DHL joins e-waste recycling effort

Today Online 17 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE — DHL Express has come on board to join local telco StarHub and electronic waste (e-waste) recycler TES-AMM’s recycling programme.

The partnership will more than triple the number of e-waste bin locations from the current 30 to 100 by the end of this year.

Renamed REcycling Nation’s Electronic Waste (RENEW), the programme aims to broaden its reach across the island to enable the public to be better able to safely dispose of their unwanted electronic items and equipment, such as mobile phones, cable modems and laptops, at no cost.

At the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding yesterday, representatives from the three organisations said more needs to be done to raise public awareness of the repercussions of improper e-waste disposal, as toxic substances in such products can lead to serious pollution and health problems.

“I don’t think that, we, as a community, really understand what happens to e-waste,” said Mr Scott Mac Meekin, chief operating officer of TES-AMM. “I have this cellphone that I use all day long, but the minute I deem it to be unusable, it’s thermal nuclear waste — the most toxic thing in the world.”

Speaking at the event, Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in spite of the harm e-waste causes to the environment, it is actually a viable resource for urban mining.

“If you stop to think about it, it is crazy to mine gold, silver and precious metals and then to dump it, instead of extracting, purifying and reusing it. This is basically a business idea whose time perhaps has not yet come, but it will come eventually.”

Singapore produces about 60,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. The National Environment Agency told TODAY that on average, less than 5 per cent of that is improperly disposed and this is due to other avenues, such as e-waste take-back programmes and collection centres, which assist in recycling the waste.

Previously known as the StarHub E-Waste Recycling Programme, the initiative, which was launched during Earth Hour in 2012 with only five e-waste bins for a start, collected nearly 2,700kg in its first year alone. A subsequent expansion to 30 bin locations saw the collections rise in volume, and over 5,600kg of e-waste have been collected so far this year.

Ms Tanujja Dadlani, a student from Temasek Polytechnic whom TODAY spoke to, was excited about the expansion of the e-waste programme.

Citing the rag-and-bone man as the only avenue for her to recycle electronic products, the 19-year-old makes an effort to recycle whenever she can.

“Loads of people I know collect their electronics for the (rag-and-bone man), because they do not know what to do with it,” said Ms Tanujja. “The fact that there will be at least 100 bins all over the island would make recycling of the electronic (products) much easier as I can now do it myself instead of dumping or selling it.”

Boost for recycling e-waste with more bins
Feng Zengkun My Paper AsiaOne 17 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE - People who want to recycle their mobile phones, laptops, lithium-ion batteries, set-top boxes and other electronic waste will have more places to do so by the end of the year.

A new partnership between three firms is expected to lead to over 100 bins islandwide to collect the waste for free.

Hundreds of bins are planned in the next two to three years, and they are expected to be in malls, major office and government buildings, community clubs and schools.

The three firms, which are StarHub, DHL Express and home-grown electronic waste recycling firm TES-AMM, signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to expand Singapore's first e-waste recycling programme.

Started in March 2012 by StarHub and TES-AMM, the programme now includes bins in 30 locations, including schools, condominiums and malls.

Almost 2,700kg of waste was collected from April to December 2012. After more bins were installed, the figure rose to more than 6,500kg last year. More than 5,600kg has been collected so far this year.

The recycled waste, however, is still a minuscule fraction of the 60,000 tonnes of electronic waste discarded each year here, about half of which is from households and the rest from industry.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, the guest of honour at the ceremony yesterday, noted that incinerating electronic waste pollutes the environment and squanders the reusable materials.

"I urge all Singaporeans to think before we throw away, especially our electronic waste. It is actually too precious a resource to be sent for incineration," he said.

More bins for recycling that old cellphone or laptop
Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 19 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE - Getting a new mobile phone and already have a cupboard-full of old ones?

People who want to recycle their mobile phones, laptops, lithium-ion batteries, set-top boxes and other electronic waste will have more places to do so by the end of the year.

A new partnership between three firms here is expected to lead to over 100 bins islandwide to collect the waste for free.

Hundreds of bins are planned in the next two to three years, and they are expected to be in malls, major office and government buildings, community clubs and schools.

The three firms - StarHub, DHL Express and home-grown electronic waste recycling firm TES-AMM - signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to expand Singapore's first e-waste recycling programme.

Started in March 2012 by StarHub and TES-AMM, the programme now has bins in 30 locations, including schools, condominiums and malls.

Almost 2,700kg of waste was collected from April to December 2012.

After more bins were installed, the figure rose to more than 6,500kg for last year. More than 5,600kg has been collected so far this year.

However, the recycled waste is still a minuscule fraction of the 60,000 tonnes of electronic waste discarded here each year, about half of which is from households and the rest, from industry.

Under the new partnership, StarHub will arrange for the bins to be installed. DHL will manage the collection of the waste and its delivery to TES-AMM, which will recycle the electronics.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, the guest of honour at the ceremony yesterday, noted that incinerating electronic waste pollutes the environment and squanders the reusable materials. "I urge all Singaporeans to think before we throw away, especially our electronic waste. It is actually too precious a resource to be sent for incineration," he said.
- See more at: http://digital.asiaone.com/digital/news/more-bins-recycling-old-cellphone-or-laptop#sthash.AJRu9Xga.dpuf

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Malaysia: Haze envelopes Sarawak, southern Peninsular Malaysia

yu ji The Star 16 Sep 14;

KUCHING: Sarawakians woke up to hazy conditions on Malaysia Day, with areas like Sri Aman recording an air quality index (API) of 99 at 8am on Tuesday.

That was the worst air quality reading nationwide at the time. Of the 10 API readings in Sarawak, four recorded above 51, which is in the “moderate” range.

In Sarikei, the API was 99, Kuching (80), Samarahan (75) and Bintulu (64). No API reading was posted for Sibu on the Environment Department’s website.

The visibility for the state capital was recorded at about 2km. The best air quality reading recorded in the state was in Limbang at 33.

Over in Peninsular Malaysia, haze conditions were reported mostly in the south, mirroring the situation in Sarawak and Sabah.

According to satellite imagery, the hotspot count was a staggering 673 on Borneo island.

According to the latest monthly weather bulletin published for June, most areas received 20% below the average rainfall across Sarawak.

Sibu and Miri Divisions received less than 100mm of rainfall, a reduction of more than 60% from average.

“Malaysia in generally still experiencing phase of Southwest Monsoon, which is characterised by surface winds that blow regularly from the west, and also relatively drier condition than the other seasons,” said the bulletin from the Malaysian Meteorological Department.

“This situation will result in most areas across the country to have more days without rain compare to rainy day, and in turn will lead to drier weather conditions,” it added.

Looking ahead, the weather forecast for Sarawak is isolated thunderstorms for the next few days, and wetter conditions towards the end of the week.

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Malaysia: World-class conservation centre rising in Lanchang

T. N. ALAGESH New Straits Times 17 Sep 14;

TEMERLOH: FANCY feeding and splashing with elephants, staring into the eyes of the magnificent Malayan tigers in their natural habitat or getting up-close with the shy deers?

This experience will soon be a reality as the Pahang government has pledged its commitment in transforming the small and quiet town of Lanchang, near here, into a worldclass conservation centre.

The existing Kuala Gandah National Elephant Conservation Centre and Deerland Park, along with the soon-to-be completed Tiger Valley Project at the Krau Forest Reserve, will be instrumental in turning the area into a premier eco-tourism corridor.

State Tourism and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Sharkar Shamsuddin said the three main centres (Kuala Gandah, Deerland and Tiger Valley) held the key to the government’s aspirations to have its own comprehensive conservation centre.

He said the elephant conservation centre, which carried out translocation programmes, was the only one of its kind in Malaysia and had been involved in relocating some 700 wild pachyderms throughout the country.

“Besides learning more about the process to locate, subdue and trans-locate the wild mammals, visitors to the centre can also feed, bath and take pictures with the elephants. Our objective is to promote public awareness of the elephants’ plight and educate the people on the importance of environmental preservation.

“Since 1999, the government had allocated RM35 million to develop the elephant conservation centre, and it has undergone a major refurbishment, with several new attractions, including an elephant procession, to woo more visitors.”

Sharkar said the privately-owned Deerland Park in Bukit Rengit, here, housed different types of deers, including those from Indonesia, local protected Sambar and mouse-deers, and various species of birds, including the Golden Pheasant.

He said the Tiger Valley, to be developed under the 11th Malaysia Plan in a 80ha area, would house rescued tigers from the wild.

“It will adopt an open zoo concept, which allows nature lovers to watch the tigers roaming in their natural habitat from a viewing tower and specially-built walkways. Works to complete the 6m-high perimeter fencing are being carried out,” Sharkar said, adding that the aim of the centre, scheduled to be fully completed in 2020, was to protect the tigers from extinction.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, during his visit to Lanchang last month, said the ministry would work with experts in related fields, including those from the United States and India, to meet the international standards set by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for wildlife conservation.

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Sea level rises due to climate change could cost Australia $200b, Climate Council report finds

Hamish Fitzsimmons ABC 7 News 17 Sep 14;

Sydney was named as one of the places which would be hardest hit by rising sea levels.ABC Sydney was named as one of the places which would be hardest hit by rising sea levels.

Future sea level rises could put more than $200 billion of Australian infrastructure at risk, a report by the Climate Council has found.

The report, Counting the Costs: Climate Change and Coastal Flooding, showed sea levels were likely to rise by between 40 centimetres and one metre over the next century.

The Climate Council succeeded the Australian Climate Commission, which was axed after the Federal Government took office last year.

The report's lead author, Professor Will Steffen, warned national income would suffer huge losses if action was not taken to protect against rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

"You're looking at anywhere from three tenths of a per cent of loss of GDP per year, all the way up to 9 per cent loss of GDP per year," Professor Steffen said.

"That upper scenario is higher than the growth rate of GDP per year, so you're looking basically at staggering economic costs if we don't get this under control."

The Victorian coast, the south-east corner of Queensland and Sydney would be the hardest hit by rising sea levels, the report found.

With more than 75 per cent of Australians living near the coast, Professor Steffen said large swathes of infrastructure were at risk.

"Much of our road, rail, port facilities, airports and so on are on the coast," he said.

"If you look at a 1.1 metre sea level rise - which is the high-end scenario for 2100 but that's what we're tracking towards - you're looking at more than $200 billion worth of infrastructure that's at risk."

Professor Steffen said so-called once-in-a-lifetime natural events could become regular occurrences.

"If you look at some of our most vulnerable areas, and the Sydney region is one of those, you would say toward the end of this century that a one-in-100-year flood is going to be happening every few days," he said.

"That's an impossible situation to cope with."

Professor Steffen said infrastructure projects, like the new runway planned for Brisbane's airport, needed to factor in future sea rises.

"The people who are investing actually went to the best scientists here in Australia, experts of sea level rises, and took the best science into account and decided they were going to build that third runway higher than previously planned," he said.

If sea level rises were ignored, by 2050 the report predicted the global the impact of coastal flooding would cost $US1 trillion per year - the same size as the Australian economy.
Climate change impacting insurance premiums

The Climate Council warned sea level rises would put pressure on home insurance premiums, as rising sea levels fed coastal erosion.

Australian Local Government Association president Felicity-Ann Lewis said erosion was already causing problems for home owners.

"The insurance industry is very interested in this because some of the insurance premiums are becoming such that people can't afford to take out insurance on their properties," Dr Lewis said.

"This is a very big issue."

Dr Lewis said a lack of coordination across all levels of government was impeding action.

"It's a very mixed bag; there is no consistent view or approach for local government to try to deal with this," she said.

"Each state and territory association is trying to deal with different guidelines; there is no consensus around that, so for us it's a very big challenge."

Rising sea levels a 'sleeping giant' that could cost $226bn, report says
Analysis by the Climate Council finds Australia is likely to experience rises of 0.4m to 1m, putting infrastructure at risk
Oliver Milman theguardian.com 16 Sep 14;

Rising sea levels are a “sleeping giant” issue that will put at risk coastal infrastructure worth up to $226bn, a new report has found.

Analysis by the Climate Council found Australia was likely to experience a sea level rise of 0.4m to 1m by the end of the century, with a “high end” scenario of 1.1m possible if the world warmed by about 4C compared with pre-industrial temperatures.

In this worst-case scenario, $226bn in property, including houses, schools, hospitals and ports, would be exposed to flooding and erosion, making much of it unviable.

The report says Sydney is “particularly vulnerable” to sea level rises, as flooding that now comes once every 100 years could occur every month.

South-east Queensland would suffer $2bn in damages from just a 0.2m sea level rise, while about 80% of Victoria’s coastline is vulnerable to higher sea levels.

Rising sea levels are caused by the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps as the planet warms. Thermal expansion, when the ocean expands due to warming, also contributes to a higher sea level. The global sea level is currently rising by an average of 3.2mm a year.

The Climate Council’s report warns that these seemingly small increases matter because they severely exacerbate extreme weather events, making coastal areas more vulnerable to storm surges and flooding. Just a 10cm sea level rise trebles the risk of coastal flooding.

Along with flooding, more than half of Australia’s coastline, about 31,000km, is vulnerable to recession, where the ocean eats away and degrades the coastline.

The advancing seas will cause problems for the tourism industry, the report predicts, with the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu national parks put at risk. Sandy beaches such as those on the Gold Coast, in Tasmania and Perth could all suffer erosion.

Professor Will Steffen, a co-author of the report, said Australia’s sea level would depend on a number of factors.

“There are a range of projected sea level rises and 1.1m is on the highest end,” he told Guardian Australia. “There is concern about the west Antarctic ice sheet, which may not remain stable throughout the century, while Greenland is losing mass too.

“Put simply, if you’re an investor in infrastructure you’d expect to be around at the end of the century, get planning for a 1m sea level rise. There are quite a few cities where there will be a thousand-fold increase in one-in-a-century floods, which makes things unviable because you’ll be mopping up every month.”

Steffen said radical cuts in carbon emissions, along with a more integrated plan to secure coastal buildings, were required to deal with the looming problem.

“There is some good planning going on – for example the people building the new runway at Brisbane airport listened to the science and realised they are on low-lying land that’s prone to flooding,” he said. “They moved it up higher to minimise the risk.

“But a lot of councils are carrying the can and it’s hard for them when they don’t have supportive state and national governments.

“It appears we don’t have that support in Australia. If you look at the countries successful in getting emissions down, countries like the UK and Germany, they don’t have time for climate sceptics, they get on with the job of preparing their countries for climate change.

“It’s disappointing to see Australia moving backwards rather than joining that kind of movement.”

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August was hottest on record worldwide, says Nasa

2014 is shaping up to be an exceptionally warm year with May and June also the hottest ever
John Vidal The Guardian 13 Sep 14;

August 2014 was marginally the warmest August worldwide since records began 130 years ago, according to new data from Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Temperatures measured by government meteorological offices using land, sea and satellite data suggest this year’s global high was very close to those of 2011, 2008, 2006 and 2003. Overall, temperatures were 0.70C above the 1951-1990 baseline temperature average.

But Nasa warned against reading too much into a single month’s records. “The key issue for climate are the long-term trends, not individual months”, said Nasa-GISS director Gavin Schmidt.

2014 is shaping up to be one an exceptionally warm year, with March 2014 the third hottest since 1880, and May and June the hottest ever.

Earlier this year it looked certain that an El Niño event would develop in the Pacific ocean following a rise in sea temperatures, which could be expected to result in extreme weather effects around the world by Christmas. However, expectations of a strong El Niño have since faded.

The US west continues to swelter under a prolonged drought while much of the north and eastern US has been noticeably cooler than average for much of 2014. Record temperatures up to 4C above normal have been recorded in west Antarctica, even as the extent of sea ice has reached record levels.

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Global wild tiger population to be counted by 2016

AFP Yahoo News 15 Sep 14;

Global wild tiger population to be counted by 2016 AFP Global wild tiger population to be counted by 2016

Dhaka (AFP) - Thirteen countries with wild tiger populations agreed Tuesday to take part in a global count to establish how many of the critically endangered big cats are left and improve policies to protect them.

Experts say that although the tiger population is thought to have remained stable over the last four years, a lack of accurate numbers is hindering effective policies.

The pledge came at a global conference in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka where more than 140 people have converged for three days to discuss actions to save the tiger.

"We really need science-based data on the number of tigers," said John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington.

The count is due to be completed within two years and will replace data Seidensticker said was based mostly on "guesstimates".

The world's wild tiger population fell to little over 3,200 in 2010 from 100,000 only a century ago and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed the animal as critically endangered.

Poaching, encroachment on its habitat and the illegal wildlife trade are blamed for the declining numbers.

In 2010 the 13 countries with tiger populations -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam -- launched a plan to double their numbers by 2022.

Officials at Tuesday's conference said populations had risen in major "tiger range" nations such as India, Nepal and Russia.

But poaching continues to be a major problem. Statistics from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, show that at least 1,590 tigers -- an average of two a week -- were seized between January 2000 and April 2014.

"We recognise that poaching is still the number one threat to tigers. It's happening all over the tiger ranges. But we are still not really seeing strong commitment by the governments put in place against poaching," said Mike Baltzer of conservation group WWF.

Seidensticker said some concerns also stemmed from recent findings that "forested habitat within protected areas and tiger conservation landscape have declined over the last 10 years".

Bangladesh has come under fire for setting up a giant coal-fired power plant on the edge of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, home to one of the largest tiger populations.

Experts fear the 1,320-megawatt power plant being built just 14 kilometres (nine miles) from the Sundarbans will pollute the water of the world's largest mangrove forest, jeopardising its delicate biodiversity and threatening the tiger population.

"The impact will be disastrous. It will break up the Sundarbans into isolated parts, affecting tiger breeding," said Y.V. Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India.

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Study urges 15-year plan for low carbon growth

Channel NewsAsia 16 Sep 14;

NEW YORK: The world can save both financial and environmental costs by shifting toward a low-carbon economy over the next 15 years, a high-level panel said on Tuesday (Sep 16) ahead of a UN summit.

The commission co-chaired by former Mexican president Felipe Calderon called for greater global action on renewable power, deforestation and clean technologies as part of the fight against climate change. The report said that the next 15 years would be critical, with the global economy undergoing major structural changes and time running out to meet a UN-backed goal of checking global warming at 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The study estimated that the world will see US$90 trillion in new infrastructure investment over the next 15 years, a period that is expected to witness increasingly rapid urbanisation. "We can invest that amount of money in the current high-carbon emission path or we can do that in a different way," Calderon told reporters on a conference call. "So the next 15 years of decisions and the next 15 years of investment will determine the future of the world, among other things, in the climate system," he said.

The report, a year in the making, played down the economic impact of a low-carbon focus. It estimated that greener investment would cost an additional US$270 billion a year but said the expenses could be offset by lower costs elsewhere, such as reduced spending on fuel.

The view that climate action is too expensive "is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamics of today's global economy," the report said. "It is anchored in an implicit assumption that economies are unchanging and efficient, and future growth will largely be a linear continuation of past trends."

The report said that health and deaths caused by air pollution were a major economic impediment, estimating that top carbon emitter China suffered costs equivalent to more than 10 per cent of its gross domestic product.

Governments around the world have faced resistance curbs on carbon emissions, which are blamed for climate change, with opponents citing the economic impact including on jobs in polluting industries such as coal. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called the climate summit for Sep 23 in hopes of building momentum before a conference next year in Paris aimed at sealing a new global treaty on climate change.

The report - also written by British economist Nicholas Stern, the author of a major 2006 study on climate change - called for a phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies, which are politically sensitive in many countries. The commission also recommended a goal of restoring at least 500 million hectares (two million square miles) of forest and agricultural land by 2030.

- AFP/nd

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Best of our wild blogs: 16 Sep 14

Wild dolphins! Sea turtles! In Singapore waters!
from wild shores of singapore

The Biggest Challenge
from Green Future Solutions

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Indonesia planning cloud seeding to tackle haze that is also affecting Singapore

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Straits Times 15 Sep 14;

The Indonesian authorities are making plans for cloud seeding operations to extinguish forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and Riau that have shrouded Singapore in foul-smelling haze yet again.

The fires, which had been raging for days, prompted pollution levels in Singapore to climb to the unhealthy range on Sunday and early Monday morning. The pollution readings have since eased back to moderate levels.

"We are communicating with BNPB (the National Disaster Mitigation Agency) now and will start arrangement to do cloud seeding. BNPB will make the call," Mr Erwin Mulyono, a scientist with Indonesia's Applied Technology Agency (BPPT), which helps to strategise cloud seeding operations, told The Straits Times by telephone.

He added: "We have personnel ready in Pekanbaru and in Palembang right now. The aircraft (for the cloud seeding operation) are in the Halim Air Force base (in Jakarta) today and should soon be deployed there."

Haze over southern and central Sumatra in the past few days has been mostly due to forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra. The wind has been blowing a northeasterly direction over Riau, as is typical for this time of the year, sending the haze in the direction of Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.

Hourly air quality readings in Malaysia on Monday morning have been either healthy or moderate so far.

Dr Ajisman Syafaat, a lung specialist at the Arifin Achmad state hospital in Pekanbaru, told The Straits Times that the city has been shrouded by a light haze since last Saturday.

"Hopefully the government will do something soon," he said.

In mid-March, Dr Ajisman made an appeal to the Pekanbaru municipal adimistration to evacuate pregnant women, babies and toddlers from the capital of Riau province until conditions return to normal, saying the haze situation was "too dangerous" to health.

The Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin airport in Jambi in the southern part of Sumatra was closed for four hours on Sunday as the visibility level dropped to below 1km, the minimum required for airlines to land safely, according to local online news portal Jambiekspres.co.id.

The weekly weather forecast for Jambi indicates a continued dry spell for the province. Local administration officials appealed to farmers and plantation companies not to do slash-and-burn to clear lands.

Haze from forest and plantation fires also blanketed Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, on Sunday evening, prompting residents who were outdoors to wear masks, according to Kompas.com, the online news portal owned by Indonesia's largest newspaper. Several flights in Sumatra and Kalimantan have also been disrupted due to haze in recent days.

BNPB has been carrying out water bombing operations using helicopters in affected areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan to contain the spread of fire.

Haze returns here as fires in Indonesia rage
Feng Zengkun, Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja My Paper AsiaOne 16 Sep 14;

That burnt smell, the foggy blanket in the air - your senses have not deceived you: The haze is back in Singapore.

Singapore's National Environment Agency Pollution Standards Index (PSI) readings crossed into the unhealthy range in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The three-hour PSI was 102 at 1am and continued to rise through the night.

By 6am, the PSI hit 113, but fell slightly to 111 at 7am.

The reading tailed off after that and was 66 at 7pm, in the moderate range.

People with chronic lung and heart disease are advised to avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion.

Just last month, Singapore passed a law to punish polluters who cause the haze.

Firms will be fined for each day that they contribute to "unhealthy" haze. Unhealthy haze is defined in the new law as air quality having a PSI value of 101 or greater for 24 hours or more.

Polluting companies may be fined up to $100,000 a day, up to a maximum of $2 million.

The Indonesian authorities are also making plans for cloud-seeding operations to extinguish forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and Riau that have raged for days and shrouded Singapore in the haze.

Erwin Mulyono - a scientist with Indonesia's Applied Technology Agency, which helps to strategise cloud-seeding operations - told The Straits Times: "We are communicating with BNPB (the National Disaster Mitigation Agency) now and will start arrangements to do cloud seeding. BNPB will make the call."

He added: "We have personnel ready in Pekanbaru and in Palembang right now. The aircraft (for the cloud-seeding operation) were in the Halim Air Force base (in Jakarta) yesterday and should soon be deployed there."

Haze over southern and central Sumatra in the past few days was mostly due to forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra.

The wind has been blowing in a north-easterly direction over Riau, as is typical for this time of the year, sending the haze in the direction of Singapore and the Malaysian peninsula.

Hourly air-quality readings in Malaysia yesterday morning have been either healthy or moderate so far.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/haze-returns-here-fires-indonesia-rage#sthash.ZdLUsU1h.dpuf

Expect slight haze on Tuesday: NEA
Channel NewsAsia 15 Sep 14;

SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) said to expect occasional slight haze on Monday night (Sep 15). As of 6pm, the 3-hour Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) reading stood at 64, according to the NEA website. This is in the "moderate" band, and down from a high of 113 at 6am on Monday.

However, the 24-hour PSI reading for western parts of Singapore was still in the "unhealthy" range of over 100.

NEA said to expect slightly hazy conditions on Tuesday, with prevailing winds forecast to blow from the southeast or southwest. "Overall air quality for the next 24 hours is expected to fluctuate between the high-end of the 'moderate' range and the low-end of the 'unhealthy' range," NEA stated.

Members of the public started to report a "burning smell" and dropping visibility as early as 7pm on Sunday. NEA said in a statement that levels of PM2.5 were elevated from 10pm on Sunday to 7am on Monday, with mainly the western parts of Singapore affected. This is likely due to hotspots in South Sumatra detected over the past three to four days, it said.

"We haven't noticed any significant jump in hotspots. It's been quite active since the beginning of the month. A large fire that we have been tracking has been burning for at least a week. So the reason why it's affecting air quality in Singapore now is because the previous wind direction did not take the smoke directly to Singapore," explained Mr Chia Aik Song, Associate Scientist with the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP) at the National University of Singapore.

However, a check of a website run by Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency shows there are close to 690 hotspots detected on Monday, mainly in Kalimantan.

NEA has requested an urgent update from Indonesia on the ground situation and measures they are taking to address the hotspots in southern Sumatra. It had already sent a letter to Indonesian authorities on Friday. In response, Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment has informed them that a forest fire control team has been mobilised, and that the Indonesian National Board for Disaster has also sent emergency response teams to the area.

- CNA/ly/ac

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Malaysia: Malayan tigers in danger of becoming extinct

patrick lee The Star 16 Sep 14;

PETALING JAYA: Poachers and deve­lopment have pushed Malaysia’s tigers to the brink of extinction.

The country’s national animal is now categorised as a critically endangered species on the IUCN Red List, with official estimates pegging the population of the big cats to as low as 250 to 340.

“Poaching for illegal commercial trade is the greatest and most urgent threat to tigers in Malaysia, followed by loss and fragmentation of forests,” Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) and the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat) said a joint statement.

Mycat general manager Dr Kae Kawanishi said data collected only by NGOs showed more than 2,241 poacher traps and 1,728 illegal camp sites were destroyed in local forest reserves and protected areas between 2010 and 2013.

“Intelligence has also indicated a sharp increase in the number of trespassers and poachers in forests across the region since 2012,” she told The Star.

Dr Kae said tigers and other wildlife were being hunted by both local and foreign poachers “right under our noses”.

Previously, the estimated number of Malayan tigers in the country was at 500.

In 2013, a man from Kedah was sentenced to five years jail for ha­ving eight tiger skins, 22 tiger skulls and nine elephant tusks. He was not fined.

TRAFFIC Southeast Asia senior communications officer Elizabeth John said nearly 100 live tigers and tiger parts were seized by authorities between 2000 and 2012.

“How long can any wild tiger po­pulation cope with that level of slaughter?” she asked.

WWF Malaysia chief executive Datuk Dr Dionysus Sharma said current efforts to save the Malayan tiger were not enough.

“If this trend continues, then tiger numbers can be expected to go down further,” he said.

He said TX2, a WWF move to double numbers in 13 tiger range countries by 2022 may be possible if poaching was kept under control, and enough tiger prey around to support those numbers.

Malayan tiger now critically endangered, numbering as few as 250
patrick lee The Star 15 Sep 14;

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's national animal, the Malayan tiger, is being being pushed to the point of extinction.

Current estimates have pegged Malaysia's tiger population at as little as 250 to 340 tigers in Peninsular forests, nearly half of the previous estimate of 500 tigers.

"Despite all efforts, including the strengthening of legislation and increased patrolling, tiger conservation across the vast tropical forest landscape continue to face challenges."

"Poaching for illegal commercial trade is the greatest and most urgent threat to tigers in Malaysia, followed by loss and fragmentation of forests," said a joint statement by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) and the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat).

It was added that the new estimates were made from studies conducted between 2010 to 2013 using camera traps under a standardised protocol at seven sites across three major tiger landscapes in Peninsular Malaysia.

Though it said that more sites needed to be surveyed to determine a more robust tiger population estimate here, it added that the Malayan tiger now met the IUCN Red List criteria of "Critically Endangered".

It previously classified as "Endangered" in 2008.

Previous moves to increase Malaysia's tiger population to 1,000 by 2020, such as specified in the National Tiger Conservation Action Plan, were now considered "unachievable".

Immediate tiger conservation efforts are being explored, including the setting up of tiger patrol units in the Belum-Temengor, Taman Negara and Endau-Rompin tiger priority areas.

Also included were a comprehensive national Tiger Survey in the Peninsular's remaining major forest landscape, and the strengthening of existing forest and tiger conservation mechanisms.

It was added that though federal funding and donations from Mycat's NGO donors had helped thus far, more resources were needed.

There are no Malayan tigers in Borneo.

According to the Mycat website, tiger populations a century ago measured about 100,000 worldwide, declining to about less than 3,200 today.

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Indonesia: Greenpeace Activists Mourn Burnt Peatland

Jakarta Globe 16 Sep 14;

Jakarta. Greenpeace mourners on Monday placed funeral wreaths on burned peatland in Riau province, highlighting an ongoing crisis and urging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to secure his “green” legacy by ensuring real peatland protection.

Speaking in a blackened landscape adjacent to Tanjung Leban village in Rokan Hilir district, locally born Greenpeace forest activist Rusmadya Maharuddin explained that data shows three quarters of Indonesia’s recent hotspots were burning in peatland.

The president’s moratorium on new forest concessions clearly does not go far enough to ensure protection for the nation’s peatlands, which store almost 60 billion tones of carbon, Rusmadya said.

“We are standing on peatland which should be protected, according to the forest clearing moratorium map. Yet clearing and draining of the wider landscape has left the land as dry as a tinderbox. Ongoing fire destruction and smoke haze are inevitable in this situation.”

Peatland drainage and conversion has released enough greenhouse gas to put Indonesia among the world’s top three emitters. This has put at risk President Yudhoyono’s commitment to the world to reduce Indonesia’s emissions by between 26 percent and 41 percent by 2020.

Unfortunately the president’s response to the peat crisis has missed the mark. The draft peat regulation awaiting his signature fails to protect peatland as an ecosystem-landscape and peat areas within existing concessions. Destroying one part of a peat dome can lead to the rapid demise of the “protected” parts through drying out and edge effects.

Yuyun Indradi, Greenpeace’s forest political campaigner, urged the president not to sign the flawed peat regulation in his last days in office.

“Indonesia’s peatland forests are dying. They need strong and comprehensive protection, but the draft peat regulation does not provide that,” Yuyun said in Jakarta.

Activists can only hope Joko Widodo will take strong actions against forest clearing.

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Plastic rubbish from land, not ships, killing Australian sea life, say scientists

Research shows three-quarters of rubbish was plastic and debris concentrated near cities
Australian Associated Press theguardian.com 15 Sep 14;

Mounds of plastic rubbish along Australia’s coastline are growing and killing wildlife which is ingesting or becoming ensnared in it, researchers say.

Scientists visited more than 170 sites along the coast and found about three-quarters of the rubbish was plastic from the land, not vessels on the ocean, and debris was concentrated near cities.

The density of plastic ranged from a few thousand pieces per square kilometre to more than 40,000 pieces, a CSIRO scientist, Denise Hardesty, said.

“There has been an increase in plastic as we have had an increase in our population,” Hardesty said on Monday.

The report showed other marine debris included bottles, cans, bags, balloons, rubber, metal, fibreglass and cigarettes that could smother coral reefs, kill wildlife and even pose a threat to human health.

About one-third of marine turtles around the world had probably ingested debris, and that figure had increased since plastic production began in the 1950s, Hardesty said.

Up to 15,000 turtles had also been killed in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off Australia’s northern coast, after becoming ensnared by derelict fishing nets.

Meanwhile, the Tasman Sea, south of Australia, was a problem hot spot for seabirds.

“Globally, nearly half of all seabird species are likely to ingest debris, Hardesty said.

By identifying sources and hot spots of debris, solutions could be developed, including improved waste management, targeted education and technology advancements, she said.

Local council outreach, anti-dumping campaigns, advertising and incentive strategies such as South Australia’s container deposit scheme were effective in reducing marine debris, the report found.

The research is part of TeachWild, a national three-year research and education program developed by EarthWatch Australia in partnership with CSIRO and Shell.

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