.

What a difference a few months can make. Back in, say, October, the chatter was about Asia's invulnerability to Wall Street's woes. Now, governments in Jakarta, Manila and New Delhi are grappling with their own sub-prime crisis of sorts. This one reflects a toxic mix of suboptimal food stocks, exploding demand, wacky weather and zero interest rates around the globe.

It's not hyperbole when Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the US financial crisis, says surging food and energy costs are stoking emerging market inflation that's serious enough to topple governments. Hosni Mubarak can attest to that.

It's important to begin considering the side effects. The United Nations reckons countries spent at least US$1 trillion on food imports in 2010, with the poorest paying as much as 20 per cent more than in 2009. These increases are just getting started. In January, world food prices rose to another record on higher dairy, sugar and grain costs.

This crisis might lead to another: debt. Expect Asian leaders to increase subsidies sharply and cut import taxes. The fiscal implications of these steps aren't getting the attention they deserve. The same is true of social instability risks.

Events in Egypt are a graphic example of how people living close to the edge can get motivated in a hurry to demand change. Keeping that rage bottled in the age of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook won't be easy. Hence Prof Roubini's concerns about geopolitical crises.

There's an extreme irony in the timing of all this. It's coming as the world is becoming a heavier place. Obesity rates have almost doubled since 1980 and almost 10 per cent of humanity was seriously overweight in 2008, according to the medical journal The Lancet. People have never been fatter at the same time when food prices have never been so high. The Westernisation of Asia's diet is partly behind the rise in food costs. Rapid growth, rising incomes, growing populations and urbanisation are conspiring to shift eating habits away from the staples of old toward livestock and dairy products.

The growing pains inherent in shifting consumption patterns will be especially acute in this region. Unlike the food price spike of 2008, this one may be more secular than cyclical. Asia alone, for example, will have another 140 million mouths to feed over the next four years. Add that to almost three billion people in the fast-growing region and you have a recipe for booming demand.

China's size and scope means it will be buying up ever-growing chunks of the world's food supply. As the yuan rises, so will China's ability to outbid everyone else. Increased trade tensions are inevitable and it will show the futility of food subsidies. Prices will rise as long as consumption does.

China also shows how changing weather will bump up against rising living standards. Severe droughts are imperilling wheat crops and creating shortages of drinking water both for China's 1.3 billion people and livestock. It's a reminder that water is the next oil. Governments will be scouring the globe for it before long. Rising food prices will complicate things for China's central bank. That goes, too, for India, Indonesia, the Philippines and even less developed economies from Pakistan to Vietnam. This will be an inconvenient reality check for Asia bulls. Take Indonesia, the fourth-most populous nation. Food prices make it harder to deliver higher living standards and narrow the gap between rich and poor. The same goes for other countries in which population growth often outpaces gross domestic product, like the Philippines.

What's killing households surviving on a few dollars a day is price volatility. If you spend almost half of your income to fill bellies, a 10 per cent surge in cooking oil, wheat or chilli peppers is devastating. It's hard enough to pay rent and handle healthcare costs today, never mind investing in education. Governments need to get busy softening the blow, even at the expense of rattling the folks at Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Otherwise, they will have a bigger crisis on their hands. -- Bloomberg

William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist.

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In Food Vs Fuel Debate, U.S. Resolute On Ethanol

Timothy Gardner and Charles Abbott PlanetArk 15 Feb 11;

As world food prices reach new highs, a handful of U.S. politicians and hard-hit corporations are readying a fresh effort to forestall the use of more U.S. corn and soybeans as motor fuel.

They are likely doing so in vain, say experts.

Unlike in 2008, when a wave of global panic over grain supplies provoked a fierce "food vs fuel" debate, there's so far only muted outcry over biofuels, even after corn surged last week to within 10 percent of its 2008 peak following a forecast showing even higher use in the ethanol sector.

While that may yet change as higher prices fuel inflation and trigger worries over supply security, officials and experts say ethanol is too ingrained in public policy and the economy of the U.S. heartland to be easily dislodged.

"What would it take for this public policy to be altered- The answer -- a lot," said Gary Blumenthal of World Perspectives, a private consultant.

"The best voices for demanding change are U.S. consumers themselves, but that will require a food price spike larger than the 2 to 3 percent currently forecast by USDA. And since the Fed focuses on core inflation and ignores food and energy, it gets ignored there as well."

U.S. ethanol production this year will consume 15 percent of the world's corn supply, up from 10 percent in 2008. That share will continue to rise as the industry faces a mandate to boost minimum production an additional 20 percent by 2015. And exports are booming thanks to costly sugar-based rivals.

Ethanol has become a lightning rod for criticism from opponents including foodmakers, livestock feeders, environmentalists and budget hawks.

The largest U.S. meatpacker, Tyson Foods Inc, which also raises chickens, and No. 1 pork processor Smithfield Foods Inc, which raises hogs, say ethanol drives up feed costs sharply and hurts consumers.

"It makes a lot more sense for us to burn our trash than burn our feed," Tyson CEO Donnie Smith said last month.

As yet, foes have not found an electric argument to compel broad-scale change.

On the global stage, the hand-wringing over soaring prices has focused on markets, not biofuel.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made food security a centerpiece of his one-year term leading the Group of 20 leading economies, has called for rules to curb commodity volatility, not to roll back widespread efforts to convert more crops to fuel.

That finding has the support of a World Bank study released last July, that said: "The effect of biofuels on food prices has not been as large as originally thought, but that the use of commodities by financial investors ... may have been partly responsible for the 2007-08 spike."

But with spending cuts the top issue for lawmakers this year, ethanol subsidies may be swept into the deficit debate.

"Before this (debate) is over ... I suspect a lot of things will be looked at," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, where major industries are ranching and oil and gas -- two sectors skeptical of ethanol.

NO GOING BACK

Backtracking on existing ethanol mandates would be almost unthinkable at this point. At some 900,000 barrels per day (bpd), ethanol now makes up about 10 percent of the gasoline pool in the world's largest oil consumer.

"The fact is the industry has pretty much been built," Joe Glauber said this week. "This isn't a question of just saying 'cut it off.' It's much more complicated than that."

And food prices, at least at home, have yet to pinch.

Prices at U.S. grocery stores and restaurants shot up 5.5 percent in 2008 without inspiring an ethanol overhaul. They were a negligible 1.8 percent in 2009 and a tiny 0.8 percent last year, so 2.5 percent may seem large this year. The overall inflation rate is forecast for 1.9 percent.

Nor is there great political will to make it an issue.

Republicans, including the Tea Party caucus, pushing for deep budget cuts, could single out the 45-cents-a-gallon fuel tax credit that encourages biofuel production, and helps ensure the sector remains profitable.

But at $6 billion a year, they are a drop in the U.S. budget bucket, and overturning them would likely face stiff opposition from President Barack Obama -- whose determination to boost domestic resources is as resolute as his predecessors.

"Biofuels continue to be an important component of our clean energy strategy," a White House spokesman said when asked about ethanol, tight corn supplies and rising food prices.

"These home-grown, renewable fuels reduce our dependence on oil and create jobs and rural economic development."

Besides the tax credits, a 2007 law guarantees renewable fuels a rising share of the market. For corn ethanol, the mandate is 12.6 billion gallons this year and 15 billion gallons annually from 2015.

Production is set to reach 13.5 billion gallons this year -- up 46 percent from 9.235 billion gallons in 2008. Makers will exceed the mandate this year due to exports and profit-making moments when ethanol is cheaper than gasoline.

TEXAS UNSUCCESSFULLY SOUGHT MANDATE CUT

When grain prices skyrocketed in 2008, Texas, home of the U.S. oil industry, asked the Bush administration to halve the ethanol mandate for that year. The request was rejected.

Last year, Congress battled over ethanol subsidies before approving a one-year extension. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California is working on legislation to trim ethanol subsidies. "Federal subsidies and tariffs for ethanol are wrong for our fiscal policy and wrong for the environment and rising commodity prices are another indicator of that," she said.

"It's unfathomable that the corn ethanol industry can continue to assert that using 40 percent of the corn crop has no impact on food stocks or commodity prices," said the Environmental Working Group, an ethanol critic.

Ethanol defenders say that critique ignores the benefit of distillers dried grains, an ethanol co-product that can substitute for corn in livestock rations. Forty million tons of grains are available at lower cost than corn, they say.

Comparatively small numbers of lawmakers oppose corn ethanol, while farm-state lawmakers are a strong bloc of support. Last year, the argument centered on possible cuts in the tax credits rather than elimination of them.

The major U.S. makers are privately owned POET, Archer Daniels Midland Co and Valero Energy Corp.

Advanced biofuels, such as ethanol from cellulose found in grass and woody plants, are the darling of corn ethanol critics. But the next-generation fuels amount to only a trickle of output and will need years to grow.

"Without ethanol, you have to have 10 percent more gas derived from oil. If you look at the impact on consumers, it would be huge," said Tom Buis of the ethanol trade group Growth Energy.

(Editing by Russell Blinch)

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Best of our wild blogs: 14 Feb 11

Green Jobs in Singapore [7 - 13 Feb 2011]
from Green Business Times

Job advert: Mangrove Botanist
from ecotax at Yahoo! Groups

Changeable Hawk-eagle crashed onto to a window of a building
from Bird Ecology Study Group and Oriental Pied Hornbills in Pasir Ris Park

Fifty people and two dogs on the Battle of Pasir Panjang Commemorative Walk from Toddycats!

Vast meadows of rare seagrasses at Kranji
from wild shores of singapore

Scenes from two sides
from The annotated budak

Lornie Trail On 5 Feb
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

James Guest podcast with “Naked Scientists” on coral spawning from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

Enicocephalidae
from Singapore Nature and Reduviidae

Monday Morgue: 14th February 2011
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

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Singapore 'tops in energy efficiency investment potential'

Grace Chua Straits Times 14 Feb 11;

SINGAPORE has the greatest investment potential in South-east Asia when it comes to energy efficiency improvements, says a new report funded by the British government.

The benefits of such initiatives are clear, as the investments would help the region's businesses cut back on energy consumption while maintaining output.

The report, by boutique investment firm ReEX Capital Asia, assessed investment potential in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam based on energy prices, regulatory conditions and the market size in each country.

Singapore could take up to US$1.1 billion (S$1.4 billion) worth of investments in energy-saving technologies and techniques, according to the report.

The figure could swell sixfold if the power sector was included - for example, if generation companies invested in such changes at their plants - said ReEX managing director Frederic Crampe, who presented the report on Friday at an energy efficiency seminar organised by the British High Commission.

Improvements in industrial and commercial buildings could save as much as US$341 million here each year, he said.

Singapore falls midway in the list by market size, but its high, unsubsidised energy tariffs mean that boosting efficiency would pay off faster.

It also enjoys strong government support and has a healthy supply of experts able to implement such projects.

For example, companies here can apply to a $10 million scheme that pays for up to half the cost of their energy audits.

And come 2013, legislation will require energy-guzzling companies to appoint energy managers.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) is already training managers and accrediting experts to carry out energy-use appraisals.

However, academic and former NEA chairman Simon Tay, who also attended the seminar, asked how much demand there was for such solutions and investments, and what the level of awareness was.

The Economic Development Board's resource development director, Mr Chiu Wen Tung, said big energy consumers such as pharmaceutical manufacturers were already implementing energy-saving programmes.

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Malaysia: Concern over high-rise projects near Kota Kinabalu wetlands

Muguntan Vanar The Star 14 Feb 11;

KOTA KINABALU: Wetlands conservationists are concerned over high-rise development projects along the city’s Signal Hill which may upset plans to turn Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre (KKWC) into a Ramsar site.

Sabah Wetland Conservation Society president Zainal Abdul Aucusa said the proposed projects close to the city’s wetland conservation area would affect their bid for international recognition for the wetland that sits on the foothills of Signal Hills.

He said the state Government, through City Hall, must ensure that the projects do not affect plans to make KKWC the state’s second Ramsar site.

The wetland areas of Lower Kinabatangan-Segama in east coast Sabah is the first Ramsar site in Sabah.

Currently, six wetland areas have been listed as Ramsar sites in Malaysia.

A Ramsar site is an area marked for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

It derives its name from the Ramsar convention, an international treaty on wetlands adopted in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971.

Zainal said public support was needed to list KKWC as a Ramsar site.

“Residents, especially in Likas and Signal Hill, must support our effort to turn KKWC into a Ramsar site by rejecting high-rise development,” he said at the launch of the state level World Wetlands Day on Saturday by Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

Masidi said most of the land adjacent to KKWC were privately owned but City Hall could ensure that the developers strictly followed development guidelines.

He said the society should engage the developers and impress on them the importance of preserving the wetland area and the impact it would have on their property price.

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Vietnam had unusually high numbers of shark attacks?

VietNamNet Bridge 14 Feb 11;

A Wednesday article by Live Science magazine reporting that Vietnam recorded unusually high numbers of shark attacks in 2010 is unreliable, said a local expert.

The magazine said that Vietnam suffered from one of the most recorded attacks in the world last year.

It said that unprovoked assaults by sharks last year include six in Vietnam, 14 in Australia, eight in South Africa and six in Egypt.

It also quoted George Burgess at the University of Florida in Gainesville, curator of the International Shark Attack File as saying Vietnam and Egypt had “unusually high numbers of attacks in 2010”.

However, he did not explain why Vietnam had such a sudden increase in attacks.

According to Deputy Professor Nguyen Tac An, former director of the Vietnamese National Institute of Oceanography (VNIO), this information needs to be verified.

Dr. An noted that the magazine’s article could negatively impact Vietnam’s marine tourism.

According to him, the statistics of shark attacks released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) itself is reliable but it has yet to release its statistics for last year.

An said there are only around 10 – 20 cases of shark attacks in the world on average each year.

“Vietnam is not the center point of shark attacks on humans. On the contrary, sharks are an essential element of oceanic ecosystems, so they need to be protected here,” he said.

Some subtropical and tropical beaches in Australia, South Africa, and Panama - home to many kinds of sharks - are yet famous tourism destinations.

There around 50 out of 250 kinds of sharks able to attack humans.

In Vietnam, sharks are often sighted in coastal areas in Con Dao, Phu Quy, Cu Lao Xanh, Hon Me islands, among others, said An.

41 kinds of sharks including whale shark, small dwarf lantern shark, tiger shark, and the hammerhead need to be protected to cope with the fact that there are around 2 million tons of sharks hunted every year worldwide, he added.

Last June, Thanh Nien reported 17 year-old Huynh Nhu Hoang, a local tourist, was attacked by a shark when he was swimming a few dozen meters off the central province of Binh Dinh’s Quy Nhon Town.

Hoang is the latest of several victims of shark attacks at Quy Nhon beaches since July 2009.

To prevent and protect sharks

Local scientists have called for more research into preventing similar attacks in the future.

VNIO has conducted a research on 70 chemical substances used in driving sharks away. However, the most effective method in Vietnam now is planting a large net to surround a swimming area at beaches to shield sharks out in case they come.

A “shark task force” should be also set up to alert and rescue tourists.

According to Live Science, scientists last year investigated 115 alleged incidents of struggles between humans and sharks worldwide and confirmed that 79 of these were unprovoked shark attacks on live humans.

Sharks (superorder Selachimorpha) are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body.

The earliest known sharks are dated to more than 420 million years ago.

Since that time, sharks have diversified into 440 species, ranging in size from the small dwarf lanternshark (Etmopterus perryi) to the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), which feeds only on plankton, squid, and small fish by filter feeding.

Well-known species such as the great white shark, tiger shark, and the hammerhead are apex predators, at the top of the underwater food chain.

Their extraordinary skills as predators fascinate and frighten humans, even as their survival is under serious threat from fishing and other human activities.

As cited by Telegraph, the first recorded victim of a shark attack is British merchant sailor Brook Watson who was swimming in the harbor of Havana in 1749 when a shark attacked him.]

Source: Dat Viet/Tuoi Tre

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Climate change: Another reason to move, says ADB

Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post 14 Feb 11;

Extreme weather caused by climate change variables has given another reason for people to migrate, experts say.

Asia Development Bank (ADB) is preparing a report called “Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific”, which is scheduled to be completed in March.

ADB has been looking into migration patterns in the Asia-Pacific region, seeking linkages to natural disasters such as flooding.

ADB recently held an online discussion regarding the report, hosting ADB’s Climate Change Program Coordination Unit chief Robert J. Dobias and Francois Gemenne, a research fellow at the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). More than 40 participants across the Asia-Pacific region joined the discussion.

Dobias said the report took the position that climate-induced migration was currently a relatively minor driver of migration because motivations to move were myriad.

“It may be best to consider climate-induced migrations within the context of migration, generally. However, being able to attribute migration to climate change may become important in the context of funding,” he said.

He said that while the report had taken a preliminary step by identifying areas that may be especially vulnerable to climate-induced migration, more refined work was needed. By focusing development assistance in areas of high vulnerability, people could build resilience in their communities, he added.

Gemenne said climate-induced migration could be caused by natural disasters, such as flash floods and hurricanes, or slower catastrophes like rising sea levels and soil degradation. Therefore, the types of migration could be very diverse. Certain people would be forced to move because of a displacement situation, while others might move voluntarily, he said.

“Sometimes moving is just an option, amongst many others, which might explain why some decide not to move at all, or are unable to do so,” Gemenne said.

The report said the frequency of extreme weather events, particularly floods, was likely to increase significantly in large coastal cities.

Over 60 percent of Indonesia’s population lived in areas prone to water crises in 2000, with 26 percent at risk of coastal flooding.

The study said that by 2050 as many as 201 million urban residents in Indonesia would be at risk from multiple hazards due to climate change.

In Indonesia, the major reasons driving migration are family and economy. Although Indonesia is prone to various forms of natural disasters, from earthquakes to tsunamis, there are communities who choose to live in disaster-prone areas.

In Central Java and Yogyakarta, for example, communities living near the active Mt. Merapi volcano choose to stay because they believe the volcanic debris will make for fertile soil. Another example is a community in Flores, where residents prefer to live near an estuary even though their village is often inundated by the river overflow.

According to Dobias, direct dangers for cities in coastal areas include rising sea levels and storm surges. He also said that impacts of climate change in rural areas could potentially increase the number of people moving to cities. Therefore, proactive urban development programs aimed at increasing the quality of life for urban inhabitants have never been as important as they are today, he added.

He explained that other options include low-carbon development strategies to help reduce the cause of climate change, such as improving sold waste management systems and enhancing affordable transportation for the urban poor.

Gemenne said migration was typically a sensitive policy area that was addressed very differently by different nations because migration flows were very different from one country to another.

“Also, the local dimension of adaptation needs to be taken into account: Community-based adaptation can be a very efficient strategy in the fight against the impacts of climate change,” he said.

He said capacity building was important, and therefore his organization would work with and assist governments on climate change issues. He believed that their role was to partner with other organizations in the field to find avenues to finance cooperation mechanisms.

Dobias said that ADB and the World Bank were engaged in the Pacific on a country-led effort called the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), which was a good example of how international agencies worked together with civil society and local government in identifying issues of the greatest importance and considering the best ways to address them.

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Growing Valentine's Day roses harming Kenya's ecological site

Supermarkets eager to meet demand for cheap flowers urged to show more concern for the environment
Rebecca Smithers The Guardian 14 Feb 11;

Consumer appetite for cut-price Kenyan roses for Valentine's Day is "bleeding the country dry" by threatening the region's precarious ecology.

University of Leicester ecology and conservation biologist, Dr David Harper, warned. Harper has spent over 30 years researching wetland conservation at Kenya's Lake Naivasha and said the growth of the flowers is draining the valuable water supply.

Seventy per cent of roses sold in European supermarkets come from Kenya, most from Naivasha. Harper called on UK supermarkets to show more concern about the health of the environment that the flowers come from.

He said: "A notable few of the farmers sending roses to Europe are showing concern and an eagerness to pioneer a sustainable way forward: the best flower farms have achieved Fairtrade status, which brings money back into the workforce for social welfare improvements. Two farms have even seconded senior managers to help Kenya's water management agency at Naivasha."

But he warns that the massive scale of UK supermarket promotions of flowers over Valentine's Day — and subsequently on Mother's Day – without concern for where or how environmentally sustainable roses can be grown, will just increase the export of water – the scarcest natural resource in Kenya.

He went on: "There are just a few good farms but many more that don't care how much damage they do to the lake. Seventy per cent of the roses sold in European supermarkets come from Kenya and the majority of those are from Naivasha, many thus coming without any ecological certification. This has to change for the future of the industry as well as the lake and the country."

The provenance of such roses is not always clear, he said. Cheap roses are often grown by companies which cut corners to avoid legislation, selling them by auction in Amsterdam so buyers think they come from Holland.

The supermarket chain Asda sources its roses fro Columbia, Holland and Kenya, including a bouquet of premium roses for £18. In a statement it said: "We have very high ethical standards in all the products we source, including roses, and we work closely with all our producers to maintain these high standards of excellence."

Marks & Spencer is selling a dozen Fairtrade Roses for £10, claiming that the Kenyan red roses "are not only stunning but the Fairtrade premium Kenyan flower growers receive, allows them to invest in their community – ideal if a loved one is passionate about ethical trading."

As part of its year-round 'Fairtrade for free' line Sainsbury's is selling a dozen roses for £4.99, absorbing the associated price premium itself.

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