Keeping Riau’s Palm Oil Industry Strong a Careful Balancing Act

Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 30 Jul 12;

“Back in the 1990s, the future of our village was bleak, but then palm oil came and changed it all,” Firdaus said.

“The economy picked up, people could afford to buy motorcycles and improve their homes.”

Firdaus is the chief of Dosan village in Riau’s Siak district, one of the countless communities in the heavily forested Sumatran province whose fortunes are tied to the controversial crop.

In 2003, the village began growing oil palm on 3,500 hectares of land. But unlike many other areas, Dosan has from the outset practiced an environmentally-sustainable form of oil palm cultivation, Firdaus said.

“We don’t want the improved conditions to come to an end, so we’ve always tried to conserve our environment,” he said at a discussion in Jakarta held by Greenpeace Indonesia and the agriculture group Perkumpulan Elang (Eagle Society).

“That’s why we have rules on not clearing the existing forest, so that our kids and grandkids will still be able to experience the forest for themselves.

“We also require residents to maintain a 100-meter-wide belt of shade trees, because before we started growing oil palms the air here was very cool.

“Once we began planting the oil palms, it got hotter and we realized we needed shade trees to restore the cool.”

Perkumpulan Elang director Riko Kurniawan said more needed to be done to empower such farmers, given how much of Riau’s oil palm plantations they manage.

“Of the 3.2 million hectares of plantations in the province, local farmers manage 2.1 million hectares, yet their productivity is very low,” he said.

“That’s because, firstly, the major palm oil companies aren’t as supportive of independent farmers as they are of the farmers they employ. Also, oil palm is a relatively new crop and many farmers don’t yet fully understand how to cultivate it properly. Also, the prices are still dictated by the companies.”

He warns that without efforts to empower the farmers, the development of oil palm plantations in the province is essentially a “ticking time bomb” for environmental destruction.

“The rate at which they clear forests for farmland will be out of control. We need the government to step in and guide the farmers on how to improve their productivity,” Riko said.

He added that the government could help by providing the farmers with access to loans and technology to help boost their productivity.

“Right now, they’re only harvesting one or two tons per hectare per month, when they could potentially be making four to seven tons. If they could intensify their productivity from their existing farmland, then the forests can be saved.”

Read more!

Indonesia: Bogor's Puncak Forest to Lose Status as Protected Zone

Vento Saudale Jakarta Globe 30 Jul 12;

Bogor will no longer have a protected forest zone in the hilly Puncak area, under planned revisions to the district’s 2008 zoning regulations.

Suryanto Putra, head of zoning and the environment at the Bogor Development Planning Board (Bappeda), said on Sunday that the 8,745 hectares of protected forest straddling the subdistricts of Cirasua and Megamendung would be changed to logging forests, farmland and residential areas.

The protected forest designation was mandated under a 2008 presidential decree on zoning in Greater Jakarta, but Suryanto said the area’s protected status could not be maintained.

“Lots of people already live inside the protected forest area. We feel sorry for them because under the current zoning regulations, we can’t issue them permits for anything in that area,” he said, adding that the change in status would occur over the next three months.

Dwi Lesmana, a researcher with the environmental group Forest Watch Indonesia, disagreed that the change would help residents living in the affected area, saying most of the homes there were holiday villas built without permits.

Ernan Rustiadi, a senior planning researcher at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said lifting the protected status would reduce the already dwindling forest cover of just 12 percent.

“Even with the protected forest status, the Cisadane and Ciliwung rivers are already in critical condition, so imagine how much worse it’ll be under a logging forest status,” he said.

Read more!

Logging companies gain easy access to PNG's forests, says Greenpeace

Deforestation and land sales have blighted Papua New Guinea, but new prime minister 'is progressive figure', says Greenpeace
Mark Tran guardian.co.uk 30 Jul 12;

More than 5m hectares (12.35m acres) of customary-owned land in resource-rich Papua New Guinea have been signed over to unrepresentative landowner companies and foreign-owned corporations for up to 99 years, according to a report by Greenpeace.

Of the total 5.1m hectares covered by special agricultural and business leases (SABLs), 75%, or 3.9m hectares, are controlled by foreign-owned companies under 54 subleases or development agreements. Malaysian and Australian firms control at least 3m hectares through 32 SABLs.

PNG has the world's third largest tropical forest, but demand for its logs has led to extensive deforestation. A satellite study in 2008 said the forests of this south Pacific country were being chopped down so quickly that more than half of its trees could be lost by 2021.

The 5.1m hectares of customary-owned land represent 11% of the country and more than 16% of accessible commercial forests. PNG log exports grew by almost a fifth in 2011, largely due to logging under SABLs. Since 2006, logging companies have exported more than 1.5 cubic metres of whole logs, netting $145m (£92m) for the mostly Malaysian companies involved. Almost all the logs were exported to China.

The Greenpeace report, Up for Grabs, is highly critical of the previous government of Sir Michael Somare for allocating forests to industrial logging companies, which often occured against the wishes of people who live in PNG's forests and customary landholders.

"The previous Somare government continued this predatory relationship with customary landholders by actively facilitating the granting of SABLs with legislative amendments that enabled logging companies to gain easy access to customary-held forested land," said Greenpeace.

In May 2011, the PNG government announced a commission of inquiry into SABLs following international condemnation. The commission completed its inquiry in May this year, but will not be made public until it is tabled in parliament by the newly elected prime minister this year.

Last week, PNG's rival prime ministers ended a political feud that had left the country with two leaders for most of the past year. Somare, the elder statesman of South Pacific politics at 76 and the country's first prime minister in 1975, recontested his seat despite being ill for much of last year. Peter O'Neill was voted in as prime minister after Somare was ruled ineligible due to his prolonged absence from parliament.

Although O'Neill had the support of parliament, the supreme court twice ruled that Somare was the legitimate prime minister, leaving the country with rival leaders. Last week's agreement means O'Neill is likely to head the new government and form a coalition with backing from Somare. O'Neill's People's National Congress party is expected to win most of the seats in parliament – 3,500 candidates stood for 100 seats. Votes are still being counted.

Despite PNG's mineral wealth, successive governments have been unable to deliver infrastructure or services to a country of 6.5 million people, with about 80% of the population living on subsistence village farming and small cash crops. The general elections were PNG's eighth since independence from Australia in 1975.

Greenpeace said O'Neill's leadership could be a turning point in PNG's land policy. "He is a progressive figure and is best placed to implement the findings of the commission of inquiry," said Paul Winn, author of the report. "But he's had to team up with Somare's party, with vested interests, so he might find it difficult to implement the recommendations in full." Winn said the commission had done a thorough job. "We believe it is a hard-hitting report, saying how elites have benefited from corruption."

The Greenpeace report said the single biggest issue highlighted during the commission's inquiry was the lack of fair representation of customary landholders in agreeing to SABLs being granted over their land. The report pointed out that the Department of Lands and Physical Planning, the agency responsible for evaluating and granting SABL applications and registering subleases, was described by judicial authorities as grossly incompetent and entirely corrupt. In many cases, said Greenpeace, it was the corporations applying for logging or agricultural development that financed the government approval process.

To address many of the underlying issues that led to PNG's "land grab", Winn said it was vital for the new government to seek international help – possibly from Norway, Japan and Australia – to develop a national land planning process to identify land to be used for development, conservation or tourism and to ensure that land use benefited all of the population.

Read more!

Drought's Positive Effect: Smaller Gulf Dead Zone

Jeanna Bryner LiveScience.com Yahoo News 31 Jul 12;

Though the parched conditions have wreaked havoc on natural habitat and agricultural crops, drought may have one upside, bringing the fourth smallest dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico since mapping of this annual oxygen-free zone began in 1985.

Scientists estimate the 2012 Gulf of Mexico dead zone spans an area of 2,889 square miles (7,482 square kilometers), or just larger than the state of Delaware.

"The smaller area was expected because of drought conditions and the fact that nutrient output into the Gulf this spring approached near the 80-year record low," Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), said in a statement. Rabalais led the survey cruise that measured the dead zone.

In fact, the last time the dead zone was this small was in 2000 when it measured 1,696 square miles, or 4,393 square km.

The number is also well below the 2011 dead zone, which reached 6,770 square miles (17,534 square km) as a result of floods that carried loads of nutrients into the water. Scientists recorded the smallest dead zone, at 15 square miles (39 square km), in 1988, while the largest zone occurred in 2002 and covered an 8,400-square-mile (21,756-square-km) swath.

Estimates for this dead zone, which forms each summer off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, are important because the loss of oxygen can be dire for the animals that live there; the dead zone also threatens commercial and recreational fishing in the Gulf.

The lack of oxygen results from nutrients, particularly nitrogen, that run off the land, from agricultural and other human activities, down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico. These nutrients are food for algae, which grow as a result, before dying, sinking to the sea bottom and decomposing. It's this decomposition that sucks all the life-giving oxygen from the surrounding waters. [Mightiest Floods of the Mississippi River]

Two groups of researchers had forecast earlier this summer two very different potential sizes for this hypoxic zone, one on the small side and the other more in line with an average-size dead zone. The more conservative prediction, which involved researchers at the University of Michigan, took into account the nutrient-rich agricultural run-off from the Mississippi River watershed this spring. The "average" prediction accounted for leftovers from the prior year's nutrient pollution, called a carryover effect.

The new estimate for the zone's small size suggests this carryover effect on hypoxia was limited due to the drought (low flow) conditions, the researchers noted.

Researchers at Texas A&M plan a follow-up cruise in mid-August to provide an update on the dead-zone size.

The new research was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read more!

Evidence for climate extremes, costs, gets more local

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 30 Jul 12;

Scientists are finding evidence that man-made climate change has raised the risks of individual weather events, such as floods or heatwaves, marking a big step towards pinpointing local costs and ways to adapt to freak conditions.

"We're seeing a great deal of progress in attributing a human fingerprint to the probability of particular events or series of events," said Christopher Field, co-chairman of a U.N. report due in 2014 about the impacts of climate change.

Experts have long blamed a build-up of greenhouse gas emissions for raising worldwide temperatures and causing desertification, floods, droughts, heatwaves, more powerful storms and rising sea levels.

But until recently they have said that naturally very hot, wet, cold, dry or windy weather might explain any single extreme event, like the current drought in the United States or a rare melt of ice in Greenland in July.

But for some extremes, that is now changing.

A study this month, for instance, showed that greenhouse gas emissions had raised the chances of the severe heatwave in Texas in 2011 and unusual heat in Britain in late 2011. Other studies of extremes are under way.

Growing evidence that the dice are loaded towards ever more severe local weather may make it easier for experts to explain global warming to the public, pin down costs and guide investments in everything from roads to flood defenses.

"One of the ironies of climate change is that we have more papers published on the costs of climate change in 2100 than we have published on the costs today. I think that is ridiculous," said Myles Allen, head of climate research at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute.

"We can't (work out current costs) without being able to make the link to extreme weather," he said. "And once you've worked out how much it costs that raises the question of who is going to pay."

Industrialized nations agree they should take the lead in cutting emissions since they have burnt fossil fuels, which release greenhouse gases, since the Industrial Revolution. But they oppose the idea of liability for damage.

Almost 200 nations have agreed to work out a new deal by the end of 2015 to combat climate change, after repeated setbacks. China, the United States and India are now the top national emitters of greenhouse gases.

Field, Professor of Biology and Environmental Earth System Science at the University of Stanford, said that the goal was to carry out studies of extreme weather events almost immediately after they happen, helping expose the risks.

"Everybody who needs to make decisions about the future - things like building codes, infrastructure planning, insurance - can take advantage of the fact that the risks are changing but we have a lot of influence over what those risks are."

FLOODS

Another report last year indicated that floods 12 years ago in Britain - among the countries most easily studied because of it has long records - were made more likely by warming. And climate shifts also reduced the risks of flooding in 2001.

Previously, the European heatwave of 2003 that killed perhaps 70,000 people was the only extreme where scientists had discerned a human fingerprint. In 2004, they said that global warming had at least doubled the risks of such unusual heat.

The new statistical reviews are difficult because they have to tease out the impact of greenhouse gases from natural variations, such as periodic El Nino warmings of the Pacific, sun-dimming volcanic dust or shifts in the sun's output.

So far, extreme heat is the easiest to link to global warming after a research initiative led by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Meteorological Office.

"Heatwaves are easier to attribute than heavy rainfall, and drought is very difficult given evidence for large droughts in the past," said Gabriele Hegerl of the University of Edinburgh.

Scientists often liken climate change to loading dice to get more sixes, or a baseball player on steroids who hits more home runs. That is now going to the local from the global scale.

Field said climate science would always include doubt since weather is chaotic. It is not as certain as physics, where scientists could this month express 99.999 percent certainty they had detected the Higgs boson elementary particle.

"This new attribution science is showing the power of our understanding, but it also illustrates where the limits are," he said.

A report by Field's U.N. group last year showed that more weather extremes that can be linked to greenhouse warming, such as the number of high temperature extremes and the fact that the rising fraction of rainfall falls in downpours.

But scientists warn against going too far in blaming climate change for extreme events.

Unprecedented floods in Thailand last year, for instance, that caused $45 billion in damage according to a World Bank estimate, were caused by people hemming in rivers and raising water levels rather than by climate change, a study showed.

"We have to be a bit cautious about blaming it all on climate change," Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the Met Office's Hadley Centre, said of extremes in 2012.

Taken together, many extremes are a sign of overall change.

"If you look all over the world, we have a great disastrous drought in North America ... you have the same situation in the Mediterranean... If you look at all the extremes together you can say that these are indicators of global warming," said Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengabe, a professor at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

(Additional reporting by Sara Ledwith in London; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 30 Jul 12

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [23 - 29 Jul 2012]
from Green Business Times

Sat 04 Aug 2012: Join us on our pre-National Day coastal cleanup @ Lim Chu Kang mangrove! from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

It's Hard To Mate When There's Currents
from colourful clouds

Anemone City
from Pulau Hantu and Sedimentation on Pulau Hantu Reef Slope

Underwater splendor of Terumbu Pempang Tengah
from wonderful creation

grey-headed fish eagle @ sg buloh - 29July2012
from sgbeachbum

How many monitor lizards at Sungei Buloh?
from wild shores of singapore

Baya weaver(Ploceus philippinus) outside of SBWR
from PurpleMangrove

Common Palm Civet
from Monday Morgue

Read more!

Wildlife trafficking 'at all-time high'

Enforcement not keeping up with perpetrators, says anti-trafficking expert
Neo Chai Chin Today Online 30 Jul 12;

SINGAPORE - Bears in metal jackets - with metal catheters draining bile from their gall bladders - stand in tiny cages with their muscles largely wasted. Some have had their teeth smashed, or claws cut. Others could be killed, with their paws cut off or gall bladders taken out on-the-spot - if that is what the buyer wants.

Animal welfare issues aside, these bear farms - found in countries such as Laos, Myanmar and China and where thousands of bears are kept - are also a "real concern" from a conservation standpoint, given evidence that suggests that some of these bears are caught in the wild, said wildlife monitoring network Traffic's South-east Asia Deputy Director Chris Shepherd, who was recently in town.

The two bear species in South-east Asia - the Asian black bear and sun bear - are endangered species.

Cross-border trade of bear bile products is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), but occurs throughout the region, noted a bear bile trade report published last year that Dr Shepherd co-authored.

The bleak picture extends to wildlife trafficking in general: With growing demand fuelled by rising affluence and the rise of online trade, and enforcement agencies failing to keep up with smugglers, trafficking levels are at an all-time high, according to Dr Shepherd, who is based in Malaysia.

"The situation has never been as severe as it is now," he told TODAY. "Last year, more rhinos were killed in South Africa to supply demand in Vietnam than have ever been killed before - it was the absolute peak last year. This year, it's looking to be worse."

Last year, 448 rhinos were killed in South Africa. Conservationists have pointed to demand from Asia, in particular Vietnam. According to Traffic, Vietnamese made up 24 of the 43 arrests of Asian nationals for rhino crimes in South Africa this year, reported The Guardian last Monday.

Dr Shepherd said the aim is not to stop all wildlife trade - but to "enforce legislation to a point where wildlife is not threatened by trade and, in some cases, can be used sustainably". Such laws enacted for the white-tailed deer in North America have resulted in no detrimental effect on its wild population despite hunting, for instance.

Traffic investigates trade, provides intelligence reports and assists authorities in wildlife trafficking enforcement. It has developed materials such as species identification guides in various languages for the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, an inter-governmental initiative targeting wildlife crime.

Its most recent report, on trade of birds in the Solomon Islands, analysed 11 years of trade figures and named Singapore as a key laundering point for tens of thousands of birds caught in the wild but declared as captive bred.

Dr Shepherd urged the Singapore authorities to "better scrutinise permits on shipments" of various species. "If they closed the door here, it would have a knock-on effect globally. Singapore definitely has the potential and capacity to do that," he said.

Cases of illegal import, export and trans-shipment of wildlife and their parts or products have decreased in the last two years, according to figures from the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). There were 33 cases in 2010 and 20 cases last year, with eight cases so far this year.

The possession and sale of illegal wildlife and their parts or products has decreased from 64 in 2010 to 14 last year. But in the first half of this year, 16 cases have already been recorded.

Three cases since 2010 have been prosecuted in court, with the rest given warnings or composition fines, said an AVA spokesperson. She added that the AVA conducts regular inspections on shops that sell wildlife, and checks all shipments from high-risk countries at ports of entry and exit. It also investigates CITES infringements based on its own intelligence and other information sources. The public may also contact the AVA at 6227 0670 to provide information on illegal wildlife sales.

Singapore consumers can play their part by not eating exotic or illegal meat in restaurants overseas, and not buying medicines and souvenirs with wildlife parts, said Dr Shepherd. They should not keep wildlife as pets and, if they come across wildlife being illegally sold by dealers, they should resist "rescuing" the animals by buying them.

Read more!

Anti-flooding measures at 11 more MRT stations

Move seen as preventive and follows earlier steps at 6 downtown stations
Royston Sim Straits Times 30 Jul 12;

THE Land Transport Authority is taking steps to flood-proof more MRT stations.

It called a tender earlier this month to beef up flood prevention measures at 11 MRT stations, several months after it did the same for six downtown stations.

The 11 stations up for enhancement works this time are: Braddell, Toa Payoh, Boon Keng, Somerset, Outram, Tiong Bahru, Bugis, Lavender, Bishan, Marina Bay and Changi Airport.

The works will include installing flood-barrier systems at the stations, sealing glass panels, vent shafts and other openings to make them watertight, and raising escape staircases.

Contractors are expected to design and install two types of flood-barrier systems at several points in each station - a manual stackable type and a swing-type which stays open during normal times.

Both systems must be designed to be watertight when flood waters are below 1.5m - the height of the flood barriers.

The flood barriers should be made of lightweight aluminium panels, said the LTA in its tender documents.

The stackable barriers must also be made so user-friendly that two people will take no more than 15 minutes to set them up.

A spokesman for the authority said: 'All MRT stations and associated structures... were designed such that the entrance and crest levels are high enough to accommodate potential flooding in lower lying areas.'

Still, the authority has decided to take additional measures to enhance the flood prevention capability of selected stations given their locations, he said.

This follows an earlier contract to flood-proof six downtown MRT stations.

That project was awarded to Sigma Builders for $2,228,776.

Those six stations - Orchard, City Hall, Raffles Place, Tanjong Pagar, Novena and Little India - are all sited in low-lying areas with track records of flash-floods, but have themselves never been flooded.

Similarly, works at all 11 stations in this second phase are preventive in nature. No MRT station has ever been flooded.

Manually-operated full-height sliding barriers will also be installed at Tiong Bahru and Bugis stations.

The LTA spokesman explained that this was due to both stations' concourses being located below the lowest level of adjacent buildings.

Work on the first six stations will be completed by the middle of next year, while the next 11 stations should be outfitted by the third quarter of 2014.

Assistant professor Vivien Chua, who teaches in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore, said it is a good strategy for the authority to take preventive measures.

Temporary flood barrier systems are more reliable in holding back floodwater compared to sandbags, and are also resistant to seepage, she said.

She added that they are 'also cost-effective solutions compared to the economic cost of flood damage and the inconvenience which might result from flooding at the stations'.

Mr Kevin Kho, a 51-year-old engineer with more than 25 years of experience, said: 'As the saying goes, a stitch in time saves nine. It's more cost-effective to have good preventive measures in place.'

Read more!

Global Tiger Day - spare a thought for tiger prey too!

WWF 29 Jul 12;

As tiger range countries today celebrate Global Tiger Day, WWF is urging the governments to raise efforts to work towards Zero Poaching of tiger prey as well as tigers.

With wild tiger numbers as low as 3,200, direct, targeted poaching of tigers is the most immediate danger for the species today. However, a serious contributing factor to the plight of the tiger is the widespread decline of its forest larder – the deer, wild pigs and wild cattle such as the Gaur.

One tiger needs to eat the equivalent of a medium size deer every week to survive and without adequate food, the tiger population declines very fast. Too many forests of Asia are classed as ‘empty forests” – the trees are there but the animals are gone. Anti-poaching efforts therefore must be targeted at protecting both the tiger and its prey.

Poachers very often focus on tiger prey rather than tigers themselves. Prey animals are sought by local poachers to supply the local food market. Many of these prey species are also highly endangered and often neglected by conservation efforts. Yet, they can also benefit from the extra protection given to the tiger.

“Without protecting the tiger’s prey from poaching and forest degradation, achieving the target of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022 is impossible,” said Mike Baltzer, Leader of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative. “The survival of the prey is key to the survival of the tiger.”

Tackling poaching requires high levels of professionally managed security. But if the local community is against the park or the tigers, then the continued efforts of the poachers will overwhelm even the best-trained, motivated rangers who are at the frontline protecting tigers.

A long-term WWF project in southern Thailand, working intensively with the local communities living around Kuiburi National Park, has reduced poaching by four-fold and doubled tiger prey population. The project clearly demonstrates that when local communities are well mobilized, they can be a very powerful and essential force against poaching.

Working towards Zero Poaching requires serious government intervention. The WWF Wildlife Crime Scorecard released on Monday reported that more than 200 tiger carcasses are being seized from illegal trade each year and that most countries were very far from providing protection against poaching and illegal wildlife trade, particularly those countries like China and Vietnam, where illegal traders know there is a strong demand for tiger-based products.

WWF is today releasing a short film “Confessions of an ex-poacher” that highlights the destructive trade. Interviews with two former poachers turned tiger protectors give insights into this illicit world that drives forests to become lucrative hunting grounds for poachers and making tigers their livelihoods. The film also discusses steps needed to stem out poaching in the heartland areas of forests where tigers breed. One of these is to provide those at the frontlines protecting tigers – rangers, protected area officials and local communities – with the right tools to eradicate poaching.

Local communities and protected area staff, particularly rangers or specialized enforcement officers, are the frontline against poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. Rangers put their life on the line everyday to keep wild tigers and their prey safe. They are critical in achieving Zero Poaching, yet are not always fully appreciated for their important role. WWF will be launching a special action on International Rangers Day on 31 July to honour these unsung heroes.

Elsewhere, WWF offices in tiger range countries are also joining governments and civil society in a range of Global Tiger Day celebratory events.

Bhutan: A special community event will be held in line with the theme of this year’s Global Tiger Day – “Tiger and community co-existing in harmony for mutual survival”. It will be held in Trongsa in central Bhutan, with a community that has been working on tiger conservation. There will be a skid presented by the community and a poster competition for students.

China: WWF will launch a pilot deer reintroduction programme in Wangqing Nature Reserve in northeast China, at a site where tracks of both the Amur tiger and the Amur leopard have been discovered frequently. This is part of a bigger tiger conservation programme aimed at recovering tiger prey density and restoring the habitat. A special launch ceremony will be held with officials, representatives from partner organizations and media in attendance.

Nepal: A series of public service announcements will be launched to promote awareness of the need to stop wildlife trade. There will also be a formal declaration of the results of the tiger count conducted in Bardia National Park earlier in the year. WWF will also hold an art competition for students in the Terai Arc region.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 29 Jul 12

Reef Survey @ Pulau Hantu That Almost Did Not Happen
from colourful clouds

Algae Quest: Terumbu Pempang & Hantu Island
from Pulau Hantu

Butterfly of the Month - July 2012
from Butterflies of Singapore

Weaver birds @ Tampines Eco Green
from PurpleMangrove

Common Tailorbird collects fibres for its nest
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Mangroves, ice-cream and otter poop
live from a safe PCN ride on the Otter Cycling Trail with Raffles Museum Toddycats! from Toddycats

Read more!

Indonesia and Malaysia Home to New Frog Species

Antara Jakarta Globe 28 Jul 12;

Scientists discovered two new frog species — and named them Leptobrachium ingeri and Leptobrachium kanowitense — in a four-year study conducted in Belitung, Indonesia, and Sarawak, Malaysia.

The team of scientists was led by Amir Hamidy, of the Museum of Zoologicum Bogoriense, a research biology center run by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and colleagues from Kyoto University, Universiti Kebangsaan in Malaysia and the University of Malaya. They published their findings in “Zootaxa Journal” on Tuesday.

Amir, who is currently studying in Kyoto University, said they found the Leptobrachium ingeri species in Belitung and the coastal area of Sarawak, while the Leptobrachium kanowitense was found in the inland areas Sarawak.

“The word ‘ingeri’ on one of the species is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Robert F. Inger, of the Field Museum in Chicago,” said Amir, the main writer of the report. “He is an expert on herpetology in Southeast Asia, especially in Borneo.”

Amir said that the word “kanowitense” on the Leptobrachium kanowitense was taken from the Kanowit city in Sarawak, where the frog was discovered.

He explained that the characteristics of the two newly discovered species are different to other frog species.

In frogs, a genetic difference of three percent is enough to classify it as a new species.

Amir explained that the DNA characteristics of the two new species show that they are related to the already-known Leptobrachium nigrops.

“The genetic differences between the Leptobrachium nigrops, Leptobrachium ingeri and Leptobrachium kanowitense are very wide, more than nine percent,” Amir explained. “Changes of weather and sea levels in the past caused several islands such as Borneo, Sumatra and others to break away from the Asian mainland.

“Population-isolation of each species’ ancestor occurred during the breakaway process. After the breakaway, each species experienced its own evolution and became the current species.”

In the “Zootaxa Journal,” researchers predicted that the Leptobrachium kanowitense’s ancestor invaded Borneo island much earlier than Leptobrachium ingeri’s ancestor and that they spread during the pleistocene geological era.

The Leptobrachium ingeri species currently occupies Belitung and coastal Sarawak areas while the Leptobrachium kanowitense species inhibits the Kanowit city of Sarawak.

The Leptobrachium nigrops species is mainly found in the Malay Peninsula, Sarawak and Sumatra’s eastern coast (Riau).

Researchers are still trying to determine if the new species are endemic to those areas but said it will take more research.

Antara

Read more!

Malaysia: Seeking ways to keep crocodile numbers in check

The Star 29 Jul 12;

IN recent years, there have been numerous reports of crocodile attacks on unsuspecting villagers in the rivers of Sarawak.

According to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) Protected Areas and Biodiversity Conservation senior manager Oswald Braken Tisen, the crocodile population in the state has been on the increase over the last 20 years.

He describes it as a recovery stage for the reptile, scientifically known as Crocodileodylus Porosus. It is also known as the estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile or saltwater crocodile.

This species is one of the largest and most ferocious of all other known crocodile species alive today.

“According to the Australian authorities, we in Sarawak are now facing what they (Australians) were facing some 50 years ago,” he says in an interview with Sunday Star. Australia's crocodile population is now estimated to comprise 200,000 adult Crocodileodylus Porosus.

Braken adds that in 20 years' time, Sarawak's rivers, like Australia's, will be heavily populated by the reptile.

He says that the SFC's first section survey in 1984 on crocodile population in Sarawak rivers indicated that the average number of crocodiles then was 0.054 per kilometre of river.

“But the latest section survey along the rivers in Bako reveals that there are now up to four crocodiles per kilometre of river,” he says, while stressing that Sarawak has many long rivers.

He adds that with the increasing population of crocodile, there is bound to be human-crocodile conflicts.

A few suggestions have been brought forward to curb the numbers, including relocating the crocodiles to an uninhabited river in a nature reserve.

But he says this would be pointless as crocodiles have a “homing” habit and they would eventually find their way back to where they came from, as a study in Australia has proven.

Another proposal is culling the reptiles.

At the moment, Braken says, Crocodileodylus Porosus is listed in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits harvesting the reptiles for international trade.

Apart from that, the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 also classifies the crocodiles as protected. Killings are only allowed if the crocodiles are threatening the lives of humans.

For culling to be allowed for international trade purposes, the crocodile will have to be downlisted to Appendix 2. Before that, Malaysia has to demonstrate a survey and management programme that shows the population of crocodiles in the country is high.

“We have to prove that the recovery trend of the crocodiles is not temporary,” says Braken.

Demak Laut assemblyman Dr Hazland Abang Hipni believes people living in the Bako area could capitalise on the economic potential brought about by the rise in crocodile population to better improve their livelihood.

“About 30 years ago, the whole stretch of Bako River had fewer than 10 crocodiles but now there are five to six for every kilometre,” he says.

Dr Hazland, however, points out that the crocodile's population is still manageable and the people can co-exist with the animals by being more cautious when crossing the river in boats.

He says conflicts between people and crocodiles are inevitable as both share the same living area but better management planning and installing of safety measures could help reduce attacks by the reptiles.

For a start, he says, boatmen should increase safety measures on their boats such as by installing metal railings on both sides.

Meanwhile, Braken suggests that a community-based tourism activity on crocodile watching be done.

“In Australia, there are a lot of community-based tourism programmes where tourists are brought to a crocodile habitat to watch and even feed the reptiles,” he says.

Read more!