Malaysia: Water woes far from over - experts

patrick lee The Star 6 May 14;

PETALING JAYA: Water supply woes are far from over although rationing has been called off.

Experts have warned that water crises in the Klang Valley may be the norm until the completion of the Langat 2 treatment plant in Selangor.

S. Piarapakaran, president of the Association of Water Energy Re­­­search (Awer) said Selangor’s water treatment reserve margin was too low to guarantee constant flow during dry seasons or unexpected plant shutdowns.

Periodic spike in demand would also occur during major festivals.

“In the water services industry, you must have (a comfortable) reserve margin after you meet daily demands … if anything were to happen, we’d be able to face it,” he said.

He added that an ideal treatment reserve margin would be 20% – roughly 928 million litres a day (MLD) – instead of the current one of less than 3%.

Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) maintains that there is no more reserve margin.

The 20% reserve could possibly be achieved should the Langat 2 water treatment plant – capable of supplying 1,130MLD – be completed this year.

Piarapakaran argued that blaming the dry weather in the first few months of the year was not the way to go forward.

“The possibility of this (water crisis) occurring every year is quite high,” he said.

Malaysian Water Association (MWA) president Syed Mohamed Adnan Alhabshi said factors such as high usage and large non-revenue water (NRW) figures also added to the problem.

He said the average Malaysian used 212 litres of water a day and that low tariffs (or in some cases, no tarrifs, i.e. free water) were not going to encourage people to save water.

“If the per-capita usage is not going to drop, we have to focus on NRW,” he said.

NRW is made up of four components: leakages and overflows, theft, meter under-registration and unbilled authorised usage such as for firefighting and flushing of mains pipelines.

Selangor defends lifting of water rationing
a ruban The Star 5 May 14;

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government has again defended its decision to end the water rationing exercise, saying that prior studies were carried out before doing so.

Executive councillor for infrastructure, Dr Yunus Hairi, said the state was confident of the measures it took to address the problem.

"Among the state's plans is to pump water from nearby ponds into the Sungai Selangor dam and through this, the water distribution from the dam will be more efficient," he said in a statement issued Monday.

He cited efforts to seek the help of the Thai government in using cloud-seeding technology to harvest rain at the dam.

These were among the reasons why the state had decided to call off the rationing that has been troubling over a million consumers, he said.

Yunus was commenting on a statement by Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia president S. Piarapakaran that the state was gambling on the fate of the people by lifting the rationing despite the water level at the Sungai Selangor dam not reaching the 55% mark.

"He (Piarapakaran) should look into the efforts of the state government in handling the water crisis to get a better understanding," he said.

Piarapakaran was quoted in a Malay daily as saying that the state's efforts in addressing the water crisis such as the use of membrane technology was irrelevant.

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Malaysia: 60% drop in local fruit production sees prices go up

p. aruna The Star 6 May 14;

PETALING JAYA: It is literally a less fruitful year for Malaysians with a 60% drop in local fruit production brought about by the recent dry spell.

Fruits have also become costlier with price rises of between 50 sen and 60 sen a kilo for many varieties.

The situation is not likely to get any better as the year progresses.

With the Meteorological Department forecasting another dry spell later, fruit growers are bracing for another round of poor harvests.

Malaysian Fruit Farmers Association president Hong Jok Hon said the drop in supply of fruits, including limes, guava, mangoes, papayas, watermelons and starfruit was expected to last until July before the situation returned to normal.

However, he said the drought expected between June and October might cause the harvests to be poor during the next season.

Hong said the prices of these fruits had risen by about 15% or an average of 50 cents to 60 cents per kilo, depending on the type of fruit.

Fruits usually take a longer time – between four and six months – to be harvested as compared with vegetables.

He said the production of fruits was expected to drop in May.

“In my own farm, I used to get about 7,000 to 8,000 mangoes and jackfruits a week but the number has dropped to 1,000 fruit,” he said.

As for guavas, what used to be about 1,000 baskets a week had dropped to just 200 baskets.

The harvest of about six tonnes of lime had dropped to one tonne, while starfruit could not even be harvested as the fruits dropped off before they could ripen.

On prices, Hong said guava had gone up from about RM3 per kilo to RM3.50, mangoes from RM2.50 to about RM3, bananas from about RM4 to RM4.50.

Malaysia Fruit Exporters Association president Ricky Yong said the export of local fruits had dropped by up to 40% because of the dry spell. All the associations have recorded a decline in all its main exports – starfruit, durian, pineapples, papaya and jackfruit.

“Even seasonal fruit like durians are affected as the flowers dry up during the dry spell.”

Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority’s (Fama) Market Information Services Division senior director Dr Bisant Kaur said the supply of papayas was expected to drop even further as a disease had affected the fruit.

“We are expecting more mangoes and durians in June, but whether the fruits will stick to the tree or drop before harvest is yet to be seen,” she said.

According to data from Fama, the price of starfruit had increased by 16.5% while the price of guava had gone up by nearly 15%.

Several variations of mangoes and the new dragon seedless watermelon, however, showed a drop in prices last month.

Reduce exports to stabilise prices, Government urged
The Star 6 May 14;

PETALING JAYA: Export of local fruits should be reduced temporarily until production returns to normal, said Consumer Association of Penang (CAP).

Its president S.M. Mohamed Idris said the association had received many complaints about the increase in the price of fruits.

“Consumers are complaining that local fruits – papayas, rambutans, pineapples, bananas – have become so expensive.

“In the markets, the traders are grumbling that they are forced to raise prices due to the drop in supply.

“We visited several farms and saw for ourselves that the fruit trees, such as papaya trees, are bare,” he said when contacted.

He urged the Government to temporarily cut down on its exports of local fruits to keep prices from shooting up.

“We should stop exporting so much, so we have enough for domestic consumption and the price will be under control.

“These are the most nutritious food, it is important to ensure that fruits are affordable,” he said.

Another option, he said, would be for authorities like Federal Agricultural Mar­keting Authority (Fama) to facilitate consumers getting the fruits directly from farmers instead of going through middle-men to cut the cost.

Nutrition Society of Malaysia (NSM) president Dr Tee E Siong said individuals should consume two servings of fruit each day.

“Two servings means, for example, one banana and one apple, or one papaya and one guava.

“Even now, people do not consume the recommended intake. With higher prices, this may become worse,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Intake of fruits, he said, could not be substituted with vegetables as it contained different nutritional value.

“Even before the drought people were saying local fruits were expensive.

“It is important for Fama to keep the prices of fruits under control,” he said.

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Indonesia Should Strike Balance in Protecting Environment: SBY

Josua Gantan & Vita A.D. Busyra Jakarta Globe 5 May 14;

Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in remarks delivered on Monday morning that Indonesia should strive for a balance between protecting the environment and the use of forests by local communities, while Singapore called on Indonesia to take stronger measures.

“It is about striking a balance between the need to conserve the environment and guaranteeing the rights of local communities over their customary forests,” Yudhoyono said in a speech at the Shangri-La hotel in Jakarta, at a Forests Asia Summit 2014 event. “By doing so we provide them with the means to improve their welfare and economic progress.”

He called on all Southeast Asian nations to develop strategies to promote sustainability. The growth in population would contribute to the increasing strain on resources, he said, adding that there would be a rise in demand for housing, transportation, food and energy.

“The central tenet of this strategy is about creating prosperity for everyone, in a way that does not harm the natural environment upon which we all depend,” he said.

Yudhoyono, as the end of his second five-year term has drawn near, said that he hoped that his successor would be able to prolong a moratorium that would last until 2015, protecting more than 63 million hectares of Indonesian forests and peatlands — an area larger than that of Malaysia and the Philippines combined.

He said that through such efforts the deforestation rate had fallen between 450,000 to 600,000 hectares annually between 2011 and 2013, down from 1.2 million hectares per year during the 2003 to 2006 period.

Despite the reductions, deforestation continued at a breakneck speed with little evidence of stopping, and environmentalists have criticized Yudhoyono for failing to act decisively.

The entire Asia-Pacific region has felt the environmental effects of smog and greenhouse gasses emitted by destructive forest clearing techniques, Yudhoyono said, citing the examples of wildfires in Australia, deadly floods in Pakistan and typhoons in the Philippines.

He said that Indonesia would learn from this season’s Riau fires and that illegal burning, logging and farming would not go unpunished — reiterating promises he had made many times before.

“I also call upon governments in Southeast Asia to develop regional strategies, strategies to develop their adapted capacity and to promote low-carbon economy,” he said. “I also urge businesses across the Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] region to commit to sustainable land use and investment practices, to work with governments in enhancing environmental sustainability.”

Fires that swept through Sumatra’s Riau province in recent years as the result of harmful land clearing techniques have caused smog that drifted to Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Thailand, threatening the health of local populations in all four countries and causing nearly 50,000 of cases of respiratory ailment in Indonesia alone, along with widespread school closures and flight delays.

The fires kept Yudhoyono from fulfilling his 2009 promise to cut Indonesia’s greenhouse gases by 26 percent.

‘Should not blame slash-and-burn’

Singaporean minister for environmental and water resources Vivian Balakrishnan, who also spoke at the monday event, lamented the haze’s impact on Singapore and criticized Indonesia for its response and for deflecting the blame onto traditional growers rather than poorly regulated industries

“We cannot and should not blame slash-and-burn traditional agriculture,” he said.

He said local agricultural practices were thousands of years old and that today’s problems were industrial.

In a report by Nigel Sizer from the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch found 3,101 hot spots in Sumatra this year, with 87 percent of the fires in Riau and half of them on concessions held by pulpwood, oil palm and logging companies. Some of the largest fires were found on industrial plantations that had committed to eliminating fire from their practices.

Balakrishnan said that people had the right to jobs despite the threat of climate change, but that companies should take responsibility for the environment and commit not to earn profit at the expensive of the environment. He said transparency would breed responsibility.

“Satellites, drones… the Internet… We’ve got to turn those eyes into a system of responsibility that makes people accountable for their deeds,” Balakrishnan said. “Only, and only if we do those things, then can we fulfill the goals that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set just now.”

U Win Tun, Myanmar’s union minister of environmental conservation and forestry, said that efficient use of natural resources was of paramount importance.

As a nation that has underdone rapid political and economic transformation, he said, Myanmar was looking to work with the world community to help reduce deforestation and to strive for sustainable forest management.

The Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is organizing the two-day conference, which is one of the biggest gatherings of its kind in recent years, bringing together government officials, business executives, civil society leaders, development experts and some of the world’s top scientists.

BeritaSatu Media Holdings, with which the Jakarta Globe is affiliated, is a media partner of the Forests Asia Summit

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Indonesia: Peatland Fires Biggest Contributor to Carbon Emissions - Researcher

Vita A.D. Busyra Jakarta Globe 5 May 14;

Jakarta. Indonesia must take action now to prevent its peatlands from burning in what amounts to the largest single contributor to the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, a researcher said on Monday.

“The recent haze in 2013 and 2014 indicate that extreme episodes of fire and haze are becoming more frequent and more extreme,” David Gaveau, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said at the Forests Asia Summit in Jakarta. “Therefore, we have to act now.”

Smoke from large fires in Riau province, Sumatra, last June swept into neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, covering the city-state in a thick haze that threatened to halt flights at Changi International Airport. Singapore residents were forced to remain indoors to avoid the heavy pollution. Fires this year also blanketed the region in smoke.

The harshest effect were felt in Indonesia, where schools were forced to close their doors and nearly 50,000 people suffered from respiratory problems.

In Sumatra last year, an estimated 163,336 hectares were burned, and of that amount peatlands accounted for 137,044 hectares, or 84 percent, Gaveau said, citing Landsat data analysis.

Peat, which is made up of layers of dead vegetation and other organic matter, contributed heavily to carbon emissions because of the substance’s density.

Individuals and companies in Sumatra have been eager to clear land to free up space for palm oil plantation, pulp and paper ventures and mining.

Dharsono Hartono, president director of Rimba Makmur Utama, a forest conservation company formed in 2007, said that peatlands covered 22.5 million hectares, or about 12 percent of Indonesia’s total land area. In 2005 alone, emissions from burning peat accounted for 44 percent of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

In Sumatra, 57 percent of burned “non-forest” areas were so-called “forest cemeteries,” or combinations of shrub and exposed soil with stumps, downed trunks and branches, Gaveau said, citing Landsat information.

“The bulk of the burning did not occur in forests, but on the lands that were already deforested, and these lands are easy to burn,” he said. “Last year, the forests actually burned in those degraded lands [were] in preparation for plantations. You can imagine once the forest [was] being burned, it would quickly be converted to agriculture. But actually it could be a good number of years before the forest becomes converted to agriculture.”

He added that in Sumatra last year, 52 percent of the total burned land was within concession areas, but 60 percent of this burned area — or 50,248 hectares — was occupied by small landholders.

Bogor-based CIFOR organized the two-day conference, one of the biggest gatherings of its kind in recent years, bringing together government officials, business executives, civil society leaders, development experts and some of the world’s top scientists.

BeritaSatu Media Holdings, with which the Jakarta Globe is affiliated, is a media partner of the Forests Asia Summit.

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Indonesia preparing coral reef management regulation

Antara 5 May 14;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is preparing a regulation in an effort to improve sustainable coral reef management given the upcoming World Coral Reef Conference (WCRC) in Manado, North Sulawesi, between May 14-17, 2014, a minister said.

"For the substance of the conference, Indonesia as the host country is preparing a regulation for sustainable global coral reef management," Marine and Fisheries Minister Sharif Cicip Sutardjo said here on Saturday.

The minister noted that the regulation is being prepared because of concern about the condition of the increasingly degraded world coral reefs.

According to him, coral reefs in Indonesia are the best in the world and, therefore, they should be protected with a regulation.

"The sustainability of coral reefs in Indonesia should be protected with an unequivocal regulation," the marine and fisheries minister said.

Meanwhile, the WCRC national committee chairman, Sudirman Saad, said the conference is expected to produce a sustainable coral reefs management communiqu, an action plan from coastal countries to save the coral reefs ecosystem and steps toward a sustainable coral reefs management convention.

Further, he pointed out that as part of the WCRC, there will be the International Blue Carbon Symposium (IBCS), the World Ocean Business Forum (WOBF), the Extra Ordinary Senior Official Meeting (SOM) and the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) Ministerial Meeting.

The IBCS aims to bridge the meeting of researchers and stakeholders regarding blue carbon in the scope of coral triangle regions, while the WOBF will promote business and investment opportunities in Indonesias marine and fisheries sector at an international forum and help in the exchange of information on environmental-friendly business management.

"The Extraordinary Senior Official Meeting and the CTI-CFF Ministerial Meeting are part of the Coral Triangle Initiative agenda," he noted.
(Uu.O001/INE/KR-BSR)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

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Indonesia: Riau forest fires cause losses amounting to over Rp20 trillion

Antara 5 May 14;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - Forest and land fires occurring in the Riau Province between February and April 2014 caused economic losses worth more than Rp20 trillion, as per data furnished by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

"It should be kept in mind that once the fires break out, it will be difficult to extinguish them and can cause huge losses," BNPB Chief Sutopo Purwo Nugroho recently stated here.

The haze disaster triggered by the fires disrupted around 30 percent of the economic activities and caused monetary losses in Riau.

The BNPB had spent around Rp164 billion, or one-third of its budget, to deal with the fires nationally.

The fires also caused environmental damages as more than 21.9 thousand hectares of forest and plantation areas were gutted by the fires.

The haze also affected the health of several residents in Riau and the neighboring provinces, such as in West and North Sumatra.

The largest loss caused by forest and land fires in Indonesia was in 1997, when fires wiped out millions of hectares of forest and plantation areas and caused losses worth US$2.45 billion.

The El Nino phenomenon is forecast to develop and affect Indonesia between May and October 2014. El Nino-induced drought usually triggers forest and peatland fires in Indonesia.

According to President Director of PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) Kusnan Rahmin, his company failed to achieve its targets of production and planting as a result of the fires.

"The worst is the damage on our companys image internationally because although we did not start the fires, our company was mentioned as one of the areas affected by the fires," he pointed out.

PT RAPP deployed, among other resources, hundreds of workers, two helicopters, and 30 water pumps to help put out the fires, he emphasized.
(Uu.F001/INE/KR-BSR/O001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

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Australian coalmining is entering ‘structural decline’, reports says

Demand from India and China predicted to falter due to higher uptake of renewables and make huge projects commercially unattractive
Oliver Milman theguardian.com 5 May 14;

Coalmining in Australia is entering a “structural decline”, with projects set to become unviable due to unrealistic expectations over the potential to export the fossil fuels to China and India, according to a new report.

The study, by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, suggests that two huge coalmining projects in central Queensland, backed by Indian cash, “are likely to prove uncommercial” due to unfavourable market conditions.

The projects, backed by Adani and GVK, which bought its coal assets from Gina Rinehart in 2011, will attempt to open up vast deposits of coal buried in the Galilee Basin region. Clive Palmer’s China First mine is also slated for completion by 2017, removing a projected 40m tonnes of coal a year for export.

But the IEEFA analysis shows that the wholesale cost of electricity in India, a key export market, is half that of Galilee coal-fired power, making it financially unattractive for the Indian government.

That, coupled with a new focus on renewable energy such as solar and wind, and a falling coal price due to the flood of new resource from the Galilee Basin, will cause significant problems for Australian projects, the study found.

“Renewables are a lower cost, cleaner solution, particularly when the deflationary impact of wind and solar is incorporated,” the study states.

The price of coal has dropped sharply in the past three years. The mining industry has claimed this is part of a cyclical reverse in fortunes as the resources boom cools.

However, several high-profile projects have been cancelled recently, including the departure of BHP, Anglo American and Lend Lease from the vast mine, rail and port operation required to mine and ship coal from the Galilee Basin.

Tim Buckley, director of IEEFA, told Guardian Australia that India is likely to follow China in looking more to renewable energy than coal-fired power.

“People think India will just follow the same growth of China, but India’s economy has choked on coal energy and it doesn’t need more expensive coal imports,” he said.

“The solution for energy poverty in India isn’t coal, it’ll be a mix of energy sources, as China has started to move towards.”

Buckley said China’s huge investment in renewable energy will be replicated, albeit on a smaller scale, by India, influenced by the pro-solar policies of prime ministerial front-runner Narendra Modi. The cost of electricity generation from solar in India has fallen 65% in the last three years.

“The last thing Australia should do is flood the market with extra coal, there’s no way it can handle the number of projects currently in train,” Buckley said.

“China’s premier has made it clear he’s waging a war on pollution and the clear message is that they want anything other than coal.

“Meanwhile India has the majority of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world, as well as water scarcity issues. The move away from coal isn’t so much about climate change, it’s pollution, health and economics. That’s why savvy investors aren’t putting their money in coal.”

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Ocean data points to strong El Nino: climate scientist

Colin Packham PlanetArk 6 May 14;

El Nino - a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific - affects wind patterns and can trigger both floods and drought in different parts of the globe, curbing food supply.

A majority of weather forecasting models indicate that an El Nino may develop around the middle of the year, but it was too early to assess its likely strength, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said on April 15.

Dr Wenju Cai, a climate expert at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, said rises in Pacific Ocean temperature above those seen in previous El Nino years and the quick movement of warm water eastwards had raised fears of a significant event.

"I think this event has lots of characteristics with a strong El Nino," said Cai.

"A strong El Nino appears early and we have seen this event over the last couple of months, which is unusual; the wind that has caused the warming is quite large and there is what we call the pre-conditioned effects, where you must have a lot of heat already in the system to have a big El Nino event."

He based his conclusions on studying data released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Meteorologists say the prospect of an El Nino will likely be firmed up in the next month or two, although forecasting the strength of such a weather event is hard to do.

The chance of an El Nino developing in 2014 exceeded 70 percent, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said on April 8.

Australia's weather bureau will issue is next El Nino outlook report on Tuesday, while Japan's meteorological agency is expected to updated its forecast in the next couple of weeks.

The worst El Nino on record in 1997-98 was blamed for massive flooding along China's Yangtze river that killed more than 1,500 people.

A strong El Nino will also increase fears that production of many key agricultural commodities in Asia and Australia will suffer.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

El Nino is likely to emerge as early as July: Australia
Colin Packham PlanetArk 6 May 14;

El Nino - a warming of sea temperatures in the Pacific - affects wind patterns and can trigger both floods and drought in different parts of the globe, curbing food supply.

The bureau said sub-surface sea temperatures had warmed by as much as 6 degrees in recent months. Higher sea temperatures prompted an Australian climate scientist on Monday to warn that the weather event, which can cause both floods and drought in different parts of the globe, could be one of the strongest in nearly two decades.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

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Best of our wild blogs: 5 May 14

14-15 May: Nature guiding workshop on forests, seashores and more! from wild shores of singapore

Living reefs of Big Sister's Island
from wonderful creation

Peregrine Falcon eating @ Pulau Ubin - April 2014
from sgbeachbum

Olive-backed Sunbirds nesting in my garden (Update+Video!)
from My Nature Experiences

Estuarine Crocodile @ Kranji
from Monday Morgue

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Dialogue participants want Singapore to focus on reducing waste

Amanda Lee Today Online 5 May 14;

SINGAPORE — Singaporeans need to look beyond the focus on recycling and consider the other “Rs” such as “reduce” and “reuse”, so less waste is generated in the first place.

This was among the opinions that surfaced at a dialogue yesterday to gather views from the public, which environmental enthusiasts hope to compile and submit to the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.

The ministry is reviewing the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint, which was launched in 2009 and sets out strategies and initiatives for Singapore to develop sustainably as a society.

Speaking at the dialogue, Mr Teoh Soon Kay, a manager at the National Environment Agency’s Waste and Resource Management Department, said that, with Singapore’s growing population and scarce land, a new offshore landfill is required every 30 to 35 years.

“Waste treatment is not just about burning it and putting it on the ground. We have to look upstream to minimise and prevent waste and then to recycle waste,” he said.

Last year, 61 per cent of the Republic’s waste was recycled. Semakau Landfill — Singapore’s only landfill — is estimated to run out of space by 2035 if the current rate of waste growth continues.

While Mr Teoh pointed out that Singapore has set a recycling target of 70 per cent by 2030, participants suggested reducing 10 per cent waste per capita by 2017 and introducing the concept of the “6 Rs” — reduce, rethink, refuse, repair, recycle and reuse.

Said Mr Tan Hang Chong, assistant honorary secretary of the Nature Society (Singapore): “This would help in reducing the amount of waste you need to recycle in the first place and thus make recycling a measure of last resort.”

Agreeing, environmental consultant Eugene Tay said people need to acknowledge how much waste they are creating. “There should be a basic responsibility that you have to take care of your waste,” he added.

The lack of awareness of recycling and reducing waste was also flagged as a concern, with participants suggesting that a mascot be created to promote recycling and that education on environmental issues be made compulsory at pre-schools and primary schools by 2018.

One participant suggested having a countdown meter to point out the number of days before Semakau Landfill is filled up. Another proposed banning the use of styrofoam by next year.

It was also suggested that recycling bins be better located at public housing estates and that mandatory recycling or segregation for waste disposal should be a clause for all government contracts by 2018, where relevant.

However, most participants felt that, facilities and schemes aside, the desire to recycle and reduce waste must come from the individual.

Said 33-year-old Saitong Hwangkuntham, a fund associate: “Kids pick up habits before going to school. They need to start young and we can start by educating their parents first.”

The dialogue session yesterday, called Conversations on Sustainable Singapore, was one of three co-organised by Nature Society (Singapore), Singapore Management University club SMU verts and Green Future Solutions. The third session on Food Security (Food Supply and Food Waste) will be held on May 24.

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Malaysia: 3 clouded leopards spotted in Santubong

DENNIS WONG New Straits Times 5 May 14;

HOPEFUL DISCOVERY: Sighting could mean mountain is home to species

KUCHING: THREE Bornean clouded leopards have been recently spotted on Mount Santubong here.

The discovery sees the Malaysian Nature Society Kuching branch calling for an immediate evaluation study at the site, as it could mean that the mountain was home to Sarawak's largest cat species.

Its chairman, Anthony Sebastian, said the sighting was of great significance and should lead to more attention being given to the iconic mountain.

"The clouded leopard is Borneo's top predator and the largest cat on the island.

"Despite this, the species is the smallest compared with others in the big cat family, which include tigers and lions."

Seven years ago, the government had gazetted the 1,410ha Mount Santubong National Park, 40km from here.

Anthony said previously, no wildlife was believed to inhabit the mountain, but studies had shown that there were four hornbill species and three otter species in the park.

"The discovery of the clouded leopards on Mount Santubong is an addition to Santubong's increasingly rich wildlife."

The Bornean clouded leopard, or Neofelis diardi, can grow up to 2m in length and weigh up to 25kg.

Locally known as entulu, the species is a highly endangered cat in the state.

Its habitat is severely threatened by hunting and loss of forest areas.

In February, surveyors carrying out preliminary work for the Santubong cable car project had spotted the clouded leopards on the mountain.

Anthony said unlike hornbills, which would be affected only by disturbances brought on by infrastructure development at higher parts of the mountain, the Bornean clouded leopard would be adversely affected by the cable car project.

"Before any further plans are to be made involving Santubong, it is practical for a study to be carried out to determine the requirements needed by clouded leopards on the mountain and determine measures that need to be put in place to ensure their survival."

He said the clouded leopard's bold markings on its fur made it one of the most beautiful wild cats in the world, as well as a tourist attraction in Kuching, also known as the "City of Cats".

Read more: 3 clouded leopards spotted in Santubong - General - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/3-clouded-leopards-spotted-in-santubong-1.587375#ixzz30nbp7uo2

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Malaysia: 400 to clean beach to draw turtles

The Star 5 May 14;

DUNGUN: About 400 people will be at the Ma’Daerah beach in Kerteh today to clean it up for turtle landings and nesting.

Terengganu Fisheries Depart­ment director Abdul Khalil Abdul Karim said they had allocated RM15,000 for the education and awareness programme.

He said the participants were from government departments and petroleum companies, local hotel staff and non-governmental organisations.

Abdul Khalil said the Ma’Daerah beach recorded the highest number of turtle landings every year after Cakar Hutan, Pulau Perhentian, Geliga and Pulau Redang.

Ma’Daerah registered between 200 and 250 turtle landings last year laying between 20,000 and 25,000 eggs, he said.

“The hatching success rate at Ma’Daerah beach is high, about 79% to 80% a year,” he said.

There have been more than 200 turtle landings from January to April this year, he added. — Bernama

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