Malaysia: Villagers in Pengerang affected by land acquisition for petrochemical project will receive damages

Zazali Musa The Star 13 Sep 12;

JOHOR BARU: Villagers affected by the land acquisition process in Pengerang will receive their compensation in cash within 14 days of their acceptance.

The assurance given by the state government was for the on-going public hearing on the land acquisition award that started on Sept 3.

The hearing was for villagers in three villages whose lands are affected by the Rapid project located within the proposed Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC).

Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said recently that Phase one of the public hearing until Sep 14, would enable the three villages affected to receive their compensation.

The three villages affected by the acquired land and properties are part of Kampung Sungai Kapal, part of Kampung Teluk Empang and part of Kampung Langkah Baik.

The public hearing implementation is based on Land Acquisition Act 1960.

“Affected villagers should not worry about their rights because it will be done according to provisions of the Act,’’ he said.

Abdul Ghani said the compensation offered would be based on valuation conducted by the Valuation and Property Service Department.

He said it was based on prevailing market prices (transaction values) at the time before Section 4, was gazetted and would not be arbitrarily decided upon by the state government.

Over and above this compensation, the state government would also be offering a special housing ownership scheme in a new resettlement area to villagers, whose houses were affected.

The scheme offers villagers the opportunity to own new detached houses at substantially discounted prices.

All the new houses come with 6,000 sq ft of land each, for which the villagers need to pay a nominal fee of RM1 only.

The categories of the new houses on offer are based on the valuation of the owners’ existing houses:

a) For existing houses valued between RM10,000 to RM40,000, villagers will be able to own new houses (750 sq ft built-up area) with 6,000 sq ft of land at an estimated market value of RM120,000 by paying only RM35,000 - a fraction of the market price. The state government will subsidise a minimum of RM85,000.

b) For existing houses valued between RM40,001 and RM75,000, villagers will be able to own new houses (1,000 sq ft built-up area) with 6,000 sq ft of land at an estimated market value of RM180,000 by paying a mere RM65,000. The subsidy by the state government is RM115,000.

c) For existing houses valued at RM75,001 to RM95,000, the state government will subsidise RM130,000 for the villagers to own new houses with 1,300 sq ft built-up area and 6,000 sq ft of land at an estimated market value of RM215,000 by paying only RM85,000.

d) For existing houses valued above RM95,000, villagers will be able to own new houses (1,600 sq ft) with 6,000 sq ft of land at an estimated market value of RM245,000 by paying only RM105,000. The state will subsidise RM140,000 under this category.

Villagers will be able to use the compensation payout received for the affected houses to offset the costs of owning the new houses.

Additionally, the state will also award two acres of agriculture land at a minimal premium to be paid by the landowners, on top of the cash compensation to be paid for the acquired agricultural land.

The land will be awarded to villagers who own agricultural land that meet the prescribed criteria set by the government.

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Asian frogs becoming extinct before they can be identified, biologists warn

Scientists fear amphibian destruction will be disastrous, with many species disappearing uncatalogued
Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk 12 Sep 12;

Frogs and other amphibians are being wiped out at such a rapid rate across Asia that many are going extinct before scientists even have a chance to identify them as new species, biologists warned at an international conservation meeting in South Korea this week.

The scale of the destruction – caused by habitat loss, disease, pollution and other factors – is hard to quantify, but scientists fear the result will be disastrous. Amphibians have been suffering a wave of devastation all around the world, in part because of the spread of the fungal disease Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, known as BD or chytrid fungus, which has wiped out whole populations within the space of a few years.

But while conservation and monitoring efforts have so far focused on the Americas and Europe, little work has yet been done in the world's most populous continent, with the result that many amphibian species there are as yet uncatalogued and unstudied. For instance, according to one researcher, there are probably at least three to four times as many amphibian species in India alone as are currently catalogued.

"These creatures are disappearing before we even know they exist. We know this is happening – this has already been shown in cases such as Sri Lanka," said Bruce Waldman, associate professor at Seoul National University in Korea. "These are living jewels – but we don't know even how many we have, and we are not saving them."

He said rapid economic development in Asia was taking a toll on amphibians, with an increase in the level of nitrogen pollution in the water, from fertiliser use, and habitats being rapidly destroyed.

He called for an urgent approach to the problem in Asia and across the world: "We need to very quickly address the global crisis in amphibians."

Frogs and other amphibians are among the most threatened creatures in the world today – globally, at least a third, probably 40%, of amphibian species are in urgent danger of extinction, making a total of more than 2,000 species of amphibian so far documented to be officially "threatened", "endangered" or "vulnerable", classifications used by scientists to describe the level of threat. "This is higher than any other terrestrial animal," said Jaime García-Moreno, executive director of the Amphibian Survival Alliance.

The plight of frogs and other amphibians is of particular concern to scientists because many think the devastation afflicting them could be a foretaste of that in waiting for other creatures. Their physiognomy makes amphibians particularly sensitive to small changes in their environment, including temperature changes such as global warming, and to water and air pollution.

This sensitivity, some scientists believe, could be behind the sudden and unexpected extinction of certain species even from well-protected areas. Waldman pointed to the golden toad of Costa Rica which "disappeared from a pristine habitat".

García-Moreno said that the loss of frog species could have knock-on effects not just on biodiversity and the food chain, but on human development. He pointed to research that has identified naturally occurring chemicals, such as skin secretions from frogs, that can be turned into medicine to treat human beings.

"Amphibians play a very important role in ecosystems – they are a conveyor of energy and nutrients from very small animals to larger animals," he said. "They are natural pest controllers too. Some have chemicals in their skins that can be useful to medical treatments, such as cancer and perhaps Aids. We must try to conserve these creatures."

Scientists could also learn more about the deadly chytrid disease from studying Asia, noted Mi-Sook Min, research professor at Seoul National University. Some indicators suggest the disease could even have come from the continent, as most cases to date have been found in other continents which may indicate a long history in Asia whereby amphibians have evolved to live with the disease. However, there are also indications in other research that the disease could have been existing in Latin America since the 1880s.

Waldman emphasised: "We just don't know – in fact the Asian crisis [over the disease] may be even worse [than in other, better documented areas] but we just don't have enough information. We are overwhelmed by our ignorance."

Global trade, including the pet trade but also commerce more generally, has helped the fungus to spread widely. In some afflicted areas, frog populations plummeted by 95% in less than a decade. The fungus appears to disrupt fluid and electrolyte balance in frogs, depleting their sodium and potassium levels and causing cardiac arrest and death, according to research from the University of California, Berkeley, and the San Francisco State University.

García-Moreno said some areas of trade were badly monitored. For instance, millions of frogs' legs are sold, imported and exported around the world today for human consumption, with few restrictions or monitoring. He called for tighter controls.

The scientists, presenting their work at the World Conservation Congress, the quadrennial meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in Jeju this week, called for more research into amphibians in Asia as a matter of urgency.

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Threatened Vietnam cave bugs draw little sympathy

Mike Ives Associated Press Google News 12 Sep 12

HON CHONG, Vietnam (AP) — Hundreds of species live in the limestone caves of Hon Chong in southern Vietnam, and many of them are found nowhere else on Earth. Yet their habitat is being blown apart, chunk by chunk, in the name of making cement.

One reason, biologists lament, is that these are creatures no one would want to hug, and many would want to stomp.

Spiders. Mites. Millipedes.

People who have been trying to save them from extinction for more than 15 years have found few allies in government, industry or among local residents.

"The problem is that limestone caves do not (have) any charismatic animals or plants that would melt people's hearts if they died out," Peter Ng Kee Lin, a biologist at the National University of Singapore, said by email.

The degradation of Asia's vast but fragile limestone ecosystems is continuing apace as the region's demand for cement grows along with its economies. Limestone is a key ingredient in cement, the second-most consumed substance on Earth after water, and is used to build desperately needed houses, roads and bridges.

Holcim Vietnam — a joint venture of the Switzerland-based company Holcim and a state-owned Vietnamese construction company — began quarrying 200 hectares (490 acres) of Hon Chong limestone in 1997. It is licensed to quarry about 91 million tons of limestone at three hills over 50 years.

Hon Chong has among the few limestone outcroppings in southern Vietnam and lies about 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City.

Its isolated cave ecosystems are among the world's most biodiverse, according to Louis Deharveng, a biodiversity specialist at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

Letters from scientists and a biodiversity study obtained by The Associated Press show that Holcim Vietnam and a key donor have received repeated warnings in recent years about the threats the company's quarries pose to Hon Chong's cave-dwelling invertebrates. Three respected European scientists have accused the company of ignoring red flags over two decades and provoking an ongoing "ecological disaster."

"It's rather like a company going in to mine the Galapagos just before Charles Darwin arrives," said one of the scientists, Tony Whitten, a former biodiversity specialist at the World Bank who is now regional director for Asia-Pacific at the UK-based conservation group Fauna & Flora International. "How many species is a company prepared to eliminate from a planet we are supposed to be managing and sustaining?"

Holcim Vietnam says its operations meet the highest international standards for social and environmental responsibility and that it is working to offset the damage it causes to Hon Chong's limestone.

It partners with the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature to relocate rare monkeys living near the caves, and has also donated $30,000 toward a wetland-based crane conservation project managed by the U.S.-based International Crane Foundation, according to the groups.

Holcim and the Swiss conservation group also are working with provincial authorities to create two protected areas of about 2,000 hectares each near the Hon Chong quarries — one for grasslands and the other for limestone.

Holcim is also working with the International Union for Conservation of Nature to develop a "biodiversity action plan" for Hon Chong that is expected to be finalized in October. Jake Brunner, Mekong program coordinator for the conservation group, said Holcim does not have a perfect environmental record but is an "island of excellence" when compared to Vietnam's state-owned cement companies.

Holcim's critics, however, said that while the company is helping to mitigate the damage done to monkeys and cranes, it is slowly killing off the small cave dwellers that play an undervalued but important role in the ecosystem.

Cave invertebrates are pollinators and the base of food chains that support a rich web of life, scientists say. Because limestone hills have rugged terrain and have largely been spared from agricultural development, their interior caves are now "islands" of tropical biodiversity, and most of the organisms living inside those caves are unknown to science.

Ng, the Singapore biologist, said the destruction continues in part because caves do not house "sexy" animals that galvanize the general public's sympathies.

"Our disregard for them speaks volumes of human wisdom," he said.

Nguyen Cong Minh Bao, Holcim Vietnam's sustainable development director, said ecological factors couldn't be considered independent of economic ones.

"That's the reality where we are living," he said in an interview at company headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City.

Holcim declined a request by the AP to visit its Hong Chong quarries and cement production plant, saying it did not have enough advance notice to arrange a tour. But in July, AP reporters interviewed local residents who said they were grateful for the jobs, infrastructure and social welfare programs the company assists in.

"Holcim has done a good job protecting the environment," said provincial environmental official Vo Thi Van. "It's not right to say the quarries have caused an ecological disaster."

Holcim's plant was built with help from the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank. It arranged financing of $97 million for the project, though Deharveng warned the corporation in 1995 that "no comparable ecosystem exists elsewhere in Vietnam."

The decision to go through with the loan was made based on an environmental impact assessment by Vietnamese scientists that did not specifically address threats to Hon Chong's cave biodiversity, said Richard Caines, one of the finance corporation's principal environment specialists.

The corporation later commissioned a biodiversity survey that in 2002 reported "wide species diversity" in Hon Chong's limestone hills. The loan was paid off in 2003, but Caines said the corporation continued to work with Holcim Vietnam after that, in part because the quarrying operations posed a "reputation risk" to both parties.

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Indonesia: Dry Season Parches Lombok

Fitri Jakarta Post 10 Sep 12;

West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. “Quick! The water’s coming!”

The cry echoes through the dusty village of Batu Layar, in the West Lombok subdistrict of the same name, as a tanker truck rolls down the main street.

The village, languishing in the oppressive heat of the dry season, suddenly springs to life. Residents rush out of their homes carrying buckets, jerricans and other water receptacles.

They jostle around the tanker to get their fill, while village officials try to restore some semblance of order by ensuring that the women get their share first.

For those like Inaq Nurhasanan, the arrival of the water tanker, courtesy of the district’s social services agency, is a welcome relief in more ways than one.

“We need the water for every aspect of our lives, which makes the drought this year particularly hard for us,” she says.

The driest of seasons

Batu Layar’s 150 families have for the past four months been grappling with the most intense drought there in living memory.

Twice a day, the village’s men, women and children trudge three to five kilometers to neighboring villages to get water, often returning empty-handed as wells across the area dry up.

Last year’s rainy season ended a month early, in March; by May, the wells had bottomed out and the riverbeds had run dry. Now, 750 hectares of rice crops have failed, and there is no sign of the dry season ending. Official predictions are that the rainy season will not return until late October.

In the early days of the water crisis, the district disaster mitigation agency, or BPBD, set up large tanks in each village to hold water reserves, but these have been dry for weeks now.

The severity of the drought has forced local officials to send out tanker trucks to affected areas, but Batu Layar’s remote location and lack of properly paved roads means deliveries are few and far between.

“We’ve been waiting for a long time for the truck to come,” Nurhasanan says.

“This is only the third time it’s come here in the past four months.”

When it does come, the relief it brings is short-lived. Each household is restricted to just 20 liters of water. If they run out before the tanker returns, they go back to walking long distances in search of the precious commodity.

When they do find a functioning well, the villagers often must pay exorbitant prices for the water, leaving them struggling to afford basic foodstuffs.

Struggling to cope

Muhamad Taufik, the Batu Layar village chief, says there is little he can do about the situation, short of directing villagers to the nearest functioning well or pleading with the social services agency to send its tanker trucks more frequently.

Bachruddin, head of the civil registry at the provincial social services agency, acknowledges the severity of the drought this year and points out that Batu Layar is not an isolated case: Ten other villages in West Lombok are also in the grip of crippling water shortages, along with 11 villages in East, North and Central Lombok.

He says the agency is scrambling to address the crisis, but only has three tanker trucks to serve the entire island. Each district-level social services agency, meanwhile, only has one truck, except hard-hit West Lombok, which has none.

Budget constraints are also a factor. Bachruddin says his agency can only allocate Rp 50,000 ($5.22) per delivery — a sum dwarfed by the cost of the fuel alone for the long trips to more isolated villages.

Jajaki, head of the agency’s disaster mitigation unit, points out that the water shortage, though particularly acute this year, is an annual problem here.

To deal with it over the long term, the agency is encouraging villages like Batu Layar to plant more trees to restore their depleted water catchment areas and thereby raise the water level.

“We’ve already handed out thousands of seedlings to villages,” he says.

“We hope the campaign will be successful, or at the very least that the people will become aware that protecting the local vegetation is crucial to preserving their water sources.”

Mastur, a Batu Layar villager who has given up hope of an early rainfall this year, agrees that reforesting the area is the only way to ensure that there are no more dry spells like this in the future.

“Over the years we’ve destroyed the trees that ensured our water sources. Now we’re having to make amends by planting new ones,” he says.

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Best of our wild blogs: 12 Sep 12

Shell briefing on planned dredging
from wild shores of singapore

In the News: IUCN World Conservation Congress News Round-up – Part Three from ARKive blog

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Affected area in oil spill "generally clean" but clean up continues: MPA

Channel NewsAsia 11 Sep 12;

SINGAPORE: The clean up of an oil spill following the collision of two vessels in Singapore waters is continuing.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said as of 5pm, waters in the affected area were generally clean.

There were only patches of sheen sighted near the Jurong Island T-bund and Tuas View Extension.

The rock bund and lagoon cleaning up operation at Sultan Shoal Island have already been completed.

Still, MPA said that the sea-based clean up operation will continue, as will its work with JTC Corporation and the National Environment Agency on the land-based clean up.

Vessel traffic in the Port of Singapore as well as port operations remain unaffected.

The collision happened on Sunday afternoon, between the Hong Kong-registered bulk carrier Sunny Horizon and the Korean-registered liquefied petroleum gas carrier DL Salvia.

The bunker tank on DL Salvia was breached and close to 60 metric tonnes of oil was spilled.

- CNA/ck

Oil Spill Following Collision Between "Sunny Horizon" and "DL Salvia" at Temasek Fairway - Update: 2
MPA News Release 11 Sep 12;

The cleaning up of the oil spill following the collision between Hong Kong-registered bulk carrier "Sunny Horizon" and Korean-registered Liquefied Petroleum Gas carrier "DL Salvia" continued today.

As at 1700hrs, Singapore's waters around the affected area are generally clean, with only patches of sheen sighted near the Jurong Island T-bund and Tuas View Extension. The sea-based clean up operation continues, with a deployment of 7 craft, a harbour buster and 2 containment booms.

MPA continues working with JTC Corporation and the National Environment Agency on the land-based clean up efforts. The rock bund and lagoon cleaning up operation at Sultan Shoal Island has been completed.

Vessel traffic in the Port of Singapore and port operations remain unaffected.

Members of the public can contact MPA's 24-hours Marine Safety Control Centre at 6325 2489 to report any sighting of oil slick in our waters or coastlines.

End of release.

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Online Petition Draws Attention To Indonesia’s Shark Fin Shame

Jakarta Globe 11 Sep 12;

Indonesia has enough to worry about without every visitor coming through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport seeing that its endangered wildlife is up for sale. There in Terminal 2, alongside places like Starbucks and Duty-Free, is the Crown Toko Hasil Laut, or Crown Marine Product Store, a controversial outlet that proudly boasts the sale of Indonesian-harvested shark fin.

Shark fin, coveted in the Asian market and touted as a powerful aphrodisiac, is responsible for the slaughter of more than 70 million sharks around the world every year. Some estimates reach as high as 100 million sharks a year — that’s 190 sharks a minute.

A quick search on YouTube reveals a number of gruesome videos revealing the manner in which most fins are harvested. Fishermen haul the sharks onto the deck of the boat, quickly slice off the dorsal, pectoral and caudal fins and immediately throw the carcasses back into the ocean, leaving the shark to drown or be eaten alive by other fish.

With one-third of all shark species nearly extinct, it’s hard to imagine how officials could allow a shop like Crown, which sells an array of shark fins, to exist in an airport that saw 51.1 million passengers, or the equivalent of the entire population of South Korea, pass through its doors in 2011.

“It’s a hypocritical statement by our government, which screams that they are involved in all forms of conservation and protection of the environment while they allow such a controversial product to [be sold] within our country’s primary international gateway,” says Muljadi Pinneng, an acclaimed underwater photographer and one of 788 concerned citizens to sign a Change.org petition to stop the sale of shark fin in Crown.

The petition, created by an activist named Glenton Jelbert, is gaining signatures and momentum by the day.

“I thought, firstly this is just crazy,” said Jelbert, who is based in Singapore, but was passing through Jakarta when he saw the store and decided to channel his frustrations into an online petition. “I have nothing against Crown. The shop is acting within the law and just trying to make money. It’s one of those situations where legal does not mean moral. I just don’t want them selling products from endangered species, and shark fin in particular, especially because of the way it’s harvested and because of the brand damage that it does to Indonesia with international eco-tourists coming through.”

But not everyone believes the path to shark conservation begins with asking places like Crown to take shark fin off the shelves.

Peter J. Mous, the fisheries adviser for the USAID-sponsored Indonesian Marine and Climate Support Project, believes villainizing places like Crown is “meaningless.”

“I think it is the responsibility of the government to act to ensure that shark populations stay at a healthy level,” said Mous, who explicitly stated that he is in no way affiliated with the fight against Crown.

Mous quoted official statistics from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries that estimate the total amount of shark — the entire fish, so not only the fins — caught in 2010 was about 46,000 tons, or about 1 percent of the total volume of marine capture fisheries.

“The community should hold the government responsible for putting regulations in place that achieve this, and the community should take responsibility for making others aware that sharks are being over-exploited,” Mous said. “I also think that a focused action against Crown for selling shark fin is meaningless — Crown is fully legal under the laws of the democratic nation of Indonesia, and they are merely catering for consumers who clearly do not share the concerns of those who are against shark finning.”

Meanwhile, Indonesia is one of the biggest suppliers to the shark fin market. Nearly one-third of the world’s shark species, 15 percent of which live in Indonesian waters, are on the brink of extinction.

Diver and environmentalist Riyanni Djangkaru, who is also the editor in chief of DiveMag Indonesia, knows all about brand damage and is leading the fight against finning here in Indonesia.

“When I see Crown I feel ashamed,” said Riyanni, who has appeared on a handful of local television programs and utilized her wildly popular Twitter account to spread the word about the devastating effects of finning. “It’s not only a black eye for Indonesia, it’s a sign of a lack of knowledge.”

Riyanni’s battle against shark finning here in Indonesia is gaining ground. So much so that at the 2012 Deep and Extreme Indonesia event in the Jakarta Convention Center, Riyanni was sent threatening texts and, on two separate occasions, bowls of shark fin soup in a blood-curdling murmur of dissent.

“When it happened I was a bit shocked, but also excited,” said Riyanni. “Receiving the bowls of sharks’ fin meant our message was hitting them where it hurt, and all the crazy stuff they did just pushes us forward.”

If just a fraction of the passengers who visited Soekarno-Hatta this year signed the petition, Arief Aziz, the communications director at Change.org Indonesia, believes airport officials would have no choice but to address the issue.

“That’s exactly what our platform is for,” said Arief. “Change.org is for anyone, anywhere to lead their own campaigns on issues they care about ... this is a great example of how one person can tackle a big issue, one store at a time.”

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Rhinos listed among the most threatened species

TRAFFIC 11 Sep 12;

Jeju, Republic of Korea — Asia’s few remaining Javan and Sumatran Rhinos have been identified by conservationists as some of the most threatened animals in the world. A list of the 100 species at greatest risk of extinction has been released by the Zoological Society of London and IUCN to governments and environmental organizations gathering for the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

Measures to conserve rhinos and other endangered species from threats such as poaching, illegal trade and habitat loss are expected to be agreed at the meeting.

“The world’s rhinos are under attack from poachers, traders and consumers who are after their horns. With so few Javan and Sumatran Rhinos remaining, these prehistoric creatures stand to be lost forever unless steps are taken to increase their numbers, stop poaching, and curb the illegal trade in rhino horns,” said Dr. A. Christy Williams, WWF’s Asian rhino and elephant expert.

There are fewer than 50 Javan Rhinos Rhinoceros sondaicus remaining, all in one Indonesian national park. Sumatran Rhinos Dicerorhinus sumatrensis live in a few scattered locations across Sumatra and Borneo, but number fewer than 200. The animals are not breeding fast enough to ensure their survival in the event of a disease outbreak, volcanic eruption or tsunami. Additionally, Sumatran Rhinos are under intense pressure from poaching and loss of their forest habitats to logging and agricultural conversion.

“The increase in demand for rhino horn in Asia in recent years, primarily from Viet Nam, has caused poaching to skyrocket to record levels as far away as South Africa,” said Dr. Carlos Drews, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme. “Myths of new curative powers for rhino horn are fuelling an illegal market that threatens to compromise decades of successful conservation progress."

Viet Nam lost its last rhino to poaching in 2010, leading to the country’s annamiticus subspecies of Javan Rhino being declared extinct. Another subspecies, the Western Black Rhino Diceros bicornis longipes in Cameroon, has also gone extinct. Three of the five species of rhinoceros are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

However, effective conservation measures have brought back rhino species from the brink of extinction. Last year Nepal celebrated a year without any rhino poaching incidents, which was largely attributed to increased law enforcement measures implemented with the help of WWF.

“Highly-focused management can lead to increases in rhino populations as shown in the case of greater one-horned rhinos in Nepal and India. It is now urgent that conservation of Javan and Sumatran rhinos be addressed as a priority,” Dr. Williams said. “Given the gravity of the situation, extreme measures, such as translocations to safe sites and the establishment of new populations, must be explored.”

In honour of the International Year of the Rhino, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in June 2012 pledged to effectively address rhino conservation in the country and committed to better protection for the animals.

Last month, TRAFFIC released a comprehensive new report into the illegal rhino horn trade, which documented how poor compliance over rhino horn stockpile management, loopholes in sport hunting policy in South Africa, and surging demand for horn in Viet Nam, had created ideal conditions for the involvement of sophisticated criminal networks, leading to a dramatic escalation in poaching in southern Africa.

“As long as demand exists for rhino horn, and criminals consider the rewards outweigh the risk of being caught, gangs will go to any lengths to supply horn to the marketplace,” said Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC’s Director of Advocacy.

Partners WWF and TRAFFIC have launched a global campaign against illegal trade of rhino horn, elephant ivory and tiger parts. The campaign is seeking better law enforcement to disrupt wildlife trafficking, more effective deterrents, and reduction in demand for endangered species products.

TRAFFIC is a strategic alliance of WWF and IUCN.

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At Least 200,000 Tons of Oil and Gas from Deepwater Horizon Spill Consumed by Gulf Bacteria

ScienceDaily 11 Sep 12;

Researchers from the University of Rochester and Texas A&M University have found that, over a period of five months following the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, naturally-occurring bacteria that exist in the Gulf of Mexico consumed and removed at least 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas that spewed into the deep Gulf from the ruptured well head.

The researchers analyzed an extensive data set to determine not only how much oil and gas was eaten by bacteria, but also how the characteristics of this feast changed with time.

"A significant amount of the oil and gas that was released was retained within the ocean water more than one-half mile below the sea surface. It appears that the hydrocarbon-eating bacteria did a good job of removing the majority of the material that was retained in these layers," said co-author John Kessler of the University of Rochester.

The results published this week in Environmental Science and Technology include the first measurements of how the rate at which the bacteria ate the oil and gas changed as this disaster progressed, information that is fundamental to understanding both this spill and predicting the behavior of future spills.

Kessler noted: "Interestingly, the oil and gas consumption rate was correlated with the addition of dispersants at the wellhead. While there is still much to learn about the appropriateness of using dispersants in a natural ecosystem, our results suggest it made the released hydrocarbons more available to the native Gulf of Mexico microorganisms."

Their measurements show that the consumption of the oil and gas by bacteria in the deep Gulf had stopped by September 2010, five months after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. "It is unclear if this indicates that this great feast was over by this time or if the microorganisms were simply taking a break before they start on dessert and coffee" said Kessler. "Our results suggest that some (about 40%) of the released hydrocarbons that once populated these layers still remained in the Gulf post September 2010, so food was available for the feast to continue at some later time. But the location of those substances and whether they were biochemically transformed is unknown."

Previous studies of the Deepwater Horizon spill had shown that the oil and gas were trapped in underwater layers, or "plumes," and that the bacteria had begun consuming the oil and gas. By using a more extensive data set, the researchers were able to measure just how many tons of hydrocarbons released from the spill had been removed in the deep Gulf waters. The team's research suggests that the majority of what once composed these large underwater plumes of oil and gas was eaten by the bacteria.

Professor John Kessler, recently appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Rochester, worked with graduate research assistant Mengran Du at Texas A&M University to analyze over 1300 profiles of oxygen dissolved in the Gulf of Mexico water spanning a period of four months and covering nearly 30,000 square miles.

The researchers calculated how many tons of oil and gas had been consumed and at what rate by first measuring how much oxygen had been removed from the ocean. Mengran Du explained that "when bacteria consume oil and gas, they use up oxygen and release carbon dioxide, just as humans do when we breathe. When bacteria die and decompose, that uses up still more oxygen. Both these processes remove oxygen from the water." Du added that it is this lower oxygen level that the researchers could measure and use as an indicator of how much oil and gas had been removed by microorganisms and at what rate.

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation with additional contributions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Sloan Foundation, BP/the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and the Chinese Scholarship Council.

Journal Reference:

Mengran Du, John D. Kessler. Assessment of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Bulk Hydrocarbon Respiration Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Environmental Science & Technology, 2012; : 120910170030009 DOI: 10.1021/es301363k

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Coral reefs in southern Taiwan becoming less diverse

Focus Taiwan CNA 11 Sep 12;

Taipei, Sept. 11 (CNA) Coral reef communities in waters around Kenting, southern Taiwan, have slumped by over 63 percent in the past 26 years due to climate change and bleaching, Taiwan's top research institute said Tuesday.

The coral reefs in waters around Kenting's Wanlitung region decreased from 47.5 percent in 1985 to 17.7 percent in 2010, with biodiversity there becoming what Chen Chaolun, a research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Biodiversity Research Center, described as "monotonous."

Since 1996, the reefs around Kenting have been in decline as a result of typhoons, particularly Typhoon Morakot in 2008, as well as global sea-surface temperature-related worldwide coral bleaching that started coming to attention in 1998, Chen added.

From 1999 to 2005, during which there were no major disturbances, coral cover managed to return to 1987 levels.

Coral species from the genera Acropora and Montipora have almost disappeared from the reefs, whereas corals belonging to the genera Favia and Heliopora have maintained their presences at steady levels, which has resulted in fewer habitats for other species in the coral ecosystem, Chen said.

The disappearance of hard corals indicates that the health of the area's coral reefs is in jeopardy and that diverse reefs are declining, he went on.

"When a city changes, the citizens there change as well. With overfishing, now what snorkelers see is only a vast area of coral reef covered by green algae," Chen described of the underwater scene after macro algae, which competes with coral for space, increased from 11.3 percent in 2003 to 28.5 percent in 2010.

The researchers also found that hard coral in the region, which usually grows in shallow waters and is more vulnerable to pollution, has not regenerated, while the Heliopora and Favia corals return to a certain coverage rate several years after climatic disturbance.

Nearly 300 types of coral grow in the waters around Taiwan, which are home to nearly 1,500 fish species. However, natural disasters that are increasingly harder to control, plus human damage, are severely affecting the local coral reef ecosystem, Chen warned.

He urged the government to make Kenting National Park an ecological preserve in which fishing is prohibited, since many human activities do irreversible damage to coral communities.

Coral reef communities are also economically beneficial, with the annual net income provided by coral reefs globally estimated at up to NT$1 trillion (US$29.8 billion), according to Chen.

The government should tell local fishermen that a fishing ban "does not mean to stop you from living your lives as before. It aims to help you live better lives," he said.

Currently, Taiwan has only two "no-fishing" zones -- the Penghu Islands and the Pratas Islands, but the ban has not been implemented comprehensively and fishing continues in Penghu, Chen added.

"If things continue like that, we can only say goodbye to Taiwan's coral."

(By Chen Chih-chung, Zoe Wei and Kendra Lin)

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Twenty more "Niles" needed to feed growing population: leaders

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 11 Sep 12;

The world needs to find the equivalent of the flow of 20 Nile rivers by 2025 to grow enough food to feed a rising population and help avoid conflicts over water scarcity, a group of former leaders said on Monday.

Factors such as climate change would strain freshwater supplies and nations including China and India were likely to face shortages within two decades, they said, calling on the U.N. Security Council to get more involved.

"The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating," former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said of a study issued by a group of 40 former leaders he co-chairs including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.

"It will lead to some conflicts," Chretien told reporters on a telephone conference call, highlighting tensions such as in the Middle East over the Jordan River.

The study, by the InterAction Council of former leaders, said the U.N. Security Council should make water the top concern. Until now, the Security Council has treated water as a factor in other crises, such as Sudan or the impact of global warming.

It said that about 3,800 cubic km (910 cubic miles) of fresh water was taken from rivers and lakes every year.

"With about 1 billion more mouths to feed worldwide by 2025, global agriculture alone will require another 1,000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of water per year," it said. The world population now is just over 7 billion.

The increase was "equal to the annual flow of 20 Niles or 100 Colorado Rivers", according to the report, also backed by the U.N. University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNWEH) and Canada's Gordon Foundation.

CHINA, INDIA

It said the greatest growth in demand for water would be in China, the United States and India due to population growth, increasing irrigation and economic growth.

"By 2030, demand for water in India and China, the most populous nations on Earth, will exceed their current supplies," the report said.

Global warming, blamed on human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, would aggravate the problems.

"We say in the U.N. system that climate change is all about water," said Zafar Adeel, director of UNWEH. Severe weather events - such as droughts, floods, mudslides or downpours - were becoming more frequent.

UN-Water, which coordinates water-related efforts by the United Nations, will organize a meeting of foreign ministers this month and separate talks among experts on September 25 to look at ways to address concerns over water.

The report said there were examples of water-related conflicts, for instance between Israelis and Palestinians over aquifers, between Egypt and other nations sharing the Nile, or between Iran and Afghanistan over the Hirmand River.

But it said the world had many chances to conserve water and to shift towards what it called a "blue economy". Fixing leaky pipes could help - in developing nations, about 40 percent of domestic water is lost before it reaches households.

Nations such as Israel have limited water use, for instance by shifting to less water-intensive crops or recycling. Olives or dates need less water, for instance, than oranges.

The report said that annual spending on improving water supplies and sanitation in developing nations should be raised by about $11 billion a year. Every dollar spent would yield an economic return of $3 to $4, it estimated.

One billion people have no fresh water and 2 billion lack basic sanitation. About 4,500 children die of water-related diseases every day - the equivalent of 10 jumbo jets falling out of the sky with no survivors, Chretien wrote.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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Best of our wild blogs: 11 Sep 12

Have you seen this animal at Portsdown?
from Life of a common palm civet in Singapore

Small and silent things
from The annotated budak

Job Position Available: 2-year Research Assistant on a freshwater crab conservation project in Singapore from Raffles Museum News

Sharing about our shores
from wild shores of singapore

How to Jumpstart a Green Career
from Green Business Times

In the News: IUCN World Conservation Congress News Round-up – Part Two from ARKive blog

Photos: camera traps capture wildlife bonanza in Borneo forest corridor from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

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