Descriptions of categories

SINGAPORE ISSUES

• general issues other issues that don't fit in the categories below
• volunteer opportunities latest opportunities to act and jobs in the environment
• new publications latest publications on nature and the environment, both dead tree and online publications; focusing on Singapore and relevant to Singaporeans.
  

Environmental issues

• haze and air pollution here and in the region
• sand exports to Singapore, foreign policy on sand exports, Singapore policy on sand supply issues
  

Biodiversity

• Singaporeans and nature ordinary Singaporeans' reactions, interactions (feeding wild animals, poaching), impact on local nature, recreation in natural areas as well as parks, rural living
• urban biodiversity the Cities Biodiversity Index and other issues of biodiversity in urban areas
  
• exotic species introduction, release of animals, genetically modified organisms affecting wild populations.
  
• pets responsible pet ownership, pet abuse, role of pets
  
• general biodiversity sightings, new discoveries, extinctions, red list, CITES.
  
• our shores and marine biodiversity including reclamation, conservation, recreational uses (including poaching) see also marine litter, southern islands, dolphins, rising seas oil spills.
  
• heritage trees including reactions to big trees, tree planting, tree falls
  

Special places in Singapore

• southern islands development plans, recreational uses
• Pulau Ubin

GLOBAL ISSUES

• general issues

Climate change

• general climate change issues
• geo-engineering large scale proposals to combat climate change, e.g., fertilising ocean with iron
• acid oceans due to climate change
  
• carbon capture schemes to sequester carbon
• carbon trading including carbon offsetting schemes, see also forests
  
• climate pacts Kyoto Protocol and other major international meetings that discuss climate change, UN efforts including IPPC reports, also government and city programmes to deal with climate change
  
• disasters and other extreme weather hurricanes, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, tsunami and their impact on biodiversity and humans
• individual action what individuals can and are doing for climate change
  
• rising-seas rising sea levels due to climate change, see also mangroves, reefs
  
• see also diseases, green energy
  

General environmental issues

• consumerism excessive consumerism, efforts by manufacturers to be green and show corporate social responsibility
• diseases dengue, bird flu and other contagious diseases
• eco-tourism including ecological impact of tourism
  
• green web use of the internet in environmental action
• wildlife trade including hunting, traditional hunting

Energy issues

• green buildings energy efficient and eco-friendly buildings, use of aircon. see also urban development
• transportation general impact of cars, shipping, aviation and other transport. See also biofuel.

• green energy general renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• fossil fuels impact of rising prices, peak oil, natural gas, coal. See also oil spills.
• biofuel see also food for impact of biofuels on food.
• geothermal energy
  
• hydrogen energy
• nuclear energy
• solar energy
• wind energy
  
• hydropower dams, dam building, see also freshwater-ecosystems for ecological impacts.
  

General resource use

• urban development general terrestrial development, see also our shores for marine and shore development in Singapore.
• food food supply, quality as well as agriculture in general. See also wildlife trade. Marine issues covered in overfishing, shark's fins, general global marine issues.
• water issues water saving, water pollution, and PUB's ABC programme
  
• reduce-reuse-recycle including package reduction, garbage disposal, terrestrial littering.
• plastic bags programmes to reduce or ban see also marine litter for impact of plastics on marine life
• bottled water
• palm oil 'green' palm oil, palm oil and deforestation and biofuels.
  
• pollution general air, water and marine pollution, see also marine litter, oil spills, haze.
• mining and environmental impact.
  

Global marine issues

• general issues general marine biodiversity issues.
  
• aquaculture farming fish and other seafood and their impact see also mangroves, rising seas
• aquariums captive large sea mammals and fish, as well as the live aquarium trade
• bleaching events reports of bleaching events in reefs around the world
  
• dolphins. See also aquariums for captive dolphins.
• dugongs
  
• marine litter including plastic bags, drift nets, bycatch.
  
• overfishing
  
• oil spills
• sea turtles
• sharks fins
• pinnipeds: walruses, seals, sea lions
• whales including hunting whales. See also aquariums for captive beluga whales
• whale sharks. See also aquariums for captive whale sharks

Global marine ecosystems

• seagrasses
• mangroves
• reefs including coral bleaching in general. For reports on specific bleaching events see bleaching events.
  

Global biodiversity

• general issues including general biodiversity and species, new developments based on biodiversity. For marine biodiversity, see general global marine issues
• pricing nature putting a price on ecosystems and ecosystem services
  
• forests
• freshwater ecosystems including rivers, lakes and projects that impact them such as dams, river diversions
  
• big cats
  
• primates monkeys and apes
  
• elephants Asian and African
• rhinos
• bears polar bears, asian bears, pandas
• insects butterflies, ants, including bees and bee deaths.
• birds shore birds and other birds. For bird flu, see also diseases. See also impact of oil spills.
• amphibians frogs, toads, newts
  
• reptiles crocodiles, snakes, land tortoises, fresh water turtles. See also sea turtles

Other issues

• ASEAN initiatives in biodiversity and environmental issues.
  

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What's the wild news blog about?

The blog is a compilation of media and blog entries. About nature and the environment that might be of interest to Singaporeans.

The blog is updated daily. Drop by to find out what's the latest.

Or subscribe to the blog for regular updates by rss or email.

Other questions?

Where is the old wildsingapore website?!
Still there, no worries. The plan is for the website to host more static pages such as fact sheets. And the website will continue to grow, but not as rapidly as the daily wild stuff.

So where are all the daily updates of wild stuff?
There's a widget on the wildsingapore website homepage that displays all the updates from the following feeds:
This wild news blog
The wild happenings blog of nature and environmental events in Singapore
And the wildsingapore google reader of the very many blog entries about our wild places.

Why did I convert the website to blogs?
The wildsingapore website had so far been done by me alone. It was quite taxing to do daily website updates by hand in html and via ftp. I was spending 2-3 hours every day just doing this There were many times when I contemplated just giving it up altogether.

Hopefully, this arrangement will make it easier for me to sustain the effort. Also, with the blogs, anyone can also help with updating. In this way, wildsingapore can be more of a community effort! Which was not possible with the website.

With the change to a blog, you can now…

• Subscribe to feeds of these blogs.
• Download widgets of these and put them up on your own blog.
  
• Make comments and discuss the entries.

The change also allows me…

• To provide more instant updates via a web browser.
• Since it's much easier to update on the blogs, a wider range of news, events and issues can be covered.
• To invite others to help contribute, for a more vibrant and comprehensive coverage of wild issues and events.

Any comments about this blog?

I'd love to hear from you if you have ideas on improving the blog. Or any other ideas for raising awareness of our wonderful wild places.

Do leave a comment (below, see how useful a blog is!)
Or email me at hello@wildsingapore.com

Thank you!

This blog, as in everything else that I do, would not have been possible without the kindness, patience and generous sharing offered by many volunteers. Thank you all of you too!

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Clandestine trade in sea cucumbers on Indian coast

Under water, under siege
Times of India 29 Jul 07;

Of all the brightly coloured fish and plants in the sea, the unlikeliest of creatures has given the fishing industry down South a multi-million dollar business. The slug-like sea cucumber — or Beche-de-Mer as its processed form is called — has sparked off a thriving clandestine trade all along the Ramanathpuram-Tuticorin coast.

So why is the sea mafia scraping the bottom of Gulf of Mannar — India's only Marine National Park?

Sea cucumbers or holothurians (kadal attai in Tamil), slugs found on the sea bed along coral reefs, are in great demand in countries like China, Japan and Malaysia where they are prized as aphrodisiacs and for their medicinal value. Despite the fact that India has banned commercial exploitation of the slug — Amendment (2002) of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 — illegal exports continue due to the high price ($110 for a kg) it commands in the international market.

The costliest available sea cucumbers in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay are Holothuria scabra (sand fish or vella (white) attai in Tamil). There are also the Holothuria atra (lolly fish or karuppu (black) attai) and the Stichopus hermanni (warty sea cucumber or pavaikya (bitter gourd) attai). The fishermen sell each cucumber for Rs 10 to Rs 100, depending on the species and size, to processing agents who number around 500. After processing, Beche-de-Mer is sold to traders. A 20 count per kg of scabra fetches an agent Rs 3,000-3,500, 40 counts per kg Rs 1,000-1,500 and for anything above 40 counts, price is negotiable. Traders, of course, get a much higher rate in the international market.

So lucrative is the trade that the Tatas recently purchased a hatchery in Lakshadweep's Agathi Island, with government sanction, to culture and export sea cucumber.

But it is the clandestine trade — with alleged LTTE links — that's reaching alarming proportions. Labelled 'dried fish', sea cucumbers are packed in containers and sent through returning Lankan refugee boats from Rameswaram or smuggled via Tuticorin coast. Though India was the first to ban sea cucumber fishing in the region, neighbouring Sri Lanka and Mauritius have no such ban. “Boats bringing refugees from Sri Lanka return with the 'attai'. Single motor boats carry about two tons while double engine boats can carry as much as five-six tons. From Lanka, the haul is taken to Singapore which is the wholesale market. The peak season is December to March," said a fisherman in Mandapam, one of the processing centres.

On July 10, there was a seizure in Rameswaram and about 100 kg sea cucumbers were seized. Three persons were caught but the group leader got away.

Beche-de-Mer is a cottage industry comprising fishermen, processors (middlemen/agents) and traders (mafia). There have even been instances of officials being assaulted while trying to prevent fishing and export of sea cucumber.

"When it comes to their trade, they will stop at nothing," says V Naganathan, eco-development officer of the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Trust (GOMBRT) whose efforts to check smuggling resulted in the conviction of kingpin Villayutham (known as Villa) last October. But Villa managed to get bail and today, his territory reportedly extends from Rameswaram to Periyapattinam.

And with the forest department under-staffed — one guard patrols 5 sq km — personnel either ignore or assist in the illegal activities, say sources. The mafia, meanwhile, continues to feed a growing appetite for these sea slugs.

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For IE users: click on this post

By clicking on this post, you should be able to see the sidebars which lists the latest posts. Unfortunately, until someone in the google help forum for blogger shares a solution for IE users, I really don't know how to fix this problem that recently developed. Apologies.

Users of IE version 6 and earlier will not be able to see the sidebars on this blog, or other posts besides the first post.

IE version 7 users should have no problems. The blog also displays correctly on mozilla firefox. To download the free firefox browser visit http://www.mozilla.com/

Grateful thanks to Khew for pointing out this problem. I'm oblivious to it since I've abandoned IE a long time ago :-)

Ria, 12 May 08

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Solomon Islands Government to ban export of sea-cucumber

Pacnews Islands Business 11 Jul 05;

SOLOMON ISLANDS --- Solomon Islands will put in place an indefinite ban on the export of Beche-demer or sea cucumber from next month.

This was revealed by Tione Bugotu, the permanent secretary for fisheries and marine resources. He said the ban would apply to all species of beche-demer.

“From now on until 31 July, we are giving all buyers and exporters to export all their beche-de-mer products in their possession.

“No beche-demer will be allowed to leave the country as from 01 August,” Mr Bugotu said.

He told the Solomon Star the decision was reached in a review of the beche-de-mer fishery in the country by Dr Christain Ramofafia of the World Fish Centre.

Mr Bugotu said the review revealed that the country's beche-demer stock was in “serious problem and faced an uncertain future.”

The review also found that catches and exports have fallen since peaks of 615 tonnes and 715 tonnes were achieved in 1991 and 1992 respectively.

The review also found that in contrast to declining catches and exports, the number of sea cucumber species exploited for beche-demer production has increased from 22 in 1994 to 32 currently, with 50 per cent of the species have low market value.

“This contrasting trend suggests dwindling sea cucumber resources, especially of high value species and local over-fishing.

“It is likely that current fishing levels are unsustainable,” the review concluded.

Mr Bugotu said it was obvious from these results that the beche-demer fishery in the Solomon Islands needed proper management strategies or the fishery would face a collapse.

Beche-demer has been a major source of income for Solomon Islands rural dwellers.

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