Australia: Squeezed Into Smaller Spaces, Koalas Now Face Deadly Disease

The koala, one of Australia’s most treasured creatures, is in trouble.
Karen Barrow New York Times 20 Feb 12;

Faced with habitat loss, climate change and bacterial disease, koalas are being pushed into smaller and smaller regions of the country. In Queensland, the vast state in Australia’s northeastern corner, surveys suggest that from 2001 to 2008, their numbers dropped as much as 45 percent in urban areas and 15 percent in bushland.

And while climate change and habitat loss are affecting many other uniquely Australian animals, too — from birds and frogs to marsupials like wombats, wallabies and bandicoots — it is a bacterial infection that is worrying many scientists about the fate of the koala.

“Disease is a somewhat silent killer and has the very real potential to finish koala populations in Queensland,” said Dr. Amber Gillett, a veterinarian at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland.

The killer is chlamydia, a class of bacteria far better known for causing venereal disease in humans than for devastating koala populations. Recent surveys in Queensland show that chlamydia has caused symptoms in up to 50 percent of the state’s wild koalas, with probably even more infected but not showing symptoms.

The bacteria — transmitted during birth, through mating and possibly through fighting — come in two different strains, neither the same as the human form. The first, Chlamydia pecorum, is causing a vast majority of health problems in Queensland’s koalas; the second, C. pneumoniae, is less common.

Unlike C. pecorum, the pneumoniae strain can jump to other species, but so far there is no evidence that it has spread from koalas to humans or vice versa.

Chlamydia causes a host of symptoms in koalas, including eye infections, which can lead to blindness, making it difficult for them to find scarce eucalyptus leaves, their primary food source. The bacteria can also lead to respiratory infections, along with cysts that can make female koalas infertile.

The epidemic has been particularly severe in Queensland, where nearly all koalas are infected with koala retrovirus, said Dr. Gillett. This retrovirus is an H.I.V.-like infection that suppresses the koala’s immune system and interferes with its ability to fight off chlamydia.

“In southern koala populations, where koala retrovirus is much less prevalent, normal immune functions tend to result in fewer cases of chlamydia,” Dr. Gillett said.

Treating chlamydia in wild koalas is a challenge, she said. The disease is so devastating that only a small percentage of the animals can be treated successfully and returned to the wild. And infected females often become infertile — a condition that cannot be reversed, so future population growth is affected as well.

There is no treatment available for koala retrovirus, but researchers are working to test a vaccine that would help prevent further spread of chlamydia infection in Queensland’s koalas.

A study published in 2010 in The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology found that this vaccine is both safe and effective in healthy female koalas. Further work is being done to test it in koalas that are already infected.

Peter Timms, a professor of microbiology at the Queensland University of Technology who is leading the effort to test the chlamydia vaccine in koalas, is hopeful that there will be another trial this year to test the vaccine in captive male koalas, followed by wild koalas. If all goes well, plans can be set in motion to distribute the vaccine more widely.

“It’s going to be impossible to vaccinate all wild koalas,” he said.

In Australia, there is no national plan to save the koala; it is up to each region to establish management plans for its koala population. Therefore, once the vaccine is shown to be completely safe and effective, Dr. Timms suggests targeting specific, threatened populations where capturing and releasing koalas would be practical, like those bordered on all sides by housing developments and roads.

Dr. Timms is also working on a single-dose form of the vaccine to make it more feasible to vaccinate wild koalas.

Another possibility would be to make vaccine distribution a routine part of treatment for the thousands of koalas brought into care centers every year after they are injured by cars or dogs, Dr. Timms said.

While it is a combination of problems that are affecting the wild koala population, many experts believe this vaccine would be an important step in helping koalas survive longer. It may buy enough time to give researchers a chance to solve some of the other problems facing Australia’s koalas.

“In situations where you combine habitat pressure, domestic dog attacks and car hits with severe chlamydial disease, the outcome for koalas is devastating,” Dr. Gillett said.

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Rio+20 Summit And ASEAN: Towards A Green Economy

Paul P.S. Teng Eurasia Review 20 Feb 12;

Rio de Janeiro will host the third Earth Summit, or “Rio+20″, in June this year – 20 years after the first Earth Summit in 1992. At Rio+20 all governments will be asked to re-dedicate themselves to the goal of a “green economy”. How will ASEAN respond to this significant event and its challenges?

TWENTY YEARS after the first Earth Summit in 1992 – officially called the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) – preparations are underway to convene the third such meeting in the same city where it all began, Rio de Janeiro. The high-powered conference on 20-22 June 2012, which follows the second summit in Johannesburg in 2002, is also referred to as the Rio+20, because it is 20 years after the first Earth Summit in the Brazilian city. Hoping to attract most of the world’s heads of state and government, Rio+20 will focus on the “green economy” and on creating an “Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development”.
ASEAN

ASEAN

Rio+20 is crucial for ASEAN and East Asia. The proposals to be adopted will affect current development approaches and policies in ASEAN as well as the ASEAN Plus 3 countries covering China, Japan and South Korea. Regional preparatory meetings have been taking place as part of the build-up to Rio+20. At the national level, ASEAN delegates to Rio+20 need to become more familiar with the complex, inter-related issues so that the region’s viewpoints are adequately reflected in the deliberations at Rio de Janeiro.
Rio+20 and ASEAN

The World Resources Institute (WRI), an international environmental think-tank based in Washington D.C., has argued that for too long, nations have used a dominant economic growth model based on increasing GDP above all else. While this has improved incomes and reduced poverty for hundreds of millions of people, it has also been accompanied by significant and potentially irreversible social, environmental and economic costs. In the ASEAN region, pockets of poverty persist among the 600 million people while significant environmental degradation has occurred to coastal waters, coastal ecosystems and rainforests as a result of disruptions to the ecosystem.

WRI has also noted that the gap between the rich and poor has risen in more than two-thirds of countries worldwide, including ASEAN member states. The question that begs to be asked in policy circles is whether this GDP-fostered development model will generate the benefits to address all three pillars of sustainable development, economic, environmental and social. While the number of millionaires has multiplied in the ASEAN Plus 3 region, there has also emerged a disadvantaged lower socio-economic class that can trigger social instability. Civil disturbances caused by food insecurity and unsustainable farming practices has occurred in recent years. There is a deeper appreciation today that the Earth is reaching its limits in the use of water, land and other natural resources.

The environmental and social costs of current economic growth models are becoming more and more apparent. Economic growth on its own is not enough if it leads to poverty and environmental degradation. ASEAN can avoid the pitfalls of a development model solely focused on economic growth. Rio+20 advocates sustainable development based on a “green economy” – one that simultaneously promotes sustainability and economic growth. To forge a global consensus on this goal, a raw draft of a future common position – the “zero” document – has been released for all stakeholders to fill in their preferred lines of action. As ASEAN participates in Rio+20, what positions will its representatives take on the many priority issues proposed for adoption in the “zero” document?
Reinforcing a movement towards a “Green Economy”

Several countries in the ASEAN Plus 3 region have demonstrated leadership in addressing some of the issues to be tabled at Rio+20. There are new sources of growth that are environmentally sustainable. One example is clean energy. South Korea has adopted a national green growth strategy which accounts for two per cent of its GDP to invest in green sectors such as renewable energy and clean technology. China invests more than any other country in renewable energy. Its total installed wind capacity grew 64 percent in 2010, driven by a national policy that sees clean energy as a major market in the near future, and one in which China wants to be a leader.

Singapore’s “City in a Garden” approach to urbanisation exemplifies a small, resource-limited city-state striving to balance the three pillars of sustainable development with proper land-use planning; promotion of green corridors and mass transport; and measures to limit vehicle usage and rationalise water use. Singapore is also part of a global consortium to address urban food security matters. A scorecard of ASEAN nations however, shows varying progress in implementing the targets from the first Earth Summit of 1992, among which are sustainable agriculture, fisheries, and food security.
How to do more

The Rio+20 Summit will be asking all nations to re-dedicate themselves to a greener form of sustainable development. It will call for the strengthening of regional and sub-regional mechanisms to promote sustainable development. It will also propose the formation of national sustainable development councils in countries where there are none to improve coordination and cross-sectoral synergies. However, most developing economies, including ASEAN’s, are concerned that the process of transiting to a green economy may come at a cost – it will hinder economic growth and efforts to reduce poverty, because short-term disruptions are likely.

Rio+20 will be urging the international community to increase its support for developing countries and to develop new financing instruments for building green economies. Transitioning to a green economy will require a fundamental shift in thinking and acting on growth and development; production of goods and services; and consumer habits. Ultimately, today’s policies must take into account a longer-term planning horizon because sustainability requires time to achieve, and the courage to start.

Paul Teng is a Senior Fellow (Food Security) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Centre for Non Traditional Security (NTS) Studies and Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He was a resource expert at the Asian Regional Workshop on Sustainable Agriculture, Biotechnology and Biosafety, held on 10-12 January, Bangkok, to prepare for Rio+20.

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Best of our wild blogs: 20 Feb 12

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [6 - 19 Feb 2012]
from Green Business Times

Back to blogging! = Giant clam spawning on TMSI, SJI
from Psychedelic Nature

large-tailed nightjar @ bukit brown - Feb2012
from sgbeachbum and olive-winged bulbul

A Quiet Morning @ USR
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Checking up on special plants at Pulau Semakau
from wild shores of singapore and teamseagrass

Asiatic Lesser Yellow Bat
from Monday Morgue

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Bishan Park revamp a hit with park lovers

Liew Wei Lin Straits Times 20 Feb 12;

Visitors to the Bishan Park recently were full of praise for its $76-million makeover.

'It is now less forested, more open and much airier than before,' says Ms Leah Francisco 40, a software engineer who travels every Saturday from Punggol where she lives to Bishan with her dogs for the dog run at the park.

The park was closed in October 2009 for an overhaul and has since re-opened to the public. It will be launched officially next month.

Among the new additions are wooden lounge chairs and benches scattered throughout the park for a relaxing place to take a rest after exercising.

A meandering 3km-long river, a key feature of the revamped park, has increased biodiversity by up to 30 per cent, according to Mr Kong Yit San, assistant chief executive of National Parks Board.

Such exciting changes have attracted marketing executive Serena Kwek, 37, and her family, to go to Bishan from their home in Bukit Merah.

'My children love exploring nature and Bishan Park has provided them with another natural environment in the heart of Singapore,' says Madam Kwek, who usually visits Changi beach and Pulau Ubin with her two pre-school children.

But some park visitors had laments. Some thought it was a pity the pavilions at the old park, which provided shelter when it rained, had disappeared,while dog owners were disappointed by the lack of a gate connecting the two dog runs, which facilitated movement of owners and their pets in the past.

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Sea of Biological Wealth in Indonesia, but No Database

Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 19 Feb 12;

Indonesia might lay claim to being the country with the second-highest level of biodiversity in the world after Brazil, but the government has no database to catalogue that wealth, an official says.

Vidya S. Nalang, the head of the Environment Ministry’s Genetic Resources Management Program, said over the weekend that all the government had was a clearing house with limited information on resources such as plant and animal species.

“We used to have a database with the full data from 2005-10 on the medicinal properties [of plants],” she said. “But we had to take it down pending negotiations for the Nagoya Protocol.”

The protocol, part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which Indonesia has ratified, aims to regulate the use of genes from plants or animals that originate in other countries and ensure that all nations are compensated fairly for discoveries that are derived from their native species.

Vidya said that in the absence of a government agency to compile a database of the country’s biodiversity, the state had assigned the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to take over the task, given that it already had its own database and research.

Indonesia is ranked in the top 5 worldwide for its plant biodiversity, with 55 percent of that diversity endemic to Indonesia, according to the CBD.

In addition, the archipelago is home to 12 percent of the world’s mammals, 17 percent of its birds and 16 percent of reptiles, while its waters are home to 450 of the 700 coral species in the world.

The LIPI previously said that as of 2010, it had identified and catalogued at least 2.5 million specimens of fauna and 2 million specimens of plants but that efforts to build up a comprehensive database were held back by a lack of government attention and old, crashing computers.

“Because we have limited technology but plenty to upload, the computer crashed a few years ago,” Siti Nuramaliati Prijono, director of LIPI’s Center for Biology, said last March. “The scientists then got upset because when they tried to upload their data, it all disappeared. Now we have the system up and running, but not all the data can be accessed at the same time. Some of the data is hosted on the old system and the rest on the new one.”

Siti said another problem was that after all the trouble involved in uploading the data, the information was mostly left unused, even by experts in the country.

The government’s response at the time was that it would set up a working database prior to a key meeting on the Nagoya Protocol in New York last May. However, the site meant to host the data, www.biology.lipi.go.id, has been blank since last year.

Arief Yuwono, the deputy head for environmental damage control and climate change at the Environment Ministry, said last year that part of the problem was that biodiversity issues were being shunted aside in favor of more popular issues such as climate change.

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Malaysia: Totally protected, but tapir face extinction

Hanis Maketab and Akil Yunus New Straits Times 20 Feb 12;
They are often caught in traps placed by hunters for other wild animals

THE tapir has more reasons to be afraid of humans following poaching and habitat loss due to deforestation and encroachment, which have significantly diminished its numbers in recent years.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) say these mammals, which are only dangerous when threatened, have fallen victim to development, while an expected interest in tapir parts may make them more susceptible to illegal hunting in the future.

The recent case of a 200kg tapir, which had wandered into Kampung Tun Razak in Bukit Katil here, from suspected habitat loss is testament to the threat these mammals face.

The tapir later died of foot injuries, caused likely by wire snares.

State Perhilitan director Abdul Rahim Othman said tapirs were an unfortunate bunch as they were often caught in traps placed by hunters for other wild animals.

"Tapirs are not known for their meat, but they do get accidentally caught in traps meant for deers and wild boars."

Scientifically termed tapirus indicus, the Malayan tapir is the largest of the four tapir species and the only one native to Asia.

The current population of tapirs in Malaysia is between 2,000 and 2,500 and concentrated in protected areas, such as Taman Negara and wildlife reserves.

They are classified as a totally protected species under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

As a protective measure, Perhilitan collaborated with Copenhagen Zoo in 2002 to set up the Malayan Tapir Conservation Project to study the ecological needs of these large herbivores.

Biologist Dr Carl Traeholt was tasked with overseeing the project's activities at its various sites, such as the Krau Wildlife Reserve, Taman Negara and Sungai Dusun Wildlife Reserve, which doubles as a captive breeding centre.

Traeholt told the New Straits Times that for the past 10 years, researchers had been able to learn quite a bit about this elusive animal from the project.

"The Malayan tapir is the only bi-coloured species of tapir, with a distinctive white patch that covers its body from the shoulders to the rump, as a form of camouflage."

He said Malaysia was the main bastion for this species, but they could also be found in Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar.

He also said tapirs normally lived between 15 and 20 years in the wild and captivity.

"Female tapirs normally give birth to one calf every three to four years."

Traeholt and a team of four permanent staff monitor the tapirs using camera trapping and individual identification.

"Once we've caught one, we check to see if we have previously caught it by scanning its body for a microchip.

"If it is a new one, we will tag it with a microchip."

Traeholt and his team discovered that tapirs were browsers, meaning they foraged the forest for fruits, leaves and twigs with their trunks.

On tapir conservation, Traeholt said authorities needed to continue preserving the animal's natural habitats.

"As long as there is 40 per cent good forest cover, there will be ample habitat for the tapir population."

He, however, said there was a pressing concern in regard to conserving wildlife habitats.

"The more we develop and encroach into wild animals' habitats, the more there will be cases of animal displacement, where they will wander into housing areas, or be run over by cars."

Traeholt said building viaducts to allow the safe crossing of wild animals near areas with traffic was a good step.

He also said the authorities needed to look into adopting stricter measures in conserving the habitats of animals they aimed to protect.

Malaysian Nature Society communications head Andrew Sebastian agreed with Traeholt's sentiment.

"Besides putting a stop to poaching, the government must step up efforts to conserve the animals' habitats.

"It will defeat the purpose of protecting the animals if we do not protect their habitats."

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Malaysia: Have a holiday in an oil palm plantation

Hazlin Hassan Straits Times 20 Feb 12;

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's largest oil palm plantation manager is hoping to harvest more profit from its vast tracts of land - by luring tourists to agro-based resorts sitting amid its plantations.

And it is not just quiet getaways tucked away in the middle of millions of oil palm trees: Felda's resorts offer access to a host of natural attractions, from caves and hot springs to beaches and islands.

One hot spring resort in Perak, located right in the middle of a plantation and durian orchard, boasts chalets with private hot spring pools and a spa, and views of the nearby Titiwangsa mountain range.

Another in Pahang allows visitors to explore 150 million-year-old caves at the nearby Kota Gelanggi.

Other resorts offer opportunities - especially for student groups - to try out activities such as rafting, canoeing and jungle trekking while on holiday.

And Felda is now targeting Singaporean tourists, offering specific promotions for the Singapore market, such as package discounts and room promotions.

Room rates are around RM200 to RM250 (S$80 to S$100) per night. The promotions were advertised in Singapore newspapers recently.

'Going by the numbers, we consider Singapore one of our prime markets,' said Mr Andrew Francis, the chief executive officer of Felda Travel, a subsidiary of Felda Holdings.

'The positive response and rave reviews received from our Singaporean visitors are perhaps also driven by the various side activities which give them a 'back to nature' experience.'

The outreach to Singaporeans is the latest effort by Felda to carve a bigger name for itself in the tourism industry.

Felda is short for the Federal Land Development Authority, which was set up by the Malaysian government in the 1950s to give poor rural folk land to grow cash crops such as oil palm and rubber.

It is now in charge of some 344,000ha of land, and is one of the world's largest managers of oil palm plantations, earning revenues of more than RM2 billion a year.

To maximise the use of its land, Felda entered the tourism industry in 1991, building agro-resorts to draw city dwellers looking for a getaway in the country. Last year, Felda Travel earned RM25 million in revenue.

Singaporeans currently make up about 70 per cent of the 10,000 or so foreigners who visit its resorts every year. The resorts have also seen tourists from Holland, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Middle East, Australia and China.

'Singapore is a strong market for us, especially students,' Mr Francis told The Straits Times. 'On average, about 3,000 students come to our resorts yearly, particularly to the Residences in Pahang, Perak and in Johor.'

Visitors who have stayed at Felda's resorts say they are well-run, clean and peaceful. Its hot spring resort in Sungai Klah, Perak, has been recognised as one of Malaysia's top five nature resorts, according to Felda. Its resort in Tekam, Pahang, is known for its nearby caves, while two others, in Johor and Sabah, are beach resorts. A fifth, also in Perak, targets corporate groups seeking to hold seminars and team-building sessions, while a sixth is a business hotel in Terengganu's state capital.

Said Mr Francis: 'We promote our resorts on the tagline 'Back to nature' which fits every segment of the market and is ideal for families.'

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Tiny shrimp leave giant carbon footprint: scientist

AFP Dawn.com 19 Feb 12;

VANCOUVER: Measured by environmental impact, a humble shrimp cocktail could be the most costly part of a typical restaurant meal, scientists said Friday.

If the seafood is produced on a typical Asian fish farm, a 100-gram (3.5 ounce) serving “has an ecosystem carbon footprint of an astounding 198 kilograms (436 pounds) of CO2,” biologist J. Boone Kauffman said.

A one-pound (454-gram) bag of frozen shrimp produces one ton of carbon dioxide, said Kauffman, who is based at Oregon State University and conducts research in Indonesia.

He told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that he developed the comparison to help the public understand the environmental impact of land use decisions.

Kauffman said 50 to 60 percent of shrimp farms are located in tidal zones in Asian countries, mostly on cleared mangrove forests.

“The carbon footprint of the shrimp from this land use is about 10-fold greater than the land use carbon footprint of an equivalent amount of beef produced from a pasture formed from a tropical rainforest,” wrote Kauffman in a paper released to AFP, not including emissions from farm development, feeds, supplements, processing, storing and shipping.

The farms are inefficient, producing just one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of shrimp for 13.4 square meters (five square miles) of mangrove, while the ponds created are abandoned in just three to nine years because disease, soil acidification and contamination destroy them, he wrote.

After abandonment, the soil takes 35 to 40 years to recover, he said.

Emily Pidgeon of Conservation International said intact mangrove forests are of value in protecting the coastal ecosystems and communities against storms and tsunamis, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 that killed some 230,000 people.

The problem, she said, is the value of intact mangroves is hard to measure, and most of the shrimp farms are in impoverished areas that cannot easily afford conservation.

“It’s difficult to find the financing to do it, or the political will,” she said, adding Kauffman’s carbon measurements provide another argument in favor of protection.

The catchy shrimp cocktail estimate is part of the relatively new field in science and economics called ecosystem services, which uses models to measure the value to human communities, in economic terms, of forests, grassland, waterways and even the air.
“To present how deforestation and land cover change contribute to global climate change in a comprehensible manner, we change the scale of greenhouse gas emissions from global to personal scales,” wrote Kauffman.

The Carbon Footprint of a Shrimp Cocktail
Erik Stokstad Science Now 17 Feb 12;

VANCOUVER, CANADA—In many parts of Latin America and Asia, large swaths of coastal mangrove forests have been cut down and turned into shrimp farms. Not only does this deforestation destroy habitat for birds and cause other ecological problems, but it also releases a large amount of the carbon stored in mangrove soil—so much, in fact, that the shrimp end up having a sizable carbon footprint, according to calculations presented here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW).

To get a handle on how much carbon dioxide is represented by shrimp, ecologist Boone Kauffman of Oregon State University in Corvallis made some estimates based on typical shrimp farms in southeast Asia. He looked at farms that are relatively large and not particularly productive, with harvests yielding 50 to 500 kilograms of shrimp per hectare. These farms, which make up about half of those in the world, only last for 5 years or so before the buildup of sludge in the ponds and the acid sulfate soil renders them unfit for shrimp. “It's the equivalent of slash-and-burn agriculture,” Kauffman said. (Other types of shrimp farms are more efficient and not located in mangrove forests.)

Drawing on other studies, Kauffman estimated that 401 metric tons of carbon are emitted to the atmosphere when a hectare of mangrove is converted to a shrimp farm, which is equivalent to 1472 tons of carbon dioxide. Over the average 5-year life span of a farm, a farmer will typically harvest about 1659 kilograms of shrimp. So a 100-gram shrimp cocktail represents an “astonishing” 198 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the loss of the mangrove, Kauffman said, the equivalent of burning 90 liters of gasoline. The carbon intensity of shrimp from deforested mangroves is 10 times greater than that of beef grown in deforested Amazonian rain forest, according to other unpublished calculations Kauffman has made. The calculations don't include the energy involved in feeding, processing, and transporting the shrimp.

“The shrimp cocktail is a good example of how carbon cost associated with mangrove degradation way outweighs the actual product that is produced,” Emily Pidgeon of Conservation International told the audience at a session entitled “Blue Carbon, Green Opportunities: Innovative Solutions To Protect Coastal Ecosystems.” So, how much would it cost to prevent mangroves from being turned into shrimp farms? Based on his calculations, Kauffman says that compensating farmers for not growing shrimp would mean that each ton of carbon kept intact in mangrove soil would cost about $4.50. “That's well within the range of carbon markets,” Kauffman said.

At the moment, these carbon markets only trade in credits for terrestrial ecosystems; for example, keeping a certain amount of forest intact in order to offset a ton of carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels. At the session, Carolyn Ching of the VCS Association—a firm that creates accounting standards for carbon credits—described progress in devising the first carbon credit program for mangroves and other wetlands, which could provide funds for their conservation and restoration. Ching suggested the system could be finalized and running as early as September: “We see carbon finance as one of the potential mechanisms for addressing wetlands conservation.”

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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Feb 12

25 Feb (Sat): Evening at the Pasir Ris Mangrove boardwalk with the Naked Hermit Crabs
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Crab scorpions
from The annotated budak

Life History of the Hoary Palmer
from Butterflies of Singapore

female jambu fruit dove @ berlayar creek
from sgbeachbum

Mangrove and coral updates and Berlayar Creek walk
from wild shores of singapore

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Coney Island set to become nature park

Kezia Toh Straits Times 19 Feb 12;

Coney Island, off Punggol in the north-west, will be home to Singapore's ninth nature park, said the National Parks Board (NParks).

The island, a popular spot for anglers and rich in natural biodiversity, will become a sprawling 50ha 'green lung'.

Thanks to its rich flora and fauna, Coney Island will be a stand-alone nature park. The other nature parks are typically buffers for nature reserves.

Lush vegetation covers nearly 90 per cent of the island. Wildlife species that have been spotted there include the white-bellied sea eagle, a large bird with a considerable soaring range.

The park is expected to be ready in two years and a tender will be called in the middle of this year.

Under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Master Plan 2008, the island was to be a park and an open space.

The time is ripe for a park in the area, said NParks director of parks development Yeo Meng Tong.

'Now that Punggol is an up-and-coming town, it is the right time to develop a nature park there,' he added.

The island is linked by a bridge to Punggol.

NParks plans to leave the park as untouched as possible, just like its other nature parks, with minimal lights to avoid disturbing wildlife at night and non-concrete footpaths, for example.

Tampines Eco Green, the latest nature park in Singapore which was unveiled last year, is a possible design model for the Coney Island park.

The 36.5ha ecologically themed park is made up of marshland, ponds and secondary rainforest. Only 2.5ha of the land has park amenities, with the rest left untouched.

Meanwhile, two other projects will be coming up - smaller community parks less than 1ha in size.

The first, at the junction of Holland Avenue and Holland Road, is under construction at a cost of about $500,000. It is likely to be ready by the middle of this year.

The other is in the Springleaf private estate near Upper Thomson Road. It will feature two shelters, one of which is fashioned from a recycled roof of a community house. A footpath will lead to a nearby canal. The park is likely to be ready by the end of next year.

As announced by National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan in Parliament last month, there will be a total of 20 new parks over the next five years.

Mr Yeo from NParks said the creation of more green spaces comes with catering for a growing population.

For example, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development unveiled a blueprint for the country's sustainable development in 2009, detailing key initiatives for the next 10 to 20 years.

One of these was to reach a park provision of 0.8ha per 1,000 people, which means each person should enjoy 8 sq m of green space.

Meanwhile, the new parks are drawing compliments from environmentalists.

Dr Ho Hua Chew, vice-chairman of the Nature Society Singapore's conservation committee, lauded the idea of having a nature park on Coney Island to preserve its rich flora and fauna.

He said: 'This includes casuarina trees that harbour birds of prey such as the native grey-headed fish eagle, and jerdon's baza, a rare migratory bird.'

Leaving the land as untouched as possible is vital, he added.

'Just like Tampines Eco Green - it should be left more or less as it is, with woodland intact and a natural trail without concrete pavements.'

Coney Island set to become Singapore's 9th nature park
Lip Kwok Wai Channel NewsAsia 23 Feb 12;

SINGAPORE: Nature lovers can soon look forward to a new nature park on Coney Island, off Punggol.

It will be the ninth nature park in Singapore.

The park will be ready in two years, and is part of the government's plans to build 20 new parks over the next five years in the Northern, Eastern and Western parts of Singapore.

Coney Island is connected to Punggol Promenade by a bridge, but it is not open to the public yet.

The National Parks Board said it will preserve the island's wildlife and rustic nature during the development, to give the park a natural feel.

The park, which is the size of about 30 football fields, will take up half the island's space.

There are plans to develop the rest of the island for recreational and residential uses.

- AFP/fa

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From canal to lush waterway

Karen Ng Channel NewsAsia 18 Feb 12;

SINGAPORE: In a first for Singapore, a canal in Bishan Park has been transformed into a lush waterway.

The S$76.7 million project by national water agency PUB and National Parks Board (NParks) made use of bioengineering techniques to create a natural river out of concrete.

The Kallang River now meanders through Bishan Park, and park users can enjoy recreational activities along the river banks.

Designed on a floodplain concept, the river can hold 40 per cent more water than before.

The river's meandering route will also slow down water flow during heavy rains.

An alert system is in place to warn park users of rising water levels.

PUB 3P Network director George Madhavan said: "When it rains, the warning sirens will go on, announcements will be made, blinker lights will also go on. The river is expected to rise quite slowly.

NParks said the river has resulted in more species of flora and fauna in the park.

NParks assistant CEO Kong Yit San said: "Birds like the water hen, the little egrets, the purple heron, the scaly-breasted muneers, they all have come and set up home at Bishan Park."

The rejuvenated park is expected to see more than three million visitors a year.

One park user said: "I think I'll come here more often. I will bring my kids, let them see the surroundings, the greenery and the river.

"With the changes in the park, I think I'll visit here more often," said another.

Bishan Park, which was closed since October 2009 for the improvement works, will officially reopen in March.

- CNA/wk

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Connecting volunteers with organisations

Straits Times 19 Feb 12;


Mr Keith Tan (left) and Mr Ivan Chang teamed up to create StartNow.sg, a networking website designed to be a conduit between organisations with volunteering opportunities and people who want to help. -- ST PHOTO: TED CHEN

Find a non-profit organisation and you will find a mountain of paperwork: detailed donor and volunteer lists are kept on outdated spreadsheets in overlapping files often riddled with errors.

When student Ivan Chang, 23, spent a summer painfully coordinating these details at the Make-A-Wish foundation, where he is a senior wish granter, he figured that, with new technology, there must be a better way.

It led to him and architecture student Keith Tan, 22, creating the website StartNow.sg

The site is a networking tool designed to be a conduit between volunteering opportunities and people who want to help.

Organisations can create a free profile with details about their goals, events and pictures to inform potential volunteers about their work. 'Understanding the cause is a very big part of what makes a volunteer,' said Mr Tan.

Consistent contact with the organisation also keeps volunteers coming back, he added.

Start Now created a one-click portal which allows organisations to upload and easily modify volunteer databases into groups and categories. With a click, they can mass e-mail volunteers about events, speeding up what is now a time-consuming process involving outdated spreadsheets and copy-and-paste e-mailing.

Start Now also helps organisations cut out guesswork by linking groups and volunteers via interests, event times and locations.

'Convenience is ingrained in the younger generation,' noted Mr Chang, as is social belonging.

When a volunteer joins an event, a link posted on his Facebook feed notifies friends of the event and allows them to join.

People want to volunteer with their friends, said Mr Chang. 'It's intimidating to go alone.'

Another inhibiting factor is the lack of long-term satisfaction volunteers may feel after the event. Without feedback or 'thank yous' from the organisation, volunteers might lack the motivation to return.

Start Now has tackled that problem by allowing volunteers' profiles to list events attended and hours dedicated, providing a benchmark of volunteer work that they can be proud of.

The site also provides a space where organisations can give feedback to volunteers. 'Consistent engagement is key,' said Mr Tan.

Start Now is designed to be useful for managing volunteers in schools and companies as well, allowing them to detail the events and hours worked.

A few clicks on the easy-to-use database generates stylised volunteer reports useful for year-end analyses and assessments.

The biggest challenge for Start Now was meeting the diverse needs of its users.

'A lot of time was spent debating how to arrange, classify and design information and features such that the site would be easy to use for users and easy to adopt for organisations. The last thing we wanted was for a platform to be a barrier,' said Mr Chang, an information systems major at Singapore Management University.

He designed its internal infrastructure and database while Mr Tan, a National University of Singapore (NUS) architecture major, designed the user interface. They started site development last July and have taken leave from their studies to focus on it full-time.

Last September, the pair were awarded Spring Singapore's YES! Start-ups grant, which gives $4 for every $1 raised. They pooled their savings to raise $12,500 and received $50,000 for their efforts.

While Start Now is a non-profit site, the pair are working on ways to monetise without compromising on its social objective.

Mr Tan explained: 'When you put a social objective before one of profit, there are instances in which operational decisions might not make financial sense.

'In the long run, however, the need for cost sustainability forces us to ensure that all our efforts and operations create value for society because our very survival depends on it,' he added.

Plans to generate revenue include selling sponsorship and advertising space and providing consulting services to institutions.

The website will be officially launched at NUS' Social Business Week, which starts tomorrow.

Lydia Vasko

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