Best of our wild blogs: 23 Jan 14

Butterflies of Pulau Ubin Part 2
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Butterflies Galore! : Lime Butterfly
from Butterflies of Singapore

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Indonesia: Monkey Hordes Threaten Farmers’ Livelihoods

Ari Susanto Jakarta Globe 23 Jan 14;

Klaten. Dozens of monkeys have descended the slopes of Mount Merapi in Central Java to ransack fields for food in the district of Klaten, leaving farmers facing the prospect of a failed crop.

Hordes of monkeys rushed farms in the Kali Woro area of Klaten’s Balerante village and helped themselves to both ripe and unripe crops of corn, cassava and various vegetables and fruits.

Since the Merapi eruptions in 2010 that destroyed much of their natural habitat and with it their food supply, the long-tailed macaques have taken to invading smallholdings in large numbers in search of nutrition.

Sukono, the Balerante village chief, said many farmers had grown frustrated and were trying to find ways to deal with the problem without harming the animals.

One plan they came up with involved planting several fruit trees in the forest to provide food for the monkeys and reduce the raids on the farms.

“But we abandoned the plan because we were worried we would be violating the law, since the forest falls inside the Mount Merapi National Park zone, which is off-limits to cultivating and logging. So instead, we are left using sticks to chase the monkeys away,” Sukono said.

Another method that the village considered was installing nets over each plot to prevent the monkeys from getting at the crops. But the hilly ground of the village would make it too difficult and costly to apply, Sukono said.

Bambang Haryono, the head of Kemalang subdistrict, which includes Balerante, said the marauding monkeys had also targeted four other villages — Tangkil, Sidorejo, Tegalmulyo and Kemalang.

“Dozens of monkeys come and go, but we still have no solution. We have no idea how much money we are losing,” he said.

Novianto Bambang, the Forestry Ministry’s conservation director, told the Jakarta Globe that planting hardwood fruit trees in the national park was recommended as it would be a fair solution for both farmers and monkeys.

“Cultivating fruit plants in certain zones within the part is permitted, but not in restricted core and jungle zones. This will help to significantly curb the monkey raids as they will find food without having to leave the mount area,” he said.

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Monkey business: 4 animals that lost the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 mascot job by a proboscis

Lennard Gui The Star 23 Jan 14;

Crocodiles, bats, rats – Malaysia has plenty of endangered animals that would love a job as a mascot. But even in the tourism industry, looks matter. Sadly these beasts just aren’t as cute or cuddly as a monkey with a very big nose.

Being a mascot is hard work: You’ve got to be a good luck charm, cheerleader, goodwill ambassador, look great in a costume and sell a lot of merchandise. All creatures great and small are for the most part perfect for the job – though there have been strange pairings done in the name of marketing. Reptiles, amphibians and creepy crawlies have been called on to pedal products from beer to insurance. So turning to the Proboscis monkey to entice the world to Visit Malaysia in 2014 is a hip choice.

That said the long-nosed primate – nicknamed monyet Belanda by the Indonesians because of their apparent resemblance to their former Dutch colonisers – has its work cut out. It replaces the much-loved orangutan as the face of the Tourism Ministry’s efforts. But why this monkey and not something with a bigger plush toy possibility, like the Lar gibbon or Hose’s langur or Dusky leaf monkey?

The fact is there are only 6,000 Proboscis monkeys left in the jungles of Borneo, according to wildlife conservationists. And there are several weird, wonderful things about the primate that make it an interesting choice for a mascot – its unusually large nose, its webbed feet, the fact that males challenge each other for mates and leadership by comparing penis sizes.

Still, here are four other endangered beasts struggling to survive in Malaysia that may someday prove to be mascot-worthy.

CONVEX HORSESHOE BAT

Bats have a scary PR problem: They’re feared as bloodsucking monsters and terrifying receptacles of diseases. In isolated cases, that may be true, but that doesn’t lessen their importance to ecology. Several bat species endemic to Malaysia are threatened, but the convex horseshoe bat – the least pretty of the lot – is close to extinction in the wild. These bats, with faces that look like they’ve been stepped on by horses, live in large colonies in dark caves and hollow trees. When they come flying out at suppertime, it’s the stuff of nightmares – except they’re only interested in sipping on some bugs. Sadly, four horseshoe bat species were linked to an outbreak of a SARS-like virus in China in 2005. Not the Convex, but the damage was done.

TOMISTOMA (FALSE GHARIAL)

Not much is known about the Tomistoma – also known as the Malayan gharial – a freshwater croc with a distinct long and thin snout. It was once thought that its diet consisted of fish and small vertebrates, but evidence now shows that the beast will eat fruit bats, water birds, macaques and the Proboscis monkey. On occasion, it will munch on a fisherman: In 2008, a female Tomistoma swallowed one in central Kalimantan and his remains were found in her stomach. Despite its elusive nature, the croc is as an endangered species with fewer than 2,500 adults left in the remote wetlands of Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Hunting, logging, agriculture and an irrational fear of this creature continue to whittle down its number.

MOUNTAIN SPINY RAT

You’d think rats – ugh, these vermin could survive a nuclear war. Maybe so, but some of them can’t survive humans and they’re being slowly wiped out. Good you’d say – and you’d be wrong. Wildlife rodents, like bats, play a big part in the biology of jungles. For example, the endangered summit rat, found only in Malaysia, has a mutualistic relationship with a species of giant pitcher plants: It deposits its fertilising poop into the plant’s traps while feeding on its nectar. And the mountain spiny rat, also a Malaysian species, lives in the upper mountain block of Sabah where it snacks on roots, fruits and insects. Both species avoid any contact with people or our food. Unfortunately, you can’t say rat without thinking of the filthy sewer kind, which is truly a reservoir of parasites.

BLACK SHREW

Don’t be fooled by the shrew. It looks like a long-nosed mouse, but this shy little creature isn’t a rodent. In fact it’s related to moles. There are several threatened species in Malaysia, including the critically endangered black shrew. It was discovered on Mount Kinabalu and is the teeniest of its kind. Like moles, shrews have awful eyesight but excellent hearing and sense of smell. They forage for seeds, insects, nuts and worms, but they only have one set of teeth their entire life, so eating gets harder as they get older. Fun fact: the black shrew travels by caravanning – moving in a single file and holding the tail of the shrew in front with its teeth. Sadly, no one knows how many are left in the wild because you don’t see them around much anymore.

Additional reporting by Olivia Lee

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Super typhoon victims flee again as rains flood southern Philippines

Erik de Castro PlaneArk 22 Jan 14;

Emergency workers evacuated thousands of people across the southern Philippines on Tuesday, including many already made homeless by a typhoon in November, after three days of rain flooded towns and farmland.

Hundreds of survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, were forced to flee by tropical depression "Agaton" after emergency shelters were damaged or destroyed on the eastern central island of Samar.

Tents collapsed under the weight of the rain and emergency plastic sheets have been torn away, humanitarian agency Oxfam said.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year with Haiyan slamming into central islands on November 8, killing more than 6,100 and wiping out entire coastal communities in Leyte and Samar.

More than 200,000 people have been taken to shelters over the last three days as flood waters rose, but hundreds were still marooned on the roofs of their houses on Tuesday, said Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Del Rosario said 42 people had been killed, 65 had been injured and damage to property and farms had reached 367 million pesos ($8.13 million).

"Our troops are trying to reach them and bring them to safer ground," del Rosario said.

Nenita Matuda, 45, and her children perched on their neighbors' roof as she watched the rampaging waters outside Butuan City in the north of Mindanao island.

"Thank God we are safe but we just lost our house," she told Reuters as she wiped tears from her eyes.

A state of calamity has been declared in Agusan del Norte and 15 other towns in the Davao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur areas of Mindanao even as weather bureau lifted alert levels as the storm weakened. ($1 = 45 pesos)

(Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Best of our wild blogs: 22 Jan 14

Fang Blenny’s Glass House
from Pulau Hantu

Sat 25 Jan & Sun 26 Jan Morning Walks
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.

Brown-throated Sunbird and Costus spicatus flowers
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Butterflies Galore! : Striped Blue Crow
from Butterflies of Singapore

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Malaysia: 'Tourism revenue offsets timber losses'

Laili Ismil New Straits Times 22 Jan 14;

BOLD MOVE: CM made the right decision in cancelling logging licences, says Masidi

KOTA KINABALU: REVENUE from the tourism industry had made up for losses in timber earnings since the state government began reducing its stake in logging.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the state was once heavily dependent on logging and there was a time when Sabah could earn up to RM2 billion from the industry.

He said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman took a bold step 12 years ago in cancelling logging licences, concessions, while stepping up tourism promotions.

Masidi said last year, revenue from logging stood at about RM100 million.

"The state government knew that the resources were not going to last forever, so, we had to make the right decision even if it was an unpopular one," he said during the launch of a book, titled Sensational Seas of Sabah, published by Scubazoo here on Monday.

Masidi said the spike in the number of tourist arrivals had compensated the loss of logging revenue, and this year the state was expected to rake in RM5.7 billion in earnings. He added that despite all the potential, the government would continue to protect the environment.

He said limiting visitors to certain nature attractions was important for sustainability, citing the 120 divers a day limit on Sipadan Island and 192 summit climbers a day on Gunung Kinabalu as examples.

Masidi also said Sabah was lucky to have those who are passionate about conserving the state's natural heritage and educating the public on the importance of looking after the environment.
Present were Sabah Tourism Board Chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai and Shangri-la's Tanjung Aru Resort General manager Craig Powell.

Scubazoo managing director Jason Isley said the book was to promote the lesser visited islands in the state to take the pressure off Sipadan Island.

"It also helps illustrate the beauty under Sabah's waters and its bio-diversity captured in 300 fascinating images," he said, adding that they hoped the books would woo tourists.

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A quarter of sharks and rays threatened with extinction

IUCN 21 Jan 14

A quarter of the world’s sharks and rays are threatened with extinction according to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, with ray species found to be at a higher risk than sharks. The findings are part of the first ever global analysis of these species carried out by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG).

The study, which comes at the start of the year marking the 50th anniversary of The IUCN Red List, was published today in the journal eLIFE. It includes the analysis of the conservation status of 1,041 shark, ray and closely related chimaera species.

According to the findings, sharks, rays and chimaeras are at a substantially higher risk than most other groups of animals and have the lowest percentage of species considered safe – with only 23% categorized as Least Concern.

“Our analysis shows that sharks and their relatives are facing an alarmingly elevated risk of extinction,” says Dr Nick Dulvy, IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “In greatest peril are the largest species of rays and sharks, especially those living in shallow water that is accessible to fisheries.”

Overfishing is the main threat to the species, according to the paper. Reported catches of sharks, rays and chimaeras peaked in 2003 and have been dominated by rays for the last 40 years. Actual catches are likely to be grossly under-reported.

Unintentionally caught sharks and rays account for much of the catch, yet developing markets and depleting fishery targets have made this “bycatch” increasingly welcome. Intentional killing of sharks and rays due to the perceived risk that they pose to people, fishing gear or target species is contributing to the threatened status of at least 12 species.

“Surprisingly, we have found that the rays, including sawfish, guitarfish, stingrays, and wedgefish, are generally worse off than the sharks, with five out of the seven most threatened families made up of rays,” says Dr Colin Simpfendorfer, IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. “While public, media and government attention to the plight of sharks is growing, the widespread depletion of rays is largely unnoticed. Conservation action for rays is lagging far behind, which only heightens our concern for this species group.”

The global market for shark fins used in shark fin soup is a major factor in the depletion of not only sharks but also some rays with valuable fins, such as guitarfish. Sharks, rays and chimaeras are also sought for their meat. Other products from these species include a Chinese tonic made from manta and devil ray gills and pharmaceuticals made from deep sea shark livers.

The Indo-Pacific, particularly the Gulf of Thailand and the Mediterranean Sea are the two ‘hotspots’ where the depletion of sharks and rays is most dramatic. The Red Sea is also home to a relatively high number of threatened sharks and rays, according to the experts.

“Sharks, rays and chimaeras tend to grow slowly and produce few young, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to overfishing,” says Sonja Fordham, IUCN SSG Deputy Chair and president of the Washington, DC-based Shark Advocates International, a project of The Ocean Foundation.

“Significant policy strides have been made over the last two decades but effective conservation requires a dramatic acceleration in pace as well as an expansion of scope to include all shapes and sizes of these exceptional species. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that the need for such action is urgent.”

Sharks, rays and chimaeras are known as ‘cartilaginous fish’ due to the fact that their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone. They are one of the world’s oldest and most ecologically-diverse groups of animals.

The study is the result of a collaboration of 302 experts from 64 countries.

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NOAA: World in 2013 was fourth hottest on record

Seth Borenstein Associated Press Yahoo News 21 Jan 14;

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sweltering year of 1988 first put global warming in the headlines and ended up as the hottest year on record. But on Tuesday, it was pushed out of the top 20 warmest by 2013.

Last year tied for the fourth hottest and 1988 fell to 21st.

The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees (14.52 Celsius) tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.

At the same time, NASA, which calculates records in a different manner, ranked last year as the seventh warmest on record, with an average temperature of 58.3 degrees (14.6 Celsius). The difference is related to how the two agencies calculate temperatures in the Arctic and other remote places and is based on differences that are in the hundredths of a degree, scientists said.

Both agencies said nine of the 10th warmest years on record have happened in the 21st century. The hottest year was 2010, according to NOAA.

The reports were released as a big snowstorm was hitting the U.S. East Coast.

"There are times such as today when we can have snow even in a globally warmed world," said Gavin Schmidt, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York. "But the long term trends are not going to disappear ... Quite frankly people have a very short memory when it comes to climate and weather."

Those longer trends show the world has seen "fairly dramatic warming" since the 1960s with "a smaller rate of warming over the last decade or so," said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In the past 50 years, the world annual temperature has increased by nearly 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius), according to NOAA data.

Unlike 2012, much of the worst heat and biggest climate disasters last year were outside the U.S. Parts of central Asia, central Africa and Australia were record warm. Only a few places, including the central U.S., were cooler than normal last year.

Temperatures that were only the 37th warmest for the nation last year. That followed the warmest year on record for the U.S.

View galleryFILE - In this Dec. 25, 2013 file photo, children line …
FILE - In this Dec. 25, 2013 file photo, children line up to receive a Christmas gift from volunteer …
Last year, the world had 41 billion-dollar weather disasters, the second highest number behind only 2010, according to insurance firm Aon Benfield, which tracks global disasters. Since 2000, the world has averaged 28 such billion dollar disasters, which are adjusted for inflation.

Nearly half of last year's biggest weather disasters were in Asia and the Pacific region, including Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 6,100 people and caused $13 billion in damage to the Philippines and Vietnam. Other costly weather disasters included $22 billion from central European flooding in June, $10 billion in damage from Typhoon Fitow in China and Japan, and a $10 billion drought in much of China, according to the insurance firm.

Usually the weather event called El Nino, a warming of the central Pacific, is responsible for boosting already warm years into the world's hottest years. But in 2013, there was no El Nino.

The fact that a year with no El Nino "was so hot tells me that the climate really is shifting," said Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M University climate scientist, who was not part of either the NOAA or NASA teams.

___

Online:

NOAA climate report: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2013/13

NASA climate report: http://1.usa.gov/1kUFqhj

Aon Benfield climate disasters report: http://bit.ly/KCwbS4

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Best of our wild blogs: 21 Jan 14

Butterflies Galore! : Two Spotted Line Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore

Handful of species key to ecosystem health, finds study
from Mongabay.com news

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Johor-Riau link on the cards

The Star 21 Jan 14;

JOHOR BARU: Plans are in the pipeline to connect Riau in Sumatra, Indonesia, to Kukup in Pontian, Johor, via a 17.5km undersea tunnel linking the two countries.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Pelalawan Regency in Riau Province are currently undertaking the feasibility study on the multibillion ringgit link project.

To be known as the Johor-Riau Link, the undersea tunnel would link Karimum Island in Riau to Kukup, Pontian, near the existing ferry terminal in the Pontian district.

“The project is more cost-effective and viable at a cost of about RM15bil compared with the Dumai-Malacca bridge estimated to be RM44.3bil,’’ said UTM Construction Research Alliance dean Prof Dr Muhd Zaimi Abd Majid to reporters yesterday at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the university and Pelalawan Regency represented by its head of district Muhammad Harris.

Dr Muhd Zaimi said the project had received initial funding from two parties.

He said the preliminary feasibility study showed that the link would create higher economic impact between Riau and Johor, lower risk and lower disturbing effect compared to the development of the Dumai-Malacca and Batam-Singapore bridges.

“It will not cause disturbances to commercial vessels using the Straits of Malacca during construction activities as no structures will be built above seawater,’’ said Dr Muhd Zaimi.

He said the undersea tunnel would be constructed using the boring method similar to the construction of the mass rapid transit system in the Klang Valley and would take between three and five years to be completed.

Muhammad said apart from the 17.5km tunnel, the Johor-Riau Link would also include several bridges linking islands off Riau waters to Karimum Island and connect to the undersea tunnel.

“The link between Riau Province and Johor will further accelerate growth in the province under the Indonesian central government’s Sumatra Corridor Development Region,’’ he said.

Muhammad said the link would also benefit Malaysia as Riau was the second richest province in Indonesia after East Kalimantan with oil and natural gas reserves as well as the biggest palm oil plantation in Indonesia.

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Floods in Indonesia ecological disaster: Environment Minister

Antara 20 Jan 14;

Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) - Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya stated that the flooding that has taken place in most parts of Indonesia was an ecological disaster.

"The floods that we now face are all a result of an ecological damage. Our ecology has been completely destroyed," pointed out Balthasar Kambuaya while reviewing the location of the demolished villas in Bogor on Monday.

Balthasar explained that the flooding that had occurred in the past week was mainly influenced by the Asian Monsoon concentrated in Jakarta and West Java and in part, by the heavy rainfall that simultaneously flooded the upstream and downstream of Ciliwung River, along with the tides.

According to Balthasar, compared to the 2007s flooding, the rainfall has not been more than 300 mm a day. Flooding in this year was mainly caused by spatial changes rapidly increasing in the upstream, midstream and downstream areas, especially for settlement.

The rate of ecological damage or environmental degradation in Indonesia year to year has been alarming. It was evident from the decrease in the forest coverage from 49.37 percent in 2008 to 47.73 percent in 2012, or degraded by 1.64 percent within four years.

In the Watershed of Ciliwung, forest coverage has decreased from 9.4 percent in 2000 to 2.3 percent in 2010, a degradation rate of 7.14 percent in the past 10 years, or 0.7 percent a year.

Balthasar stated that the ecological damage in Ciliwung, such as increasing the level of critical land with high erosion and sedimentation and also high fluctuation of water flow between the dry and rainy seasons, were factors that contributed to the flooding in Jakarta and landslide in some areas in Ciliwung upstream.

According to Balthasar, the Watershed of Ciliwung condition increasingly worsened with the difference in the levels of water flow in the dry and rainy season being more than 300-fold.

"Everything happens because of human behavior which is not environmentally friendly, especially in Ciliwung, where garbage is being dumped into the river," he retorted.

Reporting by Desi Purnamawati. (Uu.D018/KR-BSR/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH

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Time for a sea change in ocean management – FAO Director-General

New approach to marine resources needed to safeguard world food security, promote sustainable development
FAO 20 Jan 14;

20 January 2014, Abu Dhabi - Major changes in how the planet's marine resources are managed and used are needed to safeguard global food security and ensure the wellbeing of coastal and island countries, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told a group of high level policymakers meeting here today.

"We cannot keep using marine and aquatic resources as if they were endless. And we cannot keep using our oceans as a waste pool," he said in remarks made at the Blue Economy Summit (19-20 January, Abu Dhabi), attended by heads of state, environment and fisheries ministers, and other key stakeholders.

Serious threats to ocean health such as pollution, overfishing, and altered weather and rising sea levels resulting from climate change must be tackled in earnest - starting now -- argued FAO's chief executive.

"The health of our planet itself, our health and food security, depends on how we treat the blue world," he said.

Time to act

On average, nearly 17 percent of animal protein consumed worldwide comes from fisheries and aquaculture, and in many small island developing states the figure is much higher.

At the same time, the livelihoods 12 percent of the world's population depend on fisheries and aquaculture, mainly in the developing world.

But 30 percent of world fish stocks are estimated to be overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion, with economic losses in marine fisheries resulting from poor management, inefficiencies, and overfishing adding up to $50 billion per year, FAO studies show.

And now climate change is posing new challenges to populations who rely on the oceans, by modifying the distribution and productivity of marine and freshwater species, affecting biological processes, and altering food webs.

Weather changes due to climate change are also taking a toll on many ocean-reliant communities, while the threat of rising sea levels is poised to have major impacts, in particular for small island developing states (SIDS). (Learn more about the challenges facing small island developing states, and how they are organizing to meet them.)

The last thirty years have seen some 80 different commitments on dealing with various ocean threats promulgated at the global level, Graziano da Silva noted, adding: "We not only need to commit, we need to act."

A blue economy

The concept of a "blue economy" that came out of the 2012 Rio+20 Conference will have an important role to play in achieving the post-2015 global sustainable development goals, Graziano da Silva said during his remarks.

The blue economy model emphasizes conservation and sustainable management, based on the premise that healthy ocean ecosystems are more productive and represent the only way to ensure sustainable ocean-based economies. It also aims to ensure that small island developing states and developing world coastal states equitably benefit from their marine resources.

To support a shift to this new approach, FAO is establishing a new Blue Growth Initiative,
through which the Organization will assist countries in developing and implementing blue economy and growth agendas.

The initiative will aim to foster partnerships and act as a catalyst for policy development, investment and innovation in support of food security, poverty reduction, and the sustainable management of aquatic resources.

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