Malaysia: Pangolins in danger of being wiped out

The Star 3 Feb 12;

PETALING JAYA: Pangolins are in danger of serious decline in Malaysia due to the rampant illegal trade of the protected species.

Penang Perhilitan director Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim said this was a big problem in the country.

“We have been carrying extensive enforcement activities and managed to solve two cases last year.

“Two people involved in the first case involving 135 pangolins have been charged and sentenced, while the second case involving 35 pangolins is still pending in court,'' he said.

Traffic South-East Asia deputy regional director Chris Shepherd said there had been many incidents of pangolins being seized in the country or coming out of Malaysia over the last few years.

On the recent arrest of two Malaysian pangolin smugglers in Thailand, he said the authorities must identify the illegal trade chain.

“They should investigate to find out who are behind the illegal trading of pangolins and the middlemen and traders involved.''

Thai media reported that the men were arrested on Monday with 45 pangolins weighing over 100kg stashed under the back seat of their vehicle while passing through southern Thailand's inbound border checkpoint in Sadao district.

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Malaysia: Tapir hunted for its meat?

R.S.N. Murali The Star 3 Feb 12;

MALACCA: An injured Malayan tapir that strayed into a Bukit Katil village here could have been hunted for its meat.

State Housing, Local Government and Environment committee chairman Datuk Mohd Yunos Husin said that based on feedback, unlicensed hunters were often seen entering the secondary jungle surrounding the Kampung Tun Abdul Razak village in search of the endangered species.

“We don't know how many of these endangered species were trapped over the past year but the injured tapir found with its left hind leg severed has prompted us to act,” he said.

Mohd Yunos said he would get the relevant authorities to check if endangered species hunted in forest reserves here were ending up in restaurants serving exotic meats.

On Wednesday, the injured 200kg male tapir caused panic among some 300 village folk when it turned aggressive.

Meanwhile, State Wildlife and National Parks director Abdul Rahim Othman in an e-mail to The Star said the department did not discount the possibility that the tapir was hunted for its meat.

He said the tapir was first spotted in December last year at a jungle fringing Kg Bukit Bayan in Bukit Katil here, an area filled with traps to capture wildboars.

He said the tapir could have strayed from its natural habitat at Asahan Forest Reserve, some 40km away from where it was rescued.

Related link
Malaysia: Tapir captured after two hours New Straits Times 2 Feb 12;

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Malaysia: Second bribery bid foiled in relation to mangrove thefts

The Star 3 Feb 12;

BARELY a month after an individual was caught for allegedly trying to bribe the Selangor Forestry Department enforcement assistant director Mohd Yussainy Md Yusop for mangrove thefts, another businessman has been arrested for a similar offence.

Last week, the authorities nabbed the businessman who had offered a bribe of RM42,200 to both the Forestry Department officer and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).

The bribe was an inducement to release the seized logs.

In the raid, the Forestry Department, MMEA and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission seized eight Indonesian-registered boats ferrying 11,166 logs, estimated to be worth RM110,000 and detained 34 people.

Two weeks ago, a suspected mastermind had approached Yussainy and asked if he would accept RM3,000 to release some 110 cut mangrove logs (3.5m to 4m long), a wooden boat, a boat engine and a barrel of fuel that were seized during a raid off Pulau Klang Forest Reserve and Telok Gong Forest Reserve.

Yussainy said they would go all out to stop the stealing of mangrove logs in Port Klang and the surrounding islands.

“About 5.82 million trees were felled over the last 10 years causing a huge damage to the environment and fishing grounds.

“Today, the islands in Selangor and the coastal areas are starting to recover but these thieves continue to cut the trees.

As a result, trees are being felled more than they are planted,” he said.

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Indonesia: Rare Sumatran rhino pregnancy offers hope to species

(AFP) Google News 2 Feb 12;

JAKARTA — A Sumatran rhino which is 10-months pregnant is receiving special medical care after suffering two miscarriages, a conservationist said Thursday, fuelling hope for the critically-endangered species.

The nine-year old rhino, named Ratu, is expected to give birth in July to only the fourth Sumatran rhino born in captivity and the first in Indonesia.

Her partner Andalas, born in the United States in 2001, was the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in over 112 years.

"We have given her special hormone treatments to lessen the risk of miscarriage. Thank God, it is working well and we hope she'll have a successful birth," Widodo Ramono from the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia told AFP.

"It will be the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in Indonesia," Ramono added.

The two-horned, hairy, forest-dwelling Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the most endangered mammals in the world, with only about 200 remaining in the wild -- about 180 in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

Ratu and Andalas were paired in 2009 at a sanctuary in Way Kambas national park in Lampung, South Sumatra province, two years after Andalas was brought from the Cincinnati zoo for a breeding programme.

Poaching is one of the biggest killers of Sumatran rhinos, whose numbers have dropped more than 50 percent over the last 15 years. Their horns are reputed to have medicinal properties.

Andalas is the only remaining male Sumatran rhino at Way Kambas since Torgamba, another male, died last year. The sanctuary has three female Sumatran rhinos.

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Philippines: Living with sea turtles

Orlando A. Maliwanag Inquirer 2 Feb 12;

In 2011, a record-breaking 1.44 million green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) eggs were laid on Baguan Island in the Philippine Turtle Islands. A good sign for sea turtles, to be sure — but what does it mean for the 6,000 impoverished human residents who share these islands with the turtles?

The Turtle Islands is a municipality of six small islands in the province of Tawi-Tawi in western Mindanao. For many people, the word “Mindanao” brings to mind stories of bombings and military-rebel encounters, kidnappings and the never-ending secessionist war being waged by various Muslim groups — including the dreaded Al-Qaeda affiliated Abu Sayyaf. In fact, most parts of Mindanao seem to be permanently included in the travel advisories of almost all foreign governments.

Many of the Turtle Islands’ current residents fled mainland Mindanao to escape these conflicts and find peace. Although the islands are part of the Turtle Island Heritage Protected Area — a sanctuary for sea turtles that is jointly managed by the Philippines and Malaysia — these refugees displaced the turtles from their nesting beaches, and communities harvested eggs for trade on the neighboring Malaysian-held island of Sabah.

For many years, the Turtle Islands were a free-for-all for local and foreign turtle and egg poachers, illegal foreign trawl fishers, and locals using destructive fishing methods like dynamite and cyanide fishing. Since the islands are far from the center of political and administrative power, the area was devoid of even basic government services and support, and implementation of the laws was more of an exemption than the rule. A local resident jokingly described the Turtle Islands as “a place of 6,000 people and 12,000 guns.”

These were just a few of the challenges that previous conservation efforts in the Turtle Islands have had to deal with over the years, and this was the backdrop when Conservation International (CI) began working there in 2007. The situation was so complex that when I first set foot on the islands in 2008, I thought, “This place is one of our conservation sites? Is my boss crazy?”

The following years proved to be very challenging in reinstituting turtle and marine conservation measures in the Turtle Islands. Long neglected by the government, the community had low regard for conservation and governance. Many people initially viewed conservation as a threat to their sources of food and income.

However, people are beginning to realize that it is possible for sea turtles and humans to co-exist here, and the situation is improving. In order to convince communities that sea turtle conservation is in their best interest, we are engaging stakeholders in dialogues and consultations, helping them rediscover the traditional cultural values of these turtles and emphasizing that their help is essential to save the turtles from extinction.

CI is also supporting alternative sources of income in communities, providing small fishers with startup capital to free them from taking high-interest loans; women with small convenience stores and equipment and materials for traditional mat-weaving; and the youth group with tools and materials for printing shirts and making handicrafts from recycled plastic and driftwood.

In order to make the Turtle Islands a true haven for turtles and people alike, there is still a lot of work to be done. One major challenge continues to be adequate law enforcement. Since there is no court in the Turtle Islands (the nearest is in the Tawi-Tawi capital town of Bonggao, 16 to 18 hours travel by boat), apprehended violators in the 12,036-hectare (29,741-acre) Baguan Island strict protection zone are not currently being sent to jail. Instead, they are only given warnings and made to do community service, such as cleaning the beaches of driftwood and garbage blocking the nesting areas. These are some of the realities that characterize law enforcement in a remote yet resource-rich area such as the Turtle Islands, even though we have helped achieve some progress by assisting in delineating the Baguan Island strict protection zone and facilitating the policy that allowed the deployment of Philippine Marines and Coast Guard to the area.

As shown by the initial results of our work, we seem to be on the right path. Last year’s 28-year record high of turtle nesting in Baguan is a source of pride for us at CI, our partners, and most especially the community in the Turtle Islands.

In retrospect, by choosing Turtle Islands as one of our conservation sites, I’ve realized that my boss was not that crazy after all.

Orlando Maliwanag is the sea turtle corridor coordinator for Conservation International-Philippines. He is based in the Turtle Islands for six months every year to coordinate CI’s program in the field. This blog originally appeared in Conservations International blog.

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Best of our wild blogs: 2 Feb 12

11 Feb (Sat): Tanah Merah clean up - first of a year round effort
from wild shores of singapore

Wispers in the dark
from The annotated budak and Taking the tube

black baza raptor surprise @ lorong halus - Jan2012
from sgbeachbum and under-water monitor lizard @ lorong halus - Jan2012

The Calls of the Asian Koel
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Malaysia approves Australian rare earths plant

Julia Zappei (AFP) Google News 1 Feb 12;

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia gave the green light Wednesday for a controversial rare earths plant being built by Australian miner Lynas despite fears its could produce harmful radioactive waste.

Malaysia's Atomic Energy Licensing Board said it granted a licence for the plant, which is near completion in the eastern state of Pahang, to begin operations for an initial two-year period under strict safety requirements.

"Based on the decision of the board, Lynas's application for a temporary operating licence is approved with several conditions," a board statement said.

It added the licence could be suspended or revoked if the company failed to meet conditions on handling potentially hazardous waste.

The facility is set to become one of the few sites outside China to process rare earths -- metals used in high-tech equipment ranging from missiles to mobile phones.

Lynas has insisted the plant, which will handle rare earths imported from Australia, will be safe. But critics say radioactive waste could leak out, threatening public health and the environment.

The atomic licensing board reviewed Lynas's application in a closed-door meeting on Monday. The plant had originally been slated to start operations in the third quarter of last year.

The board said Lynas must submit plans within 10 months on how it would safely dispose of plant waste, and return it to "the original source" if necessary.

It also said Lynas will pay $50 million to the Malaysian government as financial guarantee. If Lynas breaches the conditions and loses the license, it cannot apply for another, it said.

Fuziah Salleh, an opposition lawmaker in Pahang who has lead protests against the plant, said lawyers were expected to seek a court injunction to stop the plant from starting operations.

Fuziah, whose constituency is Kuantan, a coastal town near the plant site, said the company's waste management plan was "incomplete, full of holes and unacceptable".

"Of course I'm disappointed," she told AFP. "Basically the residents will become lab rats. We will become experiments."

Thousands of Malaysian opponents of the plant have held protests against the plant, mainly in Kuantan, over health and safety concerns.

The concerns led Malaysia to invite a panel of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess plans for the plant last year.

Malaysia ordered Lynas to comply with all safety recommendations made by the panel. Lynas has pledged to do so and says any waste will be handled according to strict standards.

Currently, China produces more than 95 percent of the world's rare earths -- 17 elements critical to manufacturing everything from iPods to low-emission cars.

But Beijing has angered its trade partners by restricting overseas shipments in a bid to burnish its green credentials and tighten its grip over the metals, leading other countries to explore alternate sources.

With Approval, Malaysia Refinery Expects to Open This Year
Keith Bradsher New York Times 1 Feb 12;

HONG KONG — Malaysian regulators granted an initial operating license late Wednesday for a giant rare earth metals refinery that has been at the center of a dispute over radioactive waste management.

The refinery is expected to open in this year’s second quarter. It is intended to offer an alternative for Western companies that now depend on Chinese producers.

China mines and processes more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earths, but has placed various restrictions on their export in recent years, causing price spikes and spot shortages. The metals are used in items as diverse as smartphones and smart bombs, in oil refining and in wind turbines.

The Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board said in a statement late Wednesday that Lynas, the Australian company that is building the refinery, must specify within 10 months a location and submit detailed plans for a permanent disposal of the more than 1,000 tons a month of low-level radioactive waste that the refinery will produce. Although the issue is not expected to delay the plant’s opening, it will put pressure on the company to find a solution to the waste problem.

Lynas for several years has been studying what to do with the waste and still has an active research effort under way. But it has encountered growing hostility from people living near the refinery, which is on the outskirts of Kuantan in eastern peninsular Malaysia.

The licensing board said that the waste “is the responsibility of the company including, if necessary, to return the residue to the original source.” That would refer to Australia.

The refinery will process concentrated rare earth ore from a Lynas mine deep in the desert in western Australia, using heat and thousands of tons a year of powerful sulfuric acid to separate the valuable minerals from dirt and radioactive contaminants.

Lynas has questioned whether it could be required to ship waste back to Australia, a task that would be extremely difficult because of international and Australian regulations on movements of waste with even very low levels of radioactive contamination.

Nicholas Curtis, the executive chairman of Lynas, has said that the company chose Malaysia for the refinery for cost reasons: Malaysian engineers earn considerably less than Australian engineers, and Malaysia’s natural gas industry produces very large quantities of sulfur that will be turned into the necessary processing acid at a separate factory adjacent to the refinery.

The Malaysian board announced its decision during the middle of the night in Australia, and Lynas executives could not be reached for immediate comment. Mr. Curtis said in a conference call with investors and journalists on Tuesday that the first of two phases of the refinery project was more than 90 percent complete, and that 85 percent of the staff had already been hired.

Fuziah Salleh, an opposition member of Malaysian Parliament who represents downtown Kuantan but not the less affluent industrial area where the refinery is located, said that critics of the project had already retained lawyers to seek a judicial review of the initial license. The legal challenge will be based on whether Lynas should file a more detailed environmental impact assessment for the refinery, in response to stricter assessment requirements written into Malaysian law last summer.

The International Atomic Energy Agency had suggested last summer that a plan for permanent waste disposal be approved before the refinery starts operations.

The Malaysian decision comes two days after the World Trade Organization’s highest tribunal ordered China to dismantle its taxes and quotas on exports of bauxite, zinc and seven other industrial minerals.

That W.T.O. decision did not include rare earths. But China has used the same legal arguments to defend its export taxes and quotas for rare earths — arguments that the trade organization has now rejected. The United States and the European Union have been preparing to file a possible case with the World Trade Organization challenging China’s rare earth policies.

The Global Times, a newspaper directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, published a blistering editorial on Wednesday condemning the trade organization’s decision, saying it would wrongly force China to export a product that is environmentally dangerous to mine and process.

“Cheap exports of its resources such as rare earths will eventually undermine the domestic industry that relies on them,” the editorial said. “China has been alerted to the unsustainable practice, and export restrictions are inevitable.”

Rare earth plant given temporary licence
Safety requirements imposed but Kuantan residents vow to continue protest against facility
Lester Kong Straits Times 2 Feb 12;

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government has granted a controversial rare earth plant in Kuantan a temporary operating licence, despite strident protests by residents and green groups over fears of the radioactive waste it will produce.

After hearing recommendations from the Atomic Energy Licensing Board on Monday, the government said yesterday it will award the Australian company Lynas Corporation a temporary licence to start operations, but imposed five conditions related to safety, including several on waste disposal.

Among others, Lynas must detail its plans for a permanent disposal facility for waste residue.

'If the conditions are not complied with, the temporary licence may be suspended or revoked and the next licence application will not be considered,' said Mr Ghazali Ismail, a spokesman for the board.

The board added that the company also held full responsibility for the plant's by-products and residue, which, if necessary, should be returned to 'the original source', meaning Australia.

The board's director-general Raja Aziz Raja Adnan did not want to say how long the temporary licence would be for, saying only that it was given for a 'fixed duration'. But media reports indicated that the licence would last for two years.

Datuk Raja Aziz said more details will be released at a briefing tomorrow.

The awarding of the licence quickly drew outrage from residents, opposition parties and environmental groups, and came just after several green groups revealed plans for a series of rallies this month.

Built to process rare earths materials used in the production of many consumer electronics, the Lynas plant has drawn intense opposition from Kuantan residents and environmentalists ever since it was reported. Many fear the potential impact of its radioactive wastes, especially as wastes from Malaysia's last rare earths refinery in Perak were believed to have caused several cases of birth defects and leukaemia in the 1980s.

'Basically, Kuantan people will be lab rats,' charged Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, who is from the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat. She said the party will file a judicial review to overturn the decision. 'This is the reverse to the government's ideal of putting the people first.'

Mr Wong Tack, who leads a coalition of activists called the Green Assembly 2.0, said the approval will fuel anger towards the government.

'The people will not tolerate this and will fight it until it is closed,' he warned.

Observers also say that the plant could become an election issue in polls expected to be called in months.

One green group, Save Malaysia, is holding a rally in Kuantan on Saturday, to coincide with another march in Kuala Lumpur by other groups. Green Assembly 2.0 is also planning to hold a protest in Kuantan on Feb 26.

'We're telling them that people here do not wish for such an industry in their backyard,' said Mr Tan Bun Teet, chairman of Save Malaysia.

His organisation and the Stop Lynas Coalition also plan to go to court to try to shut down the plant.

Located in the coastal town of Gebeng in Kuantan, Lynas' RM2.5 billion (S$1.03 billion) plant is one of the few sites outside China to produce rare earths materials.

It was intended to break that country's hold on the global market, and is also seen as a key part of Malaysia's economic development, with promises to generate many jobs and economic spin-offs.

The Australian firm has repeatedly sought to alleviate public concerns about its waste management plans.

Last month, it held public displays showing proposals to dump radioactive waste on an uninhabited island off Pahang and for a permanent disposal facility to be built on under-utilised or undeveloped land, or disused mining land.

But the plans only raised more ire, which was further stoked by reports from the New York Times yesterday saying that a key contractor had withdrawn from the project citing safety issues.

According to engineering sources quoted by the NYT, AkzoNobel, a supplier of resins for fibreglass liners for the plant's concrete-walled tanks, had pulled out because the plant's specifications were changed.

Lynas chairman Nicholas Curtis, however, insisted that AkzoNobel's withdrawal was not due to safety reasons.

While engineers told NYT that Lynas was building steel-walled tanks, removing the need for the resins, Mr Curtis maintained that the plant's specifications met Malaysian and international safety standards.

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Malaysia: Tapir captured after two hours

New Straits Times 2 Feb 12;

MALACCA: A 200kg male tapir caused a ruckus as it led local authorities and residents of Kampung Tun Razak, near here, through a merry chase yesterday.

The state Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) received a complaint on Tuesday night from a resident who had spotted the tapir wandering around the village.

Worried for the safety of the public, Perhilitan sent a team to capture the animal.

At 2pm yesterday, the team came across the tapir in a pond at a wooded area across from the Bukit Katil's Fire and Rescue Department.

The team surrounded the tapir, but it evaded several attempts to capture it.

Escaping from the pond, the tapir ran about 300m through a housing estate. Despite being hit by a tranquilliser dart, it continued running before falling into another pond nearby where the team finally managed to capture the animal.

Malacca Zoo director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said it took about 25 people -- 15 from the zoo and 10 from Perhilitan -- nearly two hours to catch the tapir.

Stray tapir causes panic
The Star 2 Feb 12;

MALACCA: An injured Malayan tapir caused panic among some 300 kampung folk when it strayed into their village in Bukit Katil here.

The villagers of Kampung Tun Abdul Razak sighted the 200kg male tapir yesterday morning.

Malacca Zoo staff and game rangers from the state Wildlife and National Parks rushed to the area on being alerted to capture it.

The animal was spotted at a secondary jungle near the state Fire and Rescue Department headquarters at about 2pm.

However, the operation turned chaotic when the tapir did not respond to tranquillisers and broke loose when 25 men tried to place it in a cage.

Zoo director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed suffered abrasions on his right hand when the tapir attacked him.

The animal ran helter-skelter around the village before plunging into a bund close to the home of a villager.

The tapir was finally put into the cage and taken to the zoo for treatment at about 5pm.

Ahmad Azhar said the tapir would be quarantined during its treatment.

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Malaysia loses RM900mil a year to illegal deforestation

Isabelle Lai The Star 2 Feb 12;

SUBANG JAYA: Malaysia is believed to have lost between RM800mil and RM900mil a year to illegal logging, said Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Paul Low.

Saying this was the estimated worth of illegal logs going out of the country, Low added that he believed illegal logging was still “pretty much under control” in Peninsular Malaysia and that more attention needed to be paid to Sabah and Sarawak.

He said he believed the state governments were carrying out their enforcement activities against illegal logging.

“Yes, there are sporadic areas where legal loggers may extend beyond their boundaries. But I think that the issue of forestry conservation also has to be tackled at the policy side,” he said after the launch of its Forest Watch Project and public awareness campaign on forest conservation.

He said state governments must designate and gazette selected areas for forest conservation to avoid them being allocated for forestry activities.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigations director Datuk Mustafar Ali said the agency took the issue of corruption in forestry activities very seriously.

He said MACC received around 88 complaints last year from various parties including non-governmental organisations and the public.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said the ministry was in the final stages of revising the National Forestry Act to include new provisions for higher penalties, imprisonment and strict liability.

He said high timber demand and shortage of supply from the permanent forest reserves and state lands were the main reasons behind illegal logging.

The ministry has also established the 1NRE Enforcement team comprising various enforcement departments within NRE to conduct integrated enforcement operations, he said in his speech which was read out by Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim.

He welcomed TI-M's project initiative to involve the public in using Google Earth as a tool to become the eyes and ears of the forest and help monitor any irregularities in forest cover through its website www.timalaysia-forestwatch.org.my.

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Best of our wild blogs: 1 Feb 12

the uncommon common kingfisher @ lorong halus Jan2012
from sgbeachbum and halus wetlands lechate fishing @ Jan2012

Encrustaceans
from The annotated budak

First Shoot of 2012 at Dairy Farm
from Macro Photography in Singapore

Mangrove Pitta at Pasir Ris Park
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Forgotten species: the wild jungle cattle called banteng
from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

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Mangroves Reduce Tsunami Impacts: Malaysian study

Research at the Disaster Research Nexus (DRN) at Universiti Sains Malaysia suggests that mangroves have a protective role in disaster events such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
PRWEB UK 31 Jan 12;

An analysis of earthquake and tsunami risks presented this month in the Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology suggests that mangrove forests have a protective role in the event of a tsunami. The researchers, from the newly formed Disaster Research Nexus (DRN) at Universiti Sains Malaysia, hope that their work will encourage the development of better prepared communities.

The 2004 Banda Aceh earthquake and ensuing Andaman mega tsunami that caused widespread devastation and killed over a quarter of a million people worldwide was a wake-up call to many. Immediately afterwards, work was initiated to help develop human capacity and resources, and to mitigate future events. Koh Hock Lye and colleagues at the DRN developed a tsunami simulation model to investigate the role of coastal vegetation in reducing the impact of such events.

Using the model, the team analysed the earthquake risk for the Upper Padas Dam in Sabah, and found that the presence of mangroves appeared to reduce the impact of tsunamis. The research also showed that tsunamis can affect the salinity of water and soil and induce vegetative changes in affected regions.

Mangrove forests are one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems, with a fifth of the world’s mangroves having been destroyed over the last few decades. This research highlights the need to conserve them in areas where the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis are high.

The team hope that their work will improve research collaboration and allow better preparedness for seismic events worldwide.

About the Pertanika Journal of Science and Technology

Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology aims to provide a forum for high quality research related to science and engineering research. Areas relevant to the scope of the journal include: bioinformatics, bioscience, biotechnology and bio-molecular sciences, chemistry, computer science, ecology, engineering, engineering design, environmental control and management, mathematics and statistics, medicine and health sciences, nanotechnology, physics, safety and emergency management, and related fields of study.

The research paper is available for download here: Pertanika J. Sci. & Technol. 20 (1): 151 – 163 (2012)

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Rio+20: 100 countries back world environment agency

Richard Ingham (AFP) Google News 31 Jan 12;

PARIS — More than a hundred countries now support a French proposal to create a "World Environment Organisation" at the upcoming 20th anniversary conference of the Rio Summit, France's ecology minister said on Tuesday.

"More than 100 countries have now associated themselves with the proposal," Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said at a conference in Paris aimed at stimulating ideas for June 20-22 global gathering.

The idea is to beef up the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which critics say lacks muscle for dealing with the world's worsening environmental crisis.

But rather than be just a branch of the UN, the proposed agency would help implement international environmental standards and include grassroots groups and business, according to the proposal.

Speaking afterwards to reporters, Kosciusko-Morizet said the United States "has yet to back" to the proposal, citing questions of sovereignty.

"However, we have already overcome the north-south divide in terms of numbers," she said.

Kosciusko-Morizet said the new agency was a key to the success of the "Rio+20" conference, designed to assess the two decades that have elapsed since the Rio Summit which nailed the environment to the political agenda.

It should be part of a rethink of the world's economy, in which green issues and social questions should be integrated into the search for profit, she said.

"The new capitalism which emerges from the crisis has to be environmental, or it won't be new," she said.

"We are looking for a new kind of environmental governance, something more inclusive, in which all parties have a stake and it's not just governments which have the right to speak."

She insisted on the word "World" in the organisation's name, saying it was an important nuance compared with "international," meaning an exclusive focus on nations.

The Paris conference gathered several hundred representatives from national and local government, thinktanks and civil society with the declared aim of gingering up a programme, called "draft zero," that is being hammered out for Rio.

According to a background document issued by the ecology ministry, countries that are supporting the French idea comprise more than 30 European countries and the 54 members of the African Union, as well as Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Chile and Uruguay.

Based in Nairobi, UNEP was set up in 1972 as an office of the UN, but as a "programme" it does not have the scope of an agency.

Its mission, according to its website, is "to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations."

Many environmental experts believe UNEP is too underpowered for dealing with a crisis that now ranges from climate change and ozone depletion to overfishing, pollution and deforestation.

Reform of green institutions ‘imperative’ for sustainable development – Assembly chief
UN News Centre 31 Jan 12;

Reform of environmental institutions is needed so countries can achieve sustainable development, the President of the General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser said today, and stressed that States must prepare and contribute to this reform ahead of the major United Nations Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) in June.

“Realities on the ground show that sustainable development depends on an effective framework of institutions and decision-making processes at local, national, regional and global levels, working together. Yet international environmental governance is, at present, in need of more consolidation,” said Mr. Al Nasser at the conference entitled Towards new global governance for the environment in Paris.

Mr. Al-Nasser stressed the need for new innovative mechanisms to ensure that existing environmental mandates are well-coordinated and efficient, and underlined the opportunity that Rio+20 presents to work on this aspect.

“From our preparations to date, one single message emerges: the Rio+20 outcome will need to give birth to a strong institutional architecture.

“An architecture that promotes a better integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental protection – and addresses new and emerging issues,” he said.

In his remarks to the conference, Mr. Al-Nasser highlighted several preparation activities that have already made recommendations for environmental reform including those made by the Rio+20 initial draft, “The Future we Want,” which was the result of three days of deliberation by Member States and civil society groups last week.

He also reiterated his support for Members States in this particular issue. “It is my intention to support Member States in achieving ambitious reform of the UN’s environmental governance structure,” he said.

“There is no doubt that the success of our efforts will require longer-term vision, as well as the genuine willingness of Members States to preserve our planet for future generations to enjoy in dignity,” he added.

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