Best of our wild blogs: 21 Sep 13

From MacRitchie Nature Trail to USR
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Red Junglefowl Roundup Part III
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Environmental considerations kept out of COE tweak, says Lui

Woo Sian Boon Today Online 21 Sep 13;

SINGAPORE — The recent tweak to the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system has come under sharp criticism — including from a Member of Parliament and a major car-parts supplier — with some saying it could lead to dealers bringing in cars that are less fuel efficient.

Responding to the slew of criticisms for the first time, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew yesterday said that the Government had “deliberately decided”, in this particular exercise, not to conflate environmental considerations with the objective of improving social equity in car ownership.

“What we have done actually goes quite a long way to addressing the original intent of why we have Category A and Category B,” said Mr Lui, as he pointed out that the Carbon-Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS) has shown “promising results” in incentivising buyers to go for cars which emit less carbon dioxide.

Mr Lui was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Transport Ministry event marking the fundraising of S$1 million in aid of the Community Chest.

Under the new categorisation, which will kick in from February next year, Cat A cars must have an engine power output not exceeding 97 kilowatts — or the equivalent of 130 brake horsepower — on top of having engine capacities of not more than 1,600cc.

Mr Lui reiterated that using engine power as an additional criterion is “more simple, more stable, easier and more straightforward to implement and to police”.

Wednesday’s first bidding exercise since the tweak — which was announced on Sept 9 — saw COE premiums for small and big cars rising to hit seven-month highs.

Mr Lui said: “As expected, accompanying any COE announcement, as well as prior to and following the implementations of the changes, you can expect to see some fluctuations.” He added that it “will take some time, several bidding cycles, before you see an equilibrium being reached”.

He reiterated that giving a lead-time of five months before the COE tweak come into effect next year was necessary. A shorter lead time “could cause greater issues and problems” and “more volatility” to the COE bidding exercises, he said.

“Those who are thinking of buying a car, if they can afford to wait, they ought to monitor the fluctuations carefully, watch this process for a while and then decide whether or not they want to purchase a car at this point in time,” said Mr Lui.

On Sunday, Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar described the COE change as “an act of appeasement”. Writing on Facebook, he had added: “Appeasement never works. If a system has no backbone, it will wilt under pressure.”

Asked to respond to these comments, Mr Lui reiterated that the COE system is “fundamentally sound”.

“When we did our surveys, focus group discussions ... people recognised that there’s a need for COE system — that the COE system is fundamentally sound, and Singapore being the small island that it is ... you have to have a combination of ownership and usage restraints, and of course, very much more emphasis on improving public transport.”

Among other things, Mr Hri Kumar also said that the change penalises cars with better technology and those that are more fuel efficient. In response, Mr Lui said that a “holistic scheme” is in place to encourage the use of environmentally-friendly cars.

The CEVS, which offers rebates for owners of cars which are more fuel efficient and emit less carbon, was implemented at the beginning of the year. Currently, about 60 per cent of cars registered have carbon emissions of less than or equal to 160g carbon emissions per kilometre, as compared to 40 per cent before the scheme was implemented, Mr Lui said.

A review of the scheme — which was intended to run for two years — will be conducted next year.

Apart from the CEVS, the Government has also raised the environmental standards of vehicles to be brought into the country. For example, from early next year, new diesel vehicles brought in will be required to meet Euro V standards, instead of Euro IV, and petrol vehicles will have to meet Euro IV instead of Euro II standards.

Mr Lui said that the discussion about environmental-friendly modes of transportation should be extended to public transportation instead of “only about which model of car is cleaner”. “I hope the conversation will extend to whether we have a modal shift altogether from private to public transport, because ultimately, that is more environmentally friendly on a per capita basis,” he said.

Mr Lui also responded to a potential loophole suggested by car-parts supplier Robert Bosch (South East Asia), which said that manufacturers could try to curb engine power output — by encoding a limiter within the engine control unit of the vehicle — to pass pre-registration inspection tests.

Adding that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had looked “very carefully” into this, Mr Lui reiterated that under the LTA’s “very stringent system”, the engine power of new car models will be compared to that registered in other countries. “So, it’s not so straightforward to simply tune it down, get it into Cat A and then hope to re-tune it thereafter,” he said.

Untested car models will be subjected to testing in the LTA’s laboratories to determine the engine power, among other things. He noted that it may take “a few weeks” or even “many, many months until LTA is fully satisfied” with the checks before cars are allowed to be imported.

Engine power 'better way to classify cars'

Lui Tuck Yew says it's more stable and easier to implement and police
Royston Sim Straits Times 21 Sep 13;

THE Government has defended the upcoming change to the certificate of entitlement (COE) system, saying the use of engine power to differentiate mass-market cars from luxury models allows for better rule enforcement and compliance.

The new COE rules, which will take effect next February, stipulate a capping of brake horsepower for Category A cars at 130bhp on top of the existing requirement that limits the engine capacity of these cars to 1,600cc.

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said yesterday: "We have chosen something which I believe is more simple, more stable, easier and more straightforward to implement and to police."

Since the announcement on Monday last week, some have asked why open market value (OMV) or carbon emission was not used instead of engine power to differentiate luxury and mass-market cars.

Mr Lui said the authorities had considered "very carefully" the use of OMV as a parameter.

But he said the value is subject to fluctuations due to factors such as currency movements and cars of different origins.

"We wanted to avoid some of these oscillations between Cat A and Cat B, and some of these implementation issues where using OMV as a criterion could make it very confusing, very complicated," said the minister.

As for using carbon emission as a yardstick, Mr Lui said the authorities "deliberately decided not to conflate environment issues" with the goal of improving social equity within the COE system when deliberating on the change.

Mr Lui also commented on the latest COE bidding exercise that saw premiums rising by as much as 11 per cent, which analysts have attributed to the rule change.

The minister said such fluctuations were "expected" and that it will take several bidding cycles before prices stabilise.

He was speaking at his ministry's Family Charity Outreach event at S.E.A Aquarium, where he presented a $1 million cheque to Community Chest.

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Climate change: UN makes high-risk attempt to break deadlock on talks

Secretary general Ban Ki-moon to invite world leaders to first summit of its kind since Copenhagen in 2009
Fiona Harvey The Guardian 20 Sep 13;

The United Nations secretary general is to invite world leaders next week to an unprecedented summit on climate change, in the hope of breaking the long deadlock on global warming talks. The high-risk strategy will put heads of state and government together to talk about the issue for the first time since the Copenhagen summit in 2009 ended in scenes of farce and disarray.

Ban Ki-moon has decided he must convene the meeting because of the stalemate in the talks for the past four years, with international action dwindling even as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise strongly, and scientific warnings over the consequences grow more strident.

He will tell world leaders next week that he expects them to attend crucial talks in 2014, ahead of a diplomatic push for a new global treaty on the climate, to culminate the following year. It is understood that he thinks one of the failures of the Copenhagen process was to bring in leaders only in the dying days of those negotiations, when diplomats had already failed to secure a deal.

By convening leaders a year before the crucial stage of the new round of global talks, he hopes to create an atmosphere in which leading nations such as the US, China and EU countries can agree the broad outlines of a new climate agreement, and then return to their officials and instruct them to hammer out the details.

The next crucial international climate meeting is scheduled for 2015 in Paris, which according to current plans is the deadline for a new global pact on emissions to be signed. Ban is understood to view climate change as one of the key defining issues of his tenure as secretary general, and is still smarting from the failure of the Copenhagen summit to produce a unified world view on the problem.

This is a gamble by the UN. The world's leading economies are currently signed up to targets to curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, but at present there is no clear agreement on goals beyond that date. But scientific projections, to be revealed next week by the UN-convened body of the world's leading climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are expected to show that time is running out, as emissions are racing ahead of the ability of the world's natural systems to absorb their impact.

Under current emissions trends, the International Energy Agency, the World Bank and other respected bodies have warned that global warming could reach 6C, which would lead to widespread floods, droughts, famine and migration.

Ban's gamble was hailed by some diplomats as a potential game-changer. "We need to have the impetus behind this, we need to get over Copenhagen and get to a new level," said an official from one developed country.

But the history of climate talks makes clear that there is no guarantee of success. The first real international discussion of climate issues by heads of state and government came at Rio in 1992, when governments – including the US under George Bush – agreed that action to "avoid dangerous climate change" was urgent and necessary, and signed the first treaty on the subject, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It took five years of tortuous negotiations to translate those hopes into concrete action, in the form of the Kyoto protocol of 1997.

But while the US signed that treaty, it was never ratified by Congress, so other nations did not take it seriously. Under the protocol, developing countries – even major economies such as China and India – were under no obligation to cut their emissions, and this became an increasing problem as their economies rapidly expanded. Kyoto finally came into effect in 2005, after Russia's parliament belatedly ratified it, but by then it was largely irrelevant – though the EU fulfilled its obligations under the treaty, cutting its emissions by about 8% by 2012.

The push for a new agreement to take over from the Kyoto treaty, the main provisions of which expired last year, started in 2007 with a major UN conference in Bali. Delegates there agreed after two weeks of hard bargaining to forge a successor treaty. But the scenes of anguish there - developing country representatives remonstrated with rich countries, the US refused to sign up until the last minute, and the UN's top climate official appeared to break down in tears at one point - were an inkling of what was to come. At Copenhagen in 2009, the conference hailed as the last hope for climate talks disintegrated on the final day, with scenes of chaos and farce as US president Barack Obama convened a meeting to which other leading nations, including the EU, were pointedly not invited. The UN had barely any control over events, and one delegate threatened bloodshed on the conference floor.

All this ensured that world leaders have not met again on the subject in the years since, mindful of being associated with failure. But now they are being invited to forget those torrid scenes and forge a new, historic agreement on the basis that whatever damage fractious governments can do to their own reputations during major international meetings will be as nothing to the damage that climate change is likely to inflict on us all.

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Best of our wild blogs: 20 Sep 13

Dan Friess on “Biophysical threats to mangroves” @ Singapore Science Centre, Tue 01 Oct 2013 from Otterman speaks

Where is the love?
from Nature rambles

ButterflyCircle Embroidered Patch
from Butterflies of Singapore

Yellow-vented Bulbul eating Murraya koenigii fruit
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Everyone can go green

Cheryl Faith Wee Straits Times 20 Sep 13;

With more than 300 parks and four nature reserves, the choices are bewildering for those looking to commune with nature. Life!Weekend checks out facilities that will appeal to everyone, from families to heritage lovers


FOR THE SPORTY

Tired of jostling with the crowds at East Coast Park and Pasir Ris Park on the weekends?

Head to Bedok Reservoir Park (along Bedok Reservoir Road) or Kent Ridge Park (Vigilante Drive off South Buona Vista Road) for a workout instead.

At the reservoir, follow the gravel track around its waters for a route that is mostly flat with a few slopes. It covers a distance of about 4.3km.

Those who are keen on water sports can rent kayaks from the People's Association Wate-Venture (Bedok Reservoir) (tel: 9710-1697, www.water-venture.org.sg).

A tree-top obstacle course called Forest Adventure (tel: 8100-7420, www.forestadventure.com.sg), which is popular with schools and companies, can also be found within the reservoir park.

Kent Ridge Park is a well-kept secret of some fitness enthusiasts. It is equipped with 30 different types of exercise equipment for adults and the elderly across 20 fitness stations. These include cross trainers, rowers and Go!Bikes.

After exercising, cool off at the park's look-out points where you can spot off-shore islands such as Pulau Duran Darat.

FOR OUTDOOR DINING

Tucked in the verdant landscape of Punggol Park and Telok Blangah Hill Park are two eateries with roomy alfresco areas where you can enjoy nature while lounging comfortably on a terrace or deck.

Asian-Western fusion restaurant Wild Oats (tel: 6858-2087, www.wildrocket.com.sg) in Punggol Park (at the junction of Hougang Avenues 8 and 10) has a 100plus-seater deck near the edge of a pond.

Relax in a family-friendly setting while dining on dishes such as Sarawak curry chicken shepherd's pie ($8.50+) and beer-battered fish and chips ($12.50+). Main courses range between $6.50+ for mee rebus and $17.20+ for a ribeye steak.

Wild Oats was opened by chef and restaurateur Willin Low who also owns Wild Rocket in Emily Hill.

Perched on top of Telok Blangah Hill is Italian fine-dining restaurant Alkaff Mansion Ristorante (tel: 6510-3068, www.alkaff.com.sg) which occupies a conservation building that dates back to 1918.

The two-storey colonial mansion, which overlooks a canopy of trees, was originally built as a family retreat for the late Arab merchant Syed Abdul Rahman Alkaff whose family was prominent in the sugar, coffee and spice trade.

Its breezy 60-seater terrace has a retractable awning that provides shelter against light passing showers.

Pastas start from $22++ and include spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and basil ($24++) and homemade potato dumplings with lobster, tomatoes and mint ($38++).

Alkaff Mansion Ristorante also offers a weekend brunch menu with items that start from $8.80++ for banana hotcakes.

FOR NATURE ENTHUSIASTS

Delve into the rich biodiversity of MacRitchie Reservoir Park and the Southern Ridges by following nature walking trails which are easy to navigate.

They will take you up close to the forest ecosystem. You might encounter wildlife such as kingfishers and monitor lizards.

Before you start, plan your route with maps and directions found online (www.nparks.gov.sg). Choose from six routes of varying difficulties that take you into the nature reserve of MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

They range in distances between 3 and 11km and take up to five hours to complete.

For families with young children, there is a wooden boardwalk that goes along the Chemperai Trail. It is 1.5km long and takes you near the edge of the reservoir. Along the way, you can see the Chemperai tree, a small tree that is known as the olive of the East, and the sea apple tree which has white flowers that give off a strong fragrance.

Over at the Southern Ridges, there are do-ityourself guides with maps available online (www.nparks.gov.sg) which can help you explore the area on your own.

Four guided tours (tel: 6471-5601, www.nparks. gov.sg) are offered by NParks around the Southern Ridges, which includes Mount Faber Park, Telok Blangah Hill, HortPark, Kent Ridge Park and Labrador Nature Reserve. One of them is the Fascinating Forest Of Labrador Tour in which you can learn about the coastal cliff vegetation that is found only in the Labrador Nature Reserve here.

A minimum of 15 people are required for each guided tour which costs between $7 and $9 a person.

FOR HERITAGE AND HISTORY BUFFS

Nestled in the lush greenery of Fort Canning Park and Labrador Nature Reserve are relics that offer a glimpse of Singapore history.

There is a 2km-long ancient history trail in Fort Canning Park (70 River Valley Road, www.nparks.gov.sg) made up of 16 stops including one at a heritage tree and an old shrine that has a 14th-century Malay roof supported by wooden pillars decorated with carvings of Javanese origins.

You can also check out the colonial history, sculptures, spices and trees of the fort walking trails (www.nparks.gov.sg).

Remnants of the former fort that occupied the hill from 1861 to 1926 are scattered around the park, including at the Fort Gate, Fort Wall and the Sally Port, a small entrance to the fort.

Labrador Nature Reserve (along Labrador Villa Road) contains relics used in World War II, such as former machine-gun posts, and historical maritime landmarks including a red beacon overlooking Keppel Harbour and Sentosa which served as a navigational guide for ships.

Find these relics with the help of the Labrador Nature Reserve Walking Trail (www.nparks.gov.sg) which takes you along the coastline and inside the secondary forest of the nature reserve.

FOR ANIMAL LOVERS

Allow your pooches to run unleashed at the dog run corner in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park (along Bishan Road and Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1). It is open all day and is located close to the carpark along Ang Mo Kio Avenue1.

The 2,105 sq m area, which is surrounded by a fence, is divided into two sections - one for big dogs and the other for small dogs. There are benches within and just outside the perimeter of the fenced enclosure too. Owners are expected to clean up after their own pets.

This is not the biggest dog run in a park here. The largest is the 2.4ha one in West Coast Park, but Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park has an added incentive for animal lovers. It has several pet-friendly cafes and restaurants which are worth a visit once the canines, and their owners, are tired out.

The rule of thumb at the pet-friendly eateries in the park is that pets must be leashed at all times and are allowed only in the alfresco areas.

Australian-style bistro Canopy Garden Dining (tel: 6556-1533, www.canopydining.com.sg) is popular with families on weekends for its brunch with comfort food such as waffles ($12++) and classic eggs benedict ($13++). Its 60-seater outdoor area is partially shaded with sun umbrellas.

Its next-door neighbour, a vegan cafe called The Green Room Cafe (tel: 6556-1533, www.greenroomcafe.com.sg), has a 30-seater alfresco area which is sheltered.

Main courses at Canopy and The Green Room range from $12++ to $21++.

There is also the casual family restaurant The Cornerstone (tel: 6554-7230, www.facebook.com/cornerstonebythepark) which has a 30-seater outdoor space set aside for owners and their pets.

Main dishes start from $7++ for a two-piece chicken wing meal and goes up to $35++ for a fillet mignon and signature rack of lamb with garlic crust.

FOR THE FAMILY

East and West Coast Parks, as well as the Singapore Botanic Gardens, are the best one-stop destinations for the whole family from adventurous youth to senior citizens.

The East Coast Park (along East Coast Parkway and East Coast Park Service Road) is one of the best developed and most popular park destinations here, and the range of its family-friendly activities is still unrivalled. Spend a laidback afternoon on a picnic mat facing the sea or take a leisurely cycle with your family on a four-wheel quad velo which takes up to four adults and two little children.

The park also has camping grounds, barbecue pits, inline-skates and bicycle rental shops and open areas where you can fly kites.

Those who crave more excitement can go for water sports such as cable wakeboarding at the cable-ski park Ski360degree (tel: 6442-7318, www.ski360degree.com, ski passes start from $32 for a one-hour session on weekdays and from $42 for a one-hour session on weekends) or visit the free Xtreme SkatePark @ East Coast (www.nparks.gov.sg) for skaters and bikers.

Over at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (1 Cluny Road), mark your calendars for free outdoor performances at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage (tel: 6471-7361, www.sbg.org.sg).

You can sign up as a family for free heritage or nature tours at the gardens every month (tel: 6471-7361, www.sbg.org.sg).

West Coast Park (parallel to West Coast Highway) offers a wide range of activities, especially for children.

There is a large playground with a flying fox and a 9m-tall pyramid rope structure for children to climb on.

Other highlights of West Coast Park include the largest public dog run here as well as pedal go-karts for rental (tel: 6776-6858, www.pedalgokart. com.sg).

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Singapore warms up to closer Arctic ties

Straits Times 20 Sep 13;

OTTAWA - Singapore has expressed interest in exploring opportunities for closer Arctic cooperation during Canada's chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

In a statement, it said Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam also expressed appreciation for Canada's support for Singapore's successful application for observership in the Arctic Council when he met his Canadian counterpart John Baird in Ottawa on Wednesday.

The council - a multilateral forum for discussions on Arctic shipping, energy, environment and security - allows observer countries to contribute to discussions that can influence the decisions of its permanent members.

Singapore is using its membership status to better understand and respond to the shipping challenges from the icy Arctic, in particular the emergence of the new Northern Sea Route, which may allow ships to bypass Singapore by shipping through the Arctic.

Mr Shanmugam, who was on his first official visit to Canada, also reaffirmed the longstanding warm and friendly relations between Singapore and Canada.

Mr Shanmugam discussed with Mr Baird ways to strengthen Asean-Canada cooperation during Singapore's coordinatorship of the Asean-Canada Dialogue Relations.

While there, Mr Shanmugam also met the chair of the Arctic Council's Senior Arctic Officials, Mr Patrick Borbey.

After Ottawa, Mr Shanmugam travelled on to New York yesterday to attend the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

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Toa Payoh's 'god tree': Fallen, but not forgotten

Landmark felled by storm, but site will remain a place of worship for devotees
David Ee And Melody Zaccheus Straits Times 20 Sep 13;

AS MODERN Singapore grew around it, the towering ficus tree stood firm.

For four decades, it bore witness to the prayers and dreams of devotees who worshipped at a Buddhist shrine at its foot.

That was until last week, when a storm brought the six-storey landmark in Toa Payoh Central crashing to the ground.

For worshippers drawn to its Goddess of Mercy statue and four-faced Buddha, the collapse of the great tree seemed to signal the end of an era.

But the area's residents are not ready to let go just yet.

Toa Payoh Central Merchants' Association told The Straits Times that it plans to erect a new shrine by Chinese New Year, with the remaining parts of the ficus as its backdrop.

''We will rebuild the shrine so residents here can continue to be protected by the gods,'' said vice-chairman Lim Kok Siong, 66.

Regarded by believers as a ''shen shu'' - or ''god tree'' in Mandarin - the ficus was said to be more than a century old. The mighty tree pre-dated Toa Payoh New Town itself, on which work began in 1965.

Its shrine, known as Ci Ern Ge, was added soon after the town was built.

Now, only a part of the trunk is left after the tree toppled during the storm - damaging cars but causing no injuries.

The Housing Board and Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council are helping to stabilise the tree's remains.

On Wednesday, residents continued to linger at the spot where it fell, some out of sheer habit and others to trade tales and memories.

They shared stories of how the tree stood the test of time, weathering the occasional thunderstorm and dodging the developer's axe.

Retiree Foo Ah Cheng, 78, remembered seeing bulldozers try in vain to fell the ficus as the new town was being built.

He said monks even offered prayers calling for the tree to give way.

''They wanted to get rid of it, but it wouldn't go,'' he said in Mandarin.

Residents believe the Government wanted to build a long row of shophouses, but split the development in two to accommodate the ficus.

From its precarious past grew longevity. Over the past decades, a steady stream of devotees have offered prayers for goodwill each time they passed the shrine. Some believe it was responsible for 4-D lottery windfalls.

Even the tree's leafy crown seemed to extend goodwill to residents. Mr Foo recalled how the ficus became so lush that its leaves kept the shrine and devotees dry when it rained.

He said the original caretaker was a monk who brought the statue of Goddess of Mercy Guan Yin from China and had a habit of sleeping under the tree.

When the monk died of a heart attack in 1975, his son Chen Zhou Rong took over.

Now 53, Mr Chen remains the caretaker. He has stayed on-site come rain or shine - greeting visitors who arrived at all hours to seek solace from the tree and the gods lining the shrine's altar.

Now that the ficus has toppled, however, Mr Chen believes his promise to his father has been fulfilled and he will be returning to his hometown in Malaysia.

''I do feel an attachment to the place and the people in the neighbourhood, having lived here most of my life,'' he said. ''But it's time to go.''

Most residents were wistful rather than downcast at the tree's collapse.

''People grow old and die,'' said Mrs Nan Xiao Mei, 76. ''It was the same for this tree.''

As well as attracting devotees, the shrine also used to elicit ''oohs'' and ''ahhs'' from curious onlookers and tourists from afar.

''The tree was very, very beautiful and many would take photos of it,'' said retiree Lu Siew Bao, 60, who lives in the block next door.

''Before it collapsed, pink flowers in full bloom fanned out across its long, hanging branches.''

Heritage enthusiast Jerome Lim, who grew up in Toa Payoh, said the shrine was a significant part of the estate's heritage.

The 48-year-old told The Straits Times it served as ''a link to the past when much of the area was occupied by farms and Chinese kampungs''.

For many, it was a meeting point, and praying there had become very much a part of their everyday routine.

Ms Agnes Pek, a 40-year-old sales assistant who works at a beauty shop a stone's throw from the site, said she used to pray for safety and a good day before starting work every morning.

Others, such as 65-year-old Yang Mei Hong, who grew up in Toa Payoh, felt the tree could have been saved had the authorities recognised its heritage value and placed supports to buttress it.

''They should have paid closer attention and preserved it,'' she said.

''It's really unfortunate that it's gone.''

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Four caught sneaking in live birds into Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 19 Sep 13;

SINGAPORE: Four Singaporeans have been referred to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for further investigations, after they tried to bring in six mata puteh birds, also known as the Oriental White-eye, into Singapore.

The men, who were in a Singapore-registered car, were stopped for routine checks at the Tuas Checkpoint on Tuesday at about 8:40pm.

Vigilant Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers noticed three toothpaste boxes inside the centre arm rest console, two in a passenger's waist pouch and one in a sling bag.

A mata puteh was found in each of the six boxes.

The men and the birds were then referred to AVA for further investigations.

The ICA and AVA remind travellers against bringing live animals, birds and insects into Singapore without a proper permit.

They say such importation is a violation of the Animals and Birds Act, which carries a maximum penalty of S$10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

- CNA/ec

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Malaysia: The environmental war - time for a Green Party

Rashvinjeet S. Bedi The Star 20 Sep 13;

PETALING JAYA: If you ask Azlan Adnan about saving the environment, he would say somewhat controversially that the human population has to be reduced from 7bil to 100mil.

That's an almost 99% reduction in the number of people.

He believes the sudden increase of the human population in recent times has caused lots of problems from species extinction, habitat disruption and spiraling food prices.

“These are just the symptoms of overpopulation. The human population has increased three times in the past 60 years and it has taken its toll on the planet,” said the Green Party of Malaysia founder.

Obviously reducing the population of the planet in an ethical way is a tall order, humans have to change their behaviour so that their impact on the environment is low said Azlan.

“We would have to rethink our whole lifestyle from manufacturing to producing food,” he said.

This is where the Green Party would come into the Malaysian landscape said 55-year-old Azlan.

“We need a green party because there are enough environmental NGOs. There is a need to take environmental issues into the political landscape. To put it bluntly, we need to politicise these issues,” he said adding that the idea for the party came after the 2008 general elections.

Over the past few years the Lynas and Rapid petrochemical complex in Pengerang issues are among the major environmental issues that have received lots of attention and traction in the political arena.

Azlan said the Himpunan Hijau has been doing a good job campaigning against Lynas, but that it should be taken to the next level.

“Environmentalists can scream and shout but if there is no political will, things will remain as they are,” said Azlan.

He cites examples of Rio De Janeiro and Copenhagen who have had bicycle lanes for decades and asks why there are none in Kuala Lumpur.

“There is no political will here to do such things. Most politicians are not environmentally conscious. That’s why we need to bring green issues to the attention of the policy makers. If they are aware of the environment and not driven by other interests, Lynas and Rapid would have been non-starters in the first place,” he said.

In its manifesto, the party seeks to unite all Malaysians under the banner of environmentalism. It intends to unite and give political clout to all the Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) in Malaysia embracing the whole spectrum of environmental ideologies from deep ecology, preservation, conservation and sustainable development.

Efforts to register the party however have not been successful said Azlan. They have tried registering a branch in Perak last year, but they have not heard anything from the Registrar of Societies (ROS) so far.

“We are seen as a threat,” he claimed.

He acknowledges it would be tough for the party to be registered, pointing out that the registration of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) that took 10 years.

He said once they are successfully registered, they would use the same constitution to register other branches in every state.

“A lot of environmental issues are local issues and the locals will have a stake,” he said.

Right now, there is no formal committee in the party but Azlan said he is trying to educate people by posting videos of green living on Youtube.

Germany, New Zealand, Australia, France, Sweden and Denmark are some countries where the Greens as they are known have a commendable presence.

In New Zealand for instance, there have been cabinet ministers from the party while in the Scandinavian countries they have formed governments with the social-democrat parties.

The presence of the green parties in Asia has been almost negligible but Azlan believes there is a place for the party in the Malaysian political landscape.

He said the party would be similar to Parti Keadilan Rakyat in that it intended to cut across racial and religious lines.

“We have to change our political model and be based on ideologies rather than race or religion. Our ideology is to save planet for the future,” he said.

The party’s other policies would include encouraging inter-ethnic marriages, having a minimum wage, anti-nuclear and building more universities that provided free education.

Azlan said the party would also encourage entomophagy or the eating of insects.

“It is a cheap form of protein and cost effective,” he said adding that grasshoppers tasted like prawns.

He urged people to join the Green Party if they were interested, but he made it clear he did not want any “professional” politicians from other parties.

“We don’t need any driftwood,” he said.

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Malaysia: Dead sea turtle in Sabah underwater clean-up

Divers remove 543kg rubbish
Muguntan Vanar The Star 20 Sep 13;

KOTA KINABALU: An endangered turtle was found dead during an underwater clean-up at Sabah’s east coast Billean and Tegaipil islands.

“As we were removing a fishing net from the reef during the clean-up, it was so sad to find an adult Hawksbill turtle entangled and dead in the net,” said Dr Milena Salgado-Lynn from Danau Girang Field Centre.

The fishing net is believed to have been discarded by a fishing boat before it drifted and got entangled to the reef, said Dr Salgado-Lynn, one of the 35 participants from various organisations in the clean-up exercise.

The fishing net was among the marine debris consisting mainly of plastic drinking bottles, polystyrene lunch boxes, ropes, cigarette butts, slippers and glass bottles collected from beaches and the sea. A total of 543kg of rubbish was hauled up.

“People are still treating the ocean like a giant rubbish bin,” said Rashid Saburi from the Sabah Wildlife Department.

The Reef Guardian-organised project also involved the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Lankayan Island Dive Resort.

The clean-up at the Billean and Tegaipil islands that come under the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area was carried out in conjunction with Project Aware. It is organised worldwide to remove marine debris from beaches and the sea.

Reef Guardian emphasises a message to turn mere awareness into action to save the ocean from further pollution and destruction.

“The public is actually aware that our environment is in the process of degradation. However, only a few are taking action to stop it,” said event manager Radzi Abdul Kadir of Reef Guardian.

He said to protect and save Sabah’s natural resources, more action was needed from everyone to recycle and not pollute rivers and the sea with harmful materials.


Watery grave for rare turtle
New Straits Times 20 Sep 13;

SANDAKAN: More effort is needed to create greater awareness of marine conservation and pollution.

Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) officer Rashid Saburi said people were harming not only themselves, but also the environment and marine life by littering.

"People are still treating the ocean like a giant rubbish bin and they may not realise that whatever they throw into rivers, seas and beaches will end up on their dinner plates."

He was speaking during a beach and underwater clean-up, organised by Project Aware at Billean and Tegaipil Islands, at the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area (Simca), near here, on Sunday.

In the clean-up, over half a tonne of debris were collected by 35 participants from Reef Guardian, Danau Girang Field Centre, SWD, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Lankayan Island Dive Resort.

Spearheaded by Reef Garden, a non-profit research outfit based at Simca, the programme was aimed at creating awareness and turning it into action.

Among items cleared from the beach and seabed were plastic drinking bottles, polystyrene lunch boxes, fishing nets, ropes, cigarette butts, slippers and glass bottles.

Reef Guardian event manager Radzi Abduk Kadir said: "The public is aware that our environment is degrading. However, only a few of them are taking action to prevent and preserve it."

Danau Girang researcher Dr Milena Salgado-Lynn said the carcass of a rare male adult Hawksbill turtle was also recovered, entangled in a fishing net.

"It was sad. The turtle may have been caught in the net after it was discarded from a boat. The turtle appeared to have drowned," Dr Milena said.

Uncaring fishermen
Ruben Sario The Star 25 Sep 13;

KOTA KINABALU: A clean-up in waters off two marine parks in Sabah’s east coast have revealed the killing of marine life due to carelessness by commercial fishermen.

A carcass of a Hawksbill turtle was found entangled in a fishing net discarded by fishermen during a clean-up of reefs around the Billean and Tegaipil Islands, that are part of Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area (SIMCA) located some 80kms off Sandakan.

The fishing net was among the 543kgs collected during the Sept 15 clean-up in waters off the two islands that are part of the 46,317ha conservation area.

“It was so sad to find the adult Hawksbill turtle entangled and drowned in the net,” said Dr. Milena Salgado-Lynn from NGO Danau Girang Field Centre.

They believed the net was discarded by a fishing boat, drifted and got tangled to the coral reef.

“People are still treating the ocean like a giant rubbish bin, they may not realize that whatever they throw into the river, sea and beaches will end up in their dinner plates.” added Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) Wildlife Officer Rashid Saburi.

The clean-up involving 35 participants from NGO Teef Guardian, (DGFC), SWD, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and Lankayan Island Dive Resort.

The event was carried out in conjunction with the Project Aware organised worldwide to remove marine debris from the beach and sea.

“The public are aware that our environment is in the process of degradation, however, only a few of them are taking action to prevent and stop it,” said event manager Radzi Abdul Kadir of Reef Guardian.

He said most of the rubbish collected during the one-day event comprised plastic drinking bottles, styrofoam containers, bits of fishing nets, ropes, cigarette butts, slippers and glass bottles.

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Malaysia: Royal Belum Park gets boost

Audrey Dermawan New Straits Times 20 Sep 13;

UPGRADE: RM4.7m project provides more facilities at rainforest complex

TASIK BANDING: PERAK's eco-tourism product -- the Royal Belum State Park -- received a major boost with the launch of its camps and tourism project yesterday.

The RM4.7 million upgrading project was undertaken by the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA). It started in September last year and was completed in June.

The upgrading work was carried out on three of its four existing tourism camps as well as a host of other facilities in the world's oldest rainforest.

The three camps -- Sungai Tiang, Sungai Papan and Sungai Kejar -- are sited within the Aman Damai Orang Asli village.

The work also included the construction of new infrastructure such as chalets, roofed camp sites, a banquet hall, public toilets, a multi-purpose kitchen, office premises, a hanging bridge, surau, BBQ pit as well as a reception hall.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the project was part of a blueprint prepared by NCIA last year to carry out low-impact development in the Belum-Temenggor rainforest complex.

Under the blueprint, NCIA is expected to plough in RM17 million to upgrade facilities in tandem with Royal Belum's growing fame.

"We expect more development to be carried out in the park.

"Among them is the extension of the Grik airstrip to enable more chartered flights to fly directly into Grik. "This way, more people can come and enjoy nature at its best in the park," he said after launching the base camp and village tourism project here.

Present were state Tourism Committee chairman Nolee Ashilin Mohamed Radzi and NCIA chief executive Datuk Redza Rafiq.

Redza said NCIA would cooperate with others and continue to fund new initiatives in the park.

"The park is one of two thrusts under NCIA's care, the other being the Taiping heritage town."

Besides that, NCIA also cooperated with various agencies to carry out training programmes for the Orang Asli community.

The programmes focused on tourism and handicraft aspects, which is part and parcel of the community.

According to studies carried out under the Belum-Temenggor Tropical Forest Integrated Master Plan, there are more than 3,000 species of flora and fauna in the Belum-Temengor Tropical Forest.

As such, the Belum-Temengor rainforest complex has been identified as the country's mega bio-diversity hub, the home to various species of wildlife, currently under threat or facing extinction such as the tapir, Sumatran rhinoceros, seladang, Asia elephants and Malayan tigers.

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Despite experts' call to restrict numbers, no limit on divers at Phi Phi Island ahead of high season

Phuket Gazette 19 Sep 13;

PHUKET: A call by experts to restrict the number of tourists diving at sites off Phi Phi Island to reduce the stress to coral reefs went unheeded, as marine national parks along the Andaman coast ready to open for high season on October 15.

However, a top official at the Phi Phi national park has assured that efforts are ongoing to protect and rejuvenate sections of the park that were devastated by severe coral bleaching in 2010.

“Bleaching has affected up to 70 per cent of the coral reefs around Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. Of the affected corals, 47.52 per cent have died,” Songtam Suksawang, who heads the National Parks and Protected Area Innovation Institute, told an academic seminar earlier this year (story here).

Mr Songtam described the situation as “worrying”.

However, Boonnam Chuyradom, the assistant park chief at Phi Phi Island, yesterday told the Phuket Gazette that his office had received no order to restrict the number of divers at any operational dive sites in the park.

“We have yet to receive any order from the DNP [Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation] to limit the number of divers,” Mr Boonnam said.

“Regardless, the condition of the coral reefs around Phi Phi Island is fine. Most tourists who visit Phi Phi enjoy beach activities, and do not put any additional stress on the reef systems,” he said.

“Only a few reef areas around Phi Phi have suffered any damage. Nonetheless, we always keep an eye on the general conditions and take steps to make sure the corals are recovering,” he said.

However, other areas where the extent of coral bleaching is concerning have been closed to commercial diving, Mr Boonnam confirmed.

“Several dive sites scattered between Phi Phi Island, Koh Mai Phai and Ban Laem Tong have been closed for two years to treat severe coral bleaching,” he explained.

“We contacted tour companies and fishermen, and held campaigns to inform tourists not to enter the areas because we don’t want anything to disturb the recovery rate of the reef,” Mr Boonnam assured.

Many marine national parks did close temporarily in May, during the strong southwest monsoon season, so that corals could recover, he added.

“Such parks included Mu Koh Lanta National Park, Mu Koh Surin National Park, Mu Koh Chumphon National Park and Tarutao National Park,” Mr Boonnam explained.

“However, these parks will be open for the high season in October,” he said.

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