Preservation groups, activists raise concerns about Batam property with captive dolphins

Audrey Tan and Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 3 May 15;

Wildlife preservation groups and animal activists are dismayed at news that a Batam property developer wants to build homes around a lagoon filled with captive dolphins.

Funtasy Island, which is being marketed in Singapore, promises villas built over the water. Its advertisements show residents living close to leaping dolphins.

The plan is for 64 villas to be built on the circumference of an 8.7ha dolphin lagoon, roughly the size of 13 football fields.

Funtasy Island Development, the Singapore firm set up to market the project for the Indonesian developer, told The Sunday Times that the number of dolphins has not been finalised, but people who went to the project's showroom here last month were told there would be 35.

Funtasy Island director Michael Yong said no wild dolphins would be caught for the lagoon. Instead, it will have dolphins "rescued or saved" from dolphinariums, as well as injured dolphins caught by fishermen.

"Some of the dolphins are already in these facilities," he told The Sunday Times. These are dolphins confiscated by the authorities, as they were "not treated well" at the facilities. Moving them to the Funtasy Island lagoon would be "an upgrade of life for the dolphins", he said.

But experts and wildlife groups are not convinced, and warn of safety and health issues for both humans and animals if the project goes ahead.

A spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore said the portrayal of dolphins as ever-friendly smiling creatures can be misleading. Dolphin attacks on humans are not unheard of, he said.

In 2012, a dolphin at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, bit an eight-year- old girl as she was feeding it.

Captive dolphins have to be protected from a range of risks, said Dr Elizabeth Taylor, head of the Marine Mammal Research Laboratory at the National University of Singapore's Tropical Marine Science Institute, which has a lab on St John's Island.

These include plastic bags that are blown into the lagoon, which the dolphins might swallow, or inappropriate food being offered to them.

Noting that the project is coming up off Batam, Ms Femke den Haas, from wildlife protection group Jakarta Animal Aid Network, a non-government organisation against animals in captivity, said: "It shows how little Indonesia cares about its marine mammals, continuously allowing dolphins to be exploited for commercial reasons."

Mr Pramudya Harzani, country coordinator for Indonesia from the Dolphin Project, an international campaign against dolphins in captivity, said there are more than 90 dolphins in the five dolphinariums and six travelling circuses in Indonesia.

"These facilities claim the captive dolphins are used for research, but they are used more for entertainment and tourism," he said. "They are kept in small tanks and in pools with a lot of chlorine, which can cause blindness in the marine mammals."

Mr James Chua, Singapore coordinator for marine conservation group Sea Shepherd Asia, said: "We are deeply concerned about which facilities these dolphins are coming from, whether they are closing down and need to move their dolphins to Funtasy Island, or just making room at their facilities for more dolphins caught from the wild or other sources."

Instead of having a lagoon filled with captive dolphins, he suggested that the Funtasy Island developers consider "responsible, regulated wild dolphin watching tours - a much more viable, ethical, cost-effective and profitable option".

Dr Taylor added: "There are wild dolphins in Batam's waters - bottlenose and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. I think it would be better to help support these groups of wild animals rather than bring in other animals."

Living with dolphins
Toh Yong Chuan And Janice Tai The Straits Times AsiaOne 3 May 15;

An Indonesian developer says Singapore buyers are showing keen interest in a project promising villas built over the sea, with dolphins at the residents' doorsteps.

Batam-based developer PT Batam Island Marina and its Singapore investment partner Seven Seas FID are planning 64 villas, each shaped like a round bamboo hut and built around a lagoon with dolphins which residents can feed and play with.

Priced at $758,000 each, the villas were launched here two weeks ago with a blaze of advertisements showing dolphins leaping out of the water, and the Marina Bay Sands skyline on the horizon. The project is coming up in the midst of six small islands known collectively as Pulau Manis, 3km off Batam.

Each villa has two bedrooms and is about the size of a Housing Board executive flat. The developer has promised shops and restaurants nearby, but has been mum about maintenance costs and whether residents must pay for the dolphins' upkeep.

Half the units went on sale at a swanky showroom in the upmarket One Degree 15 marina on Sentosa two weeks ago. A visit there found the place buzzing at the launch.

A team of about 10 salesmen dressed in suits attended to a steady stream of walk-in prospects, showing them a multimedia presentation, artists' impressions and a scale model of the villas, before discussing the financing plans over snacks, coffee and soft drinks.

According to Funtasy Island Development, a Singapore firm set up in 2010 to market the dolphin villas and other homes on Pulau Manis, there is no shortage of buyers.

Director Michael Yong declined to give exact figures but said the initial sales "exceeded expectations". A Malaysian with Singapore permanent residency, he owns 30 per cent of Funtasy Island Development. The rest is owned by Indonesian businessmen Ade Soehari and Luky Winata.

The project is coming up in an area owned by PT Batam Island Marina. Foreigners cannot own land in Indonesia but can be granted 25-year leases which can be extended in 20-year blocks. The Indonesian company has promised on its website to renew Funtasy Island's leases up to 2112.

There are eight other housing projects being built on Pulau Manis, with a total of 621 units - 159 are built over water and the rest are bungalows and apartments built on land.

Mr Yong's firm is marketing these properties and he said he has sold 90 per cent of the units so far, raking in $250 million since 2011.

"About 70 per cent of buyers were Singaporeans," he added.

None of the projects has been completed. At least one development, a cluster of bungalows that should have been completed last year, has been delayed. The latest project, the dolphin villas, is slated to be ready by the end of 2018.

The six islands have a land area of about 1 sq km, or about 140 football fields. The developer had included the waters around the islands in its calculation when it claimed in its promotional material that the "theme park" will be about two-thirds the size of Sentosa.

Besides the dolphin lagoon, the theme park also promises an aviary, a stingray habitat and boat ride through mangrove swamps. Visitors and residents will have access to the theme parks, the developer said in its brochures and website.

Visitors from Singapore now have to take a 45-minute ferry ride from HarbourFront Centre to Batam's Sekupang Ferry Terminal, clear Indonesian immigration and then hire a local boat for a 15-minute trip to Pulau Manis.

Mr Yong said the 16km journey between Sentosa and the islands will take just 20 minutes when his firm launches a direct ferry service.

A Sunday Times team visited the project site two weeks ago and was told by local fishermen that the islands were uninhabited until construction started a few years ago.

There were at least 50 uncompleted bungalows, part of a project called Corallium Villas that was supposed to have been ready in the middle of last year.

Mr Yong confirmed the delay and said it was caused by a longer than expected time to get an expert to conduct a green building study before construction could begin.

He said the affected buyers were paid $3 million in compensation for the delay. "This will come from future profits, so we still are financially sound," he said.

Retiree Serene Cheong was one of those who bought a $500,000 bungalow there in 2012. She was not too bothered when told that her bungalow, slated for completion next year, was six to nine months behind schedule.

"I am not too concerned because that is expected for waterfront projects where they have to do the piling deep in the water, " said Mrs Cheong, who is married and in her 50s.

The projects off Batam are not subject to any rules which apply to Singapore property projects as they are foreign property developments.

A spokesman for the Council of Estate Agencies said: "Whether consumers buy directly from foreign developers or through an estate agent, they should exercise due diligence before entering into any agreement to buy foreign properties."

Funtasy Island has guaranteed buyers a rental yield of 7 per cent a year for three years. This is typical of projects marketed in Jakarta, said Mr Ku Swee Yong, chief executive of estate agency Century 21.

Aside from evaluating the risks of overseas purchases, he said buyers of the Pulau Manis developments should consider longer-term factors like maintenance costs.

"The houses are built over sea water," he pointed out. "The build quality has to be top-notch and maintenance costs will be higher."

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Borneo 'a major deforestation front'

PATRICK LEE The Star 4 May 15;

PETALING JAYA: Up to 22 million hectares of forest in Borneo are under threat of being felled by 2030, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned.

The combined area, covering forests in Malaysia and Indonesia, is nearly twice the size of Sarawak or the peninsular.

The WWF’s Saving Forests at Risk report describes it as “a major deforestation front”.

Although much of the deforestation is expected to be in Kalimantan, the report also roughly zoned three areas in Sabah and Sarawak.

According to the report, these areas were in danger of being logged or being converted into oil palm plantations.


“Most new plantations are expected to be in Sarawak,” the report said without specifying which forests were likely to be felled, or how big the areas were expected to be.

It also listed dam-building, deliberate forest fires and mining to be among the causes of Borneo’s future forest losses.

“Fire impacts have been greatest in West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and Sabah,” the report noted.

It said roads carved into forests made it easier for settlers and loggers to enter remote forest areas, adding that Sabah and Sarawak had 364,000km of roads in forests.

The island of Borneo was listed as one of 11 deforestation fronts worldwide, including the Amazon, Congo Basin, Sumatra and the Greater Mekong.

Between 2003 and 2008, a total of 5.8 million hectares of forests - more than twice the size of Perak - were cleared in Borneo while the loss of 20 million hectares of forests were recorded between 1985 and 1997.

The report stated that the Malaysian and Indonesian governments were committed to conserving forests within Borneo’s inland areas.

However, it also implied that environment plans could be made by higher-ranking officials but those at the lower end might not follow through.

For example, it said Indonesia was committed to preserving 45% of its Kalimantan provinces as forests but this was not reflected in district and provincial development plans.

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Malaysia: Sustainable logging at vast tracts of Sarawak forests

The Star 4 May 15;

PETALING JAYA: Some six million hectares of forests in Sarawak - about half the size of the state - will be logged sustainably.

Sarawak Forestry Department director Sapuan Ahmad said the logging area is under the larger seven million hectare zone, reserved as the state’s forests.

“Of Sarawak’s 12.4 million hectare-size jungles, seven million is for forestry and 5.4 million hectares for agriculture or settlements,

“Six million (hectares) is under sustainable logging and one million will not be logged,” he told The Star.

Sapuan said he was not worried about deforestation in Sarawak, adding that oil palm growing and other matters would be within the 5.4 million-hectare area.

“This means Sarawak will have more than half of its land area remain as forests,” he said when asked to comment on the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) report on global deforestation.

Data from the World Bank showed that as of 2014, 34.1% of Canada’s total land was forest, compared with 61.7% of Malaysia.

Sustainable logging means that an area can be allowed to be logged in such a way that there would always be enought trees for people to cut later.

It is the opposite of clear-cutting, which may see vast areas of forests felled in one go.

The island of Borneo has been listed as one of 11 major deforestation fronts worldwide.

Last year, the Sarawak government launched a major crackdown against illegal logging activities in the state.

It has also increased the penalty for illegal timber exports in April from a RM50,000 fine to RM500,000 fine and also longer jail terms for offenders.

Sarawak had in the past came under fire for large-scale deforestation.

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Best of our wild blogs: 3 May 15

Bishan otters: A pictorial story
Life's Indulgences

Against all odds
Life's Indulgences

Life History of the Common Caerulean
Butterflies of Singapore

Fruiting of the MacArthur Palm
Bird Ecology Study Group

Sisters' Islands Marine Park happenings: April 2015
Sisters' Islands Marine Park

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Pulau Ubin's life and times being documented

NHB to interview current, former residents and produce documentary
MELODY ZACCHEUS Straits Times AsiaOne 2 May 15;

A project is under way to capture the life and times of residents living on rustic Pulau Ubin.

The National Heritage Board (NHB) will conduct interviews with about 40 current and former Ubin residents before producing a research report and a 20-minute documentary on the island's community heritage.

One possible interviewee is Mr Kat Kau Chye, a 67-year-old boat operator who lives in a wooden house on the 10.2 sq km, boomerang-shaped island.

Born and raised there, Mr Kat told The Straits Times he would never trade the tranquil kampung life for the dense urban living on mainland Singapore.

"In Singapore, you can hear your neighbours through the walls, or be woken up by the sounds of cars late at night," said Mr Kat in Mandarin.

Then there is Ubin's close-knit community, which he has become accustomed to.

"If I cook herbal soup, and my two or three neighbours bring along their own dishes, we have a feast," he said.

It is this largely intangible spirit, among other things, that the NHB wants to document.

The project will seek to chronicle the interviewees' experiences living on the island and their sentiments on the way of life there, as well as capture short biographies of them.

The NHB said this documentation project, which will also include oral history recordings, is one of its contributions to the ongoing Ubin Project led by the Ministry of National Development.

The ministry has been working with the community and other government agencies such as the National Parks Board to gather ideas on how to maintain the island's rustic charm. Its plans include preserving Ubin's nature and biodiversity.

Mr Alvin Tan, NHB's assistant chief executive of policy and development, said research on the island's community and social heritage can help "develop more sensitive strategies to enhance Pulau Ubin's island heritage".

The project will build on NHB's earlier work on the island, which includes a 2013 documentation of the island's historical sites such as former quarries, temples and shrines; a virtual tour of the island; and a documentary on Ubin's boatmen.

The Singapore Heritage Society's president, Dr Chua Ai Lin, a participant in the ministry's Friends of Ubin Network sessions, said it is important that the interviews do more than collect dust on a shelf.

For instance, she believes residents should be asked to elaborate on and break down the aspects of island life to better understand what exactly constitutes "rustic".

This in turn could help the Ubin way of life to "continue to thrive", she said.

"It could range from their knowledge of agriculture, skills on repairing and living in wooden houses, and the mentality behind leading sustainable, kampung lifestyles," she added.

Ubin resident Kamariah Abdullah, 57, who owns a century-old Malay kampung home which she restored with her family, agreed with Dr Chua.

She hopes the project will be able to capture the challenges of maintaining a traditional house and lifestyle.

Architectural historian Lai Chee Kien believes that the project can help supplement existing data on the island, which has seen its population dwindle over the years.

Although it receives more than 300,000 visitors annually, it is home to just 38 residents now, compared to the 2,000 who lived there from the 1950s to 1970s.

Said Dr Lai: "It is worthwhile to get as best a representation as possible on how islanders think and compare it against the record of the people who have already been interviewed in the past, to give context to the evolution of island life then and now."

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Star attractions at new natural history museum

Once like an unwanted orphan, Singapore's natural history collection now has a permanent home in a new museum.
Tommy Koh for The Straits Times 2 May 15;

On April 18, a new jewel was added to the cultural crown of Singapore.

The jewel is the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM). It is a gift from the National University of Singapore (NUS) to the nation. The fact that it has taken place this year is doubly meaningful because Singapore is celebrating its 50th anniversary and NUS is celebrating the 110th anniversary of its founding.

One lesson we should learn from Mr Lee Kuan Yew is to love nature and to aspire to live in harmony with nature. Because of his vision and leadership, we have one of the greenest cities in the world. Singapore is also rich in biological diversity.

In recent years, the hornbill bird, the otter and the wild boar, which have been working abroad, have returned to our shores. In 2010, the United Nations named the City Biodiversity Index, the Singapore Index, in recognition of the leadership role that we have played in mobilising cities to act as custodians of the world's biodiversity.

Singapore lies at the heart of South-east Asia. Our region has the richest biodiversity in the world, both on land and at sea.

The seas of South-east Asia are home to 2,500 species of marine fish and 600 species of hard coral.

On land, we have a rich endowment of plant and animal species.

However, some of our charismatic species, such as the tiger, elephant, rhino, orang utan and sea turtle, are endangered. Some misguided people are eating the pangolin, the scaly ant-eater, to the brink of extinction. We have a duty to protect the biodiversity of our region and to slow down the pace at which it is being lost. The museum can help to disseminate this message to its visitors.

The new museum has a long history. In 1874, the Legislative Council of Singapore decided to establish a library and a museum and named them after Sir Stamford Raffles. In 1878, the Raffles Library and Museum became a legal entity.

A serious attempt to collect natural history specimens began in 1877. In 1887, the Raffles Library and Museum moved into its new home in Stamford Road, where the present National Museum is located.

The collection grew from strength to strength. It was divided into the exhibition collection and the reference collection. The collections survived the war and the Japanese Occupation.

However, in 1972, the Government decided to remove the natural history collections from the National Museum. The exhibition collection was given to the Science Centre. In 1974, the National Museum gave away its most iconic exhibit, a 12.8m-long skeleton of an Indian fin whale, to the National Museum of Malaysia. It is now displayed at the Labuan Maritime Museum.

The reference collection, also known as the Raffles Collection, was given to the zoology department of the then University of Singapore. It was treated like an unwanted orphan and was housed in various temporary premises with no climate control. There was even an attempt to divide it up. It spent seven years at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), before returning to NUS.

The collection was saved by the heroic efforts of a few individuals, notably Mrs Yang Chang Man, Professor Roland Sharma and Professor Lam Toong Jin from NUS and Mr Eric Alfred from the National Museum. President Tony Tan, when he was education minister, opened the Zoological Reference Collection in 1988. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, when he was education minister, opened the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) in 2001.

In 2004, I was the chairman of the National Heritage Board. After visiting RMBR that year, I wrote to the then president of NUS, Professor Shih Choon Fong, and proposed that NUS should build a museum of natural history to display its world-class collections of fauna and flora. Prof Shih and his successor, Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, were interested in the idea but had no money to build such a museum.

It took the combination of Prof Leo Tan and Prof Peter Ng, who raised $56 million, to turn my vision into reality. The remarkable story of Singapore's natural history museum has been told by Dr Kevin Tan, in his book Of Whales And Dinosaurs.

The LKCNHM has inherited the Raffles Collection, which consists of 566,500 lots of plankton, insects, crustaceans, fishes, shells, birds, mammals, amphibians, spiders, worms, reptiles, corals and sea stars. The museum's collection continues to grow because of research activities and now stands at a million specimens. New species are being discovered all the time. Selected specimens are beautifully displayed in the museum.

Leading showpieces

WHAT are the museum's star pieces? Without doubt, the biggest star attraction consists of three original dinosaur fossils. The diplodocid sauropods, which were herbivores, were found together at a quarry in Wyoming in the United States.

Another star piece is a small bird, an Asian brown flycatcher, which belonged to the collection of the great naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace and Charles Darwin had, independently of each other, simultaneously developed the theory of evolution. Unlike Darwin, Wallace spent several years in Singapore.

Also a top attraction is the cream-coloured giant squirrel (Ratufa affinis). Sir Stamford first described this species from Singapore in 1821. It was last sighted in 1995 and is feared to be extinct in Singapore.

The dodo bird has become an icon for extinction. There is a wonderful model at the museum, together with a set of genuine bones on loan from Oxford University. I hope that when visitors see this exhibit, they will pause for a moment to reflect on the unsustainable speed at which we are losing our biodiversity.

The museum will attract many visitors. It will share with its visitors the message to love nature and to conserve nature.

The museum will be used by students and scholars for study and research. It will also become a centre for intellectual exchange and for discourse on natural history. I hope that visitors will be inspired by the museum and its message.

stopinion@sph.com.sg

The writer is the chairman of the Advisory Board of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.

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Indonesia: Balikpapan protected forest illegally logged

N. Adri, The Jakarta Post 2 May 15;

The East Kalimantan Police have discovered that two locations in the Manggar River Protected Forest (HLSM) in eastern Balikpapan have been illegally logged and cleared.

“Both areas have been cleared up to 40 hectares and 25 hectares,” said the East Kalimantan Police’s environmental crime division investigator Comr. Tohari Kuswitanto on Wednesday.

Tohari added that based on investigations, several parties had been found responsible for felling trees and clearing forest in the restricted area, including the presence of tracks from heavy machinery.

“We are currently gathering evidence and tracing those involved,” said Tohari.

Conversion of a protected forest without a permit violates Law No. 32/2009 on the environment, Law No. 26/2007 on spatial planning, Law No. 18/2013 on forestry and Law No. 5/1990 on conservation.

The Environment Law does not just impose criminal sanctions but also the obligation to restore damaged areas.

“So, the perpetrators can be imprisoned and required to restore the areas they have damaged,” said Tohari.

The protected forest serves as a buffer and water catchment for the Manggar River, which flows from the west to the north of Balikpapan and supplies raw water from its upper reaches to the city-owned Tirta Manggar tap water company (PDAM) that serves 78,000 customers in Balikpapan.

The Manggar River begins from the Manggar Reservoir, located 15 kilometers from the heart of Balikpapan, and empties 25 kilometers into the Makassar Strait.

The river delta is surrounded by residential areas included in the Manggar subdistrict administration in East Balikpapan.

The measures taken by the police have been fully supported by the Balikpapan municipality.

According to municipal secretary Sayid MN Fadli, 55 locations have been found to have been cleared in the western, northern and eastern parts of the city.

As many as 42 of them were not equipped with permits while seven others held permits but had not operated in accordance with the permits.

“We are concerned about the situation and glad the police have intervened because so far they [the perpetrators] have [acted] as if they disregarded our agencies, such as the Environmental Agency [BLH],” said Fadli.

According to Fadli, the perpetrators included companies and individuals, who usually operated by using heavy machinery, such as excavators. The moment Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) personnel or officers from the BLH learned about such activities, they would immediately travel to the location in question, he added.

“We seize the ignition key to the heavy machinery and immediately prohibit them from operating, but the next day the heavy machinery operates again by using spare keys. So, let the police deal with the issue now,” said Fadli.

- See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/05/02/balikpapan-protected-forest-illegally-logged.html#sthash.AbXH8dMP.dpuf

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Thailand: Phi Phi tour boat oil dumpers charged

Phuket Gazette 2 May 15;


Aerial photos showing oil leaking into the sea went viral on Facebook, and alerted officials. Photo: Thon Thamrongnawasawat

PHUKET: The captain and engineer of a tour boat anchored off Phi Phi Island have been charged with dumping oil into the sea after officials saw Facebook photos that had gone viral.

Krabi Marine Police, the Krabi Marine Office and officers at the national park at Phi Phi yesterday called upon boat captain Karin Onkaew and engineer Kriangdet Polsakdet to start an investigation and to press charges.

“They told us that they were fixing the engine and that oil accidentally leaked out,” Maj Anurak Parinyasathiragul, chief of the Krabi Marine Police told the Phuket Gazette this morning.

Officers checked for an oil slick after charging the pair, but were unable to find any evidence of the oil released into the sea.

However, aerial photos shared on Facebook by Thon Thamrongnawasawat on April 30 clearly showed oil leaking from the boat.

“They [Capt Karin and engineer Kriangdet] have both have been charged for releasing oil into the sea under the Act of Navigation in Thai Waters. The penalty can be up to three years in prison, a fine of up to 60,000 baht or both,” Maj Anurak said.

“They will also have to pay for any damages that the oil made to the environment, and for any cleanup operation that may be required.”

However, the boat, Capt Karin and all crew on board are legal and have all required documentation, Maj Anurak added.

In addition, the two men have also been charged with releasing oil in a national park.

“They have been handed over to Krabi City Police to face charges. The penalty they will face will be up to the court,” Maj Anurak said.
- See more at: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Phi-Phi-tour-boat-oil-dumpers-charged/58053#ad-image-0

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Best of our wild blogs: 2 May 15

One hour of Herps: Jagah Duty at BTNR
Herpetological Society of Singapore

Destination Singapore: A Birder’s Gateway to the Jungles of Southeast Asia – Part 3
Singapore Bird Group

Morning Walk At Venus Drive (01 May 2015)
Beetles@SG BLOG

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Haze Tracker site gives easy access to key info

Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 2 May 15;

To get news and information about the haze, you can now go to the Haze Tracker website.

Created by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) with the help of software firm Tech+Art, the site will host the institute's original content on the topic, as well as articles and studies from research institutes, non-government groups and media outlets.

The SIIA said the goal is to give concerned citizens easy access to useful information.

"We also hope the one-stop portal will help analysts, journalists, activists and policymakers in their work," it said.

The site also directs people to an online research mapping tool developed by the National University of Singapore's Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing.

With this tool, you can view a map of the region, and overlay data such as satellite images and locations of hot spots detected by the satellites.

Hot spots are areas of high temperature on the ground, and indicate where there could be fires.

Users can also superimpose a concession map that identifies which firms are responsible for various land plots in Indonesia.

But the SIIA acknowledged the map might be out-of-date as it relies on 2010 data from Indonesia's forestry ministry.

It noted: "Some member countries in ASEAN have decided against making public their official concession maps due to sovereignty concerns.

In countries such as Indonesia, the central authorities are still in the process of consolidating an accurate and up-to-date map."

While the Government and non-government groups have created haze websites as well, researchers said Haze Tracker is "nice and friendly".

Dr Erik Velasco from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology said the materials were well-presented.

"It could work as a serious and independent reference for people to learn more about the haze," the research scientist said, but noted that researchers and analysts would appreciate more technical and scientific reports.

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Wildlife decline may lead to 'empty landscape'

Helen Briggs BBC 1 May 15;

Populations of some of the world's largest wild animals are dwindling, raising the threat of an "empty landscape", say scientists.

About 60% of giant herbivores - plant-eaters - including rhinos, elephants and gorillas, are at risk of extinction, according to research.

Analysis of 74 herbivore species, published in Science Advances, blamed poaching and habitat loss.

A previous study of large carnivores showed similar declines.

Prof William Ripple, of Oregon State University, led the research looking at herbivores weighing over 100kg, from the reindeer up to the African elephant.

"This is the first time anyone has analysed all of these species as a whole," he said.

"The process of declining animals is causing an empty landscape in the forest, savannah, grasslands and desert."

Prof David Macdonald, of Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, was among the team of 15 international scientists.

"The big carnivores, like the charismatic big cats or wolves, face horrendous problems from direct persecution, over-hunting and habitat loss, but our new study adds another nail to their coffin - the empty larder," he said.

"It's no use having habitat if there's nothing left to eat in it."

According to the research, the decline is being driven by a number of factors including habitat loss, hunting for meat or body parts, and competition for food and resources with livestock.

With rhinoceros horn worth more than gold, diamonds or cocaine on illegal markets, rhinos could be extinct in the wild within 20 years in Africa, said the researchers.

The consequences of large wild herbivore decline include:
=Loss of habitat: for example, elephants maintain forest clearings by trampling vegetation
=Effects on the food chain: large predators such as lions, leopards, and hyena rely on large herbivores for food
=Seed dispersal: large herbivores eat seeds which are carried over long distances
=Impact on humans: an estimated one billion people rely on wild meat for subsistence while the loss of iconic herbivores will have a negative impact on tourism

The biggest losses are in South East Asia, India and Africa.

Europe and North America have already lost most of their large herbivores in a previous wave of extinctions.

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Limiting global warming to 2 degrees 'inadequate', scientists say

Laurie Goering Reuters Yahoo News 1 May 15;

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Holding global warming to a 2-degree Celsius temperature rise – the cornerstone of an expected new global climate agreement in December – will fail to prevent many of climate change's worst impacts, a group of scientists and other experts warned Friday.

With a 2-degree temperature hike, small islands in the Pacific may become uninhabitable, weather-related disasters will become more frequent, workers in many parts of the world will face sweltering conditions and large numbers of people will be displaced, particularly in coastal cities, the experts warned.

The 2-degree goal is "inadequate, posing serious threats for fundamental human rights, labor and migration and displacement" the experts said in a series of reports commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of 20 countries chaired by the Philippines.

Some group members, particularly Pacific island states, have previously asked for a lower temperature target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"The reports underscore just how much difference even half a degree of additional heat makes for people's lives, for working conditions and for the movement of people," Mary Ann Lucille Sering, who heads the Philippines Climate Change Commission, said in a statement.

"How can we possibly subscribe to more than double current warming given what less than 1 degree Celsius has entailed?"

The Philippines has suffered from a series of devastating typhoons in the past few years, and "arguments not to strengthen our aims (on curbing climate change) start to wear thin," she said.

According to scientists, rising temperatures - which have so far jumped less than 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times - are already bringing an increase in the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters around the world.

Those disasters, combined with sea level rise related to rising temperatures, threaten to put coastal cities at risk and lead to more displacement and migration "with devastating consequences," said Walter Kaelin of the international Nansen Initiative on disaster- and climate-induced displacement.

"The effects of climate change on human mobility are a global reality that keeps growing in complexity and proportion," Kaelin, who formerly represented the U.N. Secretary-General on the rights of the internally displaced, said in the report.

He suggested a review of the 2-degree climate goal is needed.

John Knox, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment who led the production of the report, also said a 2 degree Celsius or higher rise in global temperature presented too high a risk.

"Even moving from one to two degrees of warming negatively affects the full enjoyment of a wide range of human rights," he said, and will make it more complicated for countries to "respect, protect and promote human rights."

In December, negotiators from countries around the world will meet in Paris to agree a new global pact to curb additional climate change and deal with its impacts. Part of that agreement will include a decision on whether the current goal of holding global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius is adequate.

Measurements of existing climate-changing emissions, and emissions reductions pledges already in place by governments, suggest the world is currently on a path toward a 4-degree Celsius rise in temperature by 2100, scientists say.

(Reporting by Laurie Goering; editing by Ros Russell)

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