Indonesia: Land in Jambi in critical condition

The Jakarta Post 10 Oct 16;

The condition of an estimated 500,000 hectares of land in Jambi, both forested and non-forested, has been described as “critical” by the Jambi provincial administration.

The administration pledges to take action to conserve the land to prevent the damage spreading further.

Jambi governor Zumi Zola said the actions was necessary to protect the local environment.

The governor said the damage to the land could trigger natural disasters such as floods, landslides and drought. Therefore, he said, anticipatory measures were urgently needed.

“Although the size of forested land in Jambi is still huge, it is believed that the size keeps declining year by year,” he said on Saturday.

Currently, there are more than 2,000 million hectares of forest land in Jambi, 40 percent of Jambi’s total land area.

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Indonesia: Lack of rain paralyzes Koto Panjang hydro power plant

Rizal Harahap The Jakarta Post 10 Oct 16;

The scarcity of rain upstream of the Kampar River has caused a drop in the volume of water coming into the Koto Panjang hydro power plant in Kampar regency in Riau to below the minimum required, paralyzing the generator's turbines.

Muhammad Nasir, the head of the Logistics and Emergency Department in Kampar’s Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), said Monday the water volumes had been decreasing for weeks and there had been no signs of improvement. “In the last three days, the spillway gate at the Koto Panjang dam has been completely dry,” he said.

He said the decreasing volumes had affected the output of water flowing into the Kampar River downstream, making the lower part of the river more shallow.

Dwi Suryo Abdullah, a manager at state utility company PLN for Riau and Riau Islands region, said Monday the only hydro power plant in Riau had been paralyzed for three days. “Three turbines that have a capacity of 114 megawatts cannot be operated,” he said.

“I have to emphasize, it was caused by nature, not technical problems,” he said.

“We have tried to turn on one turbine to get 20 MW for 24 hours but the result was a decrease of water height by 5 centimeters. It means the water needed to generate power is more than the water that can get into the dam. Not efficient at all,” he said.

The paralyzed power plant has caused Riau to lose 70 MW of power. To balance the deficit, Riau had to import power from Sumatra’s central and southern parts. (evi)

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The Rising Environmental Toll Of China’s Offshore Island Grab

To stake its claim in the strategic South China Sea, China is building airstrips, ports, and other facilities on disputed islands and reefs. Scientists say the activities are destroying key coral reef ecosystems and will heighten the risks of a fisheries collapse in the region.
Mike Ives environment360 10 Oct 16;

In the late 1980s, marine biologist John McManus and his colleagues made a surprising discovery while studying near-shore Philippine reefs in the South China Sea: Some fish species seemed to disappear, only to reappear a year or two later. “We figured they weren’t coming from other parts of the coast because the entire South China Sea, with the exception of Brunei, is equally overfished,” says McManus, a professor of marine biology and fisheries at the University of Miami.

The researchers’ hunch, which proved to be correct, was that larvae were floating to the near-shore reefs from the Spratlys — an offshore archipelago that lies between Vietnam and the Philippines and is a key spawning ground for one of the world’s most productive fisheries. Scientists later reported that the South China Sea, which is the size of India and has hundreds of islands and islets, has some of the highest marine biodiversity on earth, with 571 known species of reef corals alone.

But the South China Sea’s rich natural heritage, long threatened by overfishing, now faces a new ecological danger: A campaign by China to build artificial islands on disputed reefs in the Spratlys and elsewhere in the sea. China’s island-building initiative signals an aggressive stance intended to secure dominance in the South China Sea, a strategic area that contains some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and is a potential source of oil deposits.

Over the past several years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered engineers to pile sand onto some of the sea’s disputed offshore reefs, mostly in the Spratlys, with the apparent goal of building military bases there. Satellite imagery shows that China has so far constructed seven artificial islands in the Spratlys, and added ports, radar equipment, and airstrips. Three of the seven islands were designed as military bases, U.S. military officials say, and one has an anchorage larger than Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor. Marine scientists worry that the next target for dredging and construction will be Scarborough Shoal off the Philippine coast — which, like the Spratlys, is also known for its rich biodiversity.

Based on satellite information, computer-modeling data, and previous studies of human impacts on coral reefs, scientists are concerned that China’s campaign may be causing irreparable damage. Coral reefs in the Spratlys and other offshore regions, including the Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal, supply larvae for fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people. They also are a living seed bank that could help the region’s marine communities deal with the long-term impacts of climate change.

The scientists’ concerns stem partly from the island-construction process. Ships more than 300 feet long have been dredging deep-water channels and harbors, while smaller boats have dredged in shallower waters around reef flats and lagoons by digging up corals with their propellers, according to a forthcoming study by McManus. Both activities produce plumes of sand and silt that coat living reefs and block their access to sunlight. Deep-water dredging can also lower the existing seafloor by up to 30 feet, the study said, changing wave patterns and inhibiting the growth of the red algae that are essential to reef calcification and sedimentation.

Additional local and regional damage to reefs and fish stocks will occur, scientists say, if China turns some of the new artificial islands on the Spratlys into harbors for the country’s commercial fishing fleet.

“What you’re essentially talking about is destroying the equivalent of seven worldwide natural heritage areas,” says Kent Carpenter, a professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia who has studied coral reefs in the Philippines for four decades.

The long-term environmental impacts of China’s activities on the seven Spratly reefs it occupies may never be known unless the Chinese military allows independent experts to conduct research there, scientists say. But nearly six square miles of artificial islands have been built recently on disputed reefs in the sea, primarily in the greater Spratly Islands, according to the McManus study. Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines accounted for just a tiny percentage of that construction, the study said, while China’s activities were responsible for 99 percent of the resulting damage to offshore coral reefs.

Although six square miles may seem like a small area, the McManus study indicates that the total damage from island building and dredging has already affected more than 10 percent of the Spratlys’ total shallow reef area.

China has long claimed offshore territories in as much as 90 percent of the South China Sea. Its claims overlap with competing ones by Vietnam, the Philippines, and other nations. Tensions over the claims have simmered for decades, and some countries have conducted limited land reclamation work on disputed islands and atolls.

In July, the Philippines won a landmark case at a United Nations tribunal, successfully challenging China’s territorial claims in the sea. (Both McManus and Carpenter worked as paid science advisors to the Philippines on the case.) But President Xi has vowed to ignore the tribunal’s ruling, and some analysts think that China’s island-building efforts could raise geopolitical tensions and eventually lead to military conflict with rival claimants or the United States.

At the center of this drama lie the 12 main islets and more than 100 coral reefs of the Spratlys. Scientists describe the Spratlys as biological “stepping stones” for successive generations of corals and fish, meaning that larvae float hundreds of miles toward the Spratlys on ocean currents and stop in eddies near their corals to breed. Successive generations then travel further to create or repopulate marine communities elsewhere in the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, or the Coral Triangle between Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands.

In addition to producing larvae, the Spratly reefs also function as biological “roadside cafes” for migratory fish, including tuna, that travel through the South China Sea on their way to the Indian Ocean and stop at the Spratlys to feed, he adds. “So any damage to them [the reefs] will have long-term repercussions,” says Wilkinson.

The South China Sea is chronically understudied, in large part because so many of its offshore rocks, reef, and atolls are military-patrolled zones that scientists cannot access. Chou Loke Ming, a coral reef expert at the National University of Singapore, says that nearly all on-the-ground scientific research on the South China Sea has so far been confined to near-shore areas where territorial ownership is not as murky as it is in the Spratlys.

But the existing science already paints a portrait of abundant biodiversity. For example, a 2015 computer-modeling study found that larvae from the coral species Acropora millepora, whose intricate branches help to shelter other organisms, float from the Spratlys across large swathes of the South China Sea and the Coral Triangle, “further highlighting the importance of the Spratly Islands to the greater region.” And a 2015 species survey said previous estimates of the South China Sea’s reef biodiversity have been “exceedingly low,” largely because of a lack of data for the Spratlys and some reefs off the Philippine island of Luzon.

Scientists think the Spratly reefs’ genetic diversity could help them weather the impacts of storms, ocean acidification, and other impacts linked to global warming. Larvae from the reefs could help repopulate distant marine communities that are less biologically resilient. If patches of biodiversity “blink out” occasionally across the South China Sea, “the idea is that if you have a lot of exchange, they’ll be reseeded in the near future,” says Eric Treml, a marine biologist at the University of Melbourne who has created computer models of regional fish-larvae movement.

Scientists say China’s island building may imperil that system of genetic diversity and biological connectivity. But how great is the cumulative threat from reef building and fishing? McManus estimates that China has already caused 55 square miles of “decadal-scale” damage through giant-clam harvesting and seafloor dredging near its new islands. That is worrying because seafloor dredging can kill corals by blocking their access to sunlight as has happened near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where sediment plumes extended for up to 28 miles from a seafloor dredging site.

By contrast, only 6.5 square miles of South China Sea reefs have been damaged by China’s island building and dredging for channel and harbor projects, according to McManus’ forthcoming study. Yet he describes that damage as “essentially permanent.”

“You cannot grow a coral on an airstrip because they don’t grow on airstrips; they grow underwater,” says Edgardo D. Gomez, a marine biologist and a professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines. And because the Spratly reefs have such a high degree of species endemism, Gomez adds, “We may have lost a number of species that we never discovered.”

Scientists also worry that China’s island-building campaign could exacerbate the risk of a fisheries collapse in the South China Sea. Decades of commercial trawl fishing in the sea’s coastal areas have already led to declining catches in most of its fisheries, and many Chinese and Southeast Asian fishing fleets — some with support from government programs — have begun to target deep-water habitats, according to the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia.

The Spratlys and other offshore reefs have long been somewhat protected from these pressures because fishermen saw them as difficult and dangerous to access, scientists say. But China’s new islands could change the equation by providing offshore harbors for Chinese fishing fleets. Wilkinson says that once ports are established on the new islands, “fishing boats will use the area more and more until eventually they deplete populations.”

In June, China’s State Oceanic Administration said in a statement that environmental protection measures, including advanced dredging techniques, had been implemented during planning and construction of its artificial islands, and that the islands would eventually have facilities that deal with environmental protection. "Impact on coral reef ecology is localized, temporary, controllable, and restorable," the agency added. Two coral reef experts from China — at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the government’s South China Sea Institute of Oceanology — did not respond to interview requests for this article.

Carpenter says the South China Sea is so politically sensitive that marine biologists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China typically do not feel comfortable discussing the ecological impacts of the island-building campaign in public. But in private, he adds, “they’ll tell you they’re incensed, just like we are.”

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Australia: Northern prawn fleet seek answer on unexplained mass mangrove dieback in Gulf of Carpentaria

Charlie McKillop ABC News 10 Oct 16;

One of Australia's largest trawler operators is questioning why more is not being done to explain a mass mangrove dieback event in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Austral Fisheries chief executive officer David Carter has welcomed a Senate inquiry into the impact of climate change on Australia's fisheries and marine biodiversity.

But Mr Carter, whose company owns 10 of the 52 boats in the $100 million northern prawn fishery, said there was mounting concern about the apparent lack of urgency being directed at the problem.

"I've been disturbed by the lack of interest in the impact of those mangrove deaths," he said.

"We've had nobody on the ground to look at what the possible cause was. We can speculate about climate change but it might be a disease event or a contamination or something, but we just don't know.

"These are really questions for the various governments to be thinking about, certainly for the industry to be watching."

International mangrove expert Dr Norm Duke — who described the scene as the most "dramatic, pronounced extreme level of dieback" he'd ever seen — admitted a lack of funding had prevented him from returning to the site since he surveyed more than 7,500 hectares of dead mangroves in June.

Preliminary findings indicated the most likely cause was a combination of low moisture due to extended lack of rainfall, rising ocean temperatures, and a drop in sea level but researchers had "reached a limit" with what could be achieved using available climate records and satellite imagery to measure impacts.

Dr Duke said mangrove dieback was a natural phenomena but had not occurred anywhere in the world on the scale or as rapidly as witnessed in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

"Imagine if that happened on the east coast of Australia, the distance from Melbourne to Sydney or Sydney to Brisbane, if we lost 10 to 25 per cent of mangroves along that coast in one month. What would be the reaction?"

"Is remote Australia somehow not as important?" Dr Duke said.

The James Cook University-based scientist was hoping a scientific paper he had written would soon be published to further amplify the case for urgent action.

"We'd like to be able to survey the entire shoreline and we'd like to look at the water quality in the estuaries to ascertain as to why there were differences in different river catchments," he said.

"What we discovered in the mapping was a considerable variation in the degree of, or severity of, the dieback in some rivers but not others across that 1,000 kilometres.

"It would make sense to look at why, of if there was any correlation with that pattern of dieback."

Senate inquiry to examine impact of climate change on fisheries

Mr Carter said the Senate inquiry initiated by the Greens into the impact of climate change on Australia's marine biodiversity would help the government to focus on what was at stake for the industry.

"The fishing industry, and I think agribusiness generally, is really at the forefront of those changes and really needing to adapt, one way or the other," Mr Carter said.

"You marry our mangrove dieback experience with the coral bleaching events, disappearance of kelp beds along hundreds of kilometres of the West Australian coastline, migration of warmer water species down the east coast further south in response to warming temperatures and you've got quite a lot of changes that are going on that are indicators really of climate change in action."

But Dr Duke said the issues were "bigger than fisheries" and it was disappointing the intense media attention sparked by initial reporting of the mangrove dieback had not translated to specific funding commitments.

"I mean where else has this sort of dieback happened?" he said.

"If it wasn't for people like fishermen on the ground who had reported it to us, then we probably still wouldn't know.

"That's not really the way to be doing shoreline monitoring if you're talking about these things."

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Call for action to protect seagrasses - 'the lungs of the sea'

Helen Briggs BBC News 10 Oct 16;

More than 100 scientists from 28 countries have called for global action to protect seagrass meadows.

Seagrasses are flowering plants that form dense underwater beds in shallow water.

Distinct from seaweed, the plants provide shelter and food for a large range of animals, including fish, marine mammals and birds.

Many seagrass meadows have been lost because of human activities, say researchers.

In a statement, the scientists said: "Seagrass meadows are important fish nurseries and key fishing grounds around the world.

"The loss of seagrass puts the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk and exposes many people to increasing levels of poverty.

"Seagrass loss also places the viability of our remaining populations of green turtle, dugong and species of seahorse at risk.

"Seagrass loss should not be an option."

The call for action is being led by Dr Richard Unsworth of Swansea University.

There is no international legislation for seagrasses, therefore protection typically happens at a local or regional level.

'Lungs of the sea'

The World Seagrass Association statement has been released ahead of an international meeting on seagrass protection in North Wales this month.

Call for more protection for seagrass

Seagrass meadows in 'perilous state'

Seagrass, which is found in shallow waters of coastal regions on every continent except Antarctica, is declining globally at a rate of about 2% a year.

In January, a study of seagrass meadows around the coast of the British Isles found evidence of damage from pollution and human disturbances.

Surveys of 11 sites in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland found high nitrogen levels in water were affecting the health of seagrass meadows at all but two areas.

Seagrass is known as the "lungs of the sea" because of its ability to generate oxygen through photosynthesis.


Seagrass is a marine powerhouse, so why isn’t it on the world’s conservation agenda?
The Conversation 11 Oct 16;

Authors
Richard K.F. Unsworth
Research Officer (Marine Ecology), Swansea University

Jessie Jarvis
Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Len McKenzie
Principal Researcher, James Cook University

Mike van Keulen
Senior Lecturer in Plant Sciences and Marine Biology, Murdoch University


Seagrass has been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth, it is responsible for keeping the world’s coastlines clean and healthy, and supports many different species of animal, including humans. And yet, it is often overlooked, regarded as merely an innocuous feature of the ocean.

But the fact is that this plant is vital – and it is for that reason that the World Seagrass Association has issued a consensus statement, signed by 115 scientists from 25 countries, stating that these important ecosystems can no longer be ignored on the conservation agenda. Seagrass is part of a marginalised ecosystem that must be increasingly managed, protected and monitored – and needs urgent attention now.

Seagrass meadows are of fundamental importance to human life. They exist on the coastal fringes of almost every continent on earth, where seagrass and its associated biodiversity supports fisheries’ productivity. These flowering plants are the powerhouses of the sea, creating life in otherwise unproductive muddy environments. The meadows they form stabilise sediments, filter vast quantities of nutrients and provide one of the planet’s most efficient oceanic stores of carbon.

But the habitat seagrasses create is suffering due to the impact of humans: poor water quality, coastal development, boating and destructive fishing are all resulting in seagrass loss and degradation. This leads in turn to the loss of most of the fish and invertebrate populations that the meadows support. The green turtle, dugong and species of seahorse, for example, all rely on seagrass for food and shelter, and loss endangers their viability. The plants are important fish nurseries and key fishing grounds. Losing them puts the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk too, and exposes them to increasing levels of poverty.

Rapid loss

There is clear, extensive evidence of the rapid loss of seagrass. Growing historic, recent and current records show degradation and fragmentation of the plant around the world. In Biscayne Bay, Florida, for example, 2.6km² of seagrass disappeared between 1938 and 2009. Up to 38% of the seagrass in a lagoon in the south of France may have been lost since the 1920s. The nearshore waters of Singapore has lost some 45% over the past 50 years. Similar examples have been reported in Canada, the British Isles and the Caribbean too.


Even the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has suffered periods of widespread decline and loss of seagrass over the past decade, particularly along its central and southern developed coasts; a consequence of multiple years of above average rainfall, poor water quality, and climate-related impacts followed by extreme weather events. The most recent published monitoring surveys show that the majority of inshore seagrass meadows across the reef – which cover some 3,063 km² – remain in a vulnerable state, with weak resistance, low abundance and a low capacity to recover.

Human impact

As the human population grows and the world economy expands, there will be increasing pressure on our coastal zone. And it must be ensured that this doesn’t negatively influence seagrass meadows. It is already recognised that poor water quality, specifically elevated nutrients, is the biggest threat to seagrasses; these problems are particularly acute in many developing nations with rapidly growing economies, such as Indonesia, where municipal infrastructure is often limited and environmental legislation is largely weak.

Coastal development is a competition for finite space: boating, tourism, aquaculture, ports, energy projects and housing are all placing pressures on seagrass survival. These threats exist with a backdrop of the impacts of environmental change and sea level rise too. Humans must reduce their local-scale impact on seagrass so that it can remain resilient to longer term environmental stressors.

There can be a bright future for this oceanic plant, however. Across the world, communities, NGOs and governments are beginning to embrace the monitoring of meadows. As knowledge of the plants’ ecology improves, conservationists are learning more about how to successfully restore seagrass meadows: Tampa Bay in Florida and Virginia’s bays, for example, have seen genuine large scale recovery. We also now have greater appreciation for the value of seagrass in the global carbon cycle, and governments are more willing to include its conservation in ways to mitigate carbon emissions. Though commendable, these are just the first steps on a course of targeted strategic action.

As the WSA statement calls, seagrass meadows must be put at the forefront of marine conservation today. We need to increase its resilience by improving coastal water quality, prevent damage from destructive fishing practices and boating, include seagrasses in Marine Protected Areas and ensure that fisheries aren’t over exploited. Seagrasses also need to be managed effectively during coastal developments, and steps taken to ensure recovery and restoration in areas where losses have occurred.

The scientific community must be more united, not only in its work, but in engaging more actively with the general public, coastal managers and conservation agencies too. Seagrass ecosystems must fully pervade policy around the globe too, as well as the consciousness of our global coastal communities. For the sake of future generations we need to work together to ensure the survival of the world’s seagrass meadows now.

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Best of our wild blogs: 10 Oct 16

Oil spill exercise: The solution to pollution still dilution?
wild shores of singapore

Oriental Pied Hornbills in my garden!
My Nature Experiences

Metalsmiths & Flycatchers – A Japanese Garden Adventure
Winging It

African Flame Snail (Limicolaria flammea) @ Lower Seletar Reservoir
Monday Morgue

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Nature Society on mission to save horseshoe crabs

To conserve them better, society finds out more about the animals, urges other countries to do so too
Audrey Tan Straits Times 10 Oct 16;

Little is known about the horseshoe crabs in Asia, other than the fact that they suffer from an identity crisis. They may be called crabs, but these ancient animals are actually more closely related to arachnids - a group that includes spiders.

The Nature Society (Singapore) or NSS, however, is on a mission to find out more about these animals in a bid to conserve them better, by collecting data about native populations and urging countries that have them to do the same.

There are four species of horseshoe crabs found around the world, three of which can be found in Asia.

But the three species - coastal, mangrove and Chinese horseshoe crabs - are considered data deficient on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, which means not enough is known about them to classify how close to extinction they are.

The Atlantic horseshoe crab, found in the Americas, is the only species with an international classification - it is considered vulnerable to extinction, having been harvested for its blood, which is used in the pharmaceutical industry.

"More information is needed to reassess the status of the three Asian horseshoe crab species, which live in fast-disappearing mudflat and mangrove habitats, " said NSS volunteer J. Vanitha, who was in Hawaii last month to speak about the society's ongoing horseshoe crab rescue and research programme at the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

In Asia, these animals are threatened with habitat loss as mudflats and mangroves make way for development.

In 2012, the NSS proposed to IUCN, the international body in charge of classification, that there was a need to review the status of Asian horseshoe crabs and encourage cooperation between countries which have the Asian horseshoe crabs to conserve the habitats.

Their proposal was accepted and the society is now working to collect data on two of the three Asian horseshoe crab species found in Singapore - the coastal and mangrove horseshoe crabs.

NSS is also in talks with naturalists and scientists in neighbouring countries - such as Malaysia, which has all three Asian horseshoe crab species - on how they can get involved in the effort to reassess the status of the Asian horseshoe crabs.

One way to do this is to enlist the help of citizen science volunteers, which NSS has been doing, said Ms Vanitha, 35, a teacher.

Since 2005, NSS volunteers have been venturing out to the Mandai mudflats - a coastal habitat near Sungei Buloh - on a monthly basis to rescue horseshoe crabs entangled in prawn nets. But the programme expanded in 2007, when volunteers realised they could use the opportunity to measure, record and study the horseshoe crabs.

Mr Stephen Beng, chairman of the NSS' Marine Conservation Group, said horseshoe crabs have an important place in the marine food chain. Their eggs and young, for instance, provide food for birds that stop by the Mandai mudflats.

He added: "Horseshoe crabs are a flagship species of mudflats and mangroves, and citizen science programmes like ours can help raise awareness about the significance of their habitats - less than 1 per cent of Singapore remains covered with highly diverse and productive mangroves."

Students from Republic Polytechnic's (RP) Diploma in Environmental Science are also working on rearing mangrove horseshoe crabs in captivity to gain insights into their breeding cycle, with the intention of breeding them until they reach the reproductive stage and then releasing them into areas where they were once abundant.

Dr Linus Mak, a lecturer from the Diploma in Environmental Science programme at RP's School of Applied Science, said: "It will offer insight into the local species, the threats they face, breeding and conservation methods, and help bridge the gap in data deficiency."

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE
Learn more about the horseshoe crab
http://str.sg/4xYf

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Zero waste way of life

Lea Wee, The Straits Times AsiaOne 9 Oct 16;

They take their own cutlery, containers and water tumblers when they go out. They avoid straws, plastic bags and food packaging.

Some have a compost bin at home where they dump their kitchen scraps and use the compost to fertilise plants.

Others turn fruit peels into eco enzymes for household cleaning.

When it is that time of the month, some women use reusable menstrual cups and cloth pads instead of disposable pads.

These are just some measures adopted by members of the Facebook group, Journey to Zero Waste Life in Singapore, which seeks to reduce waste in daily lives.

With more than 900 members, it was started in May by software engineer Gan Kah Hwee, 29, who wanted to spread awareness about sustainable living in Singapore.

She had always wanted to be eco- conscious, avoiding disposables and using her tumbler and lunchbox.

However, she says: "I felt paiseh (embarrassed) about doing something different. I also didn't see others doing the same."

She changed her mind after watching the award-winning documentary Trashed (2012) by British film-maker Candida Brady in April. She says: "I realised that if we don't practise 'reduce, reuse and recycle', the trash problem is going to be serious. We have to start with ourselves and not wait for the authorities to do something."

She signed up for a sustainability mentorship programme with environmental consultancy Green Future Solutions where she met likeminded participants.

She then started the Facebook group as a form of support. "We post photos of food we buy in our reusable containers. We learn from one another which restaurants and stalls don't entertain reusables and try to avoid them," she says.

The group started with about five members, including Ms Gan's boyfriend, who runs a software firm.

Then, at a climate change seminar, she met representatives from the non-governmental agency People's Movement To Stop Haze and Singapore Youth for Climate Action and invited them to the group.

They, in turn, invited their network of environmental bodies.

The group, which has about 40 new members every week, comprises mostly people from Singapore of all ages and from all walks of life.

About 100 of them attended its first sharing session on Oct 1 at the Visual Art Studio in Boat Quay.

During the three-hour event, Malaysian environmental journalist Aurora Tin shared her experiment in leading a zero waste lifestyle.

Singaporeans Eugene Tay, from environmental group Zero Waste SG, and Farah Sanwari, from Repair Kopitiam, where people meet to repair things, also spoke about their initiatives.

Environmental educator Tan Hang Chong shared tips on how to avoid junk mail while Ms Xyn Foo, of Open Book Cafe in Bukit Pasoh Road, talked about her efforts to reduce waste at her cafe by using stainless steel straws and not offering serviettes.

Vendors also shared information about eco-friendly products such as loofah kitchen sponges, bamboo toothbrushes and reusable beeswax food wrap.

Participants also got to sample "more sustainable" coffee roasted fresh by the Really Really Fresh Coffee movement, a Kickstarter- funded project that advocates roasting coffee on demand to reduce wastage, as roasted coffee has a short shelf life.

Ms Gan hopes to organise more of such sessions. "Maybe we can visit an incineration plant and recycling facilities to see where our trash goes.

We are also thinking of organising workshops on how to make toothpaste, compost bins and eco enzymes."

A year's trash in a bottle

Since the start of the year , Ms Aurora Tin, her husband and their dog, Lucky, have generated so little trash that their rubbish fits into a 500ml glass jar.

Ms Tin, 28, who works as a freelance environmental journalist in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, made a resolution to live a "zero trash" lifestyle late last year.

She was in town recently to share her story with the zero waste community here.

She told the audience that in her job, she often writes about the importance of the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle.

But one day early last year, she found the dustbin next to her workdesk full of the empty packaging of the snacks she had eaten. "I felt like a hypocrite.

On the one hand, I was telling people to practise the three Rs, but on the other hand, I was creating so much trash myself."

In December, she found the "solution to her guilt" when she read the book No Impact Man by Colin Beavan, which chronicles how he, his wife and their daughter tried to make zero impact on the environment while living in Manhattan, New York.

She says: "I was very inspired and thought maybe I could do the same in Malaysia."

Taking a leaf out of the book of New Yorker and blogger Lauren Singer, who managed to squeeze two years of trash into a 16oz (about 473ml) mason jar, Ms Tin resolved to fit one year of her family's trash into a glass jar.

She was then renting a room in a condominium with her solar engineer husband, Mr Lau Tzeh Wei, 28, and their dog.

She tells The Sunday Times that they started preparing themselves about two weeks before the turn of 2016 to give themselves "some time to adjust, as habits cannot change overnight".

To find alternatives to plastic containers, they got family and friends to pass them empty glass jars they no longer wanted.

The couple gave away food with packaging to their friends so they would not have empty packaging to trash.

They converted their dustbin into a recycle bin.

Food waste was stored in the freezer and donated to an environmental non-governmental organisation after one to two weeks.

When they later rented a bigger space in a terrace house, they created a compost bin.

Much effort went into avoiding plastic bags and products including food, household and personal hygiene items that came with packaging which cannot be reused or recycled.

To avoid packaged products often found in supermarkets, they started buying groceries from the wet market and used a shopping bag for vegetables, tiffin carriers for wet produce such as tofu, and stainless steel containers for meat.

They stopped buying some of their favourite processed canned food such as baked beans and pasta sauce, as well as Milo packs and milk cartons.

Stores where household detergents and condiments such as soya sauce can be refilled became places they patronised.

Instead of plastic toothbrushes, they used bamboo ones, which are biodegradable.

They also made their own toothpaste from coconut oil and baking soda.

Ms Tin switched to using a menstrual cup, which is a flexible cup inserted into the vagina to collect menstrual blood.

It can be cleaned and re-used. In the last month, she stopped using shampoo.

She says: "Over time, we found there are many things we can live without.

If we really need something, we will always be able to find a substitute for it. For instance, instead of milk, we now take soy milk."

Life became simpler.

She says: "In the past, I tended to use more condiments when I cooked, but nowadays, it's just sugar, salt, soya sauce and coconut oil."

Thanks to practical tips from the book, Zero Waste Home, and the Facebook group, Zero Waste Heroes, the journey has not been too rocky, she adds.

The most challenging part was in the first few months, when she and her husband were caught out by unexpected situations.

For instance, a cup of hot Milo came back with a plastic stirrer and their checked-in luggage had a sticker plastered on it.

They have since learnt to scan restaurants before making their orders and to travel without checking in their luggage.

Her husband found it difficult at first to refuse gifts from others. Ms Tin says: "I'd get upset when he came back from events with items, such as a T-shirt in a plastic bag."

So far, however, the people around them, including Ms Tin's parents, have been supportive.

Her mother-in-law sometimes still gives her food that comes in plastic bags or apples with stickers on them.

She says with a laugh: "I would quietly forget to bring them home or reject them gently."

To date, her glass bottle is about two-thirds full and is largely filled with small plastic parts, as well as some empty medicine blister packs and used dental floss.

She believes they are on track to keep all of this year's trash inside it.

She has not decided if she will keep her trash in another jar once this one fills up. But she is sure she and her husband are not returning to their previous way of life.

They have cut their spending by 40 per cent, through eating at home more often and buying fewer things.

Ms Tin says: "We also feel healthier as we usually dine in and eat mostly vegetables and grains."

Her greatest reward? "I feel so much less guilty towards the Mother Nature I love."

Baby, let's buy pre-loved

Being environmentally conscious rises to a new level of difficulty when one has children.

Outreach manager Benjamin Tay, 34, who carries his own lunchbox and cutlery, uses second-hand gadgets and does not drive, found being eco-conscious easy at first. But with the arrival of his daughter, Margaret, in 2013, reducing waste became more difficult.

"Babies seem to need so many things, from diapers to milk to toys," he says.

He and his wife, Wong Lexin, 33, a housewife, try their best. Margaret, who is turning three, wears cloth diapers at home and uses disposables only when they are out.

Other than a Lego set, which Mr Tay bought because she can "play with it for a long time", her toys are mostly gifts.

Her clothes are also either gifts or hand-me- downs.

Her stroller, diaper bag and storage boxes for toys were bought from a community marketplace for buying and selling.

The children's books she reads are borrowed from the library.

She sleeps in a toddler-sized bed which was converted from her cot and can be upgraded to a single bed.

The family, who live with Mr Tay's parents, are looking to buy a three-room Housing Board flat.

Mr Tay estimates he has saved at least $1,000 by turning to reusables and pre-loved items.

While he does take Margaret to toy stores, he lets her know in advance that she can only window shop and that she has many toys at home. "So far, she has not asked us to buy toys for her," he says.

When he was a child, he read a book about the impact of human behaviour on climate change and that influenced him to buy less and waste less.

Because of him, his wife of four years also does not patronise hawker stalls that use disposables.

Mr Tay sold his car this year to reduce pollution.

And to avoid creating electrical waste, he uses a second-hand phone, iPad and a refurbished Macbook.

The haze last year and its impact on his daughter - she had throat irritation and cough - boosted his conviction as an eco warrior.

He started volunteering at People's Movement To Stop Haze.

When the environmental non-governmental organisation was officially registered as a society in June, he became its manager of people and outreach.

While he is passionate about the environment, he would not go to extremes.

"I believe in making compromises. So if the coffee shop uncle does not want to pour the cup of coffee into my tumbler, I'd either finish up the cup of coffee there or pour it into my tumbler myself. Habits take time to change and he may have his constraints."

Reducing waste since she was 10

This eco warrior started young and in small ways.

Ms Oan Jia Xuan, 18, started recycling when she was 10.

The Hwa Chong Institution student says: "I remember putting plastic bottles, paper, metal cans and glass bottles into recycling bags and encouraging my parents to do the same."

In primary school, she urged her classmates to throw plastic bottles and paper into the school's recycling bins.

To save paper during maths class in secondary school, she drew a vertical line down her foolscap so she would have two columns to write in, instead of just one. She says: "The teacher told me not to do it a couple of times, but when I continued to do so, he just left it at that."

She never wastes food and was shocked to learn that others do. She says: "When I was in secondary school, I saw two full trays of beehoon being thrown into the dustbin after a buffet in school. I was shocked to see so much food being thrown away."

During recess, she started reminding her friends to finish their food or to ask for less rice in the first place.

She recalls with a laugh: "I think some of them became afraid to eat with me."

Joining the Green Council, an environmental club at Hwa Chong Institution, boosted her commitment to the green cause.

She became familiar with the waste statistics in Singapore and overseas.

Realising how serious the situation was, she started to consume less.

"I realised that of the 3 Rs of 'reduce, reuse and recycle', Reduce is the most important. If we can reduce, then we don't even need to think about reuse or recycle."

To reduce the use of plastic bags and styrofoam boxes, she takes a tumbler and lunchbox to "tar pau" food and uses a container when she buys buns from the bakery.

She also takes a washable cloth bag instead of a plastic bag to school for putting her soiled clothing in.

Recently, she stopped consuming Yakult, a drink she loves. She explains: "Each time after drinking, you need to throw away an 80ml bottle and a straw."

She has also stopped buying sweets, chocolates and biscuits that are individually packaged. Instead, she buys them in bulk if she wants to eat them.

To save electricity, she has been using cold water to shower for the past year. She charges her phone only once in two days.

Some of her habits have rubbed off on her parents. Her father, 55, who runs his own business, and her housewife mother, 53, now use reusable containers and shopping bags.

They live in a five-room Housing Board flat.

Jia Xuan is so fired up about the cause that she has written to one shopping mall and at least two supermarkets and eight companies, including clothing and furniture shops, to get them to switch from plastics to reusables.

She plans to pursue environmental studies in university.

She says: "I hope to be involved in policy-making one day and help Singapore become a more sustainable country."

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Residents come and go in ECP 'kampung'

MyPaper AsiaOne 10 Oct 16;

More than 50 homeless people live in tents that line the beach at East Coast Park.

Some tents were dismantled and the occupants moved out.

But new ones would move in, pitch their own tents and "squat" in them for as long as they need to.

And so the unlicensed tented community at a secluded part in Area D of East Coast Park, which popped up years ago and has shaped up to look like a "kampung" now, continues to exist.

It is where anyone without a home might come and set up their abodes among others.

Many living in the so-called "Tent Kampung" are new faces, who claimed they had moved in only recently, according to Shin Min Daily News.

A cleaner, who did not want to be identified, said she moved into the "kampung" after returning from Tianjin, her home for five years with her Chinese husband whom she had divorced.

She told the Chinese evening daily that she had fallen out with her family since coming home and did not like living in a rented house with others.

"Now I live here with a male friend.

"We have a quiet life, we keep the surroundings clean, and we do not create trouble," she said.

A man in his 60s said he is living now in the "kampung" with his wife as he is out of a job after injuring himself at work.

"If I am allotted a flat, I will immediately move in," added Mr Chen.

A man, who gave his name as Muhammad Ahmad Rahman and claimed to be the unofficial "penghulu" (village head), said the place consisted of more than a dozen families.

"We're all forced by different circumstances to come here. The tents are our home so please don't take picture," the 29-year-old told Shin Min.

"We commit no crime and rely on ourselves. Sometimes, an MP or volunteers from some family centres will come visit us," he added.

The "penghulu" noted that he did not like living in a welfare home as his freedom would be restricted.

But he admitted he had been issued tickets for "illegal camping in public" by the authorities many times.

Mr Muhammad said he spent only $100 to set up his "home", the purchases being the canvas, the tent rods, a chair and some drawers.

He revealed that he had been without a stable home for 11 years and is alone as his parents had died and his siblings were married.

Shin Min observed that all the homes there look self-sufficient, all containing essential items such as mattress, blanket, kitchen utensils and drying rack.

Some families even partitioned their homes into sleeping and living quarters.

But none has children, it noted.

The "kampung" is situated near a public toilet where the occupants could go to and have their daily baths.

According to the National Parks Board, camping without a permit in public parks is liable to a fine of up to $2,000.

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Malaysia: Environmentalist leads Malaysia's Asian elephants towards brighter future

ADRIAN DAVID New Straits Times 9 Oct 16;

KUALA TERENGANU: Do not take our wildlife for granted as we have already lost the leatherback turtle and Sumatran rhinoceros, warned an environmental expert.

Wong Ee Phin, a final year PhD student at University of Nottingham Malaysia in Semenyih, Selangor, said that it is high time Malaysian stakeholders value and protect our flora and fauna for the benefit of future generations.

“We have to work together to conserve our precious gift. We have lost the leatherback turtle and Sumatran rhino. But there is still time to save our tigers, elephants, turtles and other wildlife, if we start now,” she said.

Even the Sultan of Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, had warned last year of the dangers of poaching, going to the extent of asking what would appear on our national emblem’s coat-of-arms if there were no more Malayan tigers left.

“Malaysia is blessed with high biodiversity and beautiful nature. It is a gift that many do not appreciate until it is lost.

“People from all over the world are fighting for a chance to work with wildlife in Malaysia, such as tigers, elephants and turtles,” said Ee Phin, who will speak on ‘Tracking wild Asian elephants in Peninsular Malaysia’ at the Terengganu International Eco and Marine Tourism conference at Primula Beach Hotel tomorrow.

She said although the Asian elephant is the largest land animal in Asia, it is very challenging to observe it in the wild and study it in the rainforest.

“In comparison to African Savannah elephants, very little is known about the ecology of elephants in the Asian forest, including their behaviour and social structure.

“The greatest threats to elephants in Peninsular Malaysia are habitat loss and fragmentation, which lead to an increase in Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC),” she said.
HECs in Malaysia, she added, occur mainly when elephants raid crops in plantations or villages.

“There is a vital need to work towards reducing HECs and increasing tolerance among communities so that they can coexist with elephants in the same landscape.” said Ee Phin, whose PhD is in Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME), which is a joint research project between the University of Nottingham Malaysia and the wildlife authorities of Peninsular Malaysia.

For the past five years, Ee Phin has been studying wild elephants in the rainforests of Malaysia together with her MEME colleagues, under the supervision of Dr. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz.
“MEME aims to build a local research capacity and carry out research that helps support the Malaysia
n wildlife authorities in their decision-making.
“Conservation and science go hand in hand, as we can only manage what we can measure,” she said.

Ee Phin is also a master’s graduate in ‘Wildlife Biology and Management’, with five years of working experience in Malaysia’s conservation scene, specifically on issues ranging from wetlands, to species biology and ground wildlife enforcement.

“My research focus is on developing non-invasive monitoring methods for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) using hormone and parasitology techniques. What I am beginning to discover is just the tip of the iceberg, and there is so much more to learn.

“I hope my research will provide scientific data to help support the Malaysian authorities in making informed decisions about the management and conservation of wild elephants in Peninsular Malaysia,” she said.

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Indonesia: Jokowi urged to take bolder steps on Riau, Riau Islands airspace control

Fadli Fadli The Jakarta Post 9 Oct 16;

The Riau Islands Legislative Council has urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to continue to strive for Indonesian authorities to take over control over the Flight Information Region (FIR) over Riau and Riau Islands from Singapore.

The call comes after Indonesia failed in its bid for International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council membership for the period 2016-2019.

The council’s speaker, Jumaga Nadeak, said Indonesia’s failed ICAO Council membership bid was bad news for all Riau Islands residents, because it meant the islands’ airspace control would be still in the hands of Singapore. Indonesia could take over the FIR control only if it became an ICAO Council member.

“Indonesia’s sovereignty extends to land, airspace and territorial waters. Therefore, the control of airspace above Riau Islands must be discussed again and renegotiated. We will convey this matter to President Jokowi via the defense minister [Ryamizard Ryacudu] and foreign minister [Retno LP Marsudi],” Jumaga told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The lawmaker explained that on Oct. 7, 2015, Riau Islands Legislative Council members met with then-Air Force chief of staff Air Marshal Agus Supriatna, adding that during the meeting, Agus had said the FIR control over Riau Islands would be handed over to Indonesia in 2019, several years earlier than initially planned.

“Now, that information must be followed up. We will remind President Jokowi to take over the FIR control from Singapore. We are a sovereign country,” said Jumaga.

Hang Nadim Airport general manager Suwarso said technically Indonesia would get many benefits if it took over control over the Riau and Riau Islands airspace from Singapore.

“If Indonesia controls the FIR, flight traffic in Riau and Riau Islands will be managed with economic considerations. Routes assigned to airlines will be shorter, which means there will be a more efficient use of fuel,” said Suwarso.

Currently, he said, Indonesian airlines had flight routes longer than they should and this was not economically feasible.

Citing an example, Suwarso said flight routes assigned to Indonesian airlines that served haj pilgrims departing from Hang Nadim Airport in Batam were from the north, causing unnecessarily long distances.

“Haj airplanes fly longer and spend more fuel because of the routes determined by aviation authorities in Singapore, and we cannot do anything about it, because it’s within their authority,” he said.

Although an airborne training module conducted by the Indonesian Military in the airspace above Riau and Riau Islands was fully controlled by the Air Force’s radar in Tanjung Pinang, in general Singapore still controlled and monitored it, he went on.

“It’s just like someone owns land but its use is controlled by other people,” said Suwarso. (ebf)

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Australia: Thousands without power as storms hit Victoria

Channel NewsAsia 9 Oct 16;

MELBOURNE: Wind gusts and storms lashed the Australian state of Victoria on Sunday (Oct 9), downing trees and causing power-outages for thousands of people.

Roughly 13,000 homes were without power across the country's second-most populous state and Melbourne's International Airport closed one of two runways, causing significant delays.

The outages come a week after severe storms and lighting strikes left all of South Australia state without power for nearly 24 hours, grinding industries to a halt.

An independent review into the South Australian blackout was launched on Friday, after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, of the conservative Liberal Party, blamed the state's high dependence on renewables for the outage.

Turnbull's assessment drew criticism from state leaders, who accused the prime minister of letting ideology drive his comments.

(Reporting by Jarni Blakkarly; Editing by Stephen Coates)

- Reuters

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