Prickly Porcupines
from Lazy Lizard's Tales
Professor Peter Ng’s featured interview! Why you should care about Singapore’s natural history from Raffles Museum News
Big Sisters Island is lovely after the storm
from wild shores of singapore
A Common Sandpiper Coming Face-to-Face with A Wasp
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip on 12th May
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 5 May 12;
INSUFFICIENT time spent outdoors is the main contributor to short-sightedness among children in East Asian cities, including Singapore.
This is according to a paper published in medical journal The Lancet today. 'Most of (the myopia) we've seen in East Asia is due to the environment, it is not genetic,' said Professor Ian Morgan, a researcher at the Australian National University who co-authored the paper.
The researchers said children who spend two to three hours outdoors a day are 'probably reasonably safe' from getting myopia. This could include time spent on the playground and walking to and from school.
The researchers stressed that being a bookworm or spending time on the computer is not detrimental to eyesight, as long as time is also devoted to outdoor activities during the day.
Exposure to the sun's rays is believed to stimulate production of the chemical dopamine, which stops the eyeball from growing elongated and distorting light that enters the eye.
Prof Morgan noted that children in East Asia spend the majority of their time indoors, studying and watching television.
More than half of Singapore's 10-year-olds are short-sighted.
Its myopia rate is among the world's highest because children here spend only about 30 minutes outdoors after school on weekdays, said Professor Saw Seang Mei who co-authored the Lancet paper.
The professor at National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, who recommends spending at least 10 hours outdoors every week, led a recently-concluded, year-long trial here that took children to parks every weekend to gauge the outdoor effect on myopia. The team is now studying the data.
Facts Global Energy chairman points to impact of Asia and Middle East newcomers
ronnie lim Business Times 5 May 12;
SINGAPORE'S oil refining/petro-chemicals industry will have to fight for survival in the coming two to five years, warned the chairman of Facts Global Energy.
The start-up of new refineries in Asia and the Middle East, as well as new US petrochemical plants using cheap gas from shale gas projects there, will impact Singapore, said Fereidun Fesharaki.
"It's a survival issue for the Singapore industry. If the refineries and petrochemical plants here can hold up (against the competition), they've done well already. That's my view," he told BT in an interview on Wednesday.
Dr Fesharaki said this in regard to concerns here over the big new US petrochemical crackers planned by oil majors which will tap ethane from shale gas projects.
Shell for instance is developing a multibillion-dollar cracker facility in Pennsylvania, while Aither Chemicals is looking at a US$330 million cracker in Kanawha Valley, West Virginia.
Chevron Phillips is similarly building a cracker in Baytown, Texas. The Marcellus Shale Play, which underlies part of the Appalachians, will supply gas to the plants.
"All the products from the upcoming US petrochemical plants will be for export," Dr Fesharaki said. "We see the US becoming the next most important petrochemicals exporter after Saudi Arabia, with at least 10 US plants brought out of mothball."
Because of the cheap gas available there, the oil majors are investing in the United States, and not Asian economies such as Taiwan any more, he added.
This clearly spells yet more competition for Singapore which currently has three petrochemical complexes operated by Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore, Shell and ExxonMobil, with a fourth new complex being started up by ExxonMobil.
The Singapore crackers use naphtha feedstock, although Shell and ExxonMobil's crackers are integrated with their refineries, which means they have some flexibility to use other feedstocks such as hydrowax. They are also looking at a liquefied petroleum gas terminal to help them further diversify feedstock.
Dr Fesharaki said that while "biggies" such as Shell and ExxonMobil - which have established their largest global manufacturing sites in Singapore - are likely to maintain the status quo here, their attention will now turn towards US petrochemical projects.
This suggests that "there is likely to be a holding pattern on their petrochemical investments here", he said.
"It is going to be worst for refining, with huge, new capacity emerging in Asia and the Middle East between 2014 and 2017. . . People will struggle. Essentially, Asia will be in surplus, so products will have to be transported to Europe and the US," he added.
On the impact on Singapore refiners, Dr Fesharaki said: "Don't look for growth."
"If they manage to keep running and don't close, that's success already," he added, saying that Japan for instance is closing 1.4 million barrels per day capacity.
"Singapore's advantage is its location. Besides, for the biggies here, Singapore is part of their global (supply) system."
Meanwhile, in its bid to increase competitiveness and add value to its refineries, ExxonMobil is building a US$500 million ultra-low sulphur diesel plant here, while Singapore Refining Company is mulling over a US$300 million-US$400 million "green" petrol expansion plus a base oil plant investment.
The Star 5 May 12;
A SHIPMENT declared as papayas was found to contain hundreds of cobras and freshwater turtles worth some RM110,000 meant for the “cooking pot” in Hong Kong.
The animals were rescued by the Wildlife and National Parks Department in a joint raid with the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services at the Kuala Lumpur Airport Services’ (KLAS) local cargo complex in Batu Maung, Penang.
Wildlife department’s Penang director Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim said the 555 cobras and 171 turtles, worth some RM110,000, were found inside 80 polystyrene boxes which were mixed among 100 boxes of papayas in a container.
He said the shipment was declared as papayas and was destined for Hong Kong.
He said the driver of the lorry carrying the container was arrested during the raid at about 4.30am on Wednesday.
“We arrested the driver, in his 40s, to facilitate our investigation to track down the mastermind,” Jamalun told a press conference at the department’s office in Jalan Gurdwara yesterday.
He said he believed a syndicate was behind the smuggling of the animals — the giant Asian pond turtle (heosemys grandis) which is a type of freshwater turtle and the monocellate cobra (naja kaouthia).
“We believe the animals were to be smuggled out to meet the demand for exotic animal dishes,” he added.
Jamalun said the cobras could fetch a market price of more than RM200 for the bigger ones and about RM80 for smaller ones while the turtles cost about RM200 each.
He said both species were listed under Appendix II of the Convention of International Trade of Species which means that their trade are only permitted with an appropriate export permit and certificate of origin.
He said the papayas in the shipment were harvested from a farm in Kedah, according to the shipment’s document.
Jamalun said the case was being investigated under Section 10 of the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008 that carries a fine of not more than RM100,000 for each animal but not more than RM1mil in aggregate, or a maximum seven-year jail term or both.
Tunggadewa Mattangkilang Jakarta Globe 4 May 12;
Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. The planned expansion of the Kariangau industrial estate in Balikpapan poses a serious threat to the survival of local species such as the proboscis monkey and sun bear, an environmentalist warned on Thursday.
Stanislav Lhota, a researcher from the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, said the expansion of the zone from 2,189 hectares to 5,130 hectares would result in large areas of land being developed, even if the expanded area was classified as open green space.
“What will happen is we will have a fragmentation of the habitats of endangered species such as the orangutan, proboscis monkey and sun bear, which can’t survive in small fragments of forest,” he said. “It will also give access to poachers and illegal loggers, and most crucially to land speculators.”
Lhota, who has been in Balikpapan for five years, said land speculators were already at work in the affected area, clearing land right up to the border of the Wain River Reserve, a protected area.
He said that in addition to the loss of habitat, the expansion of the industrial estate up to Balikpapan Bay would also lead to an increase in pollution and wastewater discharge into the coastal area, threatening the small local population of the Irrawaddy dolphin.
There are just 80 of the dolphins left in the area and around 1,300 proboscis monkeys, Lhota said.
Reuters 4 May 12;
BANGKOK, May 4 (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest industrial complex, Map Ta Phut, escaped the flooding that devastated other estates last year but its factories could soon suffer the opposite problem, a shortage of water, as the eastern region is threatened with drought.
A local reservoir is only half-full, worrying the 147 businesses on Map Ta Phut, although officials say there is no immediate problem with water supply and they are looking at ways to address any shortage.
The director of the estate, Pratheep Aeng-Chuan, said estate officials would meet relevant agencies including the Royal Irrigation Department and the provincial Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation on May 14 to discuss the situation.
"Currently we are coordinating with the Meteorological Department to provide information regarding water levels and climate forecasts for the coming three to four months, which may have a significant impact on water collection within the reservoir," Pratheep told Reuters.
He said the authorities would look at various measures to tackle any problems that arose, including alternative water sources and creating artificial rain over the reservoir.
The region suffered its worst drought in 30 years in 2005, when water levels in the reservoir receded to less than 20 percent.
However, Pratheep insisted the situation was nowhere near as serious yet and that businesses were operating as normal.
"There hasn't been any impact on the businesses operating here yet ... There is a sufficient amount of water production in the area for usage. No orders for water supplies from other sources have been placed yet," he said.
The reservoir contained 139.47 million cubic metres of water, whereas 160 million was generally considered necessary to ensure normal supply, East Water Resources Development and Management, which oversees supplies to the industrial sector in the region, said in a note on Friday.
Other areas of Thailand are suffering from a heat wave. The maximum daily temperature in Bangkok in April averaged 40.1 Celsius (104.2 Fahrenheit), the highest in 30 years.
Manufacturing in Thailand has still not recovered from last year's flooding. Seven big industrial estates had to close in October and the Industry Ministry says a quarter of the factories have still not reopened.
Although Map Ta Phut was spared the flooding, it has seen other disruption in recent years. Construction work on dozens of new plants was suspended for almost a year in 2009/2010 because of health and environmental complaints pursued through the courts by activists. (Reporting by Sinsiri Tiwutanond; Editing by Alan Raybould)
Bangkok Heat Stokes Debate Over mega-City Planning
Amy Sawitta Lefevre PlanetArk 4 May 12;
Bangkok Heat Stokes Debate Over mega-City Planning Photo: Sukree Sukplang
Monkeys enjoy a cold bath in a pond during a hot day in a rural neighbourhood in Ayutthaya province, 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok May 3, 2012. Bangkok is seeing the hottest average temperatures in the last 30 years.
Photo: Sukree Sukplang
Five months after the worst floods in half a century, the Thai capital is facing a near record heat wave with temperatures at three-decade highs, stoking debate over the often chaotic urban planning in one of Asia's hottest and largest cities.
The daily average high in Bangkok in April was 40.1 Celsius (104.2 Fahrenheit), the Meteorological Department says, prompting warnings from authorities for residents to be alert for heat-related ailments.
Critics say the heat has been exacerbated by poor urban planning in the fast-growing city of 12 million people - from a thinning of trees by city workers, often to accommodate electrical power lines, to heat-trapping building designs and a relatively small number of parks.
"It is a factor," Prawit Jampanya, director of the Central Weather Forecast division at the Meteorological Department, said, referring to the lack of green spaces in trapping Bangkok's mercury-pumping heat.
"Having trees does help to relieve poor air quality and urban heat traps," he said.
Though a tropical city, Bangkok has fewer trees and green spaces in proportion to its population than other Asian cities. An Asian Green City Index of 22 cities released last year by the Economist Intelligence Unit put Bangkok's green spaces at 3 square meters per person in the metropolitan area.
That is well below the index average of 39 square meters and contrasts with Singapore, a fellow Southeast Asian tropical city 1,430 km (890 miles) to the south, which has 66 square meters of green space per person.
Urban planning in Bangkok can seem arbitrary - from chronic congestion on main roads to obstructed or non-existent sidewalks, and poorly enforced zoning laws that allow homes and apartment buildings next to office towers and shopping malls.
Authorities hope to bring some order to the city with a new urban plan that takes effect from May next year.
Chalermwat Tantasavasdi, associate dean at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Thammasat University, says Bangkok's heat is made worse by outdated building designs that lack the proper insulation needed to keep buildings cool, leading to a rise in energy consumption.
The heat coincides with drought in 50 out of Thailand's 77 provinces, plus an increase in man-made and natural fires, just months after the worst floods in more than 50 years.
Businesses report surging sales of air conditioners, sun-screen and other cooling products.
Mistine Cosmetics Thailand, for example, saw sales of sunscreen products, lotions and creams jump 14 percent in April compared with the same period last year, says the company's marketing planner, Cholacha Subeuong.
Humans aren't the only ones suffering.
"Because of the heat, we have had to put in place cooling measures for the animals," says Waraporn Gunton at Bangkok's Dusit Zoo.
Measures have included mixing ice with animal food and watering some animals down with sprinklers.
(Editing by Jason Szep and Robert Birsel)
Jordan Riefe Reuters 4 May 12;
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - If you thought only Third World countries have water crises, a new documentary asks you to think again. Increasingly, problems are rising to the surface in the United States.
Filmmaker Jessica Yu harnesses the celebrity power of actor Jack Black and environmental activist Erin Brockovich - immortalized by Julia Roberts in the 2000 movie about Brockovich's work - to give the looming U.S. water crisis a thorough wringing out in "Last Call at the Oasis".
"A third of U.S. counties face water shortage by the year 2050," Yu told Reuters. "It's not really a solvable problem but we can manage it so much better."
"Last Call at the Oasis" follows environmental activists as they try to hold accountable those who contaminate the Earth's most precious natural resource - clean water.
In Las Vegas, they find a desert city is straining limited resources as it grows exponentially. Rural mid-western states are home to industrial cattle farms where tons of manure is improperly disposed, contaminating streams and drinking water. In farming communities, local towns see a spike in cancer cases after chemicals are used in pesticides.
According to Yu's research, in just 60 years the aquifer in California's Central Valley could be depleted, leaving barren an area that provides one fifth of the nation's produce.
Brockovich, who won a 1996 multi-million dollar settlement against energy giant Pacific Gas and Electric for polluting the water supply of a California town, said that water pollution is causing health issues throughout the United States.
"There are 4000 individual communities on my map now, and I can barely keep up with the incoming data," she told Reuters.
"Tropic Thunder" comic actor Black appears in a spoof commercial for bottled water, dubbed Porcelain Springs, that has been reclaimed from sewage - a concept that has been a hard sell in the United States despite being practiced elsewhere.
Singapore, for instance, satisfies 30 percent of its requirements through reclaimed water, the documentary notes.
"We're taught that in a survival situation if you don't have any water, you can drink your own urine," laughed Brockovich. "I just think none of us want to be in a position where we find ourselves drinking our urine if we can just make other options and choices now."
The sources of pollution include household products, pesticide manufacturers and the natural gas industry, to name a few. While the movie refrains from pointing the finger at any one company or group, industry representatives nevertheless declined to be interviewed for the film.
"The film is not about a bad guy," said Yu. "These industries are representative of a system that lets these things happen. We give the benefit of the doubt to industry. The burden of testing being on the producers of the chemicals - that seems like something that is fundamentally flawed."
Solutions discussed in the film also include better oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency and tighter regulations particularly on the natural gas industry and chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in drilling for gas.
"Nobody wants industry and those companies to go away because these people need jobs, but they don't want you to poison them," said Brockovich.
"There's a moment here where industry does not have to be the villain. You could create jobs to better dispose of waste - how we're going to reclaim and recycle that water, so that it's usable," she added.
In a 2008 report, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that by 2080 nearly half the world's population will be without clean water.
"We see third world countries that have these problems," noted Brockovich. "If you think it can't be us, then think again."
(Reporting By Jordan Riefe, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bob Tourtellotte)
Raffles Museum Toddycats at Festival of Biodiversity (26 & 27 May 2012) from Toddycats! with more about the Festival of Biodiversity
Great Grasshoppers of Singapore!
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
New articles on Nature in Singapore website
from Raffles Museum News
Sharing about our shores with SAJC
from wild shores of singapore
woody woodpecker @ yishun ave 1
from sgbeachbum
Common Moorhen and Black-backed Swamphen foraging
from Bird Ecology Study Group
A Rare Skipper In the West
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
The growth of Monday Morgue
from Lazy Lizard's Tales
Channel NewsAsia 3 May 12;
SINGAPORE: Do not release animals into the wild this Vesak Day -- that's a reminder from the National Parks Board (NParks).
This year's Vesak Day falls on Saturday.
NParks said it is working with volunteers to carry out "Operation No Release" in the nature reserves and reservoirs this weekend.
They will keep a lookout for any case of animal release and will educate and advise members of the public on the harm of releasing animals into the wild.
NParks director of conservation Wong Tuan Wah said: "We would like to appeal to the public not to release animals into the wild as it means sending them to their deaths.
"As some of these animals are usually kept as pets, they are not likely to survive as they are not used to the surroundings and are not able to cope in the wild. If these animals carry viruses, they will also affect other native wildlife."
Meanwhile, Buddhist Fellowship president Angie Chew Monksfield said: "We should be compassionate and considerate to animals both in captivity as well as in the wild as releasing certain animals could threaten those in the wild.
"It would be more beneficial to reduce our meat intake all year round than simply releasing animals during Vesak as this could also encourage vendors to increase the supply of animals for this very purpose."
To complement efforts of the operation, NParks is partnering volunteers and students from CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace to conduct an outreach ambassador session at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve on 19 May, from 9am to noon.
The session aims to educate and advise the public against releasing animals into Singapore's reserves and nature areas.
- CNA/wk
Effort to stop Vesak Day animal release
Volunteers, with NParks support, to trawl nature areas to advise against it
Siau Ming En Straits Times 4 May 12;
VOLUNTEERS will be trawling nature reserves and reservoirs this weekend to advise people against releasing captive animals into the wild.
The National Parks Board (NParks) said it will be working with volunteers in an effort to prevent the practice, which is often fatal for the creatures and can harm local wildlife.
Members of local nature group Nature Trekker Singapore, separately, will also be out and about doing the same.
Animals such as birds, fish and red-eared terrapins are usually released at reservoirs and parks as a symbolic gesture of compassion on Vesak Day, which is tomorrow.
Said Mr Wong Tuan Wah, director of conservation at NParks: 'We would like to appeal to the public not to release animals into the wild, as it means sending them to their deaths.'
Those that have been kept as pets will be unable to cope in the wild. If they carry viruses, they will also affect other native wildlife, said Mr Wong.
Venerable Kwang Sheng, president of the Singapore Buddhist Federation, said it is also telling its temples not to do it.
'We don't encourage the practice, as the animals are sometimes released into unsuitable grounds and they may not even survive,' he said.
NParks figures show a decline in the number of people caught trying to release animals in parks and reserves. There were 44 cases in 2004, five in 2010 and none last year.
Mr Lee Song Shun, 32, a worker at Que Feng Birds and Pets Trading Enterprises in Serangoon North, said: 'People know they can't release animals into reservoirs and parks now.'
But for those who would still like to carry out the practice, some Buddhist centres have pointed them to kelongs.
'There is a right place and right type of species to be released,' said Venerable Tenzin Gyurme, spiritual programme coordinator at the Amitabha Buddhist Centre.
He said the centre advises its devotees to go to a kelong, where caught fish are released back into the sea as a symbolic gesture.
Karma Kagyud Buddhist Centre does the same.
Its abbot Venerable Shangpa Rinpoche said: 'Releasing fish from the kelongs into the sea does not affect the ecosystem since it is returning them to their natural habitats.'
Ms Angie Chew Monksfield, president of the Buddhist Fellowship, suggested going vegetarian as an alternative.
'It would be more beneficial to reduce our meat intake all year round, than simply releasing animals during Vesak Day.'
Public advised not to release animals on Vesak Day
Straits Times 3 May 12;
NParks has advised the public not to release animals into the wild. In an instance, quails, including many which had died, were found released at the Central Catchment Nature Reserve before Vesak Day. -- PHOTO: NPARKS
This Vesak Day, the public is reminded not to release animals into the wild.
The National Parks Board (NParks) is working with volunteers to carry out 'Operation No Release' in the nature reserves and reservoirs this weekend to raise awareness on the rationale behind not releasing animals.
They will be keeping a lookout for any cases of animal release and will educate and members of the public on the harm of releasing animals into the wild.
'We would like to appeal to the public not to release animals into the wild as it means sending them to their deaths', said Mr Wong Tuan Wah, Director of Conservation, NParks.
'As some of these animals are usually kept as pets, they are not likely to survive as they are not used to the surroundings and are not able to cope in the wild. If these animals carry viruses, they will also affect other native wildlife.'
To complement efforts of Operation No Release, NParks is partnering with volunteers and primary four students from CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace to conduct an Outreach Ambassador session.
This session aims to educate and advise the public against releasing animals into our reserves and nature areas.
Volunteers and students will be setting up a station at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve on May 19 from 9am to 12pm.
Vesak Day reminder: Do not release animals into the wild
NParks Media Release 3 May 12;
Singapore, 3 May 2012 – The National Parks Board (NParks) would like to remind members of the public not to release animals into the wild this Vesak Day.
“We would like to appeal to the public not to release animals into the wild as it means sending them to their deaths”, says Mr Wong Tuan Wah, Director of Conservation, NParks. “As some of these animals are usually kept as pets, they are not likely to survive as they are not used to the surroundings and are not able to cope in the wild. If these animals carry viruses, they will also affect other native wildlife.”
Operation No Release
To raise public awareness on the rationale of not releasing animals into the wild, NParks is working with volunteers to carry out "Operation No Release‟ in the nature reserves and reservoirs this weekend. They will be keeping a lookout for any case of animal release and will also educate and advise members of the public on the harm of releasing animals into the wild.
“We should be compassionate and considerate to animals both in captivity as well as in the wild as releasing certain animals could threaten those in the wild. It would be more beneficial to reduce our meat intake all year round than simply releasing animals during Vesak as this could also encourage vendors to increase the supply of animals for this very purpose”, says Angie Chew Monksfield, President, Buddhist Fellowship.
Outreach Ambassadors
To complement efforts of the "Operation No Release‟, NParks is partnering with volunteers and Primary Four students from CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace to conduct an Outreach Ambassador session. This session aims to educate and advise public against releasing animals into our reserves and nature areas. Volunteers and students will be setting up a station at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve on 19 May from 9am to 12noon. They will engage the public from the station and around the nature reserve.
The shellfish will be cultivated alongside fish vaccinated against virus
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 4 May 12;
A NEW project could put cockles that are free of the hepatitis virus on the plate.
Scientists are exploring ways to make the popular shellfish - used in dishes like char kway teow - free from the Hepatitis A virus, which attacks the liver and causes nausea, vomiting and fatigue.
The key to this? Fish.
Researchers at the Tropical Marine Science Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS) believe that cockles should be cultivated alongside fish such as seabass. Their theory is that fish injected with a vaccine against the hepatitis virus will create antibodies which they secrete into the water.
The cockles may then absorb the antibodies, giving them protection against the virus.
Professor Lam Toong Jin, an NUS emeritus professor in the biological science department who is leading the project, noted that many people love cockles.
'The trouble is, we love to eat them half-cooked so they are more juicy,' he said. This increases the risk of catching the virus.
His team's eventual goal is to build a land-based pilot farm to rear these virus-free cockles. This would avoid potentially polluted natural waters.
The research, which started late last year, will take three years to complete. This is because the researchers have to find out the correct vaccine dosage to use, the right ratio of fish to cockles, how long the fish will keep producing antibodies to determine when booster vaccine shots should be given, and whether they will keep the cockles virus-free.
If the project is successful, it could be expanded to other shellfish such as oysters which may also carry the virus, said Prof Lam.
Hepatitis A is painful to the sufferer but rarely fatal, and most people recover within six months. In Singapore, fewer than one in 100,000 people suffered from it in 2010, but there were spikes in the number of cases in 1992 and 2002.
The majority of the infections here are caused by people eating raw or partially cooked cockles with the virus.
Prof Lam said the rate of infection here could be lower than before due to younger generations staying away from the shellfish for health reasons.
He said the cockles cannot be injected with the vaccine directly because they do not produce antibodies themselves.
Even if the cockles are not protected by the antibodies from the fish, they would be more healthy if they were reared in the controlled environment of a farm, he said.
He added that the team would approach aquaculture companies and investors if the research is successful.
The $1 million research project is financed by the Singapore Millenia Foundation, which is funded by the Temasek Trust, the philanthropic arm of Temasek Holdings.
Why cockles tend to carry virus
Straits Times 4 May 12;
COCKLES belong to a family of shellfish called bivalves, so-called because they have two shells hinged together. Other bivalves include oysters and mussels.
They are popular among Singaporeans, but they can also carry the Hepatitis A virus, which attacks the liver but is rarely fatal.
Bivalves have a higher risk of being infected with the Hepatitis A virus because they feed on particles absorbed from water. This includes faecal matter which may carry the virus.
After the shellfish absorb the particles, any virus is concentrated in their tissues, which makes them especially effective carriers of the disease.
Cockles are more vulnerable to the virus because they are traditionally harvested from the wild, where there may be more faecal matter. Farmers usually do not rear cockles because they are considered too low-value, unlike other shellfish such as oysters.
Singapore imports most of its cockles from Malaysia, with a small portion coming from other countries such as France and Japan.
In the past three years, the Republic has imported about 3,000 tonnes of the shellfish each year, said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.
These are usually eaten raw or half-cooked in dishes such as laksa and char kway teow.
Methods of removing the virus from the shellfish include placing them in clean waters. Their digestive system will eventually purge the virus.
Cooking the shellfish thoroughly also kills the virus.
Proposed dam in Thai national park may destroy their habitat
Nirmal Ghosh Straits Times 4 May 12;
BANGKOK: Thailand's pledge to double the number of endangered wild tigers in the country's jungles by 2022 will be in jeopardy if a new dam at a national park is built, environmental organisations have warned.
The dam on the Mae Wong river, at the national park of the same name in Nakhon Sawan province, north-west of Bangkok, forms part of the government's flood management plan. The project reportedly will help irrigate up to 480 sq km of farmland.
However, to do that, it will destroy around 1,760ha of low- lying forest - the best habitat for wildlife, including the tiger. The accompanying access roads could also open up the forest further to illegal activity.
Thailand was among 12 Asian countries that committed themselves at the Global Tiger Summit in Russia in 2010 to doubling the world's tiger population to 7,000 by 2022.
The 900 sq km national park has been protected for more than 24 years.
'Successive governments have invested in total more than 300 million baht (S$12 million) to make the park as secure as it is today,' Dr Anak Pattanavibool, the director of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Thailand programme, wrote last week in the Bangkok Post.
The park is part of Thailand's Western Forest Complex, the largest system of protected areas in mainland South-east Asia. In all, it covers 17 protected areas, totalling 18,000 sq km and overlapping the border with Myanmar.
It is seen as the only habitat in South-east Asia capable of supporting a large number of tigers on a sustainable basis if it is adequately protected.
'The entire Western Forest Complex is Thailand's very last stronghold for many globally endangered and vulnerable species,' Dr Anak wrote in the Post.
'The international community... has hailed the long and firmly held policy of Thailand to protect the Western Forest Complex and its associated natural heritage as an example for others to follow.'
Some environmental agencies are urging that the Mae Wong National Park be recognised also as one of the country's natural heritage sites, the Post reported.
Thailand's Cabinet approved the 13 billion baht dam project on April 10. So far, no assessment of the environmental impact has been carried out.
The project has now become a test of Thailand's flood management plan - and also the clout of the Department of National Parks, which has the authority to turn down the project.
Building a dam and reservoir in a national park is illegal in the first place, Dr Anak said in an interview. Constructing the dam and reservoir would destroy Thailand's reputation for wildlife protection, he said.
Conservationists have an ally in the Stop Global Warming Association (SGWA) - an independent non-government organisation headed by lawyer Srisuwan Janya, who shot to fame some two years ago after winning a landmark judgment against polluting industries in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate. Both WCS and SGWA do not believe the dam will help in flood control.
SGWA has started a campaign against the dam on cost grounds, saying the estimate given last year was only 9.6 billion baht. It is trying to gather 13,280 co-complainants to file a legal challenge to the project.
'The approved budget for the construction is too high,' Mr Srisuwan said last month. 'The budget for the construction will come from massive foreign loans, and our offspring will have to repay the loans. They will also suffer the loss of forest land.'
Villages once situated in the area that will be flooded by the reservoir were relocated in the interest of wildlife conservation, Dr Anak said.
The ecosystem recovered and wildlife, including prey species and tigers, returned to the area, he said.
The dam was first mooted 20 years ago, but the project did not gain traction for a long time. In 2002, the National Environment Board turned it down.
Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department is expected to complete a health and environmental impact assessment study for the project in July.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 3 May 12;
Indonesia may have lost a staggering five million hectares of forest since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced a two year moratorium on deforestation last year, Greenpeace Indonesia said on Thursday.
The moratorium, part of the president's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) program, failed to include five million hectares of forest in maps of protected areas, said Kiki Taufik, a geographical information specialist with Greenpeace Indonesia, during a press conference in Jakarta.
“These areas haven’t been protected by the moratorium because their statuses are unclear," Kiki said. "The regions overlap with existing concessions."
Kalimantan was hit hardest in the last year, where 1.9 million hectares of forest disappeared. Papua lost some 1.7 million hectares of lost forest.
“In Kalimantan, most of the destroyed forest was in regions where coal concessions were already granted," Kiki said. "In Papua, the forest was cut down under pre-existing logging concessions."
The deforestation moratorium promised to protect nearly half of Indonesia's existing tree cover — an area totaling 64 million hectares — when it was passed last year. But one year later, only 13 million additional hectares have been placed under protection, Kiki said.
While the moratorium has placed some 64 million hectares of forest under the government's protection, 46.7 million hectares of these protected forests were already part of conservation areas when the moratorium was announced, he said.
"So the moratorium only successfully added 13 million hectares of protected forests," Kiki said.
The two-year moratorium came into effect last May as Norway pledged $1 billion in aid to Indonesia as part of a larger UN-backed plan to reduce emissions produced by deforestation. According to estimates, one million hectares of burning forest can produce as much as 290 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Indonesia lost five times that amount in the last year alone.
BeritaSatu/JG
Green groups say Indonesia deforestation ban 'weak'
AFP Yahoo News 4 May 12;
A coalition of green groups in Indonesia on Thursday criticised a moratorium on deforestation as "weak", saying the year-long ban still excludes large tracts of the country's carbon-rich forests.
Greenpeace, which is leading the coalition, said government maps that mark protected areas exclude 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) of peatland -- biodiverse swamp-like forests that hold rich carbon reserves.
Greenpeace said the government must review all existing logging permits on the country's natural forests and peatland, and improve governance based on an accurate set of maps.
"The government cannot hope to improve forest governance and ensure the effectiveness of the moratorium without taking these crucial steps," Greenpeace Southeast Asia political campaigner Yuyun Indradi said in a statement.
An earlier review of the maps by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that the moratorium leaves almost 50 percent of Indonesia's 100 million hectares of natural forest and peatland unprotected.
"The current moratorium is weak and does very little in effect to protect the forests," said Deddy Ratih, a forest campaign manager for Friends of the Earth Indonesia.
The two-year moratorium came into effect last year as the centrepiece of a deal with Norway, which pledged $1 billion to Indonesia under a UN-backed scheme to reduce emissions from deforestation.
That deal was part of a larger commitment made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2009 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from levels that year by 26 percent by 2020, or 41 percent with international support.
The coalition charged that the moratorium -- which was originally supposed to include all natural forests -- had been watered down to protect just older primary forests and peatland because of pressure from big business.
Indonesia is often cited as the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, due mainly to rampant deforestation by the palm oil, mining and paper industries.
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