As Sabah's elephant population grows, conflict with humans on the rise

RUBEN SARIO The Star 21 Feb 15;

KOTA KINABALU: An increase in the population of Sabah's Bornean pygmy elephants coupled with a decline in their habitat is resulting in more frequent incidents involving the pachyderms.

A 57-year-old woman was slightly injured when she and a husband stumbled across an adult bull elephant on Thursday in Telupid district along the state’s east coast, in the latest human-elephant conflict.

Sabah Wildlife Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said the 2.3m tall elephant injured the woman, Justina Ompang, while she was walking to work with her husband.

The incident occurred in Kampung Gambaron, about two kilometres from Telupid town, around 6.20am when heavy mist enveloped the area.

Justina and her husband, Khunyan bin Basimah, 40, were walking out of their home when they came across the elephant standing by the side of the road.

The couple were used to seeing elephants that would often retreat into the nearby jungle upon seeing them.

However, on that morning, the elephant charged at them and used its trunk to hit Justina.

Khunyan started shouting to distract the elephant and this worked, as the elephant immediately stopped attacking the woman and ran back into the forested area.

Villagers then rushed Justina to to the Telupid hospital where she was treated for bruises on her upper body.

“More than 30 elephants in four different groups have been causing severe damage to the villagers’ crops as well as damaging vehicles and motorcycles,” Dr Sen said.

The affected areas that have borne the brunt of these human-elephant conflicts were Kampung Bouto, Kampung Lubang Batu, Kampung Maliau and Kampung Gambaron.

Dr Sen said the department’s rangers, along with Wildlife Rescue Unit personnel have been working around the clock conducting Elephant Control Operations, trying to chase the elephants back into the forest and protecting the villages.

“Now with this new development, we have escalated our Elephant Control Operation to a full blown Capture and Translocation Program. It is going to be a very expensive operation, costing as much as RM 20,000-30,000 per elephant.

“We have to do it for the safety of the villager,” he said.

Department director William Baya human-elephant conflicts had been on the increase in recent years at elephant habitat areas in the central and south eastern parts of Sabah, including Sandakan, Kinabatangan, Beluran, Lahad Datu, Tawau and Nabawan and Pensiangan.

“We believe that the reason for this is the further increase in fragmentation and net loss of suitable elephant habitats, coupled by a probable net increase in elephant population state-wide,” he said, adding that a 2008 survey showed that Sabah elephant population stood at 2,000 heads.

“We need to find a solution for this problem by better managing our present elephant population as well as habitat,” William said.

He said relocating the elephants was not a permanent solution as there was documented proof that the same elephants made their way back to their original habitat and caused more conflict.

Woman hurt in elephant encounter
The Star 21 Feb 15;

KOTA KINABALU: A 57-year-old woman was slightly injured when she and a husband encountered an adult bull elephant on Thursday in the east coast Telupid district in the latest human-elephant conflict.

Sabah Wildlife Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said the 2.3m-tall elephant injured Justina Ompang as she was walking to work with her husband in Kampung Gambaron, about 2km from Telupid town, around 6.20am.

Justina and her husband Khunyan Basimah, 40, were walking out of their home when they came across a bull elephant standing by the side of the road.

Elephants often retreat into the nearby jungle upon seeing people but in this instance, the elephant charged and hit Justina with its trunk.

Khunyan started shouting to distract the elephant and it worked, as it immediately stopped attacking the wife and ran into the forested area.

Villagers then rushed Justina to the Telupid hospital where she was treated for bruises on her upper body.

Dr Sen said more than 30 elephants in four different groups have been causing severe damage to the villagers’ crops as well as damaging vehicles in several villages.

He said the department’s rangers and the Wildlife Rescue Unit personnel have been working round the clock conducting Elephant Control Operations, to chase the jumbos back into the forest.

“Now with this new development, we have boosted our operation to a full blown Capture and Translocation Programme. It is going to be a very expensive operation, costing as much as RM20,000 to RM30,000 per elephant but for the safety of the villagers we have to do it,” he said.

Department director William Baya said human-elephant conflicts had been on the increase in recent years at elephant habitat areas in the central and south eastern parts of Sabah.

“We believe the reason for this is the increase in fragmentation and loss of suitable elephant habitat, coupled with an increase in elephant population statewide,” he said, adding that a 2008 survey showed that Sabah’s elephant population stood at 2,000 heads.

Rogue elephant captured
ROY GOH New Straits Times 23 Feb 15;

TELUPID: A rogue elephant that attacked a man and his wife last week has been captured.

The male elephant was tracked down and subdued with tranquilizer by a team from the Sabah Wildlife department at about 6.20pm yesterday.

Wildlife director William Baya said the elephant estimated to be about 20 years old and measured nearly 2.3 metres in height will be sent to the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary in Sandakan for further observation on its behaviour.

"We will not translocate this elephant anywhere yet as we are worried that it might pose a similar danger somewhere else," he said.

The elephant attacked a man and his wife as they were walking to work in Kampung Gambaron Telupid at about 6.20am on Feb 19.

The woman sustained minor injuries in the attack and was given medical treatment at the district hospital before being discharged the same day.

Sabah rangers capture elephant that attacked woman
RUBEN SARIO The Star 23 Feb 15;

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Wildlife rangers have caught a bull elephant that injured a villager in the east coast Telupid district on Thursday.

Sabah Wildlife Department director William Baya said a team from the Wildlife Rescue Unit captured the elephant late Sunday after tracking the animal for three days.

“I am glad that our rangers have managed to capture this rogue elephant,” he said Monday.

Baya said the department’s veterinarian Dr Laura Benedict darted the 2.3m tall elephant at about 6.20pm after rangers tracked it down to an oil palm plantation, some two kilometres from Kampung Gambaron where the woman was attacked.

Wildlife officials were ascertaining if the elephant was in musth, a periodic condition characterised by highly aggressive behaviour accompanied by a rise in reproductive hormones.

There were no physical signs of musth normally seen in bull elephants such as oil discharge from the temporal lobe or dribbling urine.

“We will not trans-locate this elephant anywhere yet as we are worried that it might pose a similar danger somewhere else,” he said.

“The plan now is to bring it to our newly built Borneo Elephant Sanctuary (BES) where it can be further observed for its behaviour before we decide on the next course of action,” Baya added.

The bull elephant used its trunk to strike 57-year-old Justina Ompang when she and her husband, Khunyun Basimah, 40, encountered the animal on the roadside near their village.

The couple were used to seeing elephants that would often retreat into the nearby jungle upon seeing them.

On that morning, however, the bull elephant charged at them and used its trunk to hit Justina. Khunyan started shouting to distract the elephant and this worked, as the elephant immediately stopped attacking the wife and ran back into the forested area.

Villagers then rushed Justina to the Telupid hospital where she was treated for bruises on her upper body.

Villagers not afraid of elephants despite recent attacks
ROY GOH New Straits Times 10 Mar 15;

TELUPID: The presence of wild elephants in several villages near here has attracted people who are eager to get a closer look - instead of scaring them away.

Despite a recent attack on a couple at Kampung Gambaron about 2 kilometres from the town here, many residents in the surrounding areas would not let up any opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Bornean Pygmy elephants.

Among them was civil servant Jackson Watis who held his nerve by getting close to a herd not far from his home to capture a near 3-minute video of the elephants sometime in mid-February.

"It was scary but at the same time I was curious," said the 23-year-old Kampung Gambaron resident who admitted the only thing he could think of, if the elephants turned on him, would be to run as fast as he could.

"We were about 20m to 30m away and one of my friends lit fire-crackers to scare the herd away. It worked but the damage was quite extensive," Jackson said adding that he would do it again with caution.

On Feb 19, a male elephant estimated to be about 20-years-old and measuring about 2.3m in height attacked a man and his wife as they were walking to work at about 6.20am at Kampung Gambaron.

A team from the state Wildlife department subsequently captured the elephant not far from the village, located about 2km from the town here. It was later sent to the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary in Kinabatangan for further observation.

The department's Wildlife Rescue Unit have been deployed to the area to conduct control operations to chase away the elephants back into the forest and protect Kampung Gambaron as well as other nearby villages.

State Wildlife director William Baya had said such human-elephant conflicts have occurred more frequently in recent years in central and south-eastern part of Sabah such as Sandakan, Kinabatangan, Beluran, Lahad Datu, Tawau, Nabawan and Pensiangan.

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Agriculture must change

FAO Director-General speaks at International Forum on Agriculture and Climate Change
FAO 20 Feb 15;

Paris - The model of agricultural production that predominates today is not suitable for the new food security challenges of the 21st century, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today.

While the numbers of the chronically hungry have been reduced by 100 million over the past decade, 805 million still go without enough to eat on a regular basis, he noted in remarks to ministers, scientists, farmers, and representatives of civil society gathered in the French capital for a government-organized International Forum on Agriculture and Climate Change.

Increasing production has long seen as the natural pathway to ending hunger - but today, even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone, hunger remains a problem, he pointed out.

"Since food production is not a sufficient condition for food security, it means that the way we are producing is no longer acceptable," said Graziano da Silva.

"What we are still mostly seeing is a model of production that cannot prevent the degradation of soils and the loss of biodiversity - both of which are essential goods, especially for future generations. This model must be reviewed. We need a paradigm shift. Food systems need to be more sustainable, inclusive and resilient," he added.

Climate change a clear and present danger

Agriculture has a potentially large role to play not only in guaranteeing food security but also in building resilience to the affects of climate change and in reducing humankind's emissions of global warming gases, according to the FAO Director-General.

"The impacts of climate change are no longer an anticipated threat. They are now a crystal-clear reality right before our eyes," he warned, adding: "Climate change will not only affect food production but also the availability of food and the stability of supplies. And in a global, interdependent economy, climate change makes the global market for agricultural products less predictable and more volatile."

In his remarks, the FAO Director-General underscored the important role played by healthy soils. "Soils host at least one quarter of the world's biodiversity and are key in the carbon cycle. They help us to mitigate and adapt to climate change," he said.

2015 has been designated by the UN General Assembly as the International Year of Soils, and FAO is the lead agency for coordinating the year's activities.

New approaches

One promising new approach, said Graziano da Silva, is what is known as "climate-smart agriculture" - adjusting farming practices to make them more adaptive and resilient to environmental pressures, while at the same time decreasing farming's own impacts on the environment.

FAO is home to the Global Alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture, a broad coalition of stakeholders, including governments; farmers and food producers, processors and sellers; scientific and educational organizations; civil society actors; multilateral and international agencies and the private sector established last September by the UN General Assembly.

The alliance is working to promote sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes; build greater resilience of food systems and farming livelihoods; and achieve reductions or removals of greenhouse gas emissions by agriculture.

The FAO Director-General also highlighted "agro-ecology" as a promising way to move food production onto a more sustainable path. The approach uses ecological theory to study and manage agricultural systems in order to make them both more productive and better at conserving natural resources.

Today's forum was the first in a series of events leading up the December 2015 climate summit.

During his visit to France, Graziano da Silva also met President François Hollande and held bilateral meetings with Laurent Fabius, France's Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development and Stéphane Le Foll, the country's Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Tomorrow he is slated to participate at the opening of the Paris International Agricultural Show.

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Best of our wild blogs: 20 Feb 15

CNY Day 1: Cyrene Reef
from wonderful creation and wild shores of singapore

Afternoon Walk At Venus Drive (18 Feb 2015)
from Beetles@SG BLOG

Gardens by the Bay (14022015 & 18022015)
from Psychedelic Nature

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India: Fast rising sea levels in Sunderbans could trigger world's largest migration soon

Jayalakshmi K International Business Times 19 Feb 15;

Sea levels are rising more than twice as fast as the global average in the Sunderbans, a low-lying delta region comprising 200 small islands in the Bay of Bengal and inhabited by around 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis.

Scientists predict much of the region could be underwater in 15 to 25 years, forcing the largest ever human migration in history.

With a total 13 million inhabitants, the Sunderbans region is more populated than any island nation, reports AP.

"This big-time climate migration is looming on the horizon,'' said Tapas Paul, a New Delhi-based environmental specialist with the World Bank, which is assessing and preparing a plan for the Sunderbans region.

Already four islands have gone underwater and many others abandoned due to sea rise and erosion.

"The chance of a mass migration, to my mind, is actually pretty high. India is not recognizing it for whatever reason,'' said Anurag Danda, who leads the World Wildlife Fund's climate change adaptation programme in the Sunderbans.

"It's a crisis waiting to happen. We are just one event away from seeing large-scale displacement and turning a large number of people into destitutes.''

Thousands have already been left homeless.

Each year, the inhabitants build mud embankments to protect their crops from saltwater and animals. But each year the flooded rivers and monsoon wash away their efforts.

Dams and irrigation systems add to the problem as they block the sediments that build up river deltas.

Saltwater long ago claimed the five acres where Bokul Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds. His tiny hut sits at the edge of the water now.

This is the fifth mud hut he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.

A 2013 study by the Zoological Society of London found the Sundarbans coastline retreating at about 200 metres (650 feet) a year.

The Geological Survey of India says at least 210sq km (81 square miles) of coastline on the Indian side has been lost in the last few decades.

With no national plan to relocate residents of the Sunderbans, the West Bengal administration is seeking international help in addressing the imminent problem of relocation and protection of the region.

Bangladesh too is yet to do anything about the problem, besides building some dykes and barriers on some of the islands.

The Sundarbans (meaning beautiful forests) region is home to rare wildlife, including the world's only population of mangrove forest tigers.

A Unesco World Heritage Site, the Sunderbans spans over 20,000sq km in total, across India and Bangladesh. The Indian Sunderbans forms the largest tiger reserve and national park in India and is home to rare bird species like the Masked Finfoot, Mangrove Pitta and the Mangrove Whistler.

Part of the world's largest delta formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, Sunderbans is also the world's largest estuarine forest.

The mangrove forests act as a natural buffer protecting India's West Bengal state and Bangladesh from cyclones.

Most scientists believe that the long-term solution is to encourage people to leave, so that the region naturally rejuvenates and the mangroves help capture sediments over time.

"We have 15 years ... that's the rough time frame I give for sea level rise to become very difficult and population pressure to become almost unmanageable,'' said Jayanta Bandopadhyay, an engineer and science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

However, most of the residents who have been living on the land since the early 1800s are reluctant to leave. This is despite the rising water levels and tiger numbers. The region has around 200 tigers and tiger attacks have been on the rise.

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Global impact of debris on marine life studied

Science Daily 19 Feb 15;

Nearly 700 species of marine animal have been recorded as having encountered humanmade debris such as plastic and glass according to the most comprehensive impact study in more than a decade.

Researchers at Plymouth University found evidence of 44,000 animals and organisms becoming entangled in, or swallowing debris, from reports recorded from across the globe.

Plastic accounted for nearly 92 per cent of cases, and 17 per cent of all species involved were found to be threatened or near threatened on the IUCN Red List, including the Hawaiian monk seal, the loggerhead turtle and sooty shearwater.

In a paper, The impact of debris on marine life, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, authors Sarah Gall and Professor Richard Thompson present evidence collated from a wide variety of sources on instances of entanglement, ingestion, physical damage to ecosystems, and rafting -- where species are transported by debris.

Sarah Gall said: "The impact of debris on marine life is of particular concern, and effects can be wide reaching, with the consequence of ingestion and entanglement considered to be harmful. Reports in the literature began in the 1960s with fatalities being well documented for birds, turtles, fish and marine mammals."

In total, they found that 693 species had been documented as having encountered debris, with nearly 400 involving entanglement and ingestion. These incidents had occurred around the world, but were most commonly reported off the east and west coasts of North America, as well as Australia and Europe.

Plastic rope and netting were responsible for the majority of entanglements, with a high number of incidents affecting northern right whales, green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles, and the northern fulmar.

Plastic fragments were the highest recorded substance for ingestion, with the green sea turtle and northern fulmar again, the Laysan albatross, the Californian seal lion, the Atlantic puffin, and the greater shearwater among the worst affected species.

"We found that all known species of sea turtle, and more than half of all species of marine mammal and seabird had been affected by marine debris -- and that number has risen since the last major study," said Sarah. "And in nearly 80 per cent of entanglement cases this had resulted in direct harm or death."

The authors say that while only four per cent of cases involving ingestion were known to have caused harm, further study of sub-lethal impacts are needed, with areas of concern around the impact upon metabolism and reproduction.

Professor Richard Thompson, who is acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts on microplastics in the marine environment, said: "Encounters with marine debris are of particular concern for species that are recognised to be threatened, and with 17 per cent of all species reported in the paper as near threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, it is evident that marine debris may be contributing to the potential for species extinction."

Journal Reference: S.C. Gall, R.C. Thompson. The impact of debris on marine life. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.12.041

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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Feb 15

Checking up on a rare mangrove tree at Pasir Ris
from wild shores of singapore

Back to long lost shore at Marina East
from wonderful creation

Extensive coastal works at the 'Lost Coast'
from wild shores of singapore

Sampling of sea water on Northern shores for algal blooms
from wild shores of singapore

Arkive’s Chinese New Year Celebration
from ARKive blog

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Malaysia: Say No to Wild Meat This Festive Season

WWF-Malaysia 16 Feb 15;

16 Feb 2015, Kuching: This Lunar New Year, World Wide Fund for Nature - Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) is calling on the public to avoid consuming wild or exotic meat. Even though some wild meat is considered a special culinary delight by some, it is illegal in Sarawak to buy or sell wild meat in any form.

WWF-Malaysia Head of Conservation for Sarawak Dr Henry Chan would like to particularly highlight the selling of soft-shelled or freshwater turtles in the Padungan area in the city which has been going on for several weeks now and on daily basis.

This is because all soft-shelled turtles (from the family Tryonychidea), also known by its common name, labi-labi in Bahasa Malaysia are protected species under the Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998, he said.

It was observed that the number of people selling the soft shell turtles have doubled as the Lunar New Year approaches, he said.

"To our knowledge, the species sold are Asian soft shell turtle and South East Asian box turtle.

"We have informed the sellers on a few occasions that it is an offence to sell wildlife in Sarawak but the sellers seem to be ignoring our advice. Last week, during our CEO Dato' Dionysius Sharma's working visit to Kuching, he and I also advised the sellers to stop selling and release the turtles.

"Instead the sellers tried to convince us that we could buy and release the turtles if we did not wish to eat them," he pointed out.

Dr Chan said buying and releasing the turtles would be equally problematic as this would only create more demand for the animal in the market.

"We also received complaints from the public on the matter and since WWF-Malaysia is a non-governmental organization, we do not have the authority to take action against illegal trading of wildlife," he added.

He said WWF-Malaysia has informed authorities concerned namely Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) and Kuching City South Council (MBKS) on the matter last month as it is an offence to sell wild meat.

He said the organization also received other information of soft-shelled turtles and other wild meat being sold in other parts of Sarawak via the social media.

WWF-Malaysia hoped that authorities concerned would take necessary actions against those supplying, selling and buying the wild meat.

Urging the public to do their part for conservation by not consuming turtle meat, Dr Chan said there is a special day dedicated for the reptile, World Turtle Day (May 23), aimed at increasing respect and knowledge for the world's oldest creatures.

He explained that human survival depends on the existence of functioning ecosystems, and wildlife is the key that keeps forests alive.

Dr Chan added that animals categorized as protected species under the Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998 means they are now rare, due to hunting, habitat destruction and cruel pet trade.

A license is needed to keep them as pets, hunt, kill, capture, sell import or export them, or possess any recognizable part of these animals. The penalties for hunting or possessing any of these animals dead or alive, and possessing any of their parts without a license is a fine of RM10,000 and one year imprisonment.

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Malaysia: 100kg turtle may end up in the pot

ANDY CHUA The Star 19 Feb 15;


Endangered species: It took the fisherman almost an hour to reel in the 100kg soft-shell turtle as it put up a struggle.

SIBU: Many fear that an endangered 100kg soft-shell turtle caught by a fisherman in Daro may end up in the cooking pot for a mere RM2,000.

The fisherman who caught the turtle, which is believed to be 50 years old, has said that he plans to sell it in the market here.

The going price is said to be about RM20 a kilo.

“The man plans to sell it but he has not said when he will bring it to Sibu,” said local resident Jelmai Beedih.

He said that if it happened, the turtle would end up in the cooking pot if there was no intervention by the relevant authorities to stop the sale.

He said the turtle was caught using a fishing hook on Tuesday in Daro, which is about three hours from here.

“It took the fishermen almost an hour to reel it in as the turtle put up a struggle.

“In their effort to put the turtle onboard the sampan, several villagers stomped on the belly of the turtle.”

Sarawak Forestry Corporation Sdn Bhd deputy general manager Oswald Braken Tisen said he was alerted by people in Daro that the fisherman wanted to sell the turtle in Sibu for its meat.

“We have sent our men to Sibu to stop him from selling the turtle.

“We also hope the fisherman will surrender it to us," he said.

Braken also called on the public to stop illegal sale of endangered animals by informing his company if they came across anyone selling such turtles or other protected species.

As of yesterday evening, the turtle was still alive and kept by the fisherman.

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Siberian tiger video suggests species is returning to China, conservationists say

Video of a mother tiger and her cubs is a sign the endangered Siberian tiger could be making a comeback in China after it was largely wiped out over 65 year ago

Adam Vaughan The Guardian 19 Feb 15;

A family of rare tigers has been caught on film deep inside China, more than 65 years after the species was largely wiped out in the country.

Conservationists said the video footage of a mother Siberian tiger and her two cubs playing 30km from the Russian border was a sign the endangered species could be making a comeback in China.

The last stronghold of Siberian tigers, or Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), is in Russia where around 450 are believed to live. They have been spotted before just inside China, but this is the first infrared video evidence of them so far inland, where only paw prints have been recorded previously.

“It’s confirmation they’re re-establishing, they’re not just animals coming in and out [from Russia],” said John Barker, Asian programmes leader at WWF, which recorded the video with a camera trap. He said that all the signs indicated the tigers were breeding in China, though it was too early to say for certain.

“We shouldn’t get hysterical over one video. There’s a long, long road ahead. But the opportunity is there. If the government, civil society and communities can work together, there’s no reason there shouldn’t be a sustainable population of tigers again in China.”

The north-eastern area of China where the tigers were filmed is prime habitat for the species with tens of thousands of kilometres of birch forest. Much of the forest is still intact despite decades of large scale commercial logging, which was accompanied by much of the poaching that drove the tigers from the area, Barker said. China is currently testing a ban on logging in the Heilongjiang province bordering Russia.

“The critical habitat is there. Very often with tigers [globally] the thing you are fighting is just loss of tiger habitat,” said Barker. There are around 3,200 tigers left in the wild globally.

WWF’s conservation efforts to entice Siberian tigers back to China over the last six to seven years have largely focused on bringing back the deer that the tigers prey on.

Shi Quanhua, senior manager of WWF-China’s Asian big cats programme said: “A shortage of prey presented a major threat to wild Amur tigers. We worked to restore the Amur tiger’s prey populations through habitat restoration and anti-poaching efforts.”

Russia is currently conducting its once-a-decade Siberian tiger census, with 2,000 people searching for signs of the animal in the country’s far east. The Russian government hopes to show that numbers in the wild have risen from 450 in 2005 to 600 to ensure the species survival.

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UAE: 75% of coral reefs in the Gulf have been lost

Experts discuss coral reef protection at conference at New York University Abu Dhabi
Sami Zaatari Gulf News 18 Feb 15;

Abu Dhabi: At least 75 per cent of coral reefs in Gulf waters have been lost due to mismanagement of marine resources and global warming, according to statistics revealed on the final day of the Coral Reefs of Arabia Conference held at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).
“We actually know enough science about [coral] reefs to able to resolve the question, but it’s not a question for science any more. It’s a question of governance, management, human interaction and relationships,” Professor Charles Sheppard of Warwick University said.
Sheppard highlighted how manmade conditions combined with global warming have affected the reefs.

“We’ve got what I call the local group of impacts, all the usual ones, sewage, overfishing, sedimentation, and construction. Added to that we have the global group, acidification and warming caused by the carbon dioxide blankets. I’m often asked which is the most important of all these [in harming the coral reefs] and you just can’t answer that, it depends on what the local pressures are, and when it comes to the global group, I suspect it’s the warming that’s causing the immediate killing [of coral reefs].”

Sheppard recommended that steps be taken to reverse some of the above trends, such as banning landfills in coral reef areas, as well as regulations within the fishing industries, and for scientific research on the issue to be taken seriously and acted on through government policies in order to protect the reefs.

With the loss of coral reefs also comes the loss of species that are dependent on the reefs for their survival, with several species under threat according to Professor John Bartz from the University of Miami.

“Not surprisingly coastal development affected 17 species, then going after that was climate change affecting six species, and then fisheries surprisingly having fewer threats to the species [four species under threat]. Of the coral reef-dependent species, once we do the reassessment [of species under threat] I would imagine that the majority of those are not doing so well, and of course coastal development is the most prevalent threat to the species here [Gulf].”

One method of protection that was raised during the conference was the implementation of marine-protected areas, advocated by Professor Hanneke Van Lavieren, from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. She said, “We’ve heard about the multitude of serious threats that the marine environment here faces, both natural and human induced, so the need to protect at least whatever is left makes sense. One of the tools available to do this is marine-protected areas. If well established and managed, then a network of marine protected areas can be quite effective in protecting some parts of our marine environment.”

According to Professor Lavieren, the marine protected areas can be established to protect several different aspects of the marine environment. “They can be established to protect biodiversity, specific species or habitats. They can be established to maintain ecosystem functioning, and they can also provide refuge to a threatened species. More recently we hear more about their role in enhancing the resilience of coastal systems and reducing the risk for disasters.”

More than 20 sites in the UAE have already been designated as marine protected areas according to Lavieren.

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Heat, Pollution, and Skyscrapers Make Cities Have More Thunderstorms

NICK STOCKTON Wired 18 Feb 15;

Ah, city life: The culture! The food! The music! The thunderstorms! Wait, what? Thunderstorms? Yes, that’s right: You can add weather to the list of things that are more exciting in the city than in the sticks.

Ok, not all cities. But in regions like the American south, normal urban attributes like heat, pollution, and tall buildings could stir up more storms. New research examined nearly two decades of meteorological data from Georgia and found thunderstorms were slightly more likely to form over Atlanta than the surrounding rural areas. Through modeling and other research, meteorologists have known about the connection between cities and storms for decades, but this is the first time data has shown the phenomena in action.

During the summer, cumulonimbus clouds ripen like peaches over Georgia and Alabama. These moisture-heavy storms appear on radars as dark, pixellated patterns. Alex Haberlie, a geography doctoral student at Northern Illinois University, used a computer program to find these patterns, then crunched 17 years worth of data. In all, the geographers at Northern Illinois found Atlanta is 5 percent more likely to have a thunderstorm than the surrounding rural area.

“By our count, that’s a couple to three or more storms a year,” Haberlie, the study’s lead author, says. This doesn’t seem like much, but a city’s built infrastructure compounds the effects of any storm. For instance, Atlanta’s catastrophic 2009 floods probably were worsened because all the asphalt and concrete kept the water from seeping into the soil.

“The discovery that urban environments can create their own storms and rainfall: Not new at all,” says J. Marshall Shepherd, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is an expert in urban meteorology. Researchers have long known that cities generally get more rainfall than their surrounding areas. Shepherd says that he and other researchers teased out the relationship between cities and thunderstorms by running models. “Set up studies where you don’t include Atlanta, and some where you do, and lo and behold you can see that taking away the city reduces the rainfall,” he says. Based on research he’s seen, Shepherd says he isn’t surprised by the 5 percent difference between Atlanta and its realm. He expected the number to be upward of 20 percent. But despite his misgivings about the degree of difference shown in the current study’s results, he says what’s really important is that their methods show that these effects are actually happening.

According to Shepherd and Haberlie, these storms are brewed by several factors. First, cities are hotter than surrounding areas. This warm, rising city air creates circulation that mixes with other atmospheric conditions to create thunderheads. Second, tall buildings form a barrier that pushes wind up and around the city. “Upward motion is always good for thunderstorms,” says Haberlie. Finally, pollution particles act like nuclei that water glom onto, creating droplets. In essence, cities get more thunder and rain because they are hot, stale, and dirty.

But you can’t generalize this type of research to every city. Places like New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are probably also contributing to their own thunderstorms, but because these cities are so close to large bodies of water, it would be hard to tease this out of radar data the way Haberlie and his co-authors did with Atlanta. Research like this could help city managers plan for bigger influxes of water, either by opening up more reservoirs, or coming up with better strategies for flooding. But perhaps most important, there is no telling if this research will result in a long-awaited new verse to the AC/DC classic, “Thunderstruck.”

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Millions at risk from rapid sea rise in swampy Sundarbans

KATY DAIGLE Associated Press Yahoo News 18 Feb 15;

BALI ISLAND, India (AP) — The tiny hut sculpted out of mud at the edge of the sea is barely large enough for Bokul Mondol and his family to lie down in. The water has taken everything else from them, and one day it almost certainly will take this, too.

Saltwater long ago engulfed the 5 acres where Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds, as his ancestors had on Bali Island for some 200 years. His thatch-covered hut, built on public land, is the fifth he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.

"Every year we have to move a little further inland," he said.

Seas are rising more than twice as fast as the global average here in the Sundarbans, a low-lying delta region of about 200 islands in the Bay of Bengal where some 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis live. Tens of thousands like Mondol have already been left homeless, and scientists predict much of the Sundarbans could be underwater in 15 to 25 years.

That could force a singularly massive exodus of millions of "climate refugees," creating enormous challenges for India and Bangladesh that neither country has prepared for.

"This big-time climate migration is looming on the horizon," said Tapas Paul, a New Delhi-based environmental specialist with the World Bank, which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars assessing and preparing a plan for the Sundarbans region.

"If all the people of the Sundarbans have to migrate, this would be the largest-ever migration in the history of mankind," Paul said. The largest to date occurred during the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, when 10 million people or more migrated from one country to the other.

Mondol has no idea where he would go. His family of six is now entirely dependent on neighbors who have not lost their land. Some days they simply don't eat.

"For 10 years I was fighting with the sea, until finally everything was gone," he says, staring blankly at the water lapping at the muddy coast. "We live in constant fear of flooding. If the island is lost, we will all die."

On their own, the Sundarbans' impoverished residents have little chance of moving before catastrophe hits. Facing constant threats from roving tigers and crocodiles, deadly swarms of giant honeybees and poisonous snakes, they struggle to eke out a living by farming, shrimping, fishing and collecting honey from the forests.

Each year, with crude tools and bare hands, they build mud embankments to keep saltwater and wild animals from invading their crops. And each year swollen rivers, monsoon rains and floods wash many of those banks and mud-packed homes back into the sea.

Most struggle on far less than $1 a day. With 5 million people on the Indian side and 8 million in Bangladesh, the Sundarbans population is far greater than any of the small island nations that also face dire threats from rising sea levels.

Losing the 26,000-square-kilometer (10,000-square-mile) region — an area about the size of Haiti — would also take an environmental toll. The Sundarbans region is teeming with wildlife, including the world's only population of mangrove forest tigers. The freshwater swamps and their tangles of mangrove forests act as a natural buffer protecting India's West Bengal state and Bangladesh from cyclones.

With the warming climate melting polar ice and rising temperatures expanding oceans, seas have been rising globally at an average rate of about 3 millimeters a year — a rate scientists say is likely to speed up. The latest projections suggest seas could rise on average up to about 1 meter (3.3 feet) this century.

That would be bad enough for the Sundarbans, where the highest point is around 3 meters (9.8 feet) and the mean elevation is less than a meter above sea level. But sea rise occurs unevenly across the globe because of factors like wind, ocean currents, tectonic shift and variations in the Earth's gravitational pull. The rate of sea rise in the Sundarbans has been measured at twice the global rate or even higher.

In addition, dams and irrigation systems upstream are trapping sediments that could have built up the river deltas that make up the Sundarbans. Other human activities such as deforestation encourage erosion.

A 2013 study by the Zoological Society of London measured the Sundarbans coastline retreating at about 200 meters (650 feet) a year. The Geological Survey of India says at least 210 square kilometers (81 square miles) of coastline on the Indian side has eroded in the last few decades. At least four islands are underwater and dozens of others have been abandoned due to sea rise and erosion.

Many scientists believe the only long-term solution is for most of the Sundarbans population to leave. That may be not only necessary but environmentally beneficial, giving shorn mangrove forests a chance to regrow and capture river sediment in their tangled, saltwater-tolerant roots.

"The chance of a mass migration, to my mind, is actually pretty high. India is not recognizing it for whatever reason," said Anurag Danda, who leads the World Wildlife Fund's climate change adaptation program in the Sundarbans. "It's a crisis waiting to happen. We are just one event away from seeing large-scale displacement and turning a large number of people into destitutes."

West Bengal is no stranger to mass migration. Kolkata, its capital, has been overrun three times by panicked masses fleeing violence or starvation: during a 1943 famine, the 1947 partition and the 1971 war that created today's Bangladesh.

India, however, has no official plan either to help relocate Sundarbans residents or to protect the region from further ecological decline.

"We need international help. We need national help. We need the help of the people all over the world. We are very late" in addressing the problem, said West Bengal state's minister for emergencies and disaster management, Janab Javed Ahmed Khan. He said West Bengal must work urgently with the Indian and Bangladeshi governments to take action.

Bangladesh is supporting scientists "trying to find out whether it's possible to protect the Sundarbans," said Taibur Rahman, of the Bangladesh government's planning commission. "But we are already experiencing the effects of climate change. The people of the Sundarbans are resilient and have long lived with hardship, but many now are leaving. And we are not yet prepared."

A network of concrete dykes and barriers, like those protecting the Netherlands, offers limited protection to some of the islands in Bangladesh's portion of the Sundarbans. The World Bank is now spending some $200 million to improve those barriers.

Experts worry that politicians will ignore the problem or continue to make traditional promises to build roads, schools and hospital clinics. This could entice more people to the region just when everyone should be moving out.

"We have 15 years ... that's the rough time frame I give for sea level rise to become very difficult and population pressure to become almost unmanageable," said Jayanta Bandopadhyay, an engineer and science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi who has studied the region for years.

Bandopadhyay and other experts say India and Bangladesh should be creating jobs, offering skills training, freeing lands and making urbanization attractive so people will feel empowered to leave.

Even if India musters that kind of political will, planning and funds, persuading people to move will not be easy.

Most families have been living here since the early 1800s, when the British East India Company — which then governed India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for the British Empire — removed huge mangrove forests to allow people to live on and profit from the fertile agricultural land.

Even those who are aware of the threat of rising seas don't want to leave.

"You cannot fight with water," said Sorojit Majhi, a 36-year-old father of four young girls living in a hut crouched behind a crumbling mud embankment. Majhi's ancestral land has also been swallowed by the sea. He admits he's sometimes angry, other times depressed.

"We are scared, but where can we go?" he said. "We cannot fly away like a bird."

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