Malaysian Dept seizes 45 protected African parrots

New Straits Times 20 Jan 12;

GEORGE TOWN: The state Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) foiled an attempt by a pet shop owner to smuggle in 45 rare protected birds species from Senegal, Africa, via the Penang International Airport.

Known as Senegal Parrot, the birds valued at RM70,200 were found in a carton box inside an air freight cargo. It was the first such bird species seizure uncovered by the department at the airport.

A department spokesman said its officers noted discrepancy between the import permit and documents belonging to a 50-year-old owner during a routine surveillance last Thursday.

"We found something amiss after the serial number from the permit did not match those on the documents. Upon checking, we found the birds in the box," he said, adding that the market value for the birds were about RM1,500 each.

He said the pet shop owner intended to sell the birds at a profit.

He added that the import of such birds was an infringement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The spokesman said the birds seized had been kept at the Perhilitan office in Jalan Gurdwara here.

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Irrawaddy dolphins – the new hope for the “Mekong river’s soul”

VietNamNet Bridge 19 Jan 12;

Following the information about the skull of Irrawaddy dolphin caught by local fishermen, in September 2011, a research team from the Biodiversity and Development of the Institute of Tropical Biology detected and recorded the images of a population of f Irrawaddy dolphins in the waters area around the Ba Lua islands of the Kien Giang biosphere Reserve. The discovery has raised a new hope for the rare marine mammal, which is called the "soul of the Mekong".

Following the dolphins’ tracks

Irrawaddy dolphins discontinuously live in tropical and subtropical areas between Indian Ocean and the Pacific, largely concentrated in the estuaries and fresh waters areas. Due to the discontinuous situation, the status of this species has not been investigated and fully evaluated. In Vietnam, this species of animal has a “strange fate.”

The article by Vu Long, an expert in animals published on Saigon Tiep thi says that the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN lists Irrawaddy dolphin as “vulnerable” animal. However, as for different populations of the dolphins, the threat level is very high.

The number of Irrawaddy dolphin individuals in the Malampaya strait area is 77, while there are 114-152 individuals on the Mekong valley, and there are 58-79 individuals on Mahakam, and 58-72 individuals on Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar.

Since the relationship between evolution and genetics of the populations mentioned above has not been studied, while the number of individuals of each population is on the decrease, the IUCN’s red list has listed the species as “Critically Endangered.”

Irrawaddy dolphins were first found in the Kien Giang biosphere reserve's biodiversity center and development (CBD) in June of 2010. At that time, the center's research team in conjunction with the University of Natural Sciences in HCM City was conducting a biodiversity survey on the Ba Lua archipelago.

The main target of the research team was the flora and fauna on the islands. However, in the talks with local residents, the experts paid attention to the attention about the existence of a marine mammal. Finally, the researchers collected the skull of a marine mammal on the Hon Da Bac Island.

The skull has been later recognized as the skull of an Irrawaddy dolphin, which died because it fell into a net of local fishermen.

The discovery prompted the scientists to make further investigations to learn more about the mammal. However, only on September 9, 2011, the researchers discovered and recorded the images of a herd of 20 dolphins on the area between the Hong Chuong and Hon Re Lon islands.

Living beyond the laws

The information collected from the interview with local residents shows that the dolphins are relatively popular, which live on the Ba Lua archipelago and Kien Luong bay. There are about 40 individuals at least.

In Vietnam, there is limited information about the marine mammal. Dao Tan Ho, a scientist, and his associates once reported the death of an individual of the species which died because of the fishing nets on the Tien River in 2002. Meanwhile, the Red Book of Vietnam does not mention Irrawaddy dolphin due to the lack of the information about the status of the dolphins and the location.

The government decree No 32 on the species of animals that people must not hunt, also does not mention the species.

Since this dolphin has not been mentioned in any legal document, in principle, the rare animal has not been officially protected in Vietnam.

CBD’s scientists are now joining forces with some international and domestic organizations to build up suitable conservation programs for the rare dolphin population.

Source: SGTT

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Australia: Fish help bay bounce back after flood

Tony Moore Brisbane Times 20 Jan 12;

Coral reefs in Moreton Bay’s no-fishing zones are recovering from last year’s flood faster because fish eat damaging algae, scientists can demonstrate for the first time.

Lower levels of the algae, which prevent coral regenerating, have allowed the reefs in no-fishing zones to recover quicker than those in other parts of the bay, researchers from the Australian Rivers Institute have discovered.

No-fishing zones were controversially added when the Moreton Bay Marine Park was reviewed in 2009.

Now researchers can say the no-fishing zones have helped coral recover faster after the January 2011 flood.

However, the flood has badly damaged 40 per cent of the seagrass beds in Moreton Bay, the same research shows.

Rod Connolly, who works for Griffith University, said the results followed 12 months of tests after ‘‘unusually fresh water’’ washed hundreds of millions of tonnes of sediment into Moreton Bay.

This sediment affected the coral reefs running in an arc from Mud Island, to St Helena, past Peel Island and near Myora Creek on North Stradbroke Island.

Professor Connolly said the massive amount of fresh water and dirt washed into the bay stressed the coral reefs.

‘‘Within eight weeks of the flood, substantial amounts of the coral had bleached,’’ he said.

‘‘And what we have just found out is that largely since the coral has recovered.”

The Australian Rivers Institute believed the recovery was due to fish eating the algae which effectively killed the organism causing the colour in the coral, Professor Connolly said.

‘‘There was huge contention three years ago when they put in new ‘green zones’ [no-fishing areas] in Moreton Bay,’’ he said.

“That has resulted in larger populations of bream and rabbit fish in the green zones.

‘‘And they are out there in generally bigger numbers in these green zones.

‘‘The algae tends to inhibit the recovery of the coral, so where you get the high rate of grazing, you get the better rate of recovery of the corals.’’

He said while the finds were ‘‘of great interest scientifically’’, to the general public they were proof that the scheme allowed nature to take its course.

‘‘The point is that we sometimes bag the green zones for being a limit on our freedoms, but there are some good signs out of it,’’ he said.

However, the flood badly damaged seagrass beds on the Moreton Bay side of North Stradbroke Island.

Seagrass beds are crucial feeding beds for dugongs, turtles and fish.

‘‘All of them depend on seagrass to some extent and seagrass bed health is in effect an early warning sign for things further up the food chain,’’ Professor Connolly said.

The Australian Rivers Institute research has measured energy stores in the seagrass beds, by looking at the amount of carbohydrate in seagrass plants since the flood.

Curiously, they found seagrass beds in poorest condition, furthest from the mouth of the Brisbane River.

‘‘What we found is that the seagrass beds on that side of Moreton Bay are not used to flood waters,’’ he said.

‘‘And this year what we found is that while the flood waters were worse on the western side of the bay [near the mouth] the seagrass there was used to that experience a bit more.

‘‘However on the Stradbroke Island side, they are not used to poor water conditions at all.’’

The outcome is that 40 per cent of Moreton Bay’s seagrass beds near Stradbroke Island are now in poor condition.

‘‘They are not all dead over at Stradbroke, but they are low in reserves for this time of year,’’ he said.

‘‘And if there was a further stress, most likely another flooding event, that would be the one that we would be worried about.’’

Moreton Bay still recovering from flooding
Bayside Bulletin 19 Jan 12;

No-fishing zones implemented to protect the Moreton Bay ecosystem have proven their worth in light of last year's flooding, however the coral reefs and seagrass habitats are still at risk.

This is according to ongoing research by scientists at Griffith University's Australian Rivers Institute.

In partnership with the Department of Environment and Resource Management, flood monitoring work has revealed that substantial bleaching of the coral occurred but that it has since undergone some recovery.

"There was a massive impact from the huge slug of sediment that arrived in the Moreton Bay ecosystem," research leader Professor Rod Connolly said.

"Corals nearer to the Brisbane River mouth have been affected historically by past flooding.

"Unfortunately this has resulted in reduced diversity but the remaining species tend to be better adapted and have managed to cope with the flood water pulses they were subjected to.

"Most importantly we have discovered their ability to recover is improved where the algae doesn’t overgrow the coral. This is evident from our research within the bay's green zones.

"Having a small number of select areas where fishing is not permitted results in higher numbers of fish grazing on algae, which in turn maximises the chance for corals to recover.

"These green zones were highly contentious when first implemented three years ago, but we can now confirm real benefits in the face of the flood impacts," Prof. Connolly said.

The ARI research has also monitored energy reserves within seagrass plants which shows that seagrass meadows near Stradbroke Island are in poorer condition than expected at this time of year as a result of the flood.

Moreton Bay corals ‘still at risk’
Griffith University Science Alert 31 Jan 12;

No-fishing zones implemented to protect the Moreton Bay ecosystem have proven their worth in light of last year’s flooding however the coral reefs and seagrass habitats are still at risk.

This is according to ongoing research by scientists at Griffith University's Australian Rivers Institute.

In partnership with the Department of Environment and Resource Management, flood monitoring work has revealed that substantial bleaching of the coral occurred but that it has since undergone some recovery.

"There was a massive impact from the huge slug of sediment that arrived in the Moreton Bay ecosystem," said research leader Professor Rod Connolly.

"Corals nearer to the Brisbane River mouth have been affected historically by past flooding. Unfortunately this has resulted in reduced diversity but the remaining species tend to be better adapted and have managed to cope with the flood water pulses they were subjected to.

"Most importantly we have discovered their ability to recover is improved where the algae doesn't overgrow the coral. This is evident from our research within the Bay's green zones.

"Having a small number of select areas where fishing is not permitted results in higher numbers of fish grazing on algae, which in turn maximises the chance for corals to recover.

"These green zones were highly contentious when first implemented three years ago, but we can now confirm real benefits in the face of the flood impacts," Professor Connolly said.

The ARI research has also monitored energy reserves within seagrass plants which shows that seagrass meadows near Stradbroke Island are in poorer condition than expected at this time of year as a result of the flood.

"These meadows are along the eastern side of the bay where the plants are rarely exposed to river water and they are now vulnerable to any major flooding this summer," Professor Connolly said.

"Seagrass habitat is critical food for dugongs, turtles and fish. With the unfortunate spike in dugong and turtle deaths reported during 2011, we are continuing to closely monitor this situation."

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Thailand In Hurry To Put Flood Defenses In Place

Ploy Ten Kate PlanetArk 20 Jan 12;

Thailand is racing to implement water management schemes costing 300 billion baht ($9.4 billion) to prevent a repeat of last year's flood disaster, but companies want to see even more haste while some experts say things shouldn't be rushed.

Thailand's worst flooding in at least five decades forced the closure of seven industrial estates in central provinces from October last year, causing billions of dollars of damage and putting about 650,000 people temporarily out of work.

Many factories have still not reopened but industrialists are already worrying about the next rainy season, barely four months away, and want the government to start acting on specific, concrete plans rather than outline broad ideas.

"We still have faith in the government and what they're trying to achieve," said Setsuo Iuchi, president of JETRO Thailand, the local arm of Japan External Trade Organization.

"I rather believe that people want to be here and keep on investing but, yes, we can't deny that more clear-cut actions by the government have to be made."

Companies like Hana Microelectronics Pcl and Aapico Hitech Pcl, whose plants were inundated, have called on the government to come up with both short-term remedies and long-term solutions to prevent future floods.

Only one or two companies, such as U.S.-based chip maker ON Semiconductor Corp, have said they are closing facilities completely after suffering from the floods.

Some big names have announced sizable investments to either restore old plants or build new ones.

This week alone, Toyota Motor Corp said it would spend 8.2 billion baht to build a new plant and restart one closed in 2010, and fellow Japanese firm Minebea Co Ltd, a bearing maker, said it would invest $75 million to build a new plant.

PLAN TAKES SHAPE

Deputy Prime Minister and incoming Finance Minister Kittirat Na Ranong outlined water management plans last weekend involving seven projects, including flood prevention measures along the Chao Phraya river that flows from the north and through Bangkok.

It involves reforestation, the construction of dams and reservoirs and city planning. "We have to move quickly. This cannot wait," he said.

One of the seven projects is a 10 billion baht plan to plant trees and build dikes along upstream tributaries of the Chao Phraya. Another, costing 50 billion baht, involves the construction of reservoirs in the river basins where the floods developed.

Other projects include the building of floodways in 2 million rai (800,000 acres) of farmland plus irrigation systems, the cleaning-up of canals and waterways and establishing a data system for water management.

Some 120 billion baht is earmarked for the construction of floodways and flood diversion channels, with work this year involving the improvement of dikes, sluice gates and canals.

"I'm not that confident these projects would work," said Chaiyuth Sukhsri, head of the Water Resources Engineering Department at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"The time period for formulating this plan is very, very short. It usually takes a lot of time to analyze these things," he said, adding that the social impact of the plans seemed to have been ignored completely.

Even so, Chaiyuth noted that rains could be heavy this year because of the La Nina effect.

Some analysts say erratic climate patterns are complicating things for policymakers.

For example, it is becoming more difficult for dam managers to make judgments based on previous weather patterns. Water discharged too late and in huge volume from northern dams was, for some analysts, a big factor behind the disaster last year.

DIKES AROUND ESTATES

Last week the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), under the Ministry of Industry, outlined a plan to build permanent dikes up to 6.5 meters (21 feet) high around the seven industrial estates forced to shut by floods last year.

"We now have a plan for building a permanent dike designed by the Engineering Institute of Thailand using statistics of flooding events in the past 100 years," Vithoon Simachokdee, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Industry said.

Each estate will adapt the proposed dike to its own circumstances and can apply for loans from the Government Savings Bank, which has a credit line of 15 billion baht offering loans at 0.01 percent over seven years.

The aim is for the work to be completed in August, Vithoon said.

Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, chairwoman of Toshiba Corporation's Thai unit, said the Bangkadi industrial estate, of which she is also chairwoman, would have a dike up to 6 meters high in place in September. Last year it was inundated with up to 4.3 meters of floodwater.

"Flood-affected companies and industrial estates are doing what they can to defend themselves better, but of course we can't do it entirely without the government's help," Kobkarn said.

"If the factories and industrial estates are safe from floods but our staff's homes are submerged, they won't be able to come to work anyway. We need the government to support us," she said.

Toshiba had to halt operations at nine of its 10 production plants at Bangkadi and one in Nava Nakorn Pcl estate in Pathum Thani province in the north of Bangkok. It may take a year for some to be up and running again.

(Additional reporting by Pisit Changplayngam; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Thailand unveils $12 billion plan to fight floods
Nirmal Ghosh Straits Times 21 Jan 12;

BANGKOK: Thailand yesterday unveiled a much-awaited 'masterplan' to prevent a repeat of the massive floods that devastated the country last year, with Premier Yingluck Shinawatra pledging an integrated approach beginning from the 'first drop of rain' in the north.

The 300 billion baht (S$12 billion) plan involves scores of short-, medium- and long-term projects, including the cleaning of canals in Bangkok, reforestation of water catchment areas, and building of new dykes and reservoirs.

The Thai government hopes that these measures will prevent another disaster like the one seen last September and October, when an emergency release of water from capacity-filled reservoirs in the north resulted in massive flooding down the central plains and the Bangkok area. It left more than 600 people dead, cost the country some 1.43 trillion baht, inundated over half a dozen industrial estates and dented investor confidence.

'This is intended to create confidence for the people, farmers, business sector and investors in industrial estates affected,' Ms Yingluck told a press conference.

'In the short term, the goal is to decrease the level of damage from possible floods in 2012. In the long term, the goal is to improve the flood management system in an integrated and sustainable way.'

The masterplan emphasises an inte- grated approach. A new national topographical map, for instance, will be drawn up to provide water managers with up-to-date information that was lacking last year.

Reforestation will address the issue of forest depletion, which has contributed to faster-than-usual water runoff in catchment forests in the north and which caused reservoirs to fill rapidly.

In the north, the masterplan will focus on holding back water and delaying severe floods, while in the south, it revolves around new reservoirs, dykes and floodways.

In Bangkok, which narrowly escaped massive flooding last year, the drainage system will be overhauled, new floodways built east and west of the city to divert water from it, and some city roads adapted for use as temporary drainage canals when required.

And in industrial estates, roads will be reinforced to act as dykes, and pumping stations will be installed. The government intends to focus on 'self-sufficient flood prevention', offering low-interest loans to fund the works, while also creating a 50 billion baht insurance fund.

Meanwhile, an independent committee on water management will be set up with a 'single command' to ensure an integrated approach, said Ms Yingluck. Last year, her greenhorn administration was criticised for its haphazard response to the crisis, with officials contradicting each other over the situation and the measures needed.

Mr Pitipong Phuengboon Na Ayudhaya, a member of the committee that drew up the masterplan, said the Premier 'should have authority even over the local authorities' - an indirect reference to disagreements between the government and Bangkok's opposition-run city administration, which had hampered the response.

Investors - particularly Japanese businesses who were hit the hardest - will no doubt be studying the masterplan in coming days.

Dr Smith Thammasaroj, a former meteorological department and disaster management chief, however, raised concerns about some of the short-term plans.

'The rainy season will be here in three months,' he said. 'There's not enough time to do anything. And all these long-term measures take time, maybe two to three years.'

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Yangtze Basin lakes shrinking as climate change, development takes its toll

WWF 19 Jan 12;

Beijing - A new WWF study finds that many Yangtze River Basin lakes are shrinking dramatically and could dry up completely if measures aren’t taken to stem the impacts of climate change, increased industrialization, and urbanization along China’s longest river.

The Yangtze Conservation and Development Report 2011 (YCDR 2011) shows that lower water levels, rapid urbanization and large water infrastructure projects across the Yangtze Basin are impacting the overall health of many lakes along the 6,300km river, which supports the livelihoods of nearly one-third of China’s population.

“Lake ecosystems in the Yangtze River Basin are showing tell-tale signs of degradation, and problems like water eutrophication from industrial runoff are on the rise. We are also seeing a decline in flood retention capacity and insufficient water supply. These changes are putting increased pressure on many of the species found in the Yangtze, including the finless porpoise and Chinese carps,” says Yang Guishan, President of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Climate change in the Upper Yangtze
While water resources will increase over the short term, the YCDR 2011 predicts that the long-term impacts of climate change will result in massive water shortages in headwater regions.

“Over the short term, increased glacial melt in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau means more water. But after the glaciers are gone – and with them the source of the Yangtze River - available water resources will decline. The lack of water could cause lakes that depend on glacial melt to shrink or dry up completely,” says Yang Guishan.

Pollution, population and land reclamation
From 1950-2010, the central and lower reaches of the Yangtze lost approximately two thirds of its lakes due to increased land reclamation for agriculture and industrial development. This has resulted in a water storage capacity loss roughly equivalent to 20 million Olympic-sized swimming pools – and means that smaller floods now have the potential to inflict much more damage.

Meanwhile, population growth and rapid economic development - particularly in the central and lower Yangtze - as well as excessive fish farming has resulted in more serious water pollution issues and increased instances of eutrophication, a process where excessive nutrients diminish water quality in lakes or other bodies of water.

Water quality monitoring data from 2007-2010 in the central and lower Yangtze shows that 77 per cent of the 77 lakes with an area of 10 km2 or more could not provide safe drinking water, while over 88 per cent were in various stages of eutrophication. Meanwhile, in 2009 alone, over 33 billion tonnes of sewage was discharged into the Yangtze River Basin, nearly a 22 per cent rise from 2003.

Solutions
Similar to the diagnosis offered in the previous two editions of the YCDR, the 2011 update points out that more work still needs to be done to ensure the future health of the Yangtze River:

“The Yangtze Conservation and Development Report 2011 shows that a comprehensive action plan is an absolute necessity to ensure the future of this irreplaceable resource,” said Jim Grandoville, CEO of WWF China. “WWF will be working with partners and seek solutions towards the protection and sustainable usage of the lakes along the Yangtze.”

The report also emphasizes the importance of mitigating the accumulative impacts of large infrastructure projects such as the Three Gorges Dam and South to North Water Transfer Project on the Yangtze River, especially downstream.

Known as the “Yangtze health check”, this is the third edition of the Yangtze Conservation and Development Report. It is jointly developed by WWF, the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Development Bank.

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2011 was ninth-warmest year since 1880: NASA

Reuters Yahoo News 20 Jan 12;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The global average temperature last year was the ninth-warmest in the modern meteorological record, continuing a trend linked to greenhouse gases that saw nine of the 10 hottest years occurring since the year 2000, NASA scientists said on Thursday.

A separate report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the average temperature for the United States in 2011 as the 23rd warmest year on record.

The global average surface temperature for 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline temperature, researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies said in a statement. The institute's temperature record began in 1880.

The first 11 years of the new century were notably hotter than the middle and late 20th century, according to institute director James Hansen. The only year from the 20th century that was among the top 10 warmest years was 1998.

These high global temperatures come even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina ocean temperature pattern and low solar activity for the past several years, said Hansen, who has long campaigned against human-spurred climate change.

The NASA statement said the current higher temperatures are largely sustained by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is emitted by various human activities, from coal-fired power plants to fossil-fueled vehicles to human breath.

Current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceed 390 parts per million, compared with 285 ppm in 1880 and 315 by 1960, NASA said.

Last year was also a year of record-breaking climate extremes in the United States, which contributed to 14 weather and climate disasters with economic impact of $1 billion or more each, according to NOAA . This number does not count a pre-Halloween snowstorm in the Northeast, which is still being analyzed.

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said the average 2011 temperature for 2011 for the contiguous United States was 53.8 degrees F, which is 1 degree above the 20th-century average. Average precipitation across the country was near normal, but this masks record-breaking extremes of drought and precipitation, the agency said.

(Reporting By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Xavier Briand)

World not quite as hot in 2011; ranks 11th warmest
Seth Borenstein Associated Press Yahoo News 20 Jan 12;

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world last year wasn't quite as warm as it has been for most of the past decade, government scientists said Thursday, but it continues a general trend of rising temperatures.

The average global temperature was 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit, making 2011 the 11th hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. That's 0.9 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, officials said. In fact, it was hotter than every year last century except 1998.

One reason 2011 was milder than recent years was the La Nina cooling of the central Pacific Ocean. La Ninas occur every few years and generally cause global temperatures to drop, but this was the warmest La Nina year on record.

And 2011 also was the warmest year on record for Spain and Norway, and the second warmest for the United Kingdom. In the United States, the average temperature of 53.8 was just 1 degree above normal, making last year only the 23rd warmest on record. But 17 cities — including Houston, Miami, Trenton and Austin — had their warmest years.

This marks the 35th straight year that global temperatures were warmer than normal. NOAA's records for world average temperatures date back to 1880.

"It would be premature to make any conclusion that we would see any hiatus of the longer-term warming trend," said Tom Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. "Global temperatures are continuing to increase."

NASA, which calculates global temperatures in a slightly different way, announced essentially the same temperature for the year. But NASA's record-keeping calls it the ninth warmest ever.

Both NASA climate scientist James Hansen and University of Victoria's Andrew Weaver said they expect that in the next few years the world will set yet a new record high temperature. 2010 tied for the hottest on record.

NOAA also released new figures for extreme weather. The agency recalculated the number of billion-dollar weather disasters in the U.S., bumping the total from 12 to 14. Officials added Tropical Storm Lee, which dumped rain from Maryland to New England in September, and a July hail and wind storm in Colorado to the list.

The 14 extreme events smash the old record of nine billion-dollar disasters in 2008.

"America has endured an unusually large number of extreme events, totaling damages of more than $55 billion," NOAA deputy administrator Kathryn Sullivan said. She blamed a variety of factors, including population changes.

For the year, a record 58 percent of the United States had either extreme rainfall or severe drought, about triple what is normal for the country. Seven states — New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Indiana and Kentucky — had their wettest years since those types of records were kept beginning in 1895. Texas had its driest year ever.

The record wet up north and dry down south fits with what climate change science predicts, but it is too early to say if 2011's precipitation extremes were due to global warming, Karl said. And the unusual number of deadly tornadoes can't be linked to global warming, he said.

But Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., which is a consortium of universities, said it's hard not to see the hand of man-made global warming behind the extremes.

"Where these events occur is largely driven by natural variability, but the fact that they are breaking records and causing tremendous damage when they do occur is undoubtedly because of the human stimulus," Trenberth said in an email.

___

NOAA's climate report: http://1.usa.gov/zeeYab

NASA's climate report: http://1.usa.gov/ynPirr

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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Jan 12

Mummy civet with her three babies!
from Life of a common palm civet in Singapore

Gordonia penangensis: A Treasure on Keppel Island
from Flying Fish Friends

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Why fishing is not allowed along the Berlayer Creek

Visitors urged to be considerate to others: National Parks Board
Letter from Kartini Omar General Manager, Parks, National Parks Board Today Online 18 Jan 12;

WE THANK Ms Mary Maloney for her letter, "Boardwalks for walking or ...?" (Jan 14).

We agree with Ms Maloney that what she saw at Labrador Park and Changi Boardwalk were instances of inconsiderate behaviour.

We would like to take this opportunity to explain why fishing is not allowed at or along the Berlayer Creek and the Bukit Chermin Boardwalk in Labrador Nature Reserve.

The boardwalk is narrow, hence the casting of lines and hooks, as well as lines left dangling by the side of the railing pose a danger to other visitors.

In a small coastal creek, driftnet fishing can take away many small marine animals that are important to the ecosystem there.

Driftnets that get stuck in the small creek will also damage the natural habitats in the area.

Those who fish in prohibited areas in parks can be fined S$200 in the first instance. We will step up patrols in the area.

For the safety of other park visitors, cyclists need to dismount and push their bicycles along the Berlayer Creek and Bukit Chermin Boardwalk.

We have advised cyclists to take heed of the signs along the boardwalks, and will continue to do so.

Our parks and gardens are for the enjoyment of everyone. We urge all visitors to be considerate to others, and help keep our parks and gardens litter-free.

NParks to step up enforcement action at park connector
Straits Times Forum 20 Jan 12;

WE SHARE Mr Wang Eng Hin's concern that some park users' irresponsible behaviour has resulted in litter along the Punggol Park Connector Network ('Punggol's dangerous anglers'; Tuesday).

Currently, our contractors clean up the Punggol Park Connector Network (PCN) on a daily basis. We had informed Mr Wang earlier that we would be deploying more cleaners to maintain the area. We will be stepping up enforcement action along Punggol PCN as well.

Our parks and gardens are for the enjoyment of everyone. We urge all PCN users to be considerate to others, and help keep our park connectors litter-free.

Kartini Omar (Ms)
General Manager, Parks
National Parks Board

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Cambodia: Extremely Rare Turtle Is Released Into the Wild

ScienceDaily 18 Jan 12;

The Wildlife Conservation Society, in conjunction with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, just announced the successful release of a Southern River terrapin (Batagur affinis) -- one of the most endangered turtles on earth -- into the Sre Ambel River in Cambodia. The turtle was released on January 16th at a ceremony attended by officials, conservationists, and local people.

The female turtle, which weighs approximately 75 pounds (34 kilograms), is fixed with a satellite transmitter that will allow conservationists to track its whereabouts -- the first-ever satellite monitoring study for this species.

Captured in the Sre Ambel River by local fishermen in April, 2011, the turtle is one of an estimated 200 adults remaining in the wilds of Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It was voluntarily turned it over to the WCS Cambodia turtle team instead of being sold into the black market trade where it would have been sent to food markets in China. The population in the Sre Ambel River is estimated at less than ten nesting females. Thus, this individual is extremely important for maintaining genetic diversity of this species that has already suffered drastic population declines.

WCS believes the population has an excellent chance of recovery as the coastal mangrove forests of Southeastern Cambodia are some of the largest and most pristine in Southeast Asia, spanning some 175 square miles (more than 45,000 hectares). These habitats are crucial to numerous aquatic and terrestrial animals and are vital nursery areas for marine fisheries.

Conservationists will monitor the turtle's movements to see how it utilizes this region. Of particular interest is how the turtle navigates through commercial fishing grounds, as well as areas where it could be threatened by other factors such as habitat destruction by sand mining or conversion of mangrove forests into shrimp farming facilities.

WCS notes that numerous studies on similar long-lived species have shown that as little as a five percent increase in annual adult mortality can cause populations to go extinct. "By reducing the adult mortality of the Southern River terrapin, even by fractions -- as little as ten animals a year per population in this circumstance -- we can have immediate and long-term positive impacts on the remaining wild populations of this critically endangered species" said Brian D. Horne of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Heng Sovannara, Deputy Director of Cambodia's Fisheries Administration's Conservation Department, is extremely hopeful that the release will enhance efforts to conserve the species. "By identifying areas that are most utilized by the turtles, we can pinpoint our efforts to reduce the turtles being caught as fishery by-catch as well as targeted hunting," he said.

Dr. Sonja Luz, Deputy Director of Conservation & Research for Wildlife Reserves Singapore, said: "This project will contribute greatly to a much brighter future for this critically endangered terrapin. Hopefully, more public awareness and education opportunities will arise from this and allow us to create better protection tools and a safer environment for these amazing reptiles."

In 2000, a small population of Southern River Terrapins, Batagur affinis, was found in the Sre Ambel after many years of being considered locally extinct.

The turtle was once considered solely the property of the King of Cambodia, but has been decimated by overhunting over the past two decades.

Following the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot regime, the Cambodian people were left in severe poverty, and with the growing international demand for turtles in China for human consumption, literally thousands of turtles were captured and sent to China for much needed income by the country's impoverished people.

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Killings Draw Indonesia's Tigers Closer to Extinction

Alina Mustaidah Jakarta Globe 18 Jan 12;

At least 40 endangered Sumatran tigers were killed during 2011, an official said on Tuesday.

Darori, director general of forest protection and nature conservation at the Forestry Ministry, unveiled the figure during a workshop for the implementation of the National Plan for the Revival of the Sumatran Tiger.

The official blamed the impact of growing human settlements on forests and illegal poaching as the main causes behind the deaths.

Darori did not give precise details on the recorded deaths but said that the Sumatran tiger population stood at fewer than 400. He said that from the nine tiger species in the world, three of them were already extinct. Two of the extinct subspecies are specific to Indonesia, the Java and Bali tigers.

Noviar Andayani, country director at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said other extinct tiger subspecies included the Caspian and South China tigers.

“Five other species may soon also become extinct if no according attention is paid to their habitat,” Noviar said.

An estimated 3,200 tigers are left in the world, she said, attributing their dwindling numbers to illegal tiger organ trade, expansion of agricultural lands and plantation and logging.

“Without any immediate response to save them, wild tigers may become extinct by 2022,” Noviar said.

In the latest case of a tiger death, efforts to save a male tiger, about 5 to 6 years old found trapped in a forest in Bengkulu with spear and airgun wounds, failed. The tiger, which had been flown to Java and treated at the Taman Safari park in Cisarua, died of its injuries.

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Sumatran Tiger Given a Fighting Chance by Global Initiative
Jakarta Globe 18 Jan 12;

Indonesia is set to get Rp 300 billion ($33.3 million) to double its wild tiger population by 2022, as part of a global initiative to bring the iconic species back from the brink of extinction.

Endah Murningtyas, the deputy for natural resources and the environment at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said on Tuesday that the funding would come from the Global Tiger Recovery Program, an initiative of the World Bank.

She said the money would be released over several years, with the eventual goal being to double Indonesia’s population of Sumatran tigers from the current estimated 450-700 adults.

The Sumatran tiger, the smallest of the five remaining tiger subspecies in the world, is also the most threatened. Categorized as critically endangered, it is just a step away from being extinct in the wild.

It is the only tiger left that is endemic to Indonesia. Two other subspecies, the Javan tiger and the Balinese tiger, were driven to extinction in the 1930s and 1980s.

Darori, the Forestry Ministry’s director general of forest protection, said efforts to save the species had so far focused more on rehabilitating tigers caught in traps or in conflict with humans, with little emphasis on actual conservation.

He attributed this to the dearth of funding allocated for the conservation of tigers and their habitats. He said the funding would go some way toward making up for the shortfall, but stressed that more money should also be raised domestically for the cause.

“We invite companies to contribute through their corporate social responsibility programs,” Darori said.

“The total amount of CSR funding from companies in Indonesia is around Rp 20 trillion a year, so if we could just set aside Rp 1 trillion for tiger conservation, it would go a long way.”

He said there were still only a handful of companies active in conservation efforts. Among them are the Artha Graha Group, which funds a tiger conservation zone inside the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in southern Sumatra, and Asia Pulp & Paper, which is developing a tiger observation center in Riau.

Darori said the Forestry Ministry was also planning to set up a 300-hectare tiger park of its own. 

Antara

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Rainforest in Transition: Is the Amazon Transforming before Our Eyes?

David Biello Scientific American Yahoo News 18 Jan 12;

The Amazon rainforest is in flux, thanks to agricultural expansion and climate change. In other words, humans have "become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon Basin," as an international consortium of scientists wrote in a review of the state of the science on the world's largest rainforest published in Nature on January 19. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The dry season is growing longer in areas where humans have been clearing the trees—as has water discharge from Amazon River tributaries in those regions. Multiyear and more frequent severe droughts, like those in 2005 and 2010, are killing trees that humans don't cut down as well as increasing the risks of more common fires (both man-made and otherwise).

The trees are also growing fast — faster than expected for a "mature" rainforest — according to a network of measurements.

The exact cause or causes of this accelerated growth—which means the Amazon's 5 million square kilometers of trees are now sucking in and sequestering some 400 million metric tons of carbon per year, or enough to offset the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Japan—"remains unknown," the researchers wrote in the review.

"When we measure that a particular stand of mature forest is accumulating carbon, it is difficult to say whether that might be due to recovery from some unrecognized disturbance long ago or whether it is due to more recent changes in climate and CO2," explained Woods Hole Research Center Senior Scientist and Executive Director Eric Davidson, lead author of the review, in an e-mail. Candidates include recovery from the potential wide-scale disturbance by pre-Columbian human societies now beginning to be uncovered or the increasing availability of some formerly limiting factor, such as atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In fact, increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere—now roughly 392 parts per million and rising—may be fertilizing the rainforest and preventing even greater impacts from reduced rainfall, although this question, Davidson and his colleagues wrote in the review, "may be one of the largest unknowns for the future of the Amazon forests."

What is known is that the forest clearing that has already gone on is decreasing forest rainfall. The Amazon produces roughly a third of its own precipitation—trees release moist air that then falls back as rain to nourish other trees (the rest comes from the Atlantic Ocean). But the air above cleared land warms faster and therefore rises more quickly, drawing the moist air from surrounding forested areas away. In fact, the conjunction of cleared and forested lands actually creates wind known as a vegetation breeze. But that breeze tends to blow rainfall away from the forest and over the surrounding pastures instead. It also weakens the continental-scale low-pressure system that draws rainfall over the Amazon.

The southern and eastern portions of the Amazon are the most affected, according to this review. For example, the southeastern Amazon around one of the local tributary rivers—the Tocantins—has seen pasture and cropland increase from 30 percent to 50 percent of the land between 1955 and 1995. As a result, that river now carries 25 percent more water. Another southeastern tributary, the Araguaia, now carries 28 percent more sediment—precious soil lost during downpours from surrounding, expanded agricultural fields.

Agroforestry and other techniques for better environmental management of such agriculture remain rare, despite their proven ability to help balance increased food production with ecosystem services like carbon sequestration. On the whole, cutting down trees so that the Amazon covers only roughly 80 percent of the land it once did seems to have tipped the rainforest from being a sink for global CO2 emissions to a net source, although this calculation remains highly uncertain, the scientists noted. In addition, the entire rainforest may be transitioning from a relatively undisturbed ecosystem to what scientists like to call a "disturbance-dominated regime," or a biome that has become an "anthrome"—a landscape dominated by human impact.

The good news is that Brazil has in recent years begun to restrain such deforestation: annual rates fell from 28,000 square kilometers in 2004 to less than 7,000 in 2011. "Brazil is poised to become one of the few countries to achieve the transition to major economic power without destroying most of its forests," the researchers wrote in their conclusion. New laws currently under consideration may put that potential in peril, however, by allowing a return of previously banned forest-clearing practices. "There is considerable progress toward improved management of the impacts of development in the region," Davidson noted in his e-mail, "but there is still much work to be done."

Amazon Basin shifting to carbon emitter: study
AFP Yahoo News 20 Jan 12;

The Amazon Basin, traditionally considered a bulwark against global warming, may be becoming a net contributor of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of deforestation, researchers said on Wednesday.

In an overview published in the journal Nature, scientists led by Eric Davidson of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts say the Amazon is "in transition" as a result of human activity.

Over 50 years, the population has risen from six million to 25 million, triggering massive land clearance for logging and agriculture, they said.

The Amazon's carbon budget -- the amount of CO2 that it releases into the atmosphere or takes from it -- is changing although it is hard to estimate accurately, they said.

"Deforestation has moved the net basin-wide budget away from a possible late 20th-century net carbon sink and towards a net source," according to their paper.

Mature forests such as the Amazon are big factors in the global-warming equation.

Their trees suck up CO2 from the atmosphere through the natural process of photosynthesis.

But when they rot or are burned, or the forest land is ploughed up, the carbon is returned to the air, adding to the greenhouse effect.

The paper estimates that the biomass of the Amazon contains a whopping 100 billion tonnes of carbon -- the equivalent of more than 10 years of global fossil-fuel emissions.

Global warming, unleashing weather shifts, could release some of this store, it warned.

"Much of the Amazon forest is resilient to seasonal and moderate drought, but this resilience can and has been exceeded with experimental and natural severe droughts, indicating a risk of carbon loss if drought increases with climate change."

The paper also noted that there had been extreme droughts and floods on the Tocantins and Araguaia basins, whose rivers drain the heavily deforested Cerado region.

"Where deforestation is widespread at local and regional scales, the dry season duration is lengthening and wet season discharge is increasing," it warned.

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China report spells out "grim" climate change risks

Chris Buckley Reuters 17 Jan 12;

(Reuters) - Global warming threatens China's march to prosperity by cutting crops, shrinking rivers and unleashing more droughts and floods, says the government's latest assessment of climate change, projecting big shifts in how the nation feeds itself.

The warnings are carried in the government's "Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change," which sums up advancing scientific knowledge about the consequences and costs of global warming for China -- the world's second biggest economy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution.

Global warming fed by greenhouse gases from industry, transport and shifting land-use poses a long-term threat to China's prosperity, health and food output, says the report. With China's economy likely to rival the United States' in size in coming decades, that will trigger wider consequences.

"China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental conditions under the impact of continued global warming and changes to China's regional environment," says the 710-page report, officially published late last year but released for public sale only recently.

Even so, China's rising emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels, will begin to fall off only after about 2030, with big falls only after mid-century, says the report.

Assuming no measures to counter global warming, grain output in the world's most populous nation could fall from 5 to 20 percent by 2050, depending on whether a "fertilization effect" from more carbon dioxide in the air offsets losses, says the report.

But that possible fall can be held in check by improved crop choice and farming practices, as well as increased irrigation and fertilizer use.

China is the world's biggest consumer of cereals and has increasingly turned to foreign suppliers of corn and soy beans.

The report was written by teams of scientists supervised by government officials, and follows up on a first assessment released in 2007. It does not set policy, but offers a basis of evidence and forecasts that will shape policy.

RISING COSTS OF GROWING FOOD

"Generally, the observed impacts of climate change on agriculture have been both positive and negative, but mainly negative," Lin Erda, one of the chief authors of the report, told Reuters.

"But steadily, as the temperatures continue to rise, the negative consequences will be increasingly serious," said Lin, an expert on climate change and farming at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

"For a certain length of time, people will be able to adapt, but costs of adaptation will rise, including for agriculture."

Under different scenarios of greenhouse gas levels and their effects, by the end of this century China's average atmospheric temperature will have risen by between 2.5 degrees and 4.6 degrees Celsius above the average for 1961-1990.

Water, either too much or too little, lies at the heart of how that warming could trip up China's budding prosperity.

"Climate change will lead to severe imbalances in China's water resources within each year and across the years. In most areas, precipitation will be increasingly concentrated in the summer and autumn rainy seasons, and floods and droughts will become increasingly frequent," says the report.

"Without effective measures in response, by the latter part of the 21st century, climate change could still constitute a threat to our country's food security," it says.

Under one scenario of how global warming will affect water availability, by 2050 eight of mainland China's 31 provinces and provincial-status cities could face severe water shortages -- meaning less than 500 cubic meters per resident -- and another 10 could face less dire chronic shortages.

"Since the 1950s, over 82 percent of glaciers have been in a state of retreat, and the pace has accelerated since the 1990s," the report says of China's glaciers in Tibet and nearby areas that feed major rivers.

RISING SEA LEVELS

In low-lying coastal regions, rising seas will press up against big cities and export zones that have stood at the forefront of China's industrialization.

In the 30 years up to 2009, the sea level off Shanghai rose 11.5 centimeters (4.5 inches); in the next 30 years, it will probably rise another 10 to 15 centimeters.

China's efforts to protect vulnerable coastal areas with embankments are inadequate, says the report, noting their vulnerability to typhoons and flood tides that global warming could intensify.

There are sure to be shifts in Chinese crop patterns as well, says the report. More rice and other crops will probably grow in the northeast, thanks to warmer weather and possibly more rain. In the northwest cotton-growing region of Xinjiang, shrinking water availability could lead to a "marked decline in agricultural crop productivity".

In northern and southwest areas, winter wheat harvests could shrink due to shifting seasons and less rain when it is needed. Corn-growing regions will need more irrigation and fertilizer.

"Future climate warming will therefore increase the costs of agriculture," says the report.

China, with 1.34 billion people, already emits a quarter of the world's CO2, with the United States the world's second largest greenhouse gas emitter.

The report forecasts China's CO2 emissions could reach between 9 and 9.5 billion tons in 2020, given the government's goal of cutting the carbon pollution emitted for each unit of growth by 40-45 percent compared to 2005 levels.

China's emissions totaled 8.3 billion tons in 2010, according to BP Statistics, representing annual growth of 10.4 percent.

The report says China's emissions reduction efforts up to 2020 will cost 10 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion), including 5 trillion yuan for energy-saving technology and new and renewable energy.

"Many cost-effective and mature technologies for energy saving and new and renewable energy have already been widely applied," it says. "In the future, controlling greenhouse gas emissions will require more costly and less mature technologies."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fogarty)

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