Big parties... and big army of cleaners too

Staff work through the night to clear countdown party venues of rubbish
Lim Yi Han Straits Times 2 Jan 13;

AS PARTYGOERS geared up to celebrate the new year, an army of cleaners were painstakingly picking up litter.

At the Marina Bay Singapore Countdown 2013, preparations, such as placing of bins, began as early as 3pm on Monday. The big cleanup continued through the night to 11am yesterday, said Mr Edy Tan, 38, operations manager of cleaning firm Chye Thiam Maintenance.

About 350 cleaners were deployed at the event, which was the island's biggest party with some 260,000 people turning up.

But there was less litter than the year before because the rain meant fewer people came, said Mr Tan. At the previous event, some 300,000 partygoers turned up.

"The emcees were also telling the crowd to take care of their own rubbish, so that helped," he added. More bins were put out this year - 257, up from 247 the last time around.

Still, clearing the mess was no easy job.

One 24-year-old cleaner, who wanted to be known only as Mr Wu, said in Mandarin: "There's a lot of rubbish, especially after the fireworks when many people start to leave."

Countdown parties tend to leave a bigger mess than other events, such as the National Day Parade and Formula One race, as they attract larger crowds.

At Marina Bay, more than 40 National Environment Agency officers were on the lookout for litterbugs and illegal hawkers.

They were among the 157 officers at 10 major countdown events across the island - 20 per cent more than last year. In total, 59 litterbugs were booked, mostly for throwing cigarette butts, down from 70 the year before.

Meanwhile, the Siloso Beach Party, with its 19,000 revellers, needed 50 cleaners to help keep the sand as spotless as possible. "Green ambassadors" also walked around collecting plastic cups from partygoers for recycling.

They were part of an initiative by four students from Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. Called "Project Bin&Go", it aims to promote stronger recycling habits among Singaporeans.

Team leader Nurkhairah Sumarto, 23, said they wanted to raise awareness of recycling among partygoers because "we have frequently heard of and witnessed for ourselves the large amount of trash generated from mega outdoor events and concerts".

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Malaysia: Corridor allows study of jumbos' migratory path

New Straits Times 2 Jan 13;

KOTA KINABALU: A wildlife corridor is being established between Segaliud Lokan-Deramakot and the Malua Forest Reserve to allow easier access and movement of elephants in the area.

A study had found that the Segaliud Forest Reserve, which is home to more than 300 pygmy elephants, had sufficient food sources for the pachyderms.

Experts, who discovered the unique movement patterns of these elephants, had called for the setting up of an ecological corridor between these forest reserves.

Borneo Conservation Trust's conservation and research programme head Raymond Alfred said a 10-month study concluded that the riverine forest was the key habitat for elephants in Sabah.

The study was conducted by a research team from KTS Plantation Sdn Bhd and Borneo Conservation Trust, which saw the two organisations looking into the movement patterns of elephants in Malua via satellite tracking.

"The study had found that the elephants move from northern Malua to the east of the Danum Valley at central Ulu Segama Malua.

"We had installed a radio-satellite collar on a female elephant named Segaliud. She represents between 290 and 310 elephants in the Segaliud Lokan Forest.

"The movement patterns of the elephants are unique, emphasising the importance of the riverine forest and a logging road as their main migratory path, from one forest compartment to another."

He said the corridor was developed by Kwantas Plantation Sdn Bhd and located at the northern part of the Malua Forest Reserve.

Alfred also said the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve had the highest orang utan density in Sabah.

Most of the primates were concentrated at the southeast of the forest reserve.

"The research team had found that the main tree species used by the orang utans (either for food sources or shelter) are pioneer species, or hardy species which are the first to colonise previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems.

"Thus, the restoration programme that is being carried out in this area will also improve the density and diversity of the tree species."

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Poachers make 2012 a deadly year for Africa's rhinos, elephants

Jon Herskovitz and Ed Stoddard PlanetArk 2 Jan 13;

Africa's biggest animals were poached in near record numbers in 2012, with surging demand for horn and ivory from Asia driving the slaughter of rhinos and elephants.

By mid-December, poachers had killed 633 rhinos in South Africa, according to environment ministry figures.

That marks a new annual peak in the country that is home to most of the continent's rhinos, and a sharp rise from the record 448 poached last year and the mere handful of deaths recorded a decade ago.

Elsewhere in Africa, the slaughter of elephants continued unabated, with mass killings reported in Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to conservation group TRAFFIC, which monitors global trade in animals and plants, the amount of ivory seized will likely drop from 2011, when a record number of big hauls were made globally. But the trend remains grim.

"It looks like 2012 is another bumper year for trade in illegal ivory though it is unlikely to top 2011," said Tom Milliken, who manages TRAFFIC's Elephant Trade Information System.

In 2011, an estimated 40 metric tons of illegal ivory was seized worldwide, representing thousands of dead elephants. So far this year about 28 metric tons has reportedly been seized but the number is expected to climb as more data comes in.

"The last four years since 2009 are four of our five highest volume years in illegal ivory trade," said Milliken.

Demand for ivory as ornamental items is rising fast in Asia, in tandem with growing Chinese influence and investment in Africa, which has opened the door wider for illicit trade in elephants and other animals.

Rhino horn has been used for centuries in Chinese medicine, where it was ground into powder to treat a range of maladies including rheumatism, gout and even possession by devils.

WAR AND ORGANISED CRIME

Ivory smuggling has also been linked to conflict, and last week the United Nations Security Council called for an investigation into the alleged involvement in the trade of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda.

Led by warlord Joseph Kony, who is being hunted by an African Union and U.S.-backed military force, the LRA is accused of terrorizing the country's north for over 20 years through the abduction of children to use as fighters and sex slaves.

"The illegal killings of large number of elephants for their ivory are increasingly involving organized crime and in some cases well armed rebel militias," the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) said in a statement this week.

"In Bouba N'Djida National Park, in northern Cameroon, up to 450 elephants were allegedly killed by groups from Chad and the Sudan early this year," said CITES, which is an international agreement that oversees trade in wildlife.

In the case of rhino horn, demand has also been growing in Vietnam, where a newly affluent class has been buying it to treat ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer.

The claims have no basis in science but demand has pushed the price of the horn up to $65,000 a kilogram on the streets of Hanoi, making it more expensive than gold.

Most of the rhino killings take place in South Africa's Kruger National Park.

Gangs armed with firearms and night-vision goggles enter from neighboring Mozambique, from where observers say the horn is often smuggled out through the same routes used to bring illegal drugs from Southeast Asia into Africa.

"Kruger is a national park the size of Israel and it is incredibly difficult to police," said Julian Rademeyer, author of 'Killing for Profit', a book published this year that examines the international rhino horn trade.

"You have very advanced international syndicates run like business operations that are very good at getting horn out of here," he told Reuters. Rademeyer expects the number of rhino killings to rise even higher next year, pushing the population closer to a tipping point that leads to its decline.

South Africa has deployed its military to patrol Kruger while its tax agency SARS and police have stepped up the fight.

But it also lost ground in 2012 due to a two-month strike by National Park workers and corruption within the ranks of the park service that undermined its anti-poaching efforts.

South Africa hosts virtually the entire population of white rhino - 18,800 head or 93 percent - and about 40 percent of Africa's much rarer black rhino.

Africa's elephant population varies. Estimates for the numbers in Botswana are as high as 150,000 but in parts of central and west Africa the animal is highly endangered.

"Central Africa has been bleeding ivory but for the last few years there has also been an upsurge in poaching in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique," said Milliken.

Trade in rhino horn is strictly prohibited under CITES while that for ivory is mostly illegal.

(Editing by John Stonestreet)

Rhino Poaching at Record High in South Africa
LiveScience.com Yahoo News 11 Jan 13;

Rhinoceros poaching soared to a record high level in South Africa last year. The country's government said 668 rhinos were killed within its borders in 2012, up from 448 in 2011, according to the World Wildlife Fund, an international conservation group.

A whopping 425 of those deaths last year occurred in Kruger National Park, a top safari destination and home to South Africa's largest population of both black and white rhinos. That figure marks a sharp increase from the 252 rhinos killed in the park in 2011.

The poaching boom is largely due to heightened demand for rhino horns in Asia, where the grim prizes are believed to have medicinal properties and are seen as highly desirable status symbols, especially in Vietnam. TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental global network that monitors wildlife trade, recently issued a report describing how some affluent Vietnamese individuals often use the horn as a hangover cure and general health tonic, grinding it up and mixing it with water or alcohol.

"Viet Nam must curtail the nation’s rhino horn habit, which is fuelling a poaching crisis in South Africa," Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC's director of advocacy, said in a statement. "Rhinos are being illegally killed, their horns hacked off and the animals left to bleed to death, all for the frivolous use of their horns as a hangover cure."

Last year also saw some crackdowns. Arrests of suspected poachers and smugglers increased in 2012, with 267 people now facing rhino-related charges and one Thai man sentenced to a record 40 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle horns to Asia, WWF officials said. Last month, Vietnam and South Africa also signed an agreement aimed at strengthening law-enforcement efforts and sharing intelligence to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.

According to WWF, an additional five rhinos have been killed since the beginning of 2013, and two men were arrested in separate incidents in Vietnam and Thailand this month for smuggling rhino horns.

Rhinos in crisis – poaching and illegal trade reach highest levels in over 20 years
TRAFFIC 15 Jan 13;

Gland, Switzerland, 15th January 2013—Escalating levels of poaching and illegal trade in rhino horns are seriously undermining rhino conservation efforts, putting the survival of these species at risk—according to a report by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and TRAFFIC.

The report examines the conservation status and trade in African and Asian rhino species.

“The findings of the report are alarming,” says Tom Milliken, a rhino expert from TRAFFIC. “Today, rhino poaching and illegal horn trade are at their highest levels in over 20 years, threatening to reverse years of conservation effort, particularly in Africa. There is no doubt that rhino species are facing a serious crisis.”

According to the report, by the beginning of 2011 there were 20,165 White Rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum and 4,880 Black Rhinoceros Diceros bicornis in Africa. However, at least 1,997 rhinos were poached between 2006 and September 2012 and over 4,000 rhino horns have been illegally exported from Africa since 2009, with an estimated 92% of these coming from rhinos specifically killed to obtain their horn.

South Africa, home to 83% of Africa’s rhinos and 73% of all wild rhinos worldwide, is the principal source of rhino horns in illegal trade. A record 668 rhinos were poached there in 2012, according to official government figures released in January 2013.

Illegal trade in rhino horns involves highly organised, mobile and well-financed criminal groups, mainly composed of Asian nationals based in Africa. These networks have recruited pseudo-hunters including Vietnamese citizens, Thai prostitutes and proxy hunters from the Czech Republic and Poland to obtain rhino horns in South Africa on the pretence of trophy hunts for illegal commercial trade purposes.

Pseudo-hunting has significantly reduced as a result of a decision to prevent nationals of Viet Nam from obtaining hunting licenses and changes to South African law in April 2012. However, there remains a continued need to ensure that only bona fide hunters are granted permits, according to the report.

“Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are seen as highly desirable status symbols in parts of Asia, notably Viet Nam, but also increasingly in China,” says Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Chair of IUCN Species Survival Commission’s (SSC) Asian Rhino Specialist Group. “Horns are also increasingly used for non-traditional purposes such as hangover cure and body detoxifyer, especially in Viet Nam.”

In Asia, although conservation action in Nepal and India has resulted in increased numbers of the Greater One-horned Rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis, the situation in Indonesia and Malaysia remains serious for the world’s two rarest rhino species—the Sumatran Rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis and the Javan Rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus. The Javan Rhinoceros, with only around 35 to 45 surviving individuals, is confined to a single park in Indonesia after the last animal of its Indochinese subspecies, Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus, was found dead, its horn removed, in Viet Nam in 2010. The report calls for enhanced protection and biological management of the remaining Sumatran and Javan Rhinoceros to prevent their extinction.

Thefts of rhino horns from museums and zoos have increased worldwide, creating the need for improved law enforcement, monitoring and enhanced information management with regards to rhino numbers, sales and translocations, the report finds.

“Trade in rhino horns is a global problem that needs to be addressed by the international community by putting pressure on those countries that are driving illegal trade in rhino horn and those with inadequate wildlife legislation, such as Mozambique,” says Richard Emslie, from IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group. “At the same time, increased poaching is negatively affecting rhino conservation incentives and budgets, threatening future rhino population growth.”

The report was compiled by the IUCN SSC African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. It was mandated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and aims to inform the rhino horn debate at the 16th meeting of the Confererence of the Parties to CITES, taking place in March 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Read the full report http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/16/doc/E-CoP16-54-02.pdf

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Best of our wild blogs: 1 Jan 13

Crabby rain at Pasir Ris Park Mangrove
from Peiyan.Photography

Macro Highlights of 2012
from Macro Photography in Singapore

Crows harassing Black Kites
from Bird Ecology Study Group

My work attachment at RMBR
from Peiyan.Photography

The year in rainforests
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

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PUB looks at Jurong Island water needs: tapping groundwater

It is studying ways to tap wastewater and groundwater for use there
Grace Chua Straits Times 1 Jan 13;

CAN Jurong Island's groundwater be tapped? Or can waste heat from industrial processes be used to clean its used water or drive desalination?

These are some of the questions the PUB is asking. The national water agency called a tender last month to work out how best to meet the industrial island's future water needs.

In 2010, the PUB found the island had fresh groundwater, after it dug a 5m-deep well and pumped a litre of freshwater per second from it for three months.

Last November, it closed a tender for a study to model the groundwater on Jurong Island to see if industries there can tap groundwater for process and other needs, and how much can be tapped sustainably.

As industry expands on the island, demand for water for cooling and industrial processes will also rise from the 35 million gallons per day now to double that over the next 10 years, said PUB senior planning officer Soh Yeow Chong.

Currently, Newater, potable water and industrial non-potable water are supplied from the mainland, while some firms pipe in seawater for cooling. As demand grows, more costly land and sub-sea pipes will be needed.

Meanwhile, wastewater is treated by PUB plants or private utilities. Most of it is discharged, while some is reused. But the PUB wants to know: Can more of the discharged water be reclaimed for use on the island? Can an easier- to-treat portion of used water be segregated from a harder-to- clean portion?

"We are trying to close the water loop on Jurong Island," Mr Soh said.

The 32 sq km Jurong Island is home to more than 94 petroleum, petrochemical and chemical companies, and more firms are expected to set up shop there on two newly reclaimed areas.

Besides boosting the local water supply, the PUB also wants to know if, say, waste heat from industry can be used to desalinate or treat water there.

And for the longer term, the PUB also wants consultants to help work out whether public, privatised or some hybrid form of water supply and treatment is best for Jurong Island.

A hybrid business model already exists: the design, build, own and operate scheme that has private firms building, running and supplying Newater to the PUB.

The tender for this water-resources study closes on Jan 10.

Meanwhile, groundwater - largely rainwater that has seeped into the ground - could be another source of water for Jurong Island's industries.

The island is composed of seven islands, made up of the sedimentary rock in the Jurong Formation, joined by reclamation.

Rainwater seeps into the ground and is less dense than seawater, so it forms a freshwater lens atop the saltier ocean and can thus be tapped.

It goes at least 5m down, but drawing too much groundwater too fast can lead to land subsidence. So the PUB wants to know how much can safely be tapped, and at what rate - depending on rainfall - groundwater supplies get recharged.

The groundwater study tender closed in November with four bids, ranging from $797,498 to $860,000, including those from consultants Camp Dresser and McKee, and the National University of Singapore.

The contract for the 18-month study is likely to be awarded next month, Mr Soh said.

Future studies could come up with rainwater recovery schemes and storage for Jurong Island, the tender said.

Other areas being studied

WATER supply is not the only thing being studied on Jurong Island.

In 2010, the "Jurong Island version 2.0" initiative was launched to prepare the petrochemical island for future growth, increase its competitiveness and overcome resource constraints.

Under that multi-agency scheme which involved industrial landlord JTC, the Economic Development Board (EDB) and other government agencies, various studies were carried out.

The areas studied included looking into a second link to mainland Singapore, making industries more energy-efficient, and using green materials such as palm oil, sugar cane and plant ethanol as alternatives to petroleum-derived feedstocks for producing chemicals.

Several suggestions from these studies could be adopted or have already been adopted on Jurong Island.

For one thing, when the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal opens this year, its "cold energy" could be tapped. Liquefied gas is shipped at very low temperatures and as it heats up, it can cool air and separate it into oxygen and nitrogen for use in other industrial processes.

And the McKinsey Green Campus, an actual chemical process plant on the island, serves as a model factory that teaches companies how to increase energy efficiency throughout their operations.

Meanwhile, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and consultants CH2M Hill did a study of the air quality on the island, measuring what the most common pollutants were at what levels, how Jurong Island stacks up against industrial parks overseas, and suggesting specific pollution abatement measures.

Findings from this study are not yet available.

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Indonesia: Riau`s forests shrinking

Antara 31 Dec 12;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - A local non governmental organization said conversion has significantly cut the size of Riau`s tropical forests over the past several years.

In 2009-2012, at least 500,000 hectares of forests have been converted mainly into industrial timber estates (HTI), the Riau Forest Saviour Network (Jikalahari) said here Monday.

Jikalahari coordinator Muslim Rasyid mainly blamed industrial timer (HTI) companies for the rapid process of deforestation in Riau.

Muslim accused companies of committing extra-ordinary crime causing the loss of natural forests in the province.

Research by Jikalahari, showed that in the past 10 years there were cases of illegal logging and corruption in the forestry sector yet unsettled until today.

The condition was worse with the absence of regional regulation on layout and conflicting licenses in forest land management.

(H-ASG/F001)

Editor: Maryati

COPYRIGHT © 2012

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Malaysia: Environment tops Johor wish list

New Straits Times 1 Jan 13

JOHOR BARU: Representatives from various segments of society here expressed their wish for better things to come this new year.

Malaysia Nature Society Johor chairman Vincent Chow hoped more attention would be given to protect the environment.

He urged the state government to be serious in addressing river pollution as about 60 per cent of rivers in the state were polluted by household and factory effluents.

"It is my wish that the Department of Environment be more vigilant against people discarding waste into our waterways and carry out deterrent measures.

"We wish all heads of departments and politicians would attend courses on nature awareness and sustainability, so they can help the DOE in environmental issues."

Chow said without sufficient knowledge on the environment, decision-makers would not be aware of the seriousness of the matter, and this would jeopardise efforts to deal with the problem.

He also urged the state government to impose a ruling for all housing developers to set up a centralised sewerage system to ensure efficient management.

He said many of the sewerage systems in housing estates were decentralised and this did not augur well for the state capital.

For the benefit of wildlife, Chow hoped there would be a law to prevent plantation owners from encroaching on buffer zones at river banks, as this was vital for wildlife preservation.

"Buffer zones are important habitats for wildlife. Just let these areas be, and let wildlife have a place of their own to survive."

Malaysian Indian Business Association president P. Sivakumar's wish for 2013 was for a quantum increase in funding and less red tape in government agencies.

He wanted more fields and opportunities to be opened up for the Indian community to allow every race to have a share in the country's economic pie.

"We need more co-existence in social, economic, education and employment policies for all the three major races.

"I believe this will greatly foster unity among the races."

Sivakumar hoped the government would carry on with its good work, adding that the year was rather promising as the government had remedied certain long-standing issues such as funding for small-and medium-sized industries.

Semarang assemblyman and state Umno information chief Datuk Samsol Bari Jamali hoped 2013 would be a better year for Malaysians.

"I also wish everything that the government has planned for the country will be implemented successfully and all of the country's ambitions will come to fruition.

"Lastly, I hope every Malaysian will have success in whatever they do," said Samsol.

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Best of our wild blogs: 31 Dec 12

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [24 - 30 Dec 2012]
from Green Business Times

A new Clover-leaf Desmodium in Singapore?
from Urban Forest

2012 - The Year in Review
from Butterflies of Singapore

Intermediate Egret with odd looking wings
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Finlaysonia fun at Mandai
from wild shores of singapore

Feral Pigeon
from Monday Morgue

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ExxonMobil starts work at compound cracker project

Aaron Low Straits Times 31 Dec 12;

OIL giant ExxonMobil has started operations at one of the world's largest ethylene steam crackers.

The cracker, which breaks down complex organic compounds into light hydrocarbons, is part of a multi-billion-dollar expansion to its existing petrochemical complex located on Jurong Island here.

The project is the largest chemical expansion project in ExxonMobil history.

ExxonMobil Chemical Company president Steve Pryor said the expansion will double the size of

the company's finished product capacity in Singapore.

"This is among the most technically advanced and competitive manufacturing sites in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

The expansion, which had been delayed for almost 1 1/2 years, will increase headcount for the chemical plant by 50 per cent, bringing total employment at ExxonMobil's Singapore integrated refining and chemical complex to 1,800.

In all, ExxonMobil employs some 3,300 workers in Singapore.

Said Mr Matthew Aguiar, chairman and managing director, ExxonMobil Asia-Pacific: "The completion of this expansion is a significant achievement for ExxonMobil and it demonstrates our continued confidence in Singapore."

Among other innovations, the expansion includes a new "cogeneration plant" which allows for efficient generation of electricity to run pumps and other equipment, while producing additional steam for the production process.

The expansion is powered by a new 220-megawatt cogeneration plant and adds 2.6 million tonnes per year of new finished product capacity.

The expansion will also employ other new technologies, such as membrane bioreactor technology for water treatment, said Mr Georges Grosliere, venture executive and manufacturing director of the Singapore Chemical Plant, ExxonMobil Chemical Company.

Chemicals remain one of the biggest industries in Singapore, contributing $38 billion in manufacturing output in 2010.

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Indonesia: 22 Turtles Saved in Latest Bust on Bali Smugglers

Made Arya Kencana Jakarta Globe 29 Dec 12;

Denpasar. Police in Bali have successfully prevented the attempted smuggling of 22 endangered turtles into the island, bringing the number saved from the restaurant trade this month to 55.

Comr. Ambariyadi Wijaya, the Denpasar Police’s chief of detectives, said on Friday that community guards patrolling Pandawa Beach in South Kuta discovered the 22 turtles, all tied and bound, late on Thursday evening.

He said that the green sea turtles were an average of one meter in length and estimated to be at least 50 years old.

“Their resale value is quite high, fetching at least Rp 5 million [$518] per animal,” he said.

The smugglers are believed to have planned to sell the turtles to restaurants for slaughter and consumption, he said.

“We’re trying to get the perpetrators,” Ambariyadi said, adding that they were believed to have fled when the patrol came along.

He added that the perpetrators were in the middle of unloading their cargo.

“They didn’t have time to take the turtles away,” he said.

Ambariyadi also said that police suspected that the group was the same group that attempted to smuggle 33 turtles into the island on Dec. 9.

Soemarsono, the head of the Denpasar Nature Conservancy Office (BKSDA), voiced anger at the continuing attempt to trade the endangered species, saying that his agency was planning a special operation against smuggling syndicates.

He declined to give more details other than saying that some targets had already been identified.

Soemarsono said that some of the newly seized turtles were suffering from dehydration and had wounds. He said the BKSDA would take custody of the animals for rehabilitation before releasing them back to into the sea.

Green sea turtles are listed as endangered and are a protected species under Indonesian law.

There have been at least six turtle smuggling attempts in Bali this year involving hundreds of the animals, Soemarsono said.

Officials have acknowledged that Bali is a profitable smuggling destination because of the continuing high demand for turtle meat, both for consumption and for Hindu ritual sacrifices, despite an official prohibition.

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Best of our wild blogs: 30 Dec 12

From Dairy Farm Park to Mandai Park Connector
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

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Singapore's Pulau Ubin offers a step back in time

A primitive enclave minutes by boat from the mainland island nation, its sleepy low-rise villages called kampongs stand in stark contrast to the dense, high-tech hubbub of its neighbor.
Andrew Bender, Special to the Los Angeles Times 30 Dec 12;

PULAU UBIN, Singapore — Think back, if you can, to 1965. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis was the year's architectural marvel, the world mourned Winston Churchill, and Pampers disposable diapers made their debut. Meanwhile, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, the republic of Singapore declared its independence from Malaysia.

Today, the Gateway Arch still inspires, Churchill's iconic status is unfettered, and what's a cloth diaper? But the Singapore of 1965? Barely recognizable.

Except in one place: the island of Pulau Ubin, in the Johore Strait, which separates the city-state from Malaysia to the north. Although it's less than 15 minutes by boat from mainland Singapore, the difference could hardly be more pronounced.

Among Singaporeans of a certain age, the mention of Pulau Ubin conjures nostalgia for the days before their nation's transformation from a jungle of simple villages, called kampongs, to a forest of high-rises. For Singaporeans born since the 1970s, Pulau Ubin is probably as foreign as it was to this American, who went in search of peace, quiet and, quite literally, another side of Singapore.

Forty-seven years after independence, Singapore is Exhibit A for modernization: With 5 million souls in 272 square miles, it is Earth's second-most densely populated country after Monaco. Yet somehow it works, a multicultural metropolis and an economic rocket ship, one of the world's most educated societies and busiest ports, renowned for its street food and a flag-carrying airline that induces jealousy among other travelers.

Its architecture mixes British colonial with space age, its luxury hotels and shopping strips always seem busy, and it's so famously tidy that litter on its streets is a shock.

Pulau Ubin, on the other hand, feels bypassed by the decades.

Its estimated population of 45 families in 4 square miles lives in what signage calls Singapore's last remaining kampongs, many under corrugated tin roofs without electricity or running water. The few paved roads give way to gravel and dirt paths, in turn giving way to wooden boardwalks through marshlands and coastal plains.

About 20% of the island's vegetation is mangrove forest, and there's also Singapore's only off-road biking course.

It's one of the few places in the city-state where nature runs unfettered. While Singaporeans across the strait walk dogs, the dogs on Pulau Ubin are (mostly friendly) strays, sharing their turf with monkeys and wild boar. Bird- and sea life include plovers and sandpipers, the crab-eating salted frog and the banded archerfish, which kills its insect prey by shooting a jet of water.

A bit of etymology: Pulau means island in Malay, and ubin derives from the word for granite floor tiles, once quarried here by Chinese laborers. (The causeway to Malaysia was built with granite from Pulau Ubin.) After the quarries closed in the 1970s, workers left and the island went into Rip van Winkle mode.

By the 1990s, the Singapore government had drafted plans to modernize Pulau Ubin like the rest of the nation, until naturalists discovered its wonders and preservationists sought to save one example of kampong culture.

Today, Pulau Ubin is protected from development.

From the moment I boarded the bumboat from the dock near Changi Airport, it felt as if I were not in Singapore anymore. Small wooden bumboats are Singapore's signature transport (what the bateau mouche is to Paris), but whereas the bumboats plying the Singapore River through the city center appear spit-shined and plush, the ones to Pulau Ubin are all business, hauling people and cargo on hard seats covered with patterned Con-Tact paper.

Something else un-Singaporean: no schedule for boats to the island. They depart when 12 passengers show up and pay about $2 each. If you pay about $25 to hire the whole boat, it will leave right away.

At Pulau Ubin's principal kampong by the boat dock, former homes have been converted to humble open-air restaurants and stalls selling packaged food and supplies for campers and day-trippers. (One set of trash bins was designated for cans of coconuts.) A ramshackle Confucian temple, overseen by a roaming rooster, looked ticky tacky compared with the gleaming, multistory Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore's Chinatown.

Several shops in the kampong rent bicycles, an easy and economical way to get around the island on well-marked roads. Island taxis (usually simple vans) wait at the dock in case you're not used to off-roading (useful if it's been raining).

Alternatively, it takes about 40 minutes on foot to get to Chek Jawa Wetlands National Park, the island's main attraction on Pulau Ubin's southeastern end. The park comprises six ecosystems from coastal hills to sand bars and a mangrove forest, nature all but unknown to Singaporean urbanites.

The wetlands' visitor center offers a peek into colonial history, a 1930s Tudor-style home built partly of (what else?) granite for the British chief surveyor. Signs note that the house boasts Singapore's only operational fireplace (unnecessary in this tropical climate, so the chimney is now home to a colony of bats).

Nearby, from the top of the 66-foot Jejawi observation tower, the tops of palms seemed to reach up to my feet (a jejawi is a Malaysian banyan tree), and brisk winds during my visit made the canopy roil like a second sea.

From here, it's a fast 40-minute trip to a leisurely 1½-hour ramble along the boardwalks. Mangrove trees' extensive root systems help prevent soil erosion in strong seas, and their roots protrude from the ground to "breathe" the oxygen the silty earth doesn't provide. Unique species of crabs and lobsters can occasionally be seen skittering through the mangrove roots. The boardwalk continues on a coastal path, along a sea-grass lagoon and a shore of coral rubble punctuated by barnacles and tiny starfish.

Pulau Ubin can easily be a day trip (the bumboats run from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.), which I would recommend; the options for overnight guests (mostly campgrounds) reminded me of backpacking through rural Thailand in the 1980s. The open-sided restaurants in the dockside kampong are no gourmet experience either, although they're a decent value.

If you prefer a roof over your head, about your only option is the Celestial Pulau Ubin Resort. "Resort" is overstated, given the spare tile-floor rooms and meals at a beach club-for-backpackers-style snack bar. Still, it has a great waterside location a few minutes on foot from the jetty, with views across the Johore Strait. You'll find a simple beach, kayaks and bicycles for hire, as well as a foot spa full of "doctor fish" (garret ruga, or reddish log suckers), which tickle-nibble at dead skin and are supposed to leave your feet feeling smooth.

The best reason to visit Pulau Ubin is to escape the modern world, a rare feat anywhere these days.

Authorities estimate that the island gets about 2,000 visitors on weekends, but if you go on a weekday as I did, you'll probably find yourself blessedly alone. In Singapore, that's an accomplishment.

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