Malaysia, Johor: Bird lovers attend inaugural workshop

Edmund Khoo The Star 17 Dec 12;

NUSAJAYA: More than 50 bird lovers attended the inaugural migratory birds workshop organised by Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) recently.

Insurance agent and participant Esther Teo Sian Cheng, 55, said the workshop was well organised and brought back nostalgic memories, which the younger generation might lack.

“The workshop brought me back to my childhood years when the sight of a kingfisher made me reminisce my days in the village in Pontian when I was a child,” she said.

She added that the workshop was balanced and enriching, as she enjoyed every activity planned by the organisers and the transition from IMIC to Kg Sg Melayu was very smooth.

“The workshop reminds us to be more in touch with nature and care for one another in this materialistic world,” she added after seeing the life cycle of the migratory birds.

Another participant, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) graduate Nur Asila Rahim, 23, says the workshop was interesting and educational, as she learnt about the many species of migratory birds in Iskandar Malaysia.

“I saw some of the species introduced during the seminars when we were birdwatching at Kg Sg Melayu, it was an exciting and fresh experience for me,” she said.

“I would definitely recommend this workshop if it is organised again next year to my family and friends,” she added.

The workshop aims at educating and creating awareness on migratory birds and exploring the potential of Kg Sg Melayu as an eco-tourism spot.

Participants were from Government agencies, such as the Economic Planning Unit of Johor, Tourism Malaysia, Johor National Parks Corporation, Department of Environment, Johor Birding Group, Singapore National Parks, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and members of the public.

The workshop commenced at Iskandar Malaysia Information Centre (IMIC), where participants were given seminars on birdwatching and bird identification techniques.

Participants then proceeded on a field trip to Kg Sg Melayu for a boat cruise, crab-catching and bubu-making sessions.

Meanwhile, IRDA chief executive officer Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said the workshop was a kick-off to the Iskandar Malaysia Ecotourism Summit, which would be held next month.

“It (the Summit) is held for the first time in recognition of the importance of ecotourism to Iskandar Malaysia’s economic development and we hope to make it an annual event.

“Each year, the programme will focus on different themes related to Ecotourism and highlight not only the attractions in Iskandar Malaysia like our three Ramsar Johor Sites, but also on the socio-economic benefits of Ecotourism to the local communities.

“This is all in line and very much aligned with IRDA’s vision of creating a strong and sustainable metropolis of international standing,” said Datuk Ismail, adding this year’s Summit would stress on the importance of Migratory Birds and Avi-tourism.

He added workshops on migratory birds would be held annually in conjuction with the Ecotourism Summit as IRDA will work with the relevant agencies and NGOs to designate sanctuaries for these migratory birds.

Datuk Ismail also said as Johor has been known for its diversity of bird species including these migratory birds, it was only fitting that IRDA spearheads this project together with MNS Johor to educate members of the public on migratory birds.

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Malaysia: Sime Darby gives RM1mil for conservation of Sabah wild cattle

Muguntan Vanar The Star 17 Dec 12;

KOTA KINABALU: Conservation efforts for the endangered banteng or wild cattle has received a boost with an injection of RM1mil fund by the Sime Darby Foundation.

The Sabah Wildlife Department and the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) received the funding from the foundation in line with Sime Darby’s “Big 9” programme to protect and conserve nine endangered animals, most of which are indigenous to Malaysia.

The other animals covered under the programme, for which the foundation has already committed a total of RM80mil, include the sun bear, orang utan, Asian elephant and Sunda clouded leopard.

The others are the hornbill, proboscis monkey, Sumatran rhinoceros and Malayan tiger.

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said they had started a three-year project to assess the conservation status and longevity of the banteng in their current locations and to relocate them to other habitats across Sabah.

“To achieve our objective, we will use an unpublished report titled ‘A Faunal Survey of Sabah’ that was compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1982, which includes a distribution map of the banteng in Sabah and their estimated population sizes,” he said.

Dr Goossens said it was the only record available of banteng distribution.

“The recognition of remnant banteng populations is critical to identify the extent of the decline which has occurred over the past 30 years as a result of deforestation, land conversion and human population expansion,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

“Education and capacity building have always been a priority for the Sime Darby Foundation, and as such, the project will also include training of a Malaysian master student and two local field research assistants,” Dr Goossens said.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the funds from the Sime Darby Foundation were necessary for their project to conserve and manage the banteng in Sabah.

“The project aims to increase the knowledge and awareness of this extremely endangered species of wild cattle in Sabah,” he said.


Sime Darby's RM1m funding to study banteng
New Straits Times 17 Dec 12;

KOTA KINABALU: The Danau Girang Field Centre and the Sabah Wildlife Department recently received RM1 million funding from the Sime Darby Foundation for a conservation project for banteng in the state.

Danau Girang director Dr Benoit Goossens said the remaining population of the endangered wild cattle would be studied in a three-year project.

"The aim of the project is to identify the extent of the species' decline because of deforestation, land conversion and human invasion over the past 30 years.

"We are also going to assess their conservation status and chances of long-term survival," he said on Saturday.

The centre would use data from a report entitled A Faunal survey of Sabah as a reference.

The report was compiled by World Wild Fund in 1982. It contained data on the locations of the banteng and its estimated population in the state.

Goossens said camera traps would be set up to photograph the animals.

"The cameras are also crucial for identifying connectivity issues, such as the genetic integrity of the species."

Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the purpose of the project was to increase knowledge and awareness of the species.

"At the end of the project, we will organise an international workshop on the conservation status of the banteng.

"The workshop will highlight the current status of the species, discuss mitigation possibilities and come up with an action plan."

Ambu also said the project was carried out in collaboration with the Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Foundation and Cardiff University.

The funding from the Sime Darby Foundation is in line with its Big9 programme to protect and conserve endangered animals, including the sun bear, orang utan, Asian elephant, Sunda clouded leopard, hornbills, proboscis monkey, Sumatran rhinoceros and Malayan tiger.

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Human link to climate change stronger than ever: draft report

Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle PlanetArk 17 Dec 12;

International climate scientists are more certain than ever that humans are responsible for global warming, rising sea levels and extreme weather events, according to a leaked draft report by an influential panel of experts.

The early draft, which is still subject to change before a final version is released in late 2013, showed that a rise in global average temperatures since pre-industrial times was set to exceed 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, and may reach 4.8 Celsius.

"It is extremely likely that human activities have caused more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperatures since the 1950s," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) draft report said.

"Extremely likely" in the IPCC's language means a level of certainty of at least 95 percent. The next level is "virtually certain", or 99 percent, the greatest possible certainty for the scientists.

The IPCC's previous report, in 2007, said it was at least 90 percent certain that human activities, led by burning fossil fuels, were the cause of rising temperatures.

The draft was shown on a climate change skeptic blog.

The IPCC said the unauthorized, premature posting of the draft may lead to confusion because the report was still work in progress and was likely to change before it is released.

A United Nations conference last week aimed at curbing emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warning yielded no progress and three countries - Canada, Russia and Japan - have abandoned the Kyoto Protocol limiting the emissions.

The United States never ratified it in the first place, and it excludes developing countries where emissions are growing most quickly.

Countries agreed to extend Kyoto to 2020, but only those covering less than 15 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions signed up. Developing nations said they would push next year for a radical U.N. mechanism to compensate them for the impact of climate change.

The IPCC said it had "high confidence" that human activity had caused large-scale changes in oceans, in ice sheets or mountain glaciers, and in sea levels in the second half of the twentieth century, according to the draft.

It said some extreme weather events had also changed due to human influences.

THREAT TO CITIES

The draft's scenarios forecast a rise in temperatures of between 0.2 and 4.8 Celsius this century - a narrower band than in 2007. But in almost all of the scenarios, the rise would exceed 2 degrees Celsius.

Governments pledged in 2010 to try to stop global temperatures rising by more than 2 degrees, a threshold seen by scientists as the maximum to avoid more extreme weather, droughts, floods, and other climate change impacts.

Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were the highest in 800,000 years, according to the draft report.

The draft also said that sea levels were likely to rise by between 29 and 82 centimeters by the end of the century - compared to 18-59 centimeters projected in the 2007 report.

Rising sea levels are a threat to people living in low-lying areas, from Bangladesh to the cities of New York, London and Buenos Aires. They open up the risk of storm surges, coastal erosion and, in the worst case scenario, the complete swamping of large areas of land.

The IPCC carries weight because it brings together all scientific research on climate change and informs policymakers.

Many countries want to study the final IPCC report before signing up to a new global pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft included a possible future acceleration of ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland, which was omitted in 2007. It stopped short of including some research carried out since 2007 that suggested seas may rise by up to 2 meters by 2100.

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

IPCC critical of climate change report leak
David Shukman BBC News 14 Dec 12;

The UN climate science panel has criticised a blogger who has published a draft version of its next report.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is preparing what is known as its Fifth Assessment Report for publication next year.

The work looks to draw together research to provide a statement on global warming and its future effects.

The drafting of the reports is open to reviewers but on the condition that no details are published.

In a statement, the IPCC says it "regrets this unauthorized posting which interferes with the process of assessment and review".

The draft posted online is of what's called Working Group 1 (WGI), the first stage of the next report.

This covers the physical aspects of climate science, including observations of temperature and computer models of possible scenarios for future warming.

The IPCC statement read: "The unauthorized and premature posting of the drafts of the WGI AR5, which are works in progress, may lead to confusion because the text will necessarily change in some respects once all the review comments have been addressed.

"It is regrettable that one out of many hundreds of reviewers broke the terms of the review."

The draft was posted by US climate sceptic Alec Rawls, who runs a blog called Stop Green Suicide.

It is reported that he highlighted one particular sentence in the draft - about the possible effect of cosmic rays on the climate - claiming it undermined the case that most recent warming has been driven by man-made greenhouse gases.

However, when the BBC attempted to access the blogger's site it was not available but a number of other sites were providing links to places where the report could be viewed or downloaded online.

'Cherry picking'

Climate scientists, reacting to the leak, have condemned the "cherry picking" of this one point in a long report and have said that other sections reinforce the central argument about the cause of climate change.

In any event, the text faces several further stages of possible revision before publication late next year.

A meeting of lead authors in Tasmania next month will be the next chance to review all the latest comments.

One lead author, Richard Betts of the Met Office, tweeted that further alterations were likely.

"Worth pointing out that the wording in the leaked IPCC WG1 draft chapters may still change in the final versions, following review comments," he wrote.

The leak highlights a fundamental question about the way the IPCC is managed in the age of the internet.

While it aims to be open to all contributions, the system of conducting the drafting and discussions in private has long been under pressure.

Prof Piers Forster of Leeds University, UK, said the rationale behind the IPCC process was "to iron out all the errors and inconsistencies which might be inadvertently included.

"Personally, I would be happy if the IPCC process were even more open and public, and I think we as scientists need to explore how we can best match the development of measured critical arguments with those of the Twitter generation."

This comes as the IPCC is under intense pressure following the discovery of errors in its last assessment, released in 2007.

An inquiry by the Inter Academy Council concluded in 2010 that the IPCC needed better management to handle the growing complexity of climate science and the scrutiny of the outside world.

The panel's reports are designed to provide a consensus statement on the latest climate science to help governments decide how to respond.

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Best of our wild blogs: 16 Dec 12

Cyrene Reef (15 Dec 2012)
from teamseagrass and wild shores of singapore

Butterfly of the Month - December 2012
from Butterflies of Singapore

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Giving stray animals a safe haven

Caring for kitten led woman to open shelter that now cares for 600 cats and dogs
Leslie Kay Lim Straits Times 16 Dec 12;

When a robber held her up at knife-point on the streets of Hong Kong, Ms Cathy Strong was traumatised.

For two weeks, she barely left the safety of her home.

But after her husband brought home a stray kitten, she was forced to venture out again to buy a feeding bottle to tend to it.

"Ever since, I started to notice the plight of animals," she said.

More than 30 years on from her traumatic experience, Ms Strong now runs Pets Villa, an open concept animal shelter in Pasir Ris.

The 61-year-old said her aim was to witness a Singapore free of strays: "I may not be able to see my dream come true within my lifetime, but it can - and will - happen one day."

She first became active in animal welfare circles after returning from Hong Kong. In 2002, she founded the Animal Lovers League, a non-profit organisation that fed and sterilised stray cats and dogs.

Two years later, she set up the shelter, prompted in part by the culling of strays due to Sars.

Despite starting out in 2004 with only about 100 cats and 20 dogs, it now looks after 600 animals on a plot of land about half the size of a football pitch.

At full capacity, it can no longer accept new pets despite the many calls it receives. The shelter encourages people to adopt, but only three or four successful matches are made each month.

Smaller animals, which are allowed in flats, tend to get adopted more quickly, leaving many others behind.

Animal Lovers League volunteers still feed and sterilise strays on a regular basis. Ms Strong emphasised that they are there to help all creatures, whether or not they are in the shelter.

At Pets Villa, the volunteers clean, bathe, feed and walk the dogs, and address medical needs. The older ones suffer from a host of ailments such as kidney and liver failure, arthritis and cataracts.

Caring for this many animals does not come cheap, Ms Strong admitted.

Expenses each month can amount to $40,000.

The shelter receives private donations and offers a pet boarding service for $5 per day. It also allows people to sponsor a particular animal for $130 a month.

Long-time volunteers make sure the shelter continues to exist.

Ms Christine Bernadette, 23, has been helping out several times a week for seven years.

As the petite teacher spoke to The Sunday Times, she deftly handled dogs weighing as much as her. "The animals keep me coming back," she said.

For more information, go to www.animalloversleague.com

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"Tornado" sighted at Pasir Panjang

Kimberly Spykerman Channel NewsAsia 15 Dec 12;

SINGAPORE: A "tornado" at Pasir Panjang on Saturday left some residents startled.

The winds were so strong that it caused some of the zinc slats on the roof of Pasir Panjang ferry terminal to dislodge and fly off.

Employees at the terminal said no one was injured.

The "tornado" was in fact a waterspout, which is caused by intense thunderstorms, and is formed when columns of water are sucked to the base of the clouds.

Julie Beattie, whose home overlooks the ferry terminal, sent in video footage of the weather phenomenon to Channel NewsAsia.

"I felt the wind start to pick up and went to close the balcony doors, and then noticed this swirling motion of water, and I thought, what is this?" she said.

"I was glued to it, it started getting stronger... I thought this (was) a mini tornado."

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said an average of three occurrences of waterspouts over Singapore waters are reported every year.

NEA added that waterspouts tend to have a short life cycle of up to tens of minutes and they usually dissipate rapidly upon reaching the coast.

They also noted waterspouts are generally associated with intense thunderstorms over the sea.

However, it is difficult to forecast the occurrence of waterspouts because not all thunderstorms lead to the formation of waterspouts.

- CNA/xq

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Malaysia: 35 orang utan back in the wild

Muguntan Vanar The Star 16 Dec 12;

KOTA KINABALU: Thirty-five orang utans have been rehabilitated at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort's Nature Reserve conservation centre since its inception in 1995.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the rehabilitation programme was to complement efforts undertaken by the department's Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sandakan.

“This is also to give an opportunity for the public and schoolchildren from the state's west coast to experience first-hand the rehabilitation process.

“The programme at the resort's nature reserve, however, is much smaller in scale compared to Sepilok,” he said, adding that all 35 rehabilitated orang utans had been returned to Sepilok for release into the wild.

Laurentius was responding to an “open letter” on the reasons they were reluctant to respond to a local NGO Friends of the Orangutans Malaysia regarding the treatment of orphaned orang utans at the Rasa Ria Resort.

Laurentius said the department had always explained the rationale for the initiation of an orang utan rehabilitation centre at the resort in Tuaran, about 35km from here.

He claimed that Friends of the Orangutans Malaysia were invited to attend an orang utan conservation workshop and also for a site inspection of Rasa Ria in November last year but they declined.

There were representatives from other NGOs who came and were happy with the conservation efforts, he added.

“We have nothing to hide. These orang utans only spend their first two parts of the rehabilitation programme at the nature reserve of the resort before being sent back to Sepilok for the last part of their programme.”

He said the Sepilok centre had strictly supervised the rehabilitation programme with a veterinarian on 24-hour call.

Medical checks were also done on all the orang utans in Rasa Ria, he added.

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Indonesia: Plant Trees to Prevent Flooding From River

SP/Usmin Jakarta Globe 10 Dec 12;

Bengkulu. Authorities in Bengkulu have highlighted the importance of reforesting denuded river catchment areas in an ongoing effort to prevent flooding during the rainy season.

Sumarsono, the head of the provincial river catchment management agency (BPDAS), said on Saturday that over the past three years his office had planted saplings across 5,000 hectares of affected areas in the Sumatran province.

“We’re doing this to mitigate the impact of the flooding that occurs during the rainy season,” he said.

“We’ll continue to keep regreening critically deforested land in river catchment areas throughout Bengkulu so that we can restore the water-absorbing function of these areas.”

Sumarsono said that when a catchment area lost most of its vegetation, it also lost its ability to absorb high volumes of rainwater runoff. This, he went on, meant that excess amounts of rainfall not absorbed into the ground would keep flowing downhill as floodwater.

He added that planting more trees would also have a beneficial impact beyond the rainy season, with the extra vegetation helping the soil to retain more moisture during the dry season.

He said the BPDAS was working with the provincial military command to reforest critical areas throughout Bengkulu.

In Jambi, meanwhile, the Jawa Pos National Network reported that thousands of hectares of food crop were under threat from ongoing torrential rains that have already caused widespread flooding across the province.

Amrin Aziz, the head of the provincial agriculture office, said on Saturday that much of the farmland under threat lay within the catchment area of the Batanghari River.

“Given the sustained high intensity of the rainfall, thousands of hectares of farmland are at threat,” he said.

He added that many farmers, faced with the prospect of losing their entire harvests, were being forced to harvest their crops early to minimize their losses.

Most of the city of Jambi was paralyzed over the weekend by floodwaters reaching up to two meters in some areas after the Batanghari burst its banks, forcing residents to resort to using rafts and canoes to get around.

Amid Third Week of Floods, Locals Depart
SP/Radesman Saragih & SP/Barthel B. Usin Jakarta Globe 11 Dec 12;

Jambi/Palangkaraya. Facing a third straight week of widespread flooding, residents of Jambi in Sumatra finally began to evacuate their homes on Monday.

Residents living in affected areas along the banks of the Batanghari River had previously refused to leave stilt-supported houses, but with floodwaters now rising as high as three meters, many women and children have begun leaving for higher ground while the men stay behind.

Suhartini, 45, a resident of the Legok ward in the Telanaipura subdistrict, said most of those leaving their homes had opted to go to the homes of relatives rather than to the temporary shelters set up by the authorities.

“It’s only the women and the young children who are going, while the men and the boys are staying put,” she said.

“Someone’s got to keep an eye on the houses so that our property doesn’t get looted while we’re away.”

Since late November, heavy rains have swollen the Batanghari River, raising the water level three meters above normal.

The water level on Monday at Jambi’s Taman Tanggo Rajo floodgate is measured at 13.15 meters, according to officials, up from the normal figure of around nine meters.

Dalmanto, the head of emergency response at the provincial Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), said that if the water level reached 13.45 meters, the flooding there would be considered an emergency situation. “At that point, we would have to order a mandatory evacuation of all residents from the affected areas,” he said.

He added that some parts of Jambi have been inundated for two weeks now and were entering a third week of rising floodwaters.

“The worst-affected area right now is the Legok ward. There are some 264 stilt houses there that are flooded,” Dalmanto said.

“If the water level rises past the critical mark, we’ll have to evacuate roughly 1,370 people from 345 households in that ward alone.”

Rain-induced flooding is also taking a toll on Central Kalimantan, where the Barito and Kahayan rivers have burst their banks.

Aprian Noor, the legislative speaker in the district of North Barito, said on Monday that the district capital of Muara Teweh was now completely paralyzed by flooding, with the water level reaching two meters in some areas.

Bambang Edy Prayitno, the district secretary, said the flooding was the worst in a decade, and added that all residents living on the banks of the Barito River had evacuated their deluged homes while the floodwaters had wrought extensive damage to crops and livestock.

Authorities in Muara Teweh have also begun to register the extent of the damage in the flooded parts of town.

In the Gunung Mas district, the Kahayan River overflowed on Monday, the second time it has occurred since Saturday, cutting off road access into and out of the district.

9,000 Central Kalimantan Homes Inundated as Flood Waters Continue to Flow
Dessy Sagita Jakarta Globe 10 Dec 12;

Nearly 9,000 homes have now been inundated as flooding that began a week ago in Central Kalimantan’s North Barito district continues unabated.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said on Sunday that 8,872 homes in the district were reported to have been affected by the flooding.

“The flooding there that began on December 3 is still continuing to spread,” he said. “Six of the nine subdistricts in North Barito are now inundated in around two meters of floodwater. In some places the water is as deep as four meters.”

He added that the problem was so severe that in some areas of the district, the water level was reported to be rising by as much as 30 centimeters a day.

In addition to the houses, the flood has also affected 11 schools, six community health centers, five mosques, a church and a Hindu temple.

The flooding, caused by the rain-swollen Barito River bursting its banks, has also swamped 2,700 hectares of rice paddies and thousands more hectares of other crops, as well as washed out 25 bridges and flooded 10 kilometers of roads.

District authorities declared a state of emergency there on Saturday, while disaster relief officials have set up temporary shelters and soup kitchens to cater to those forced to flee their homes.

Sutopo said relief supplies were being distributed by the district and provincial administrations.

He previously warned that rain-related disasters across the country were expected to continue until January. The BNPB noted that mudslides and floods in the past two months have killed at least 33 people and forced 35,000 to flee their homes.

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90-year-old durian tree crushes Ubin kampung house

Two bedrooms in the three-bedroom house were wrecked, but the outdoor kitchen and generator were unaffected
Rennie Whang, Syahirah Anwar The New Paper 15 Dec 12;

SINGAPORE - The house was so special that it was featured in the National Parks Board's walking trail guide to the island.

Taxi driver Azman, 47, said he would take tourists inside if its owner was around.

"I'd say, this is what a kampung house is all about," he said.

But two weeks ago, the 40-year-old Pulau Ubin house was almost completely destroyed as a durian tree, estimated to be 90 years old by residents, fell on it.

Two bedrooms in the three-bedroom house were wrecked, but the outdoor kitchen and generator were unaffected.

Nobody was in at the time, as owner Madam Puasa Ahmad, 78, has mostly stayed on the mainland with a son since her husband died four years ago.

More comfortable

The couple have six children in their 40s and 50s. Up till the Nov 30 incident, said Madam Puasa, she has been visiting once a week, usually alone, to clean the house - which was built by her husband.

"Sometimes I think of the place. It's more comfortable living at the village. You don't have to worry about bills," she said.

"It's old, but holds memories."

Madam Puasa was informed of the accident by her brother-in-law, Mr Ahmad Kassim, 78, whose 50-year-old house overlooks hers.

He said he was praying when he heard a crash at around 6pm.

He went outdoors only to see the house in ruins.

"We're all very sad. There's nothing we can do about it," he said, adding the house was not insured.

Mr Ahmad Kassim said it was the third time he has seen a tree damage a house in all his years on the island. His kitchen was destroyed in 1977, when large branches of another durian tree fell.

He was sleeping in his bedroom at the time.

With the help of other people in the kampung, repair works took just three weeks.

"It's not like now, there are not so many people. If the kampung people were still around, we could each take an axe to the tree and it'd be gone," he said.

The house is on state land and the family is waiting for the tree to be removed by the authorities.

A spokesman for the Singapore Land Authority would only say that it is "aware of the fallen tree and will be removing it."

She continued: "We understand that the tree fell after a heavy storm."

An arborist at DP Green, Mr Edwin Lim, 30, said the stability of the tree trunk could also have been weakened by insects, like borers.

"(The possible decay and presence of borers) and the heavy (winds)... resulting from the current monsoon season are likely the causes of (trunk) failure," he said.

Mr Lim added that unless the trunk showed signs of fungal structures or obvious borer holes, it would be difficult to tell when there will be trunk failure.

Mr Tan Kim Teik, 49, a senior engineer at DPC Consulting Engineers, said rebuilding would most likely involve demolishing the existing foundation.

"Old houses usually don't have good foundations and verification needs to be done if this has eroded."

Framed by coconut trees, the house once made for a pretty picture, said Mr Azman.

Now, it just invites questions as people stop by Mr Ahmad Kassim's to ask what happened.

"A lot of people knew this house," said Mr Ahmad Kassim.

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Best of our wild blogs: 15 Dec 12

Return to the Lost Coast
from wild shores of singapore

The Calls of the Collared Scops Owl
from Bird Ecology Study Group

The Man behind Syzygium ngadimanianum
from Flying Fish Friends

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Scientists identify pesky midges

Two different species plaguing Bedok and Pandan reservoirs, but reason for outbreaks still not known
Grace Chua Straits Times 15 Dec 12;

THE researchers studying Bedok Reservoir's midge nuisance have solved a pesky ecological whodunnit.

They now know that two different non-biting species of the tiny insects are the ones responsible for the swarms that have plagued residents around Bedok and Pandan reservoirs for the past couple of years.

But they have not yet worked out the how or why, or how to prevent future outbreaks.

"The first thing you have to know is who's causing the problem, then you can start addressing the issue," said National University of Singapore biologist Rudolf Meier, who is leading a study of the midge problem. The three-year project is part-way through its first year.

The culprit at Pandan is one called Polypedilum nubifer, a common nuisance species that dominates ecosystems almost everywhere it is found.

But at Bedok, the culprit is a fly called Tanytarsus oscillans, a minuscule green species. It has previously been found in Sumatra, India and Japan - but is not known to cause problems anywhere else in the world, said Professor Peter Cranston, the Australia-based midge expert helping with the study.

Identifying the midges is not as simple as looking at stripes or spots, researchers said. It involves staring at the insect's rear end and mouth parts under a microscope to work out whether they really are different from other species.

Prof Cranston said of the Bedok issue: "We don't know what the environmental trigger is yet."

These midges live in the reservoir year-round, but their numbers explode only at the end and beginning of the year. Elsewhere, triggers for a midge swarm can be natural, such as water that goes from flowing to still. Or they can be man-made. For instance, nutrients flow into waterways from deforestation, construction or changing agricultural practices, Prof Cranston said.

But water agency PUB said the water quality in Bedok Reservoir, which is more than 25 years old, is the same as it was before the midge swarms started last year.

Seven ponds in the area collect rainwater from Bedok, Tampines and Tanah Merah, and flow into the reservoir.

Another explanation is that the small fish that feed on midge larvae might have been eaten by larger non-native fish that live in the reservoir.

At Pandan Reservoir, plant roots that dangle from floating wetlands provide a place for these small fish to hide, said PUB biologist Michelle Sim.

Now, the research team breeds midges in the lab and collects data on environmental variables like temperature and water quality to work out possible causes.

Three times a week, the PUB also counts the overall number of midge larvae (of all species) in the water; if it gets above a threshold number, it knows a swarm of adult midges is about to occur.

At Bedok, general preventive measures such as fogging larvicides and scrubbing algae off rocks where midges might lay their eggs are used, and these target all midge species, said Mr Goh Chong Hoon, a deputy director of catchment and waterways at PUB.

In the past few months, there have been only isolated complaints, he said. And he said that currently, there are no warning signs yet of another midge outbreak. "So far, we've been able to keep the numbers low."

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Singapore's record on water and built environment provides a lesson for Asia

The tiny island nation proves that good environmental policies – and public-private partnerships – are also good for business
Kishore Mahbubani Guardian Professional 14 Dec 12;

In Southeast Asia, there is an island called Sumatra. On Sumatra there is an extinct volcano. On that extinct volcano, there is a small lake, Lake Toba. In the middle of Lake Toba, there is a tiny island. This tiny island in a volcanic lake is, however, the same size as Singapore.

David Bellamy, the famous British environmentalist, has said that tiny Singapore has more tree species than the continental 48 states of the US. Amitav Ghosh, a famous Indian novelist, echoed this observation: "What is remarkable about Singapore is, despite all the buildings and developments, it remains so green."

This is not a result of accident or good fortune. It is the result of a comprehensive matrix of environmental policies that reinforce each other, providing a model of environmental management that is worth studying in detail.

The world also needs to study it urgently. In 2008, for the first time in human history, more people lived in cities than in rural areas. Urbanisation is accelerating. By 2050, it is estimated that nearly 70% of the world will be urban residents. Of the 25 most densely populated cities in the world, 17 are in Asia, and by 2025, 21 of the world's 37 megacities will be in Asia.

Sadly, few of these cities are managing their environments well. The lessons from Singapore are clearly relevant to Asian megacities. Ghosh says: "A lot of people I interviewed [in 1997] told me, 30 years ago, Singapore was just like Calcutta or Karachi. The transformation of this city in such a short time is a truly stunning thing."

Just look at the water dimension. Projections from the 2030 Water Resources Group suggest that the global gap between water demand and supply could be as large as 40% by 2030.

While the world is running out water, Singapore – which is one of the most densely populated countries in the world – is moving towards water self-sufficiency. Good public policies – including those that preserve water catchment areas, and develop advanced desalination plants as well as plants that utilise modern membrane technology – have led to this success story. This is why the Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB) won the Stockholm Industry Water Award in 2007.
Private sector dynamism meets public needs

Significantly, many of these projects are provided through public-private partnerships between the PUB and private Singaporean companies, such as Keppel Engineering and SingSpring. The dynamism and innovation of the private sector has been harnessed to help meet public needs.

Singapore's success in environmental management is also influencing its neighbors in Southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur also began a greening program after watching Singapore's success. The late distinguished former Indonesian foreign minister, Ali Alatas, once told me privately that Jakarta's urban planners used to despair about improving their city. However, after studying how Singapore went from third world to first world in one lifetime, they began to believe that they too could succeed.

And there are other remarkable Southeast Asian success stories. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and has experienced the worst genocide of recent times. Yet its capital city, Phnom Penh, has a water authority that expanded the city's water output by 600% in just 10 years. It also manages its water supply better than most British water authorities.

Given Singapore's environmental track record, it is appropriate that it plays host to two global, and increasingly influential, conferences that bring together major stakeholders from the public, private and non-profit sectors: the biennial Singapore International Water Week and World Cities Summit. These two conferences signify the international community's recognition that Singapore's successes in managing the scarcity of space and resources will help many other cities which will experience similar challenges in coming decades, if they are not already experiencing them now.
Eco-city for the future

Singapore is also sharing its experience directly with other cities. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, due for completion in 2020, is one such example. Together, the Singapore and Chinese governments are trying to build a sustainable city for the future, which will serve as a laboratory for the green technologies and public policies that we will need in the 21st century and beyond. Already, more than 600 companies have moved to the Tianjin Eco-city and 4,000 homes have been purchased.

Singapore has also discovered that good environmental policies are good for business. As a result, Singapore is rapidly becoming a hub for the development and manufacturing of sustainable energy sources. Large international firms that specialise in renewable energy – such as Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems and Norway's Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) – have set up shop here. The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) is home to 160 leading researchers from across the globe, thanks in large part to a S$130m (£66.1m) government grant, and it collaborates directly with multinational solar companies such as Trina Solar and REC in research and development, as well as personnel training.

These industries are becoming increasingly important to Singapore's economy: by 2015, the cleantech sector is expected to contribute S$3.4bn (£1.7bn) to Singapore's GDP and employ 18,000 people.

In a world that is devoid of good news on the environmental front, Singapore's success provides a lot of hope to many. There is one critical statistic that explains the metaphysical significance of Singapore's success. If the world's seven billion people were to live in a single city as densely populated as Singapore, the entire world would only need an area the combined size of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to live in.

Kishore Mahbubani is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and author of the forthcoming book The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World.

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