August 2012 Was Fourth Hottest in Over a Century

LiveScience.com Yahoo News 17 Sep 12;

Last month was the globe's fourth hottest August since record keeping began in 1880, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

The planet's average August temperature was 61.22 degrees F (16.22 degrees C) this year, which is 1.12 degrees F (0.62 degrees C) above the 20th-century average, according to the climate officials' report.

Last month's temperatures were higher than average in most places around the world, but notably scorching in the United States, eastern Canada, central and southern Europe, and east central Asia. The extent of Arctic sea ice also hit a record low in August, falling to 1.58 million square miles (4.10 million square kilometers), surpassing the previous low, set in September 2007.

August marked the 330th month in a row with a global temperature above the 20th-century average. February 1985 was the last month with a below-average global temperature.

The National Climatic Data Center noted that the El Niño warm ocean phase will likely develop during September, bumping tropical Pacific water temperatures higher than normal. For the United States, that could mean a warmer and drier than average winter for northern regions, while the Southwest and Southeast might see more rain than usual.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 18 Sep 12

Help us take Johora singaporensis off IUCN’s 100 most threatened animals list! from Raffles Museum News

Read more!

Hazy conditions back, but stay in moderate range

Grace Chua Straits Times 18 Sep 12;

THE haze has returned.

At 3pm yesterday, the three-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) average hit 50, and stayed in the "moderate" range in the evening.

The higher pollution levels came after about a week's reprieve, after the PSI hit a one-year high of 79 on Sept7.

Air quality is considered unhealthy when the index crosses 100.

The hourly reading, given on the National Environment Agency (NEA) website between 7am and 7pm daily, is the average of the previous three hours' air pollution levels.

At 4pm yesterday, the 24-hour PM2.5 level - a measure of very fine particles in the air and another indication of air pollution - ranged from 28 micrograms per cubic m in the central region to 45 in the west.

A 40 to 65 range carries a health advisory by NEA for people to limit prolonged or heavy exertion.

These very fine particles are more able to penetrate the lungs and bloodstream than larger ones, rendering them more hazardous to health.

The annual haze is caused by farmers and logging companies in Indonesia who burn forests to clear land for cultivation.

The NEA said on its website that a current spell of dry weather is aggravating hot spots in southern Sumatra.

This week, both southern Sumatra and Kalimantan have been burning, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite data.

Dry spells are common in the current south-west monsoon season, which typically lasts from June to September or early October.

The prevailing wind is from the south-east or south-west. This carries smoke from the fires in Indonesia to Singapore.

Conditions are likely to persist this week.

"For the coming week, hot spot activities are expected in southern Sumatra due to dry weather conditions and the prevailing low-level winds are expected to blow from south-east or south-west," the NEA said.

"Singapore may experience hazy conditions on some days when the winds blow from the south-west."

The impact of the smoke haze on Singapore is dependent on factors such as the proximity and extent of the fires, the strength and direction of the prevailing winds, and the incidence and amount of rain, it added.

During this monsoon, periods of dry weather are common, interspersed with occasional thundery showers in the afternoon and "Sumatra" squalls in the pre-dawn and early morning.

Read more!

Malaysia: Plans for more petrochemical projects

Gearing up to be oil storage hubs
Chuah Bee Kim New Straits Times 17 Sep 12;

POTENTIAL:Together, Pengerang, Tanjung Bin and Tanjung Langsat are able to store up to 10 million cubic metres of petroleum

PENGERANG, Tanjung Bin and Tanjung Langsat in Johor are gearing up to be the oil storage hubs in the southern region.

Johor Petroleum Development Corporation Bhd chief executive Mohd Yazid Ja'afar said the oil storage hubs could store up to 10 million cubic metres of petroleum in total.

He said if the three storage hubs were to join with Singapore, which is the third-biggest petrochemical hub in the world, they could store between 20 and 25 million cubic metres of petroleum by 2025.

"It (the collaboration) will be like the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub," he told reporters at Kota Iskandar here last Friday.

On a separate matter, Mohd Yazid said a Taiwan-based company and another company from Southeast Asia, are currently conducting a feasibility study on the soil structure in Pengerang to ascertain if it is suitable for the setting up of factories there.

If it is feasible, both companies will take up a total of about 2,020 to 2,424 hectares of the land in Pengerang for their projects.

He added that another China-based company is also exploring the possibility of venturing into petro-chemical industry in Tanjung Langsat.

"The government will ensure that companies that wish to have projects here follow the strict environmental guidelines," he said.

It was reported that the Dialog Group holds a 51 per cent stake in a joint-venture project with Vopak. Both parties have a joint-venture with the state government which has a 10 per cent investment in the project.

The new project by the Dialog- led consortium is part of a larger initiative by Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) under its RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) complex in Pengerang.

Petronas has appointed partners including Italy-based Versalis SpA, BASF (Germany), ITOCHU Corp (Japan) and PTT Global Chemical Public Company Ltd (Thailand) for the Rapid project.

Johor's Oil Storage Capacity Expected To Hit 10 Million Cubic Metres From 2017-2020
Mohd Haikal Mohd Isa Bernama 20 Sep 12;

JOHOR BAHARU, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Johor expects its oil storage capacity to hit 10 million cubic metres in the years 2017-2020 which will see it emerging as Asia's new oil storage hub, said Johor Petroleum Development Corporation Bhd (JPDC).

Its Chief Executive, Mohd Yazid Jaafar, said the oil storage capacity will come from the complexes in Pengerang, Tanjung Bin and Tanjung Langsat.

"We plan to achieve the target (10 million cubic metres) in phases from 2017-2020," he told Bernama in an interview here.

JPDC is a federal government agency, only recently established to coordinate the development of the oil and gas sector in Johor, especially downstream industries such as processing and storage of oil and petrochemicals.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, and Menteri Besar Johor Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, are joint chairman of JPDC.

Mohd Yazid said according to the planning, the Pengerang complex had the potential of storing five million cubic metres of oil, while Tanjung Bin would be able to hold three million and Tanjung Langsat another two million.

Currently, Tanjung Langsat has the capacity for 650,000 cubic metres, while Tanjung Bin can store 840,000 cubic metres.

In Pengerang, Dialog with the cooperation of Royal Vopak NV and the state government is building an Independent Deepwater Petroleum Terminal (IDPT) facility worth RM5 billion.

The terminal is expected to be fully completed in 2014.

The first phase of the project will include building oil storage facility with the capacity to store 1.3 million cubic metres worth RM1.9 billion. Its completion is due next year.

With further expansion, the facility will be able to take on an additional one million cubic metres of oil.

In a recent interview with Bernama, Johor Port had said that it was in the final rounds of negotiations with three investors for investments worth RM2 billion for the storage of oil in Tanjing Bin Petrochemicals and Maritime Centre (TBPMC).

TBPMC was set up by Seaport Worldwide Sdn Bhd, a fully owned subsidiary company of Johor Port.

Mohd Yazid said JPDC was also looking at a storage turnover of between 0.8 to 1.2 million cubic metres or tank turns per-month, similar to the industry level seen in neighbouring Singapore.

"This means in a year, between 100 million and 140 million cubic metres of oil would be going in and out of the related storage tanks."

Currently, the capacity for independent storage of oil in Singapore amounts to 10 million cubic metres while in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Amtwerp (ARA) it amounts to 40-45 million cubic metres.

-- BERNAMA

Read more!

Pangolins live on the web

TRAFFIC 17 Sep 12;

IUCN’s recently formed Pangolin Specialist Group has launched a new website devoted to pangolin conservation and research.

Pangolins, insect-eating mammals, are found in Asia and Africa and are threatened by habitat loss and illegal trade for their meat and unique scales, used in traditional medicine.

All eight pangolin species are protected under national and international laws, and two are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

1,220 pangolins were confiscated during one recent INTERPOL operation, including one shipment containing 5 tonnes of frozen pangolins.

“Although tens of thousands of illegally traded pangolins are seized each year, some of the biggest problems facing conservationists is a lack of data about this illegal trade, its routes, its sources, and even about the animals themselves,” said pangolin researcher Dan Challender, co-Chair of the new Specialist Group.

The Pangolin Specialist Group's website, www.PangolinSG.org, will serve as an authoritative resource on pangolins, providing conservationists and the public with current information about the animals’ natural history, research projects, and strategies to combat the threats that put pangolins at risk.

It was unveiled last week at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Korea.

The Pangolin Specialist Group comprises scientists, veterinarians, and conservation professionals. The 65 members aim to curb the loss and decline of wild pangolin populations by identifying and promoting strategic conservation solutions and informing effective domestic and international governmental action.

The Group is part of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC), a global network of volunteer experts working to conserve biodiversity. More than 120 Specialist Groups are currently active within the SSC.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 17 Sep 12

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [10 - 16 Sep 2012]
from Green Business Times

Pelagic Outing September 2012
from Con Foley Photography

A Few Butterflies at USR
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Checklist of Bird Calls and Songs for Singapore and Malaysia
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Wild facts updates: snails, clams and other critters
from wild shores of singapore

Giant Honeybees
from Monday Morgue

Read more!

Indonesia: The Cruelty and Illegality Of Killing Sharks for Fins

Lida Pet-Soede Jakarta Globe 16 Sep 12;

A recent report by wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic shows that Indonesia continues to be the biggest shark-catching country in the world, based on UN Food and Agricultural Organization data.

Indonesia’s average annual reported shark catch in the past decade represents more than 13 percent of the reported global catch. Up to 65 percent of Indonesia’s catch is taken from the Pacific Ocean and the remainder from the Indian Ocean. In the Indian Ocean, Indonesia owns the major shark fleets, with average catches fluctuating between 8,500 to 16,500 tons per year in recent years.

Most sharks are predators in coral reef and ocean ecosystems, sitting on top of the food pyramid and helping control the balance of the marine environment.

Losing one of these predators leads to uncontrolled population growth of other species. Sharks eat sick or wounded organisms to help maintain the ecosystem’s health. Without them, the entire food chain would collapse.

The practice of shark-finning has drawn a lot of attention and reactions. And since social media has made it even easier to report incidents, tourists and divers are now able to post their holiday observations.

Likewise, the progress made in the United States and Hong Kong on increasing consumer awareness and the reduced availability of shark-fin soup in restaurants are also receiving a lot of media attention. There is now an increasing outcry for governments to stop shark-finning.

“Finning” is a callous and careless practice in which sharks are caught, their fins sliced off, and their bleeding bodies thrown back into the water where they die a slow and painful death. Not only is this a cruel practice, it is illegal, inefficient and a waste of food resources.

Scientists have also joined the international community’s call for urgent action on the shark-fishing industry, acknowledging that the market for shark fins will continue to grow because increased buying power will create a bigger consumer base. On top of that, target species in shark fisheries grow slowly and mature late with few offspring, hence they are easily overfished.

The Indonesian government has had few legal tools in the past decades to prohibit or restrict shark fishing. Traffic suggests that the increase in shark and ray fishing in Indonesia has outgrown existing fisheries management approaches.

The only regulation and law enforcement related to shark fisheries and shark products was for sawfish and the implementation of the regulations was only applied to monitoring and banning the rostrum trade rather than to regulate trade of other parts of the body as it was considered too difficult to identify the species.

Pursuant to its membership in the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, Indonesia was mandated to develop a national plan to protect sharks. Recognizing the importance of developing management regulations specific to shark fisheries, a research project funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research on artisanal shark and ray fisheries in Eastern Indonesia and their relationships with Australian resources, was undertaken in 2004 to develop a national plan of action.

The plan identifies key issues for shark and ray management in Indonesia and broad strategies to address these as well as the competent authorities. However, there are two big challenges underlying the implementation of the plan for sharks.

First is the considerable illegal shark fishing in Indonesian waters and some cases of corruption on the part of those charged with enforcement, and second is the predominance of the artisanal sector in shark catch.

Without the willingness to change, and without any strong legal basis to protect sharks and ban finning, the national plan of action for sharks is not being implemented.

Recently, the directorate of fisheries resources at the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries agreed to promulgate regulations — but not until 2013.

WWF is identified as a partner in implementing the initiatives identified in the plan. We examined the laws on animal welfare and protection, and determined that even without a viable national plan of action, certain provisions of existing laws on animal welfare could be applied to implement a ban on shark-finning now.

The two most prominent laws that support a ban on shark-finning are the Indonesian criminal code and Law No. 18/2009 on husbandry and animal health.

Article 302 of the Indonesian criminal code prescribes imprisonment for up to nine months for anyone guilty of maltreatment of animals, which means anyone who “without reasonable objective or by overstepping what is permissible in reaching such objective, with deliberate intent” commits an act toward an animal resulting in illness longer than one week, mutilation, serious harm or death.

Clearly, finning is a mutilation, and even if one were to argue that harvesting of shark fin for soup is a “reasonable objective,” finning can hardly be considered a permissible way to achieve it.

Law No.18/2009 on husbandry and animal health contains potent provisions on animal welfare that clearly apply to sharks. Sharks are “animals” and “wild animals” under the law. The law’s definition of animal welfare is to protect animals “from any unreasonable action … against an animal that is beneficial to human beings.” Article 66 states that animals must be kept free from ill treatment, torture and misuse, subject to penalty. “Misuse” is defined as obtaining “satisfaction and/or profit” from animals by utilizing them “unreasonably,” e.g., “pulling out a cat’s claw.” Cats can live without their claws; sharks cannot live without their fins.

Provisions on animal welfare apply to “all types of animals that bear backbone,” and even to spineless animals that can feel pain, such as crabs. If crabs are entitled to fair treatment, surely sharks deserve legal protection from finning.

While the well-being argument will surely raise many eyebrows in a country where sharks are seen as man-eaters, and pro-poor development strategies are not supportive of restricting access to more or less free-for-all natural resources, the public should be aware that it is illegal, under existing animal welfare laws, to fin sharks, and that the government has neglected its obligation to implement the national plan of action.

Proper management regulations on shark fisheries need to be enforced, allowing only for quota-based culling of shark populations that are not at an overfished level.

In absence of any such comprehensive data, the government should consider completely banning all shark fishing, allow for stocks to recover, develop a meaningful stock monitoring program and only allow for shark fishing of species that are proven to be in healthy stock status, by communities in coastal areas with small-scale gear, in support of sustainable fisheries and livelihoods of those who need it most. It’s time for the government to act.

Dr. Lida Pet-Soede is a leader of the WWF’s Coral Triangle Global Initiative in Jakarta. She oversees a diverse team working in cooperation with the governments, private sector and coastal communities of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

Read more!

Most Coral Reefs Are at Risk Unless Climate Change Is Drastically Limited, Study Shows

ScienceDaily 16 Sep 12;

Coral reefs face severe challenges even if global warming is restricted to the 2 degrees Celsius commonly perceived as safe for many natural and human-made systems. Warmer sea surface temperatures are likely to trigger more frequent and more intense mass coral bleaching events. Only under a scenario with strong action on mitigating greenhouse-gas emissions and the assumption that corals can adapt at extremely rapid rates, could two thirds of them be safe, shows a study now published in Nature Climate Change. Otherwise all coral reefs are expected to be subject to severe degradation.

Coral reefs house almost a quarter of the species in the oceans and provide critical services -- including coastal protection, tourism and fishing -- to millions of people worldwide. Global warming and ocean acidification, both driven by human-caused CO2 emissions, pose a major threat to these ecosystems.

"Our findings show that under current assumptions regarding thermal sensitivity, coral reefs might no longer be prominent coastal ecosystems if global mean temperatures actually exceed 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level," says lead author Katja Frieler from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "Without a yet uncertain process of adaptation or acclimation, however, already about 70% of corals are projected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030 even under an ambitious mitigation scenario." Thus, the threshold to protect at least half of the coral reefs worldwide is estimated to be below 1.5 degrees Celsius mean temperature increase.

A more comprehensive and robust representation than in previous studies

This study is the first comprehensive global survey of coral bleaching to express results in terms of global mean temperature change. It has been conducted by scientists from Potsdam, the University of British Columbia in Canada and the Universities of Melbourne and Queensland in Australia. To project the cumulative heat stress at 2160 reef locations worldwide, they used an extensive set of 19 global climate models. By applying different emission scenarios covering the 21st century and multiple climate model simulations, a total of more than 32,000 simulation years was diagnosed. This allows for a more robust representation of uncertainty than any previous study.

Corals derive most of their energy, as well as most of their famous color, from a close symbiotic relationship with a special type of microalgae. The vital symbiosis between coral and algae can break down when stressed by warm water temperatures, making the coral "bleach" or turn pale. Though corals can survive this, if the heat stress persists long enough the corals can die in great numbers. "This happened in 1998, when an estimated 16% of corals were lost in a single, prolonged period of warmth worldwide," says Frieler.

Adaptation is uncertain and ocean acidification means even more stress

To account for a possible acclimation or adaptation of corals to thermal stress, like shifts to symbiont algae with a higher thermal tolerance, rather optimistic assumptions have been included in the study. "However, corals themselves have all the wrong characteristics to be able to rapidly evolve new thermal tolerances," says co-author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine biologist at the University of Queensland in Australia. "They have long lifecycles of 5-100 years and they show low levels of diversity due to the fact that corals can reproduce by cloning themselves. They are not like fruit flies which can evolve much faster."

Previous analyses estimated the effect of thermal adaptation on bleaching thresholds, but not the possible opposing effect of ocean acidification. Seawater gets more acidic when taking up CO2 from the atmosphere. This is likely to act to the detriment of the calcification processes crucial for the corals' growth and might also reduce their thermal resilience. The new study investigates the potential implications of this ocean acidification effect, finding that, as Hoegh-Guldberg says: "The current assumptions on thermal sensitivity might underestimate, not overestimate, the future impact of climate change on corals."

This comprehensive analysis highlights how close we are to a world without coral reefs as we know them. "The window of opportunity to preserve the majority of coral reefs, part of the world's natural heritage, is small," summarizes Malte Meinshausen, co-author at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Melbourne. "We close this window, if we follow another decade of ballooning global greenhouse-gas emissions."

Journal Reference:

K. Frieler, M. Meinshausen, A. Golly, M. Mengel, K. Lebek, S. D. Donner, O. Hoegh-Guldberg. Limiting global warming to 2 °C is unlikely to save most coral reefs. Nature Climate Change, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE1674

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 16 Sep 12

Tides force multiple dates for the International Coastal Cleanup in Singapore this year from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore and The ICCS Briefing on 25 Aug 2012 – the prelude to the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore 2012!

International Coastal Cleanup – every effort counts (:
from Nature rambles

The Atlas Moth Chronicles - Episode 3
from Butterflies of Singapore

Read more!

Pengerang rides on oil and gas boom: to "challenge Singapore's oil and gas stronghold"

A. Jalil Hamid New Straits Times 16 Sep 12;

DRAWING INVESTORS: Residents will reap huge benefits from numerous projects under way there

.PENGERANG, once a sleepy corner of Johor, is fast turning into a boom town for petroleum investors as the government steps up efforts to turn Malaysia into a regional oil and gas hub, rivalling Singapore.

Located south of Desaru, on the southeastern tip of Johor facing Singapore, Pengerang became the British army's "Waterloo" in 1936 when they paid the price for underestimating their biggest nemesis then -- the Japanese army.

The Japanese captured Malaya without firing a single shot from the Pengerang battery (a fort where weapons such as guns and cannon were stationed) when they surprised the British by landing in Kota Baru instead of Singapore. (The battery was part of the "Singapore fortress", aimed at defending Singapore from a sea attack.)

Decades later, by some strange turn of events, Pengerang is being touted as Asia's latest beacon for global oil and gas investors and a cornerstone in Malaysia's ambitious plan to rival Singapore as a vibrant petroleum hub in Asia.

As we are all aware, Singapore has positioned itself as Southeast Asia's hub for downstream petroleum activities, ranging from oil trading, oil storage, oil refining and petrochemical manufacturing to bunkering (the act or process of supplying fuel to ships).

As part of the government's Economic Transformation Plan, where oil and gas is one of 12 National Key Economic Areas, Malaysia is eager to capture a bigger slice of the global oil trading and storage business to boost the country's key petroleum sector, where Petronas is a big player.

Malaysia has challenged Singapore's oil and gas stronghold by approving a myriad of petroleum-related projects worth more than US$20 billion (RM60.4 billion) in Pengerang.

Once completed, Pengerang could play a bigger role than Rotterdam, which for decades has been the European hub for the trading of crude oil, oil products and coal.

The government's move to draw petroleum investments away from Singapore has caught the attention of the foreign media. The Financial Times reported last week that Malaysia was planning to attract aggressively oil storage operators to Malaysia by offering zero-tax rates as a major incentive. The aim is to triple independent storage capacity based in Johor to 10 million cubic metres by 2017 to match Singapore's current capacity.

In the report, Sushant Gupta, a senior downstream analyst at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said: "The need for storage in Asia is growing because we do see increased trade flows and a lot of new refining capacity is coming from Southeast Asia, not just China and India."

The heart of Pengerang's development is Petronas' RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development, due to begin by middle of next year and operational in 2016.

The other project is Pengerang's RM5 billion deep-water oil terminal, a joint venture between Dialog Group Bhd, Rotterdam-based Royal Vopak N.V. and the Johor government.

Dialog and its partners last week announced their commitment to invest a further RM4.08 billion to develop the Pengerang liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, which will be Asia's first independent LNG trading terminal. The project will include an LNG storage, loading and regasification terminal to import LNG for trading purposes and domestic use.

Johor officials, in a briefing to editors last week, forecast that the total investments could double to US$41 billion from more than US$20 billion committed so far.

The Pengerang development plans, when fully implemented, will be a major turning point for not only Johor but also the country. There will be huge economic spin-offs, including the creation of thousands of new jobs and business opportunities, big or small.

There are, of course, issues related to these development plans, including the relocation of villages, schools and even cemeteries. The opposition, including DAP, is making a big issue over moving the dead.

The Johor government has been engaging the affected people on the relocation and compensation, based on legal provisions. Most villagers have no objections about being relocated but, naturally, they want a bigger compensation. As usual, there is a legal recourse for them.

However, many are happy to take up the state government's compensation offer. Those involved in the Taman Bayu Permai resettlement, for example, will be entitled to new landed properties worth RM245,000 each if their current holding is worth RM95,001 and above. The new house value includes RM140,000 in government subsidy.

Pengerang member of parliament Datuk Azalina Othman Said has claimed that the DAP-backed group represented only a fraction of the Pengerang population. She also alleged that "foreign quarters" were "inciting hatred towards the project".

Those issues aside, the Pengerang development plan is too big to fail. Otherwise, it will send a wrong message to foreign investors on Malaysia's seriousness as a major investment destination.

Read more!

Give volunteers power to book litterbugs?

NEA to study idea of conferring such enforcement authority on those from NGOs
Lim Yan Liang Straits Times 16 Sep 12;

One day, someone handing out a summons to a litterbug may not be a government official, but a volunteer from a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The idea of giving such powers to some quarters of the community has been floated by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan to the National Environment Agency (NEA), which will "study whether we can actually confer enforcement authority on these members of the public".

Such a shift would be in keeping with the relaunched Keep Singapore Clean Movement, which is being repositioned as a long-term, community-led initiative.

Speaking on the sidelines of an exhibition at the Toa Payoh HDB Hub for the NEA's 10th anniversary, Dr Balakrishnan said: "I know this will be controversial, so we will definitely consult the public before giving (out) warrant cards.

"We believe that, in fact, we need to reclaim community ownership and community action (over the environment), and that includes enforcement as well."

Shifting away from its government roots towards a community-driven effort, the campaign will be led by the Public Hygiene Council (PHC), Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM), the Keep Singapore Beautiful Movement (KSBM) and the NEA.

"We need to get to the very heart of behaviour change by promoting the right social values, including 'zero tolerance' towards litter, coupled with instilling pride in our environment," said NEA chief executive Andrew Tan. "Such behaviour must start in our homes, schools and offices and be upheld by the larger community."

The chosen organisations are no strangers to efforts to keep Singapore clean. For example, the youth-led KSBM has launched a competition seeking creative and practical ideas to make returning trays at hawker centres and food courts fun, while the SKM will work with the NEA to pilot tray-return programmes at selected hawker centres in the coming months.

The original month-long Keep Singapore Clean campaign was launched by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Oct 1, 1968. A national campaign committee, headed by then Health Minister Chua Sian Chin, was formed to run it.

PHC chairman Liak Teng Lit said he intends for the new movement to make a significant social impact within the next two years.

"This effort that we are talking about is not a one-off publicity," said Mr Liak, who is also group chief executive of Alexandra Health. "It has to become a movement, a coordinated group action where people do things together with concerted effort. The silent majority must act."

It was reported last month that the NEA had received an increasing number of complaints about litterbugs in recent years: 5,232 last year, up from 4,449 in 2010. But the agency has successfully prosecuted only 42 litterbugs in the past 10 years, despite devoting more than 30,000 man hours last year to enforcement stakeouts and community outreach programmes.

Volunteer groups said Dr Balakrishnan's idea was bold, but not unexpected. "Enforcement as back-up will definitely help us do our job better," said Mr Eugene Heng, 63, founder of the Waterways Watch Society, a 15-year-old local voluntary group.

Mr Heng said some 30 members of his 250-strong organisation already hold volunteer cards issued by the National Parks Board, which has made it easier for them to engage with the more intractable members of the public.

They will be receiving cards from national water agency PUB by the year's end, he added.

He said if the minister's idea came to fruition, it would go only to the most "dedicated and trusted members that have proven they are interested in going the extra mile".

He added that the Government should choose NGOs with proven track records.

Ms Lee Bee Wah, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, agreed, and said that comprehensive training by the NEA to deal with difficult scenarios would be crucial should the new powers be granted.

Turning Singapore into a clean city, not a cleaned city: Balakrishnan
Claire Huang Channel NewsAsia 15 Sep 12;

SINGAPORE: Is Singapore a clean city or a cleaned city?

Minister for Environment and Water Resources, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan posed this question to Singaporeans.

Speaking at the National Environment Agency's (NEA) 10th anniversary exhibition, Dr Balakrishnan said public cleanliness remains a persistent issue here, despite the many campaigns, heavy fines, stepped-up enforcement and employment of an army of cleaners.

While progress has been made over the years, he urged Singaporeans to initiate a ground-up movement to keep the country litter-free.

The government is hoping to establish a new social norm through the launch of an invigorated "Keep Singapore Clean Movement": cleaning up after oneself instead of relying on others.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said Singapore needs to reclaim community ownership and community action to keep the country clean.

"You'll notice that this year, the leadership of the campaign is actually the people sector, so it's with the Public Hygiene Council," he said.

"We're working with many of the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to run the education programmes, to run the activities on the ground."

"A key reason of course, is the wrong attitude that cleaners are there to pick up after us, and the misplaced notion that this is appropriate behaviour because cleaners are paid to do so," he continued.

"One alarming statistic from NEA's recent surveys is that 36 per cent of Singaporeans would only bin their litter if it is convenient to do so. The solution, my friends, cannot be to employ more and more cleaners."

The Public Hygiene Council and the Singapore Council have come to together to take the lead in changing the mindset of the community.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan also suggested that it is perhaps timely for the public to discuss how to keep Singapore clean, as part of the responses to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's call to Singaporeans to discuss the nation's future.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan floated the idea of allowing community partners like NGOs to issue littering summonses.

"Should enforcement be confined to uniformed officers of the NEA, or in fact, (the) community partners out there who've demonstrated commitment over many, many years, going around tirelessly, at nights, weekends, picking up litter, trying to spread the message?" he asked.

"Some of these community partners are people whom I think we can rely on and that's why I've asked NEA to study whether we can confer enforcement authority to these members of the public."

He added this move would mean there will be many more eyes and hands available to deter littering.

However, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan admitted that it could bring controversy, so NEA will work on the plan one step at a time.

In response to the minister's suggestion, Chairman of Waterways Watch Society, Eugene Heng welcomed the idea.

While he said the idea gives recognition to committed and passionate members of the public, Mr Heng pointed out that this "is a step into uncharted waters".

"There are 250 volunteers in Waterways Watch Society but not everyone should be given the enforcement authority," said Mr Heng. "I think only the core group of 20 to 30 volunteers should do so."

Mr Heng said it is also important for those given the authority to be trained in engaging with the public so as not to create a whiplash.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan also said NEA has worked with mobile applications developer BuUuk to develop a new app named "Clean Lah".

The app's function is to crowd-source for feedback on cleanliness.

"Wherever you are, if you spot a cleaning problem, you can take a picture of it and submit it with an accompanying message via the app, and it will go to NEA for follow-up," he explained.

"As the feedback is geo-tagged, NEA will know if others have already reported from the same location and this would also help to signal the urgency or magnitude of the problem," he continued.

"Those who have submitted feedback will even be able to get a status update on the issue once it is resolved."

- CNA/xq

Read more!

Nature+: Towards a New Era of Conservation, Sustainability and Nature-based Solutions

IUCN 15 Sep 12;

Jeju Declaration by the IUCN President, the Minister of Environment of the Republic of Korea, the Governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Chairman of the Korean Organizing Committee on the occasion of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, September 2012

1. The conservation of biological diversity, our life support system, is vitally important to human life. The Earth’s biological diversity, climate and other planetary boundaries are threatened by human activities, including fossil fuel-based, energy-intensive, unsustainable growth. Our generation has the ethical responsibility and opportunity to avert further deterioration of Earth’s biodiversity and biosphere and we will actively contribute to this.

2. Since its creation in 1948, IUCN has contributed to all of the major global discussions about the environment and sustainable development, and was most recently an active participant in the Rio+20 Conference. The outcome document of the Conference describes ‘The Future We Want’ and states that the governments of the world ‘recognize that poverty eradication, changing unsustainable and promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development are the overarching objectives of and essential requirements for sustainable development’. The document calls on all countries to take urgent action on ‘the adverse impacts of climate change’.

3. IUCN provides science-based knowledge and policy-relevant advice to overcome the key challenges faced by all of humanity. The discussions undertaken by government, business and civil society participants at the IUCN World Conservation Forum in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, the Republic of Korea in September 2012, identified the following actions necessary to conserve the Earth’s biological diversity.

Scaling up Conservation

4. All parts of society must take determined measures to scale up the conservation of biological diversity to halt its continued and rapid decline. The loss of biodiversity (species, ecosystems and genes) has grim consequences for humanity, which cannot be accepted.

5. There is mounting evidence that conservation works and thus we must scale up actions on the land and in the sea through large, targeted conservation efforts. In particular, we must ensure that protected areas are well managed; establish species recovery programmes; adopt measures to restore and rehabilitate habitats; strengthen conservation breeding programmes; and reduce or mitigate over exploitation of natural resources.

6. We know that knowledge drives action, and that meaningful action and corrective measures require better knowledge about the threats to biodiversity. We must intensify our efforts to bring together information on species, habitats, ecosystems, governance and gender-differentiated human dependency on nature and provide decision makers with the tools for effective landscape and seascape management, which conserves nature and sustains people’s livelihoods.

Nature-based Solutions

7. Biodiversity should be seen not as a problem but as an opportunity to help achieve broader societal goals. Nature is a major part of the solution to some of the world’s most pressing challenges in climate change, sustainable energy, food security, and economic and social development. Nature-based solutions build upon the proven contribution of well-managed and diverse ecosystems to enhance human resilience and to provide additional development opportunities for men and women in poor communities. We must promote the awareness, knowledge, good governance and sustainable investment to demonstrate why good environmental stewardship is everyone’s concern and how humanity is fundamentally dependent on nature.

8. Valuing nature and ecosystem services is a critical first step towards providing benefits, payments and recognition to the custodians of nature. Nature-based solutions deliver a broad range of societal benefits and are capable of attracting both public and private investment. IUCN will take the lead in conservation that brings communities, civil society, governments and investors together to negotiate and unleash the practical solutions of nature to multiple development challenges, demonstrating their cost-effectiveness and measuring and verifying their impacts.

Sustainability in Action

9. Governments, civil society, businesses and other stakeholders must strengthen their commitment towards sustainability, taking into account its three dimensions: sustained inclusive and equitable economic growth, equitable social development and inclusion, and integrated and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems.

10. We must mainstream sustainability in societal decisions, supporting the full implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements, including the Rio Conventions, and the recently established Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

11. We must work with the public and private sectors to enhance the transfer of green technology, share knowledge, experience and skills to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem values into global production and consumption. We encourage governments and businesses to pursue inclusive and gender-responsive green growth that ensures social integration of vulnerable groups, helps eradicate poverty, and keeps humanity’s footprint within ecological boundaries.

12. We must mobilize communities working for biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and poverty reduction in common efforts to halt biodiversity loss and apply nature-based solutions to conserve biodiversity, enhance resilience, strengthen equity, promote gender equality, reduce poverty and so improve the well-being of people on this planet.

13. All sectors of society must participate fully in implementing the outcomes of Rio+20 at all levels, including the formulation of well-targeted Sustainable Development Goals. We must mobilize all stakeholders for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Targets (adopted at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity) as important means to tackle the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and to enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services.

For Our Common Future: Closing the Gaps in Governance of Nature’s Use

14. Rio+20 reinforced the fact that there remain important gaps in environmental governance at all levels. It also highlighted many encouraging examples of how groups can come together to effectively negotiate fair outcomes and take better decisions with regard to the natural resources they depend on. We know that people’s actions and decisions, whether as citizens, economic agents or political authorities, constitute the governance that makes or breaks nature and hence our life support systems. We must ensure that better governance of nature’s use is achieved with greater regularity and consistency by providing decision makers with tools and information to assess and negotiate sustainable use of nature and equitable sharing of benefits.

15. We must support the effective and equitable governance of nature’s use at all relevant levels: stewardship of natural resources by indigenous peoples, integrated management of protected areas and natural resources, and national and international decision making for sustainable development.

16. We must provide strong leadership in advocating for better and more equitable governance of the use of nature and natural resources. IUCN’s unique convening power will encourage the knowledge and action needed to allow humankind to share both responsibility for and benefits of biodiversity conservation.

17. We must respect the rights of socially vulnerable stakeholders including local communities and indigenous peoples, and promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from ecological functions of biodiversity. In this spirit, we encourage all countries to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits.

The Way Forward from Jeju

18. The Government of the Republic of Korea and the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province promise to maintain the World Leaders Dialogues, initiated at this World Conservation Forum, on a regular basis, to be known as the Jeju World Leaders’ Conservation Forum. IUCN will work to ensure that nature-based solutions will be at the centre of the successful delivery of the Aichi Targets, as well as the outcomes of the Rio+20 Conference and World Conservation Congresses. IUCN will catalyze actions to demonstrate the potential role of a green economy in public policy and corporate behaviour at local, regional and global levels.

19. At the 2012 World Conservation Congress on the beautiful island of Jeju in the Republic of Korea, IUCN and its many partners met in the spirit of strengthening their cooperation to bring about a just world that values and conserves nature.

Read more!