Publication draws upon Singapore's urban density management

Channel NewsAsia 24 Jan 13;

SINGAPORE: A new publication has shown that innovative planning, design and development practices that emphasise a "people-first" focus can help ensure that rapid urbanisation does not compromise liveability and sustainability.

The publication, 10 Principles for Liveable High Density Cities: Lessons from Singapore, draws upon Singapore's successful urbanisation experience.

It was published by the non-profit education and research centre, Urban Land Institute and Singapore's Centre for Liveable Cities.

The ten principles which include planning for long-term growth and renewal and embracing diversity and fostering inclusiveness were developed during two workshops hosted by both organisations.

Other principles are drawing nature closer to people, developing affordable, mixed-use neighbourhoods, making public spaces work harder, prioritising green transport and building options, relieving density with variety and adding green boundaries, activating spaces for greater safety, promoting innovative and non-conventional solutions, forging "3P" - people, public, private partnerships.

Discussions at the first workshop centred around four case study districts in Singapore.

These were the mixed-use downtown district of Marina Bay, the commercial corridor of Orchard Road and two new public housing developments in Toa Payoh and Tampines.

Both organisations considered the districts to be both densely populated and highly liveable.

The ideas and principles generated were further developed, corroborated, and condensed into ten principles.

In the foreword to the publication, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan pointed out the lasting benefits of building cities for people.

He said maintaining a good quality, liveable high-density urban landscape in which all Singaporeans can find and make a home is crucial to the survival of the Singapore nation.

- CNA/xq

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World’s unknown species ‘can be named’ before they go extinct

Melissa Hogenboom BBC News 24 Jan 13;

Most of the world's plant and animal species could be named before they go extinct, claim researchers.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said it could be achieved this century.

This is largely due to an increase in taxonomists - the people who describe species new to science.

Although there is an extinction crisis, the rates are lower than previously expected, the scientists report.

Discovering and naming the world's species is critical for their conservation and can be done with only a modest increase in effort, the researchers stated.

But they also recognised it will be difficult to maintain a high rate of discovery as it becomes harder to find rare species.

Previous overestimates of the number of species - some as high as 100 million, led some in the scientific community to believe that it would be impossible to name all the world's species before they go extinct.

Naming a species gives formal recognition to its existence, making conservation easier, said lead author, Associate Professor Dr Mark Costello, from The University of Auckland.

"We believe that with just a modest increase in effort in taxonomy and conservation, most species could be discovered and protected from extinction."

As more information on taxonomy is available to the public via the internet, amateur as well as professional taxonomists are increasing, especially in regions such as Asia and South America, which are rich in biodiversity.

"We've discovered three times more people now naming species than there were ever before. We're in the golden age of taxonomy," added Dr Costello.

He hopes that this increase will continue, and that the public become more involved.

There are currently around around 1.5 million species which have been named. Dr Costello and his colleagues estimate the total number species on Earth ranges from two to eight million.

"Overestimates of the number of species on Earth are self-defeating because they can make attempts to discover and conserve biodiversity appear to be hopeless," said Dr Costello.

Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature species programme, disagrees with the review's conclusion that "species are more likely to be described than become extinct".

"Extinction is usually underestimated. It's more important to fight extinction than to describe or catalogue all species," he said.

"We can protect species even if we don't know all of them. I have no doubt we can catalogue all of life, and it would be useful, but we don't have the luxury of time."

"I am worried by the message implying that to conserve species you need to know everything about them. You can do a lot of protection even in the absence of knowledge."

To increase the time it takes to name the world's species, Dr Costello and colleagues recommend more taxonomists to be employed, increased financial support and international coordination in the scientific community to share expertise.

Professor Georgina Mace, from the Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College London, welcomes the analysis but also questions whether we really need to know the names of all species.

"Its excellent news, that taxonomic expertise is moving very effectively to tropical countries where most of the biodiversity on Earth is," she said.

She added that with sensible sampling, conservationists can prioritise effort on groups of species that are disappearing in the places most under threat.

"Once you've done that you can put in place conservation actions that will benefit everything there, whether named or not."

"It is part of our cultural responsibility to have looked at every single species of earth, but because it can be difficult to do, particularly the last few percent. We need to be quite strategic about the effort put into discovering, describing, monitoring and conserving."

The levels of investment needed to name all the species is very modest, in global terms, said Professor Ken Norris, director of centre for Agri-Environmental research at Reading University.

He added that many species play important functional roles in the way Earth works and the life support systems they provide.

"If we lose them, important functions of those systems - like purifying weather, providing fertile soils and clean air - might be damaged without us realising what we've lost," Prof Norris explained.

"Extinction isn't just about losing part of Earth's evolutionary history, it might also involve fundamental changes in the Earth's ecosystems that may have detrimental effects on mankind."

Naming species before extiction
The University of Auckland Science Alert 25 Jan 13;

Claims that most species will go extinct before they can be discovered have been debunked in the latest issue of Science, by researchers from The University of Auckland, Griffith University, and the University of Oxford.

The scientists show that the claims are based on two key misconceptions: an over-estimation of how many species may exist on Earth, and the erroneous belief that the number of taxonomists (people who describe and identify species) is declining.

“Our findings are potentially good news for the conservation of global biodiversity,” says lead author Associate Professor Mark Costello from The University of Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory, who published the work with Professor Nigel Stork from Griffith University and Professor Bob May from Oxford.

The authors propose that there are 5 +/- 3 million species on Earth – far fewer than has been widely believed – of which 1.5 million species have been named. This re-affirms previous estimates by the three authors, which spanned the upper and lower reaches of this range.

“Over-estimates of the number of species on Earth are self-defeating because they can make attempts to discover and conserve biodiversity appear to be hopeless,” says Dr Costello. “Our work suggests that this is far from the case. We believe that with just a modest increase in effort in taxonomy and conservation, most species could be discovered and protected from extinction.”

The authors conclude that there have never been so many people describing new species – including professionals and amateurs, the number may near 50,000. And the community continues to grow, in large part due to the development of science in Asia and South America, regions that are rich in biodiversity and where many new species are being discovered.

While the research suggests that species are more likely to be discovered than to go extinct, the authors do not underplay the seriousness of the threats to species and their habitats. The combination of over-hunting, habitat loss and climate change, now occurring at both local and global scales, mean that extinction rates could increase very rapidly in the future.

Dr Costello says that the discovery and naming of species is critical to their conservation. Naming a species gives formal recognition to its existence, making its conservation far easier. The process of discovery, including exploration of remote and less studied habitats, also provides the evidence to underpin conservation efforts.

Amongst the authors’ recommendations to increase the rate of species discovery are: getting more people involved in the work; international coordination of exploration and specimen collections; the development of freely available online databases; and financial support from governments and other organisations for these efforts.

The current research is published in Science: Costello MJ, May RM, Stork NE. (2013) Can we name Earth’s species before they go extinct?

Most Species on Earth Could Be Recorded, Study Finds
Douglas Main LiveScience.com Yahoo News 7 Feb 13;

What strange creatures dwell in the rainforests, at the bottom of the ocean or even in plain sight in our cities? If we don't look, we'll never know, one group of researchers says.

A study published Jan. 24 in the journal Science suggests that discovering and recording all of Earth's biodiversity may not be as difficult as previously thought, and could be accomplished with a "realistic surge of effort," said study co-author Mark Costello, a researcher at New Zealand's University of Auckland. By spending between $500 million and $1 billion annually for the next 50 years, humans could describe most species on Earth, Costello told OurAmazingPlanet.

Costello and his two co-authors also calculated that extinction rates are not as high as many scientists previously thought. The study suggests that species are currently being discovered faster than they go extinct, contradicting a widely held tenant amongst scientists that the opposite is currently happening amidst the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs were wiped out tens of millions of years ago. Though some scientists welcome the focus Costello and his colleagues are placing on the need to catalog Earth's species, they don't necessarily agree with their conclusions.

How many species are there?

Estimations of the number of species that live on Earth vary considerably, from as few as 2 million to as many as 100 million species. Costello's paper suggests there are between 2 million and 8 million species, at the low end of many scientists' estimates. It is difficult to tell exactly how many species there are without counting them, of course; different environments (many little-studied) have different levels of biodiversity, making it difficult to come up with a global number, and little is known about remote environments like the deep sea, for example.

There are currently more than 1.5 million species described, but the exact number is uncertain due to overlapping descriptions of the same species, as well as the lack of digitization of many databases and collections, said Mike Novacek, the provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the study. [Earth Quiz: Do You Really Know Your Planet?]

Although the amount of money Costello and his colleagues say will be needed to count Earth's species may seem like a lot, it pales in comparison to what we spend on sports, entertainment and space exploration. Knowing how many species are on Earth is vital to understanding life itself, Costello said.

"It's part of exploring our own planet. It is the first step in understanding ecosystems and as fundamental to biology as naming particles is to physicists, or describing elements is to chemists," he said.

Novacek said that he welcomed the paper's emphasis on recording species and conservation. "It's a cultural embarrassment that we know so little about life on this planet," he said. However, the paper's estimates of species extinction were a little low, he added.

Camilo Mora, a biologist at the University of Hawaii, went further, saying he thought the study significantly underestimated the number of extinctions occurring worldwide, making the current extinction crisis appear less worrisome than it is.

Extinction rates are also important to know because every organism serves a unique role in its ecosystem, which suffers when species are lost. Healthy ecosystems can make for cleaner water and air, as well as ensure the survival of important resources. Even people in cities and towns reap the benefit of far-flung biodiversity; for example, many modern drugs (like quinine, used to treat malaria) have originated from chemicals found in rainforest plants.

The study

The new study was a review of newly published research on extinction rates and discoveries of new species. Costello said that his team's approach was novel because it attempted to calculate global levels of biodiversity by looking at the sum of individual ecosystems the world over. Other calculations of extinction may have overstated the problem by taking local numbers and applying them globally, which Costello's team took pains not to do, he said. High levels of biodiversity in one patch of rainforest may not be paralleled in other areas of rainforest or temperate forest, for example, he said. [8 of the World's Most Endangered Places]

Costello's team also suggests that there are more papers than ever describing new species, thanks to the involvement of a growing number of scientists who don't typically specialize in taxonomy, as well as amateur scientists, he said. For that reason, the task of describing the world's species may not be as insurmountable as thought, he added.

Observed rates of extinction haven't been as high as predicted by some, due in part to better conservation efforts worldwide and the survival of animals in "secondary" habitats like agricultural areas, Costello said. Species can hang on in these degraded habitats longer than expected, giving conservationists a chance to save them before they disappear, he said. Pristine habitats are nevertheless vital to protect, he added.

Controversy

But not everyone agrees with the assessments and conclusions of Costello and his co-authors.

Even the median rate of extinction suggested in Costello's paper — at 25,250 per decade — is disturbing for the planet, Novacek said, while the lower bound of the estimate (500 extinctions per decade) sounded a little low and was "optimistic," to say the least.

Mora's criticism went further: "They paint a very nice glossy picture of the reality of what's happening out there," Mora told OurAmazingPlanet. "But it doesn't represent the reality."

For example, Mora said his "mind was blown" (in a negative way) by the 500-extinctions-per-decade suggestion. Habitat loss alone leads to 25,000 extinctions per year, he said. "And that's just because of habitat loss. Now start adding all the stressors — like climate change, invasive species, pollution — and the number is likely to go a lot higher," he said.

Mora also disagreed with the paper's assertion that the number of qualified taxonomists is growing worldwide. While there may be more authors of papers describing new species, many of these consist of amateurs or nontaxonomists who do not have the necessary expertise to provide leadership in the field, he said. There are fewer full-time positions for taxonomists and many experts in their fields aren't being replaced once they retire, Mora said, a view with which Novacek agreed. [Amazing Species Discovered in 2012]

Extinction crisis

All sides could agree, however, that we are in the midst of an enormous extinction crisis, the largest since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and that we must do more to record and conserve these species before they vanish. "The dinosaurs disappeared because of an asteroid, and in this case we are the asteroid," Novacek said.

All sides agreed that humans could — and should — record most species, although opinions on exactly how much effort or money it might take differed. In the short-term, smaller efforts could make a big difference, Costello said.

"We estimate the backlog in undescribed species in collections could be cleared by hiring 500 new taxonomists for 10 years," he said, which would cost about $5 million per year, and help pave the way for the more expensive and time-consuming process of describing new species found in the wild.

"In the end, there's going to be some controversy and dialogue about these numbers, but I'm glad the paper is coming out and that the issue [of extinction and conservation] is being discussed, because it's so important," Novacek said.

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Deforestation appears to rise again in Brazil's Amazon

Paulo Prada PlanetArk 25 Jan 13;

After years of gains against destruction of the Amazon rainforest, Brazil appears to be suffering from an increase in deforestation as farmers, loggers, miners and builders move into previously untouched woodland, according to data compiled by the government and independent researchers.

Imazon, a Brazilian research institute that tracks deforestation through satellite imagery, said in a recent report that destruction in the world's largest rainforest climbed for the fourth consecutive month in December.

In the last five months of 2012, Imazon detected clearings of 497 square miles (1,288 square km) of woodland - a Los Angeles-size total that is more than twice as big as the combined areas detected in the last five months of 2011.

Preliminary data from Brazil's space agency, which produces its own monthly estimates, also suggests an increase in deforestation between August and October, the last month for which its figures have been released.

Researchers and government officials say more data is needed to confirm that a full-fledged reversal is under way after what had been a sustained reduction in deforestation in recent years. Among other variables, clouds from the ongoing rainy season hinder definitive imagery. Additional data could also clarify whether new gaps in the rainforest canopy are the result of deliberate clearcutting and fires or of natural thinning.

If the increase continues, it would confirm fears raised by scientists and ecologists that changes to Brazil's environmental policies, growing inroads by developers and government-backed infrastructure projects are eroding gains in the fight to protect a region that has about 12 percent of the planet's fresh water, is an abundant source of oxygen and is home to an untold number of plant and animal species.

"The context is ripe for the destruction to intensify," said Paulo Moutinho, executive director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, a well-known not-for-profit group. "It's clear that the levels could easily continue to grow."

Government officials urge caution, noting the long-term trend in progress against deforestation. "It's too early to sound an alarm," said Francisco Oliveira, the director of policies against deforestation at Brazil's environment ministry. "A fuller picture will emerge once the clouds are gone."

CHALLENGING SCIENCE

Many factors drive deforestation.

Loggers and miners have long exploited hardwoods and ores in a jungle the size of Western Europe. As Brazil became an agricultural powerhouse in recent decades, soybean growers, cattle ranchers and others increasingly farmed cleared woodland.

Then there is the ongoing push to tap the Amazon region's rivers with hydroelectric dams - a process critics say lures people to areas that would otherwise remain untouched.

Tracking deforestation is a challenging science that relies on a mix of satellite data and on-the-ground reconnaissance.

Brazil's government and scientists at Imazon, a privately funded institute in the Amazon city of Belem, get preliminary evidence through satellite imagery. More conclusive data takes longer to compile and relies on slower higher-resolution visuals and on-site surveys by scientists and environmental inspectors.

The government releases an annual tally through July, when the region is driest and aerial views are the most clear.

Data showed that deforestation, through July 2012, had fallen to record lows for four consecutive years, largely because of stricter environmental enforcement.

A spike in 2007, when a surge in commodity prices sparked a rush for cropland, was curtailed after the government introduced steeper fines and blocked credit for offenders.

In response, loggers turned to smaller, more focused felling in efforts to evade satellite scans.

Now, scientists and environmental activists warn that violators are emboldened by regulatory changes, high global prices for agricultural exports and a scramble by settlers to get in on the economic activity around hydroelectric dams and other big infrastructure and industrial projects.

"You are going to see an increase in deforestation very soon," Marina Silva, a former environment minister and longtime Amazon activist, warned in a Reuters interview last year.

She and other critics have lambasted the government of President Dilma Rousseff, whose drive to revive Brazil's once-booming economy has wrought changes that environmentalists fear unleash destruction. Rousseff, for her part, has said the policies are both necessary and environmentally sustainable.

Among other regulatory changes, Brazil in late 2011 gave local officials more authority over the enforcement of environmental laws and in the process closed many of the federal outposts where forestry agents, especially in the vast and remote rainforest, represented the only obstacle to offenders.

Last year, Brazil revamped its "forestry code," longstanding rules for the types of woodland that must be preserved around developments. While the new code theoretically remains strict in the conservation it mandates, critics argue that enforcement will be difficult because of the handover to local officials.

Oliveira, the environment ministry official, said the federal government can still respond swiftly. Instead of relying on fixed bases, he explained, new units of environmental agents were created in recent months that can be deployed when needed -- making them "more agile" as violators clear smaller patches.

"Our methods and strategies are evolving," he said.

Still, scientists fear some of the damage could be happening before the government's very eyes. Government-backed dams, roads and mines are speeding a reversal, they argue, because they grant passage to previously isolated swaths of the Amazon.

"You have all these factors coming together making it much easier to gain access to the forest," said Paulo Barreto, an Imazon researcher. The recent numbers have spiked so quickly, he added, "it will be difficult for the annual figures to fall."

(Reporting by Paulo Prada. Editing by Todd Benson, Kieran Murray and Douglas Royalty)

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Greenland ice less vulnerable than feared to thaw: study

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 24 Jan 13;

Greenland is less vulnerable than expected to a runaway melt that would drive up world sea levels, according to scientists who found that only a quarter of the ice sheet thawed in a warm period more than 100,000 years ago.

The study, involving 300 experts from 14 nations, implied that Antarctica at the other end of the planet would contribute at least as much or more to the kind of sea level rise that threatens coasts and cities from Mumbai to Miami.

Climate scientists are struggling to understand the risks of a melt of the vast ice stores of Greenland and Antarctica to help plan coastal protection. Sea levels rose about 17 cm (7 inches) in the past century and the rate has quickened.

Examination of ice from a 2.5 km (1.5 mile) deep ice core in northwest Greenland indicated that its ice sheet lost only about 400 meters (1,300 ft) in thickness in the early part of the Eemian, a warm period from about 130,000 to 115,000 years ago.

They estimated it lost about a quarter of its ice overall, according to a study published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

"The volume of ice lost from the Greenland ice sheet was more moderate than many had expected," lead author Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, told Reuters.

Some past studies have suggested that Greenland may be poised for an irreversible melt due to climate change, blamed by a U.N. panel of experts on use of fossil fuels in nations led by China, the United States, India and Russia.

The limited size of the melt was also a surprise because the scientists found that Eemian temperatures, inferred from chemicals in air bubbles trapped in the ice, were higher than expected at 8 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) above current levels.

FOSSIL FUELS

"We'll probably reach the Eemian temperatures within the next 100 years," Dahl-Jensen said. The Arctic region is warming at one of the fastest rates on the planet; global warming of 2 or 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 F) might trigger an 8 degrees C rise in Greenland.

The United Nations panel of climate scientists has said that sea levels may rise by between 18 and 59 cm (7-24 inches) this century, or by more if a thaw of Greenland or Antarctica speeds up. Elsewhere, it expects more floods, droughts and heat waves.

And there are already signs of Eemian-style conditions. In July 2012, almost the entire surface of Greenland was covered in melt water, an event witnessed by the scientists from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere.

"It even rained in our camp," Dahl-Jensen said.

Ice cores build up from annual snowfall and can be read like tree rings to judge their age. The Eemian warmth was probably caused by natural shifts in the Earth's orbit around the sun.

The scientists estimated that Greenland contributed only about 2 meters to sea level rise of between 4 and 8 meters during the Eemian.

That meant that at least half and perhaps much more of the melt water came from Antarctica, the planet's other big store of land ice, which, unlike the floating ice of the Arctic, causes the sea level to rise when it melts.

As yet, there has been no study of cores from the crucial West Antarctic ice sheet equivalent to the Greenland research.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Jan 13

Sea fan garden and evidence of dugong at Changi
from wonderful creation

Random Gallery - Striped Blue Crow
from Butterflies of Singapore

Sedimental creatures
from The annotated budak

"Reducing Our Environmental Impact Hackathon", 25 - 27 Jan 2013 @ U Town
from Habitatnews

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Bottle Tree Park can stay till Oct

SLA extends plot's lease; master tenant won't bid high when tender is called

Jessica Lim Straits Times 24 Jan 13;

BOTTLE Tree Park in Yishun, popular for its "kampung-like" atmosphere, will stay open until at least October.

But that is unlikely to save the rustic enclave of restaurants and small businesses there. The 7ha plot of state land will eventually be put up for public tender and could be used for other commercial purposes.

Located in Lorong Chencharu, Bottle Tree Park was due to close last year, but master tenant Planar One and Associates successfully fought to get its lease extended.

Its lease will now end on Oct 18, when the Singapore Land Authority will put the plot up for tender to give "all interested parties... an equal opportunity to bid". The lease will be for up to two terms of three years each.

Planar One can submit a bid but managing director Alex Neo, 53, said it will be a modest one as he does not make money from the park.

He is likely to face stiff competition from businesses like recreational fishing, recreational horticulture, a campsite, adventure training ground, plant nursery, agriculture and fish and bird farms.

"We have no intention of changing our operations or become commercialised.

"We will not offer an amount that is much higher than what we are paying now," he said, adding that the place has "heart and soul".

He declined to reveal how much he pays for rent now but said it was only slightly higher than the $15,000 a month he paid when he moved there in 2004.

Then, the land was just an empty plot. He spent about $4 million to build it up, he said.

Father of two Tan Kiam Heong, 43, who was fishing at the park with his family, said he fears the park could end up becoming over-developed.

The engineer, who visits the area a few times a month, said: "My children enjoy it here. It's not easy to find such a place. Singapore is full of shopping centres, not places like this.

"I want my children to experience something different."

Bottle Tree Park has a seafood restaurant, a Japanese eatery, paintball facilities and ponds for fishing.

Unlike many master tenants, Mr Neo does not collect a fixed monthly rent. Instead, sub-tenants pay him a fixed percentage of their monthly earnings.

Mr Kang Ah Chen, 53, who manages the park's fish pond, pays the company $3 for every $15 ticket he sells.

Each ticket allows an adult to fish for an hour. "If business is good, I give more. If it is bad, I give less," he said. "We want to stay. But if the boss closes down, so will we."

Fellow tenant Ground-Up Initiative pays nothing. Mr Tay Lai Hock, founder of the non-profit organisation which offers activities to connect people with nature, said he has "tried to demonstrate to the Government that the land is valuable as a non-commercial entity".

He said: "Now, we just have to let the Government decide. I have done my part."

In response to queries, the SLA said it granted the extension "to facilitate business continuity".

At lunchtime earlier this week, The Straits Times found several people fishing in the park, although the restaurants were empty.

Chesterton Suntec International's head of research and consultancy, Mr Colin Tan, said there is much competition for land, with industries like landscaping and fish farming desperate for space.

"These industries, which are doing business for profit, would definitely be able to bid much higher," he said. "In Singapore, land is scarce. One would expect rentals to have increased significantly over the past few years."

He added that it makes little sense for Planar One to place a high bid. "Doing so would mean that its owner will be continually subsidising the park."

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Coming: New way to treat water

Use of longer-lasting, more efficient filter material could lower costs
David Ee Straits Times 24 Jan 13;

A NEW method to treat water will be rolled out by national water agency PUB within the next 12 months, with the aim of keeping water prices here affordable.

The method, which uses stronger ceramic membranes to filter impurities, will first be installed in Choa Chu Kang waterworks, where the PUB is conducting a trial to improve it further.

The new membranes can last at least 20 years, more than four times the lifespan of existing polymer types.

This, and the ability to process up to three times more water, could help to lower the cost of producing water, said PUB's chief technology officer Harry Seah.

Today, Singaporeans pay $1.52 for every 1,000 litres of water they use, a tariff fixed since 2000. On average, each person uses 153 litres of water a day.

The method has been tested for 11/2 years at the waterworks, using a trial plant set up in collaboration with Dutch water firm PWN Technologies.

It will replace the old sand filters there which have been in place since 1981.

Ceramic membranes are also being tested at the Jurong Water Reclamation Plant and could be used in desalination plants in the future, said Mr Seah.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the signing of a memorandum of understanding yesterday between the PUB and the Dutch firm to work together to identify innovative water solutions.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade Lilianne Ploumen witnessed the signing.

Said Mrs Ploumen: "Our communities are (both) looking for viable solutions in terms of safe drinking water.

It would be wonderful if we could team up, and bring (solutions) to the rest of the world."

Desalinated water and Newater currently make up about 40 per cent of Singapore's water supply, with local reservoirs and imported water making up the rest.

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Jakarta under constant threat of flooding and rising sea levels

Sukristiono Sukardjo Jakarta Post 23 Jan 13;

Jakarta, with its booming population, is facing a challenge from anthropogenic climate change. The city represents an exceptional concentration of 10 million people located close to the sea’s edge and therefore vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Greater Jakarta is a delta city that has constantly been at risk of flooding. During the Indonesia Delta Forum held in Semarang in October 2010, the unabated flood problems beleaguering Jakarta were discussed, and 13 rivers running from Mount Gede, Mt. Pangrango and Mt. Salak in West Java were identified as permanent threats to the capital city.

The quality of all river catchment areas has been degraded due to disposal of solid and domestic waste, continuing illegal development activities and other environmental encroachments have complicated rising sea level mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Jakarta, West Java and Banten mangrove forests occupied 44,453 hectares in 1996-1998, accounting for 0.66 percent of Java’s north coast. In 2009 the forest cover had declined to only 11,370 hectares.

These mangroves support Jakarta bay fisheries, provide coastal protection against typhoons and storms, reduce erosion, stabilize sediments, control flooding and pollution, and serve as habitats for many forms of biota.

Jakarta’s mangroves grow in narrow, discontinuous strips along the seaward face of the stretch from Kapuk Naga to Muara Angke and help Jakarta withstand the tides. Kapuk Naga mangroves, however, have been vastly diminished, while the 25 hectares of mangrove forest in Muara Angke sanctuary are coming under attack from pollutants.

Nature reserves in Penyaliran Barat (18.41 hectares) and Penyaliran Timur (19.50 hectares) as well as fishponds cannot recover despite rehabilitation activities. The Jakarta mangroves have been degraded environmentally and structurally, their natural water regime has been disturbed, rendering them unable to protect the coasts from rising tidal floods.

Meanwhile, forested areas in Mt. Salak, Mt. Gede and Mt. Pangrango and 13 catchment areas are environmentally degrading at an alarming rate as a result of development and other human encroachments. The upland areas are the target of developers hungry for land.

Uncontrolled development of upland regions and the growing wealth of Jakarta’s citizens lead to new high quality residential areas at the expense of small lakes, putting the city under permanent risk of flooding.

The 1993 Kapuk Naga reclamation program, along 30 kilometers of coastline, affects some 4,000 hectares of seashore. This reclamation will fundamentally change the contours of the coastal zones in Jakarta bay and the gradual interface between land and water will be replaced by an abrupt separation of land from the marine environment.

The choice to change the use of shallow coastal zones and build new residential areas to meet demand from the growing population will bring new catastrophes in its tide.

It is now only a matter of time before mangroves are totally erased from the map of Jakarta — a victim of unbridled urbanization and industrialization programs initiated by the government, which, in the same breath, pronounces its concern about Jakarta’s ecological balance. Mangrove forest loss will certainly lead Jakarta to total flooding from tides and from upland, which will rank among the most devastating natural disasters in the contemporary history of the city.

A number of field surveys and scientific studies show a decline in tree density in the three mountains south of Jakarta, reducing their capability to mitigate water runoff during heavy rain. These trees need to be managed for survival and growth as flood mitigation elements against climate change.

Hydrological regimes are justified on the basis of claims that the dense trees of mountain forests have provided protection against flood. Increasing tree density will enhance the mitigation effects of mountain forests. To mitigate the impact of climate change mountain forests, catchment areas and mangroves in the northern Java coastline are important and must be protected for their multifunctions.

In 1923, the mangroves encircling parts of a 50 kilometer-long area along the then Batavia coastline, extending between 2 and 7 kilometers inland, especially from Muara Aluran and Muara Angke, mitigated tidal floods. The amount of mitigation was documented in historical records, but it may soon be reduced to a mere memory.

Tree-planting campaigns to rehabilitate catchment areas and reforest cleared mountain areas are the keys in mitigating flood impact. Attempts to bridge a gap between science and policy can materialize by presenting and synthesizing information on catchment area and forest protection drawn from empirical studies, simulations and mathematical models.

I personally suggest that 13 catchment and coastal areas be rehabilitated as soon as possible. Squatters along the catchment areas in Jakarta, West Java and Banten should also be properly educated to ensure conservation and eco-friendly environments. The 13 rivers with sediment-garbage loads and tree-felling are examples of human egoism.

Not only do floods damage the infrastructure, but also cause humanitarian problems. Jakarta is at risk of global warming, rising sea levels and climate change, therefore it needs mountain forests, mangroves and associated healthy rivers to provide natural protection from hazards. Mountain forests and mangroves, however, are a source of conflict among Jakarta, West Java and Banten. The point is Jakarta needs well stocked upland forests, mangrove belts, urban forest renewal and improvement to 13 catchment areas and the coastal environment to anticipate floods and climate change.

Many environmentalists, ecologists, moralists and sociologists recount how Jakarta’s rapid increase in population gives rise to a demand for housing, living space and other human necessities, without paying attention to social ethics. Jakarta floods can be regarded as a moral issue. Too many talk about the flooding, but are Jakarta, West Java and Banten government officials, councilors and development planners listening to the voices speaking up for the diminishing upland forests, mangroves and 13 unhealthy rivers?

The writer is a professor of mangrove ecology with the Research Center for Oceanography at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

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700 dolphins slaughtered in Solomons money row

Campbell Cooney ABC 24 Jan 13;

A remote village in the Solomon Islands has slaughtered at least 700 dolphins, saying it is in retaliation for a breached agreement with a conservation group.

The village of Fanalei in South Malaita, caught and killed the animals in protest over non-payment of funds promised by the Earth Island Institute to forego their traditional hunting practice.

The chairman of Fanalei Honiara-based association, Atkin Fakaia, has defended the slaughter, saying the villagers resumed their normal dolphin hunt to earn an income.

"The village says the slaughter was held because the conservation group has breached a memorandum of understanding which facilitated it providing money for project development," he said.

"(The agreement) ensured it and other villages have not held their traditional hunt for the past two years."

But the Earth Island Institute's director Lawrence Makili disputes the claim, saying the money has been provided to village representatives, who cannot account for how it was spent.

"The communities used that for an excuse for them to do what they were doing," Mr Makili said.

Last year the Solomon Islands banned the live export of dolphins.

Solomon Islands villagers kill 900 dolphins in conservation dispute
Islanders claim Berkely-based Earth Island Institute failed to fulfill deal to pay $400,000 to stop hunt
Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk 24 Jan 13;

Villagers in the Solomon Islands have slaughtered up to 900 dolphins in the course of a dispute with a conservation group, Earth Island Institute.

Accounts of the dispute vary. The islanders say the Berkeley-based conservation group failed to pay them, as agreed, for stopping the traditional hunt. Earth Island says the slaughter was the work of a "renegade group" trying to sabotage conservation work.

What is clear, however, is that a misunderstanding between the villagers and Earth Island has resulted in one of the worst cases of dolphin slaughter in the Solomon Islands for some time, and delivered a huge setback to conservation efforts in a world "hot spot" for the dolphin trade.

The Solomon Islands were notorious among conservationists as a source of live dolphins for sea aquariums in China and Dubai. A captive dolphin sells for up to $150,000.

"We are very very disappointed," said David Phillips, who oversees international dolphin protection efforts for Earth Island. "This is a tragedy. It's bad for dolphins. It's bad for the community. It's bad for the Solomon Islands as a nation to have this blot on the record."

Earth Island had been working with islanders of Malaita for two years to try to stop the hunt. The islanders' account, which was aired by Australian broadcasting, accused the conservation group of failing to live up to a deal to pay up to $400,000 to people in the village of Fanalei, to stop the dolphin hunt. The villagers said they received barely a third of the promised funds before the money dried up.

Atkin Fakaia, a community leader now living in the capital, Honiara, told Radio Australia the disillusioned Fanalei villagers had gone back to hunting when the money did not come in.

"The issue of them going back fishing for and killing dolphins was on the understanding that Earth Island had been reluctant to pay the agreed amount that was due to the community," he said. "They were just disappointed and dissatisfied over the attitude of Earth Island."

Phillips said the causes of the dispute were far more complicated – although he did not dispute the charge villagers in Fanalei had not seen the money they were expecting. Under the agreement, funds were supposed to be paid out as small grants for community projects in the village, and for income generating efforts. However, Phillips said villagers living in the capital had seized control of the funds, and had not distributed the money.

"The renegade group grabbed funds that were supposed to go to the community and that resulted in a lot of the discord," he said. "In our view there are proper charges of corruption in what has happened in the community."

Phillips said the conservation group was still working with two other villages on the island, and hoped to resolve the dispute with the people of Fanalei. Fakaia told Australia radio the dispute would now likely end up in court.

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Jan 13;

LTA's proposed Cross Island Line (CRL) cuts through the Central Catchment Forest Reserve
from Habitatnews

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Exhumation at Bukit Brown cemetery deferred

Lip Kwok Wai Channel NewsAsia 22 Jan 13;

SINGAPORE: The registration deadline for exhumation of graves at Bukit Brown cemetery has been extended till April.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said as of 21 January 2013, LTA has received 1,216 applications to claim unmarked graves.

Authorities have also said the exhumation date has been pushed back as some graves have not been claimed. Documentation work of over 3,000 graves is nearly complete.

The exhumation comes as the Land Transport Authority will construct a new dual four-lane road by 2016 in Bukit Brown to alleviate congestion along Lornie Road and the PIE during peak hours.

Users of Android smartphones or tablets can now turn to an app, developed by the Working Committee and Centre of Social Media Innovations for Communities, to seek information about selected graves.

For a start, there will be information on 23 graves and more graves will be included later. There are also plans to document exhumation-related rituals.

Leader of the working committee for Bukit Brown cemetery, Dr Hui Yew Foong, said: "Usually we look out for interesting rituals that are performed before exhumation. Or if we suspect there are interesting artefacts buried with the deceased, we will ask the family for permission to document the exhumation itself.

"One recent case involved a family that came from China. They came from China, to go through the exhumation process, claim the remains of their ancestors, went for the cremation. Then they brought ashes back to China, so we did the documentation of the whole process."

- CNA/ck

Many yet to claim graves at Bukit Brown
Exhumation to begin after Qing Ming; documentation work close to completion
Grace Chua Straits Times 25 Jan 13;

STUDENT Toh Zheng Han and his family will be conducting Qing Ming Festival rituals at the Bukit Brown cemetery this year for the first - and last - time.

His maternal great-great-grandaunt's grave is among 3,746 that will be exhumed to make way for a new road.

The 25-year-old's family claimed the grave last September after finding the burial record in a family genealogy book.

But some two-thirds of the graves affected by the new dual four-lane road, meant to ease peak-hour congestion in Lornie Road and the Pan-Island Expressway, remain unclaimed.

The cemetery, in existence since 1922 and closed to burials since 1973, has some 100,000 graves in all.

Heritage buff and cemetery guide Raymond Goh said the unclaimed graves may be Qing-dynasty ones moved from other parts of the country or those belonging to Hokkiens and Straits Chinese.

Other dialect groups such as the Cantonese and Teochews had other cemeteries in the past so fewer of them are likely to be buried at Bukit Brown, added Mr Goh, who has been helping descendants locate graves.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has said the deadline for relatives to claim graves has been extended till after the Qing Ming period in late March and early April. Exhumation will begin after that.

The LTA will pay for the cost of exhumation, the cremation of remains and the storage of ashes in a government crematorium and columbarium. Ashes from unclaimed graves will be scattered at sea after three years.

The LTA's tender to build the new road closed last October and has not yet been awarded.

Meanwhile, documentation work on the affected graves is almost complete, though the data has not yet been analysed, said Dr Hui Yew-Foong of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, who is leading the process.

It was commissioned by the authorities after heritage groups spoke of the need to commemorate the history of the place.

Dr Hui said the deadline extension may help those who, for one reason or other, have not made claims.

"Sometimes, claimants may not have come forward because they think other relatives may be claiming. The extension also gives families more time for closure," he added.

But Mr Goh pointed out that some may not even know they have relatives buried in Bukit Brown.

Polytechnic administrator Gan Su-Lin, 46, realised she had kinfolk buried there only after she checked the LTA's burial register.

Her family had the remains of her grand-uncle and his wife - who she thought were buried in Malaysia - exhumed privately in October.

"I'm vexed that we rushed his disinterment, believing that the public exhumations would begin before Qing Ming 2013," Dr Gan said.

"Many of us who arranged for private exhumations did so because we wanted to do right by our ancestors and ensure they were resettled properly and with dignity."

To view the Bukit Brown burial register and find out details on how to go about claiming graves, visit http://app.lta.gov.sg/exhumation.asp.

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Indonesia: Green turtle smuggling into Bali continues

Luh De Suriyani Jakarta Post 21 Jan 13;

The smuggling of the endangered green turtle into the island of Bali is mostly conducted to meet the continuing demand for turtle meat for human consumption. The Balinese consider turtle meat to be a delicacy.

The Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSD) stated that the smuggling of 80 green turtles into Bali had been foiled in 2012.

Soemarsono, chairman of BKSD, shared with Bali Daily on Friday morning that: “The modes of turtle smuggling are similar with the use of water transportation and port entry, but the smugglers were clever enough to stop at different ports, especially smaller ones and traditional fishing ports, across Bali.”

He said that turtle meat was still in high demand among the Balinese and that some food stalls and restaurants serving turtle meat were still operating in Jimbaran in Badung regency and in Gianyar regency.

Green turtles are strictly protected under a decree as their population is under threat from over-harvesting of both eggs and adults, as well as from accidental mortality in fishing nets.

Green turtles are widely harvested for their meat in many tropical countries, including Indonesia, which has banned its trade and consumption since 1996.

According to data from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an estimated 100,000 green turtles are killed in Indonesian and Australian waters every year. Green turtle consumption in Bali reached its peak in the late 1970s, when more than 30,000 green turtles were landed every year. In 2002, landings were estimated at 684 green turtles every year.

Despite protests by animal welfare groups and a tourist boycott of the island, turtle meat remains a delicacy among the Balinese.

Illegal and legal turtle traders in Bali often justify their activities on the grounds that turtles and turtle meat are important elements in various Hindu rituals. However, the influential Hindu High Council (PHDI) issued a bhisama (religious decree) on Aug. 31, 2005 stipulating that other animals or symbols, drawings or cakes in the forms of those animals could satisfy the ritual requirements for endangered species, including turtles, eagles, tigers and other protected animals.

The bhisama was considered a significant breakthrough for the conservation of endangered species used in religious rituals.

Soemarsono said that to maintain the green turtle population, there were several turtle breeding and conservation centers on the island, including at Serangan Island near Benoa.

“There is an unregistered turtle conservation and breeding center belonging to a British national at Lovina Beach in Buleleng regency, north Bali. We will monitor its activity,” he said. In those breeding and conservation centers, BKSD has tagged and installed microchips in 200 green turtles for identification and tracking purposes. BKSD is currently active in conducting special monitoring activities in several areas, allegedly centers of the turtle trade.

“It has been quite difficult for us to get real evidence from food establishments selling turtle meat. Sometimes, we could only find dishes made of other meats,” Soemarsono said.

BKSD also received a report from Pro Fauna animal conservation organization saying that some souvenir and handicraft shops were selling items made from turtles.

A local journalist shared his experience of visiting a restaurant selling turtle meat on Jl. Bypass Ida Bagus Mantra in Gianyar. “Some government officials asked me to accompany them eating turtle meat dishes at the restaurant.”

BKSD has launched a number of programs and strategies to protect and conserve turtle hatchings, with centers in Perancak village in Pemuteran (Buleleng, north Bali), Kuta, Tegal Besar and other locations across Bali.

Illegal turtle trade returns to old scheme
Muliarta Jakarta Post 25 Jan 13;

The illegal green turtle trade in Bali has returned to an old style, the smuggling and trading of living animals, environmental activists claimed.

Wayan Wiradnyana, chairman of the Bali Sea Turtle Society, said in a meeting in Denpasar on Thursday that the newest mode of alleged illegal trading of turtles was smuggling and trading living turtles onto the island.

“In the past few years, the turtles were slaughtered and cut into pieces to trade the meat on the black market, but since the last year, the trend has returned to its original illegal scheme — trafficking living turtles,” maintained Wiradnyana.

He elaborated that trading turtles in the form of cut meat was aimed at cheating the authorities. “They [the police and the authorities] would find it hard to recognize whether it was turtle meat or cuts of fish meat,” he said.

Now, the trend had changed. Turtles were being smuggled alive as the price was very high on the black market, he said. Moreover, sellers were suspicious that the cut up turtle meat was mixed with fish or other animal meat, he added.

Generally, a green turtle of 30 to 40 centimeters length in the carapace will be sold for Rp 1 million (US$103.50).

“We have also found that the turtles were being trafficked from the island of Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara. Previously, the turtles were mostly procured from Sulawesi, Maluku and Kalimantan,” he added.

Wiradnyana said that he presumed that Sumbawa had abundant green turtles.

“If this illegal traffic of turtles continues, we are afraid that the population of the animals will be
endangered,” he said.

Green turtles are strictly protected under a decree as their population is under threat from over-harvesting of both eggs and adults, as well as from accidental mortality in fishing nets.

The green turtles are widely harvested for their meat in many tropical countries, including in Indonesia, which has banned its trade and consumption since 1996.

The smuggling of the endangered green turtles onto the island of Bali has been ongoing to meet the demand for their meat. Traditionally, the Balinese people consumed turtle meat as a delicacy.

Legal and illegal turtle traders in Bali have claimed that their activities were an important part of religious rituals.

Some rituals in Bali required offerings using the meat of turtles and other protected species, such as eagles and tigers. However, the influential Indonesian Parishada Hindu Council (PHDI) issued a religious decree in August 2005 stipulating that other animals or symbols, drawings or cakes in the forms of those animals, could satisfy ritual requirements.

Meanwhile, Made Arjaya, chairman of Commission I of Bali Legislative Council, stated that people illegally trading in turtles should not use ritual activities as an excuse for such illicit practices. “I am hoping that the authorities have imposed strict punishments and sanctions against those committing such illegal activities,” the legislator said.

Wiradnyana said that turtle trade in Bali had sharply dropped by around 90 percent from 1999’s figure when around 27,000 to 30,000 turtles were traded annually.

According to data from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an estimated 100,000 green turtles are killed in Indonesian and Australian waters every year. Green turtle consumption in Bali reached its peak in the late 1970s.

Sr. Adj. Com Handoyo Supeno from Bali’s water police said that the number of cases of illegal green turtle smuggling had been falling significantly.

“There were a few people who provided the animals and the demand has been decreasing,” he said.

Last December, Bali’s water police foiled an attempt to smuggle 33 green turtles.

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