Indonesia: Orangutan found on illegal logging site in West Kalimantan

Severianus Endi The Jakarta Post 4 Jul 18;

A team of rangers discovered recently an orangutan and six of its nests during a patrol for illegal logging at the Sungai Putri peat forest area in Ketapang regency, West Kalimantan.

The orangutan was spotted passing by trees in the forest when the team was at the location.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry’s law enforcement and forest protection director Sustyo Iriono said in Pontianak on Wednesday that the finding of the endemic primate made authorities more certain that the area was a natural habitat for the endangered species.

“It [our concern] is no longer about illegal logging but how an ecosystem must be saved,” said Sustyo.

During the operation, security personnel confiscated 486 processed logs of various species and sizes. One man who worked as a furniture producer was named a suspect for his role in financing illegal logging activities and buying illegal wood.

The ministry’s environment and forestry law enforcement director general Rasio Ridho Sani said crimes against the environment and forestry would not only cause losses to the state but also damage the ecosystem and threaten people’s safety.

Since 2015, a total of 455 cases related to environmental and forestry crimes have been brought to the court, 202 of which were illegal logging cases, Rasio said. As of today, the government has carried out 198 operations against illegal logging, which managed to save 9,087 cubic meters of wood and 14,752 logs. (afr/ebf)

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 4 Jul 18

Wormy Wednesdays features polychaetes of Singapore!
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

Is a typhoon coming? Giant clam shells may help predict future storms!
Mei Lin NEO

Read more!

Albino kingfisher chick draws birding community to East Coast Park

Toh Ting Wei Straits Times 3 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE - A rare albino kingfisher chick is shooting to mini-stardom among the birding community here, after it was spotted last Wednesday (June 27) by wildlife observers at East Coast Park.

While white-collared kingfishers are common in Singapore, the sighting of an albino one was the first for many watchers, said observers.

The bird first flew into the public eye on Facebook pages such as the Nature Society (Singapore) group, and has made regular appearances online since.

Jeremiah Loei, administrator of wildlife interest group Birds, Insects N Creatures of Asia, told The Straits Times that the chick now draws 30 to 50 photographers daily.

"I think there will be much more people who are more aware and will come down. That's the reason why we shared (the photos), because we want the public to be more aware of the animals around us," said Mr Loei, 54.

The bird has had its fair share of drama. Photographers tracking it had to divert bicycles on a bicycle track when the chick unwittingly flew onto it, and wildlife group Animal Concerns Research & Education Society had to rescue the bird after it unwittingly settled in a canal on Saturday night, said Mr Loei.

Veteran nature guide Subaraj Rajathurai, 55, said it was only the second time that he had heard of an albino kingfisher in his 38 years of observing wildlife. The last known albino kingfisher was spotted near MacRitchie Reservoir Park about seven to eight years ago.

Mr Subaraj said the chick will likely stay with its parents for a few weeks, before flying off to find a new home of its own.

Photographers flocking to document the bird should do so from a safe distance, he added.

"Nowadays, with so many people out there taking photos of birds, sometimes there is an over-zealousness among all the photographers to get that special shot," he cautioned.

A Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot takes its first flight as its mother looks on from their nest along Owen Road, next to Pek Kio Market and Food Centre.
Related Story
Birders go wild over parrots' nest: 5 other rare bird sightings in Singapore
"So when you have a whole group of 50 to 60 photographers trying to get a photo of one little kingfisher, that can cause a lot of stress for the bird especially as it is a youngster."

The birding community has much to celebrate in recent times, with the sightings of various rare birds here.

In May, a photographer spotted a rare woodpecker previously thought to be extinct here at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Two Asian emerald cuckoos, last spotted more than a decade ago in Singapore, were also observed at Sentosa in December.

Read more!

Two men fined for pigeon feeding: AVA

Channel NewsAsia 3 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE: Two men have been fined for feeding pigeons in two separate cases, the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said in a statement on Tuesday (Jul 3).

In the first case, 62-year-old V Rajandran was fined S$400 on one count of pigeon feeding, which he did with bread crumbs at the void deck of Blk 145 at Potong Pasir Avenue 2 in February 2018.

In the second case, 68-year-old Abdul Aziz Saik Mohamed, was fined S$1,500 for five counts of pigeon feeding, with another six counts taken into consideration during sentencing.

Investigations showed Abdul Aziz had fed pigeons at a grass verge at Blk 825 at Woodlands Street 81 on multiple occasions between December 2017 and May 2018, despite previous warnings from AVA and a “No feeding” signboard nearby.

Both men were repeat offenders, with Rajandran and Abdul Aziz having been fined on four and two previous occasions respectively.

Pigeon feeding in a public place is an offence that carries a fine of up to S$500 under the Animals and Birds (Pigeons) Rules.

“The presence of feeders provides a regular source of food which may lead to pigeons congregating in the area. Feeding encourages pigeons to breed and results in an increase in their population,” AVA said.

“Pigeons dirty the environment with droppings, and leftover food from pigeon feeding may attract other pests, like rats, that carry diseases and pose a risk to public health,” AVA added.

Two men fined $1,500 and $400 for feeding pigeons in two separate cases
Charmaine Ng Straits Times 4 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE - Two men were fined $400 and $1,500 for feeding pigeons in two separate cases in court on Tuesday (July 3).

In the first case, Abdul Aziz Saik Mohamed, 68, was fined $1,500 for five counts of pigeon feeding, with another six counts taken into consideration during sentencing.

In October last year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore was alerted to a case of pigeon feeding at Block 825 Woodlands Street 81, said the AVA in a statement on Tuesday.


Investigations found that Abdul Aziz had been feeding pigeons at a grass verge near a "No Feeding" sign on multiple occasions between last December and May this year.

Despite several warnings from the AVA, he continued to feed pigeons, and was previously fined on two occasions for a similar offence, said the authority.

In the second case, 62-year-old V Rajandran was fined $400 for one count of pigeon feeding.

The authority was alerted in February to the case at Block 145 Potong Pasir Avenue 2, where V Rajandran had been feeding pigeons with bread crumbs at the void deck.

He was previously fined four times for a similar offence, said the AVA.

Pigeon feeding in any premises or public place, including at Housing Board estates, is an offence, the AVA added.

"The presence of feeders provides a regular source of food which may lead to pigeons congregating in the area. Feeding encourages pigeons to breed and results in an increase in their population," said the authority.

"Pigeons dirty the environment with droppings, and leftover food from pigeon feeding may attract other pests, like rats, that carry diseases and pose a risk to public health."

Those caught feeding pigeons can be fined up to $500.

In its statement, the AVA encouraged the public not the feed pigeons and to report pigeon feeding activities using its online feedback form or through the OneService app.

"Members of the public can also talk to others about the downsides of feeding. By leveraging their sphere of influence, they can help change the behaviour and perspectives within their community," it added.

Read more!

Indonesia: Elephant ecotourism stomps illegal logging

ARIF SURYOBUWONO THE JAKARTA POST 3 Jul 18;

Sandwiched between Mount Leuser National Park in North Sumatra and the oil palm estates of state-owned plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara II, Tangkahan was, from around the 1990s to the early 2000s, a haven for illegal loggers from Namo Sialang village, the neighboring Sei Serdang village and elsewhere.

They used Tangkahan as a transit point where they sent timber (mostly ironwood) they took from inside the jungle of Mount Leuser National Park to Tanjung Pura.

“If these outsiders could take timber from the national park right in front of us, why couldn’t we?” said local community leader Rutkita Sembiring, himself a former illegal logger from 1996 to 2000.

“At that time, about 90 percent of men in all the villages across the Batang Serangan district in Mt. Leuser’s buffer zones engaged in illegal logging,” said another ex-illegal logger, Karya Depari.

Things changed when in 1999 two student activists and environmentalists, Syukur Al-Fajar and the late Syaiful Bahri, who were later joined by another student activist, Taufik Ramadhan, visited Tangkahan.

Fascinated by Tangkahan’s natural beauty but alarmed by the rapid pace of its destruction, they provided the illegal loggers with environmental education and convinced them that “they could still earn money without having to fell a single tree through ecotourism”.

“They told us our lives would be miserable if the forests were destroyed,” said ex-illegal logger Seh Ukur Depari.

Rutkita said their admonition came at a time when a number of loggers had been injured, disabled and even killed when cutting trees, which “got us thinking, ‘What’s the point of making lots of money if the risk is that high?’”. Moreover, they were under constant threat of getting arrested and imprisoned by authorities.

So they established, together with Rutkita, Seh Ukur and other repentant ex-illegal loggers of Namo Sialang and Sei Serdang villages, the Tangkahan Tourism Foundation (LLP) in 2002, now known as CV Community Tour Operator (CTO).

CTO is a local community business partnership that manages Tangkahan ecotourism based on a 2002 memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Awriya Ibrahim, head of the Mount Leuser National Park Service.

“Awriya granted us the right to use 17,500 hectares of the park for ecotourist purposes after seeing how we, ex-illegal loggers, mounted a staunch resistance against illegal logging,” Seh Ukur said, quoting Awriya as saying that “by signing this MoU, I risk my job but I believe you”. A week after signing the MoU, Awriya was transferred to Ujung Kulon National Park.

“In the late 1990s, the income we earned from selling timber ranged between Rp 2 million [US$142.85] and Rp 30 million a week,” recalled Rutkita, who himself earned around Rp 2 million a week.

However, the big money came with many accidents, injuries and even fatalities. Rutkita’s father broke his arm while cutting down a tree. Seh Ukur’s father died after being struck by falling log.

Moreover, “money comes in and goes away very fast,” recalled former illegal logger Juan Kartika Sitepu, who said he, like the rest of his fellow loggers, spent his sudden “wealth” on drinking, gambling and womanizing.

“We are actually afraid of cutting down trees because there are ancestral spirits indwelling them that cause misfortune and even death to those felling the big trees where they reside,” said ex-illegal logger Imanta Sembiring.

Such belief, according to Iskandaruddin, head of the Tangkahan site management unit responsible for the area, was part of pemena, an ancient animistic belief of the local Karo Batak tribe, which, according to Rutkita, was rendered irrelevant by their conversion to either Christianity or Islam and eclipsed by their obsession with becoming rich through illegal logging.

This drove Karya, initially a smallholder rubber farmer who earned around Rp 500,000 every two weeks from selling latex he collected from rubber trees grown on his land, to try his luck.

Deciding to have his own logging business, he borrowed a lot of money from the tauke (buyer-cum-financier) to whom he sold his timber in order to buy a used chainsaw and start logging on his own.

However, a surprise joint anti-illegal logging operation involving the local police, the military and park authorities thwarted his plan. He escaped arrest but all of the unsold timber he left in the forest was
confiscated.

“I had already incurred so many debts at that time that I had to sell the land where I grew rubber trees to pay them off. Now I can’t recall where the money went. That’s devil’s money that got eaten by ghosts, as the saying goes,” said Karya, who now grows maize in his neighbor’s oil palm plots to supplement his monthly income from selling oil palm fronds to feed Tangkahan elephants for ecotourism.

The “ghost” that ate most of the money, according to Syukur, was bribery. In order to steal timber from the national park without getting caught, they had to bribe many. “In the end, they only got 50 percent of the proceeds. This made them very unhappy but they had no choice,” Syukur said.

Responding to what Syukur said, Karya said it was his tauke’s accomplices, not he, who handed out the bribes.

Syukur said Syaiful and he later adopted a two-pronged strategy to change the situation.

Syaiful inculcated in Tangkahan youths the importance of environmental awareness and mobilized them to convince their illegal logging fathers that their way of doing things was not sustainable. “Unlike their fathers to whom money is what matters most, these young people have a different spirit,” recalled Syukur. They organized these young people into a team called the Tangkahan Simalem Rangers.

Meanwhile, Syukur approached the Indonesian Ecotourism Network to help introduce ecotourism into the area. Despite facing resistance, he kept on persuading illegal loggers to abandon logging in favor of ecotourism.

“We want the local community to take full ownership and control of the business of ecotourism in Tangkahan. We don’t want them to work for outsiders who control the business as is the case with the orangutan sanctuary in Bukit Lawang,” said Syukur.

Their effort paid off. Logging was completely stopped in 2003 and elephant-centered ecotourism was introduced in 2004, attracting a flurry of tourists far beyond their expectations and original intention of using elephants to patrol the forests to scare off illegal loggers.

“Most of the tourists are foreigners because we very, very rarely promoted Tangkahan domestically. Thus far, we have received foreign tourists from 57 countries, with most coming from Holland,” Rutkita said. “In recent years, however, the number is declining.”

He attributed recessions, animal welfare campaigns in the West against the use of elephants for domesticated purposes and bad road conditions caused by a busy sand mining operation nearby — which would not have been there had it not been for a permit from the local government — as factors that contributed to the decline in the number of visitors.

Under a revenue-sharing scheme currently in place, Rutkita said 57 percent of revenues went to CTO. The remaining 43 percent is used to pay local guides, visitor center and search and rescue (SAR) staffers, English teachers and janitorial and garbage workers. “Since 2015, CTO’s average annual revenue has averaged at Rp 12 billion and is increasing, which is much higher than the income we earned from illegal logging,” said Rutkita.

These days, Rutkita said, the number of local visitors had been increasing, averaging at 60,000 a year. However, the trash they leave behind has presented a problem of its own. “The amount we spend on cleaning the garbage is more than the revenues we obtain,” he said.

Read more!

Indonesia: Police arrest two for killing elephant in East Aceh

Antara 2 Jul 18;

Pidi, Aceh (ANTARA News) - The police arrested two people for killing an elephant belonging to the Conservation Response Unit in June 2018.

Head of East Aceh Resort Police Senior Commissioner Adjunct Wahyu Kuncoro stated here on Monday that the arrest was made following investigations conducted by a special team.

The officers had found the body of a dead elephant in Serbajadi on Saturday (June 9).

The police also seized elephant ivory measuring 120 centimeters in height.

The officer detained the perpetrators to conduct legal proceedings. The police will look into the developments to investigate the case of the elephant`s death.

"We arrested the perpetrators from different locations in East Aceh region," Kuncoro stated.

The perpetrators had also planned to sell the ivory. The East Aceh Resort Police has kept the evidence.

The officer had earlier found the body of a dead elephant named Bunta in the Bunin Village of Serbajadi Sub-district.

The elephant`s head was bleeding owing to attack by sharp weapons.

The officer also found pieces of evidence, such as banana and other fruit. They believe that the fruits had been poisoned to kill the elephant.

Reported by Mukhlis
(Uu.B019/INE)
(UU.B019/B/KR-BSR/B/H-YH)
Editor: Heru Purwanto

Read more!

The Himalayan state that declared war on plastic bags

Swapping bags for banana leaves – and cloth sacks – the tiny Indian state of Sikkim has transformed shoppers’ habits. Can Mumbai follow its example?
Amrit Dhillon The Guardian 3 Jul 18;

As a boy growing up in Sikkim, the Indian state nestled below the Himalayas, Rajendra Gurung remembers how, before leaving the house to go shopping, his parents would always ask each other: “Have you got the bag?”

Back then, no shopkeeper used plastic bags. Families took their own, made of cloth. Meat, fish and cheese came wrapped in a banana leaf, tied with bamboo twine. If people bought cooking oil, they took an empty bottle or can.

But in the early 1980s, plastic bags started to become the norm. “The first ones were actually prized possessions because they were re-usable,” says Gurung. By the mid-80s, they were used for everything.

Yet discarded plastic bags blocked drains, and even caused a spate of landslides. In 1998, Sikkim banned their use.

Now, at the vegetable market in Lal Bazar in the Sikkim capital, Gangtok, most people come armed with cloth bags – and those who have forgotten them can buy one from the lines strung up at vegetable stalls. A street vendor selling fermented soya bean wraps his produce inside a leaf from a fig tree. Even bulky items like metal pails are covered with newspaper.

A 2014 survey by Toxic Links, a New Delhi organisation, found that in Gangtok and other main towns, plastic bags are now rarely used.

Sikkim’s progress is being studied closely by other states. These include Mumbai, the commercial capital, where drains clogged by bags have caused flooding in the streets during monsoon season.

A combination of factors made the ban successful, says Gurung, who now heads the Ecotourism and Conservation Society of Sikkim. “Shopkeepers were not given licences, and licences weren’t renewed every year if they were using plastic bags. Inspectors watched them. Heavy fines were imposed. CCTV cameras were installed. Consumers were also made aware,” he says. Campaigns in schools educated children on the damage plastic can do.

Out of India’ s 29 states, 25 have some kind of plastic ban. But it is rarely enforced by the authorities and ignored by residents. Part of Sikkim’s success is down to people’s respect for the law. Gurung attributes this partly to the fact that until 1975, the state was a monarchy. People obeyed the king instinctively and this same attitude was transferred to the chief ministers who succeeded him.

The state also has a large Buddhist minority, which means respect for nature is widespread. “Every forest is a sacred forest, every lake is a sacred lake, the Himalayas are sacred. This reverence for nature – combined with our disciplined habits – feeds into the desire to protect the environment,” says Prem Das Rai, the MP for Sikkim.

However, not all is perfect. Some people have begun using non-woven polypropylene bags. They look and feel like fabric but they are in fact made of plastic and are equally damaging to the environment. Gurung says consumers need to be educated about this before they start becoming popular.

In 2016, Sikkim took its plastic ban further, by ending the use of bottled water in government offices and functions. Ministers have started taking reusable water bottles to the office and filtered water is served in jugs or glasses.

On top of this, tourists are being told not to bring in plastic bottles of water. To encourage them, clean water points have been set up where water, certified as safe by the government, is sold to fill reusable bottles.

Gurung believes the best way to stop tourists bringing in, or asking for, bottled water is for restaurants and hotels to display certificates proving that the water in their kitchens has been purified.

Sikkim has also banned the sale and use of styrofoam and thermocol disposable plates, cutlery and food containers. “We are going to have to go back either to washing dishes, as before, or using plates made of leaves, areca nut and sugar-cane bagasse, and spoons and straws made of bamboo,” says Priya Shrestha, team leader at the World Wildlife Fund in Gangtok.

Sikkim’s success will not be easy to replicate in other states. Buying vegetables and food put in plastic bags is an ingrained habit. They are convenient, hygienic, light, durable and cheap. Surveys have shown that 99% of vegetable sellers in most cities use plastic bags.

Sikkim is also small. Its population is only 610,000 people. This is compared with Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, which has just imposed a stringent ban on plastic bags out of concern for the flooding caused by mountains of the stuff. Its population is more than 100 million.

Nonetheless, Sikkim’s relentless campaign to educate the public is one feature that can be replicated in other states, says Gurung.

“With large populations, random fines alone cannot work. You have to have intensive campaigns like ours to change people’s habits. Only when the message is lodged in the mind does a ban work and for that, you have to start, as we did, in schools.”

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 3 Jul 18

11 July: Green Jobs Symposium @CleanEnviro Summit Singapore 2018
Green Drinks Singapore

20 Jul (Fri): Blue Nudge! Workshop on Marine Trash in Singapore
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

$78 million, plus a forest and its ecological functions, is the cost of the clubhouse
Everyday Nature

Now Crowdfunding and 85% Funded: Local, Sustainable Fashion Space, The Fashion Pulpit
Green Drinks Singapore

Read more!

Dispersion of seagrasses via vegetative fragments

National University of Singapore Phys.Org 2 Jul 18;

NUS marine biologists have developed a model describing the dispersal of seagrass via vegetative fragments for the ecological engineering of coastlines.

Seagrasses form vast meadows that are home to a great diversity of marine species. They are also one of the most valuable coastal habitats in the world, and provide a multitude of ecosystem services including coastal protection, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and providing nurseries for fish and shellfish. Seagrass dispersal (i.e. how seagrasses spread to new areas) is critical to their long-term survival. However, knowledge on long-distance dispersal mechanisms is mostly related to sexual propagules, i.e. fruits. Dispersal via vegetative fragments has mostly been overlooked. Vegetative fragments are pieces of the seagrass plant that include rhizomes, roots and shoots. Following detachment from the parent plant, these can re-establish elsewhere to create a new independent plant. While there is evidence that such a process might be important for dispersal, little is known about the mechanisms involved. A better understanding of these dispersal mechanisms can eventually help researchers model how seagrass meadows remain connected, which is crucial for prioritising areas for conservation.

A research team led by Prof Peter TODD from the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS, partnered with scientists from DHI Singapore and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research to develop a conceptual model for seagrass dispersal via vegetative fragments which involves several distinct fundamental steps. Researchers are able to piece them together in a model to predict where seagrasses are able to disperse and take root.

The research team found that both settlement (the fragment remains on the substrate) and establishment (the fragment takes root in the substrate) rates increased with fragment age before these rates decrease due to decay. This suggests there may be a window of opportunity during which settlement and establishment are optimal, i.e. when the fragment has enough time to float away from the parent meadow, but not too long that it decays, loses viability and is no longer able to establish. Different species were also found to have different settlement and establishment rates. Out of the four seagrass species tested, the species Halophila ovalis was found to settle and establish quicker and more successfully than others. While the mechanisms that enable it to settle and establish more quickly are not apparent, this trait could contribute to its success as a pioneering species, especially in areas of newly accumulated sediment.

Prof Todd said, "The findings help determine the dispersal potential of different seagrass species and the kind of conditions needed for successful dispersal. This research represents significant progress in our understanding of how seagrasses can disperse without sexual propagules and has important implications for their conservation and management."

More information: Samantha Lai et al. Unlikely Nomads: Settlement, Establishment, and Dislodgement Processes of Vegetative Seagrass Fragments, Frontiers in Plant Science (2018). DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.00160

Read more!

Despite more charging points, obstacles abound to keep electric car sales from moving into fast lane

CYNTHIA CHOO Today Online 2 Jul 18;

SINGAPORE — Before Mr Peter Huang decided to buy an electric car, one of the concerns he had was whether there were enough charging points across the island.

"This is especially so because of my job as a full-time musician. My mileage is higher and driving patterns can often be quite unpredictable due to overseas trips," the 35-year-old said, adding that he clocks up to 100km a day.

After he got the Hyundai Ioniq in February, Mr Huang soon realised that this was no longer a concern.

He managed to work around the public charging points available and one provided at the car distributor. He told TODAY that "getting used to driving an electric car had a lot to do with a mindset change, more than anything else".

"Driving an electric car is very different from driving a fuel car," he said. "You have to think about it like an iPad or iPhone, where you charge as and when you can, rather than wait till you empty your tank."

Mr Huang is among a small but growing group of electric-car owners in Singapore.

The number of people who own electric vehicles (EVs) — including plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEVs) — jumped last year from 137 to 520.

However, these vehicles still form a tiny proportion of automobiles on the road, making up just a mere 0.09 per cent of the 574,443 passenger cars in Singapore.

So far, the take-up of EVs here has been slow, considering how the early models of electric cars such as the i-MiEV from Mitsubishi were first introduced as early as 2011.

Mr Jeremy Lee, 40, co-founder of SRX property has installed a charging port at home to charge up his Renault Zoe. Such chargers, however, are a rarity in public housing and condominium carparks. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

Drivers who are hesitant to buy electric cars said that they have concerns over the lifespan and warranty of the car battery and the availability of charging stations.

Electric vehicles also cost about 20 to 30 per cent more on average than the ones running on petrol.

These are the common reasons why some drivers such as Mr Edwin Teo, chief operating officer of Xnergy, a start-up at the Energy Research Institute in Nanyang Technological University, are still ambivalent about switching to an electric car.

The 42-year-old, who drives a Honda Civic petrol car, said: "What would be more assuring is if I knew I could charge my car at my home, instead of having to drive out (to charge)."

To build up charging infrastructure and encourage more people to own electric vehicles, utility provider Singapore Power (SP) announced in mid-June that it will be installing 500 new charging points across the island by 2020.

The first batch of 30 will operate by the end of this year.

Other charging service providers such as Red Dot Power also have plans to set up at least 50 charging stations islandwide by the end of 2019 — with the first installation scheduled for September — while Greenlots is looking to boost its existing 16 stations by another 50 come 2020.

By 2020, too, electric car-sharing service BlueSG aims to make 400 of its charging points available for public use.

All these mean that drivers can expect close to 1,000 charging points in two years' time.

The charging status of a Renault Zoe belonging to electric car owner Mr Jeremy Lee. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

WIDER NETWORK OF CHARGING STATIONS

Though the infrastructure plans sound promising, one analyst said that the distribution and accessibility of the charging stations would be crucial.

Dr Sanjay Kuttan, programme director of smart multi-energy systems at the Energy Research Institute, noted that a well-distributed network of charging stations will reduce "range anxiety".

Right now, only about 30 condominiums here have charging points installed.

Most of SP's 40 EV chargers are located at the company's depot and serve its fleet of vehicles.

Other providers such as Greenlots have put up its 16 charging points mostly in the Central Business District and Orchard Road area.

Accessibility aside, it might be useful to have a unified payment method, Dr Kuttan said, "like an EZ-link card where everyone can pay via the same mode".

This would make it more convenient for drivers to use the different charging points offered by various companies.

A 37-year-old civil servant, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ng, said that he will not be using electric cars anytime soon because he observed that chargers are not "commonplace" in his neighbourhood at Woodlands and he does not work "in the central areas".

However, from experience, electric-car drivers such as Mr Huang said that they have learnt to adapt and adjust travel routes to align with the locations of chargers.

The charging port of Mr Peter Huang's Hyundai Ioniq. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

"For example, I knew I was going to be in town last weekend to catch a movie, so I decided to park at The Heeren because there is a charging point there. Then I walked over to another building to catch my movie," he said.

INDUSTRY PUSH

To help prospective owners ease into the transition, distributors such as Komoco Motors, which bring in the Hyundai model Ioniq, are offering free charging services to new buyers for their first 20,000km.

Distributors are also starting to bring in more affordable models of electric cars.

Besides the Ioniq, mass-market options include Renault's model Zoe, retailing for about S$140,000. The Nissan Leaf, while not available in Singapore yet, is expected to cost around S$160,000.

Dealers are already seeing marked interest in electric cars compared to last year.

Ms Preeti Gupta, director of corporate affairs at BMW Group Asia, said that the group has sold more than 50 EVs so far this year. Last year, the total sales were 73.

"We are confident this number will continue to grow as we introduce newer variants of both the BMW i3 and BMW i8 in the coming months," she said.

Wearnes Automotive, importer for Renault cars here, said that there have been at least 10 orders for models of its electric cars — the Zoe and Kangoo ZE — since they were launched last month.

Some dealers, acknowledging that they can do more to grow the EV population here, also said that the Government needs to put in more effort.

"For electric cars to truly hit the roads, it will have to be a combined effort from both car dealers and the authorities," Mr Ng Choon Wee, commercial director of Komoco Motors, told TODAY. "Car dealers to ensure that support and products are made available, while the authorities could accelerate (efforts) to ensure a strong network of charging facility and, most importantly, incentives (or rebates) to make electric-car ownership more affordable."

At the start of the year, the Government rolled out the new Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) to encourage car buyers to choose vehicles that have lower emissions of pollutants.

From July 1, all registered vehicles will be assessed on five pollutants listed in the scheme, which are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

Drivers will get tax rebates or have to pay a tax surcharge depending on their vehicle's emissions, with the maximum rebate or surcharge for cars being S$20,000, down from S$30,000.

While the VES is more stringent than the Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme it replaced, Dr Kuttan said that it is unlikely to be the swinging factor for people who are considering to buy electric cars.

"Buying a car is not just a simple cost plus. (Customers) look at brand value, perception value and other factors like their driving needs and patterns, too," he said.

"The VES is still quite arbitrary, and it is not very transparent, how one can move from one category of tax rebates to another."

What might prove to be a bigger obstacle is the perception of the wider aim to be a car-lite society, which runs counter to private-car ownership, which includes EVs, Dr Kuttan pointed out.

"With the Government spending millions to encourage public transportation, how can you have policies that support private car uptake?" he asked.

In this vein, he suggested that more could be done in addition to the VES scheme, to encourage the present population of car owners to "de-carbonise", such as by adjusting the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) scheme for registered vehicles.

For example, "a separate COE category" could be set up for EVs, to allow the Government to moderate the take-up of EVs, he said. "The VES tackles the type of car purchased but the COE strategy looks at the number of EVs in the pool."

"Together, this dual effort ensures that we have lowest tailpipe emission vehicles on the road and a highly de-carbonised transport sector."

Read more!

Malaysia: Video of shark in Malaysia restaurant aquarium sparks outrage

AFP 2 Jul 18;

A video of a blacktip shark being kept in an aquarium at a Malaysian restaurant has sparked online anger, with many calling for the animal's release from its confining home.

The eight-second video posted on Facebook by a diver who went to the restaurant outside the capital Kuala Lumpur showed the animal swimming back and forth in the fish tank described in the post to be "barely 6 ft long, 3ft deep and 3ft high".

It had 17,000 views and 283 shares as of Monday, with many commenters expressing outrage at the animal's cramped living conditions.

"Release the poor animal, this is absurd and so primitive," Nicky Cooper commented on the Facebook post.

"How can anyone enter that place and eat or drink there?"

"Free Charlie the Shark!!" Luis ON wrote, referring to the animal's name.

Blacktip sharks can be found in warm temperate and tropical waters along coastal areas across the world, ranging from the Atlantic to Indian and Pacific Oceans.

They can grow up to eight feet long and weigh up to 100 kg (220 pounds), according to the National Geographic website.

Targeted by commercial fisheries, the blacktip is classified as near threatened by protection group the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Malaysian Nature Society president Henry Goh said sharks belong in the wild and cannot be treated like domestic animals for commercial use.

"Sharks are free ranging and should be left free in its natural habitat, the open sea," he told AFP.

There are 68 species of sharks in Malaysian waters, though only one, the whale shark, is protected.

The animals are generally hunted by fishing vessels, with shark fin viewed as a delicacy by many Asians and often served as a soup at expensive Chinese banquets.

The person who posted the video under the Facebook account Renaza Resort Indonesia on June 29 said he had gone for dinner at the restaurant, which had murals of sea creatures, including sharks, on the walls.

"As a diver this got me all excited. As I walked into the cafe admiring the place and the underwater themed decor... 5 steps into the shop... to my horror I saw a Blacktip shark in an aquarium inside the cafe," he wrote.

"Sitting in the cafe made me feel really sick and disgusted as I watched the shark swim in circles non-stop," he added.

"I wanted to think of how to save this creature, it did not do anything to deserve being treated like this. THIS IS ANIMAL CRUELTY!!!!!!!!"

Attempts by AFP to reach the restaurant's owners were unsuccessful.

However, posts on local food blogs suggest the animal may have been kept there since April 2015.

Read more!

Indonesia: North Barito replanting oil palm trees over 900 hectares

Kasriadi Antara 3 Jul 18;

Muara Teweh, C. Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - The District administration of North Barito, Central Kalimantan, is replanting over 900 hectares of palm plantations of the plasma farmers of PT Antang Ganda Utama in the sub-district of South Teweh.

"In the first phase, replanting will cover 900 hectares this year of a total replanting plan of 3,600 hectares of the plasma farms in the district," Abdurahman, head of the plantation division of district plantation service, said here on Monday.

The first phase of replanting is expected to be completed in 2019, Abdurahman said.

The replanting will cover the plasma plantations of 1,800 farm families including 350 hectares in the village of Tawan Jaya; 250 hectares in the village of Bukit Sawit, 150 hectares in the village of Pandran Permai and another 150 hectares in the village of Pandran Raya.

"After the completion of the first phase of replanting expected in 2019, the second phase would follow in the next year," he said.

Abdurahman said the oil palm trees of the plasma farmers have been too old reaching 23-24 years that their productivity has declined sharply. Normally the productivity was more than 10 tons of fresh fruit bunches a hectare, bur now they could produce on 8 tons per hectare per year.

The plasma plantations entitled to the assistance in replanting program of the district administration are those having the certificate and the plantations are not in forest lands.

The replanting program is a grant raised from the levies on crude palm oil exports.

The replanting will use high yield seedlings from nursery in Batam, Riau Islands , Abduragman said .

The plasma plantations of PT Antang Ganda Utama are the oldest oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan. PT Antang Ganda Utama is now a member of the PT Dhanistha Surya Nusantara group which has 18,087 hectares of oil palm plantations with a CPO production of 3,200 tons per month.

The government also offers replanting assistance for oil palm farmers in other regions. Many oil palm plantations of the farmers have been too old and less productive .

Indonesia is the world largest producer of palm oil and palm oil is among the largest export earners for the country.


Editor: Otniel Tamindael

Read more!