No place for tuna to hide

Nilesh Goundar, The Fiji Times 14 May 08;

THERE are far less tuna in the sea than there used to be.

What we see now is tuna being pursued with more sophisticated technology and there really is no place for fish to hide any longer.

That is the observation of Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York in the United Kingdom.

Dire words of warning by the Pacific's very own marine scientists are still not being heeded by those responsible for managing the region's valuable tuna resource.

So Greenpeace is defending pockets of international waters in the Pacific in a bid to have them declared marine reserves and off limits to greedy tuna fishers. Our activities at sea have already seen four foreign fishing vessels leave the area that Greenpeace is defending.

Colloquially known as "donut holes", "high seas pockets" or "Pacific Commons", these areas of international waters belong to everyone.

There are three distinct donut holes in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) that should be made into marine reserves.

They have great ecological importance and face a number of threats, including overfishing and potentially mining.

They are entirely bound by the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the surrounding island nations Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

What's a donut hole

Well, a donut hole is an ungoverned space surrounded by waters of Pacific Island states.

A cleverly positioned vessel fishing illegally in a Pacific Island country's waters could slip into a donut hole every time a surveillance vessel or plane came by and would not have to pay a single cent to Pacific Islanders.

Tuna has given the Pacific people food, jobs, education, roads, health care and life, and now faces an imminent crisis.

Since 2001, Pacific fisheries scientists have been warning that strong measures are needed to conserve tuna stocks.

Despite these warnings, over-fishing and destructive fishing methods continue to threaten the Pacific's fragile ocean environment and the tuna that depend on it.

Today, more than half the world's tuna is fished from the Pacific.

Too many ships are fishing for too few fish and bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks are under threat.

While over-fishing continues, the best distant water fishing nations can manage is to haggle over the science!

Many boats fish without observers on board, satellites can't weigh the fish in the holds, and many island governments only have one patrol boat to cover a huge area of ocean.

Marine reserves tabu ocean zones

Marine reserves are highly protected areas which are off-limit to activities such as fishing and mining.

They are the most powerful tool available for the conservation of ocean life.

Marine reserves protect breeding areas, ocean habitats and fish that have been targeted by unsustainable fishing.

The three marine reserves Greenpeace has proposed cover extensive areas that include biologically rich undersea mountains, migration routes of tuna species, habitat of endangered leatherback turtles and breeding areas of skipjack, albacore and bigeye tuna.

About 75 per cent of the world's fisheries are exploited up to and beyond the point where they can be regarded as sustainable.

According to global fisheries expert Dr Daniel Pauly, in the future people will be eating jellyfish, because that is all that will be left, unless we act now.

Since early April, Greenpeace activists on board the MV Esperanza have been defending the Pacific Commons.

Lately, five Pacific Islanders joined the crew to challenge fishing vessels in the Pacific donut holes and defend them as no-take marine reserves.

These intrepid oceans defenders have found eight industrial fishing vessels, all from foreign countries, contributing to the overfishing of the Pacific's yellowfin and bigeye tuna.

On April 17, The Olympus owned by Korea's largest tuna company, Dongwon Industries Co. Ltd, a significant global player in the tuna industry was told by Esperanza's ocean defenders to leave the Pacific Commons immediately.

The same day, activists confiscated a device used by purse seiners to attract tuna and intensify overfishing called a "fish aggregation device" (FAD).

On April 21, the ocean defenders, at the invitation of the captain, boarded the Taiwanese vessel Nian Sheng 3 when it was found in international waters.

The Esperanza's crew then peacefully escorted the vessel out of the Pacific Commons and into Solomon Islands waters where the Taiwanese vessel had a license to fish.

Three days later, the Ocean defenders took action against the US purse seiner, Cape Finisterre, in the Pacific Commons.

Purse seiners are responsible for two-thirds of the total tuna catch in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The ocean defenders painted the side of the vessel with the words Tuna overkill' and held a banner reading Marine reserves now'.

The fishing vessel was asked to leave the area immediately. Just last weekend, north of the the Solomon Islands, Greenpeace ocean defenders freed sharks, tuna, marlin and an endangered Olive Ridley turtle from the hooks of a Taiwanese longline vessel fishing in the Pacific Commons.

We encountered the Taiwanese longliner, Ho Tsai Fa 18, while it was hauling tens of kilometres of fishing line. This vessel has a record of a controversial landing of shark fins.

The activists asked the captain to release all marine life hooked on the lines and painted Pirate' on the hull of the ship. Large foreign companies which are major players in the Pacific tuna industry own ships such as the Ho Tsai Fa 18.

Their uncontrolled fishing activities are destroying tuna stocks by overfishing and killing large numbers of other marine life with their destructive fishing methods. But the action did not stop in the Pacific Commons; it even went as far as Brussels.

There, at the European Seafood Exposition, the future of Pacific and international tuna was vigorously defended by 80 Greenpeace ocean defenders from 15 countries.

The Greenpeace activists closed the stands of five large tuna suppliers in a bid to save Pacific tuna stocks.

They covered the stands with fishing nets, chained themselves to the stands and put up banners in 13 languages saying: Time and tuna running out'.

A message was broadcast through the exhibition halls urging visitors to buy only sustainably caught seafood.

Greenpeace called on the fishing companies to stop trading in threatened bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye tuna and other unsustainably caught tuna until stocks recover.

Among these companies are the major Pacific tuna players Dongwon industries, Dongwon F&B, Mitsubishi and Moon Marine.

If the industry does not shift toward sustainable seafood there will simply be no tuna left to trade and their businesses will be closed forever.

The Pacific supplies about 60 per cent of the world's tuna, worth more than $US3billion. Pacific nations are being ripped off.

They only receive 5-6 per cent of the value of the catch caught by foreign vessels in their national waters.

This is because of the unfair and unsustainable agreements negotiated by foreign companies and countries for access to fish for tuna in their waters.

It's do or die for Pacific tuna stocks and Pacific Islanders need to come together as they did at the 2007 Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting and move toward halving their catch and become instrumental in turning the Pacific Commons into marine reserves.

Turning the tide

The people of the Pacific have the right to say how our precious marine resources will be managed.

It is time to stop our resources from being stolen with minimal or no benefit to island nations.

We must stand together and support the call for new marine reserves in the Pacific commons areas and an easy way to get involved is to enter the Greenpeace competition to give these significant areas a name.

Anyone can enter the competition just send your inspiring name for any of the three areas and say why you have chosen that name for our Pacific heritage.

Entries can be posted to Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Private Mail Bag, Suva or email: greenpeace@connect.com.fj

Nilesh Goundar is the Greenpeace Australia Pacific oceans team leader.

Read more!

Myanmar biofuel drive deepens food shortage

Griffin Shea, Yahoo News 13 May 08;

Myanmar is struggling to feed its people in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis -- in part because the regime has been forcing some farmers to stop growing rice in a plan to produce biofuel instead.

In 2005 the military government's leader Than Shwe ordered a national drive to plant jatropha, a poisonous nut he hoped would be the cornerstone of a state industry that would capitalise on growing world demand for biofuels.

Taking a page from the textbook of planned centralised economies, he issued a quota for jatropha production for every township in the country -- even in cities, where people were forced to grow it in their yards and along roads.

"It was the national duty," said Sai Khur Hseng, a Myanmar exile who has extensively studied the government's biofuel programme. "Everybody had to plant it."

A flowering bush which produces a nut that is poisonous to humans and animals but high in oil, jatropha is usually planted in arid regions where little else can survive.

But in fertile regions such as the southern Irrawaddy delta, where the cyclone hit, Than Shwe's edict meant that fields producing rice and other foods were torn up, said Monique Skidmore of the Australian National University said.

"This has meant that people have either had to not plant paddy or pull up paddy" to grow the crop, she said.

In some cases, the military actually confiscated land from farmers to grow the nuts, said Dave Mathieson, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.

"It's just absurd," Mathieson said.

"In the rural areas, it's the military that's responsible for meeting the quota. So they've just been seizing land and ripping out food crops to grow jatropha."

But after the crop started to grow, farmers discovered a bitter truth -- they could not sell it.

The government has not bought the jatropha nuts because it hadn't set up any facilities to process biofuel, Skidmore said.

"They don't have even the sort of tanks and trucks and warehousing and distribution to handle" biofuel production, she said.

The fiasco has now turned to tragedy for the people of Myanmar, which was once one of the world's top exporters of rice.

Decades of central economic planning along with other autocratic policies have made it difficult for the regime to feed its people.

Even before the cyclone, the UN's World Food Programme estimated that 10 percent of Myanmar's more than 50 million people did not have enough to eat.

The cyclone, which left at least 62,000 people dead or missing, has now further imperilled the nation's food supply because so much of the fertile delta has been turned into swampland by the storm.

The United Nations has warned that the country, where up to two million victims of the cyclone face immediate needs for food, water and shelter, could face food shortages for years to come.

"This is the rice basket of the country, and clearly damage has been done to the paddy fields," said Richard Horsey, of the UN's emergency relief arm.

"Some ... have been inundated with salt water, others flooded and stocks of seed for planting destroyed. So it will be an issue, and there are agricultural assessments under way to determine the full extent of the problem."

Read more!

South Korea steps up fight against worst bird flu outbreak

Channel NewsAsia 13 May 08;

SEOUL : South Korea is to disinfect all poultry farms nationwide to combat its worst outbreak of bird flu, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday.

In the capital Seoul, all 15,000 chickens, ducks and other fowl -- including pet birds in school aviaries -- have been culled after a second case of the potentially deadly H5N1 virus was confirmed there.

Nationwide, more than 6.8 million chickens and ducks have been slaughtered since the latest outbreak began around April 1. But the ministry has reported 40 cases of bird flu at 31 places nationwide.

An association of poultry breeders estimated losses at 500 billion won (US$478 million).

The agriculture ministry said it would restrict the distribution and sale of live poultry for human consumption. It has already banned the butchering of chickens and other poultry at traditional markets.

"The government will take strong steps to stop the spread of bird flu, which is causing enormous damage to our poultry industry," an agriculture official told AFP.

The H5N1 strain has also spread to Busan, the country's second largest city, where officials plan to cull some 4,000 birds.

Police have also stepped up a crackdown on smugglers selling infected birds.

They are questioning six poultry breeders and distributors who have sold thousands of culled ducks for dog-food and hundreds of ducks from infected farms to chicken food stores, Yonhap news agency said.

No human infections have been confirmed in South Korea even though the H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.

In the country's 2003-2004 outbreak 5.28 million birds were culled while a 2006-2007 outbreak resulted in 2.8 million birds being destroyed.

- AFP/vm

Read more!

Sea change possible with people power

Jonathan Wootliff, Jakarta Post 13 May 08;

There's a war being waged in the oceans of Indonesia with death and destruction to be found along the vast coastline of this country.

Cyanide and explosives are being used by unscrupulous fisherman to extract sea life for commercial gain.

Trawlers from Taiwan, China and other foreign parts are stealing the nation's fish. Some of the country's most precious marine life is being threatened with extinction.

Invaluable mangroves are being ripped out and replaced with shrimp farms. An alarming amount of precious species living in our oceans are endangered. Coral reefs, rich in biodiversity, are being destroyed.

There can be no doubt that healthy marine life is essential to this country, not only for the sake of the environment.

The oceans provide an important source of food, give livelihoods to millions, and bring in much-needed income for the Indonesian economy.

As the world's largest archipelago comprising nearly 14,000 islands, Indonesia has a readily-available source of protein for domestic consumption in its waters.

Fish is the main food staple for the millions of Indonesians living along the coasts and an estimated quarter of the entire population is financially dependent on fishing.

Sales of fish products to overseas markets contribute around US$2 billion annually.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, created just five years ago, is taking steps to tackle these problems. But the future of Indonesia's marine biodiversity remains severely threatened.

While supporting growth in the industry, the government recognizes the need to protect marine life to ensure its long-term sustainability. But it is a huge challenge.

Environmental non-governmental organizations have been leading the call for sustainable fishing. They warn that short-term gains threaten the future of Indonesia's fisheries.

Key to their success is targeting the private sector, and particularly the international markets. NGOs have taken their cause overseas, to the United States and Europe where Indonesian fish products are exported.

High profile campaigns are helping to encourage fish buyers, suppliers and retailers to demand sustainably harvested products. Appeals have been made to powerful retailers like the US giant, Wal-Mart, to ensure that they only buy responsibly-sourced produce.

The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is a new organization that is breaking ground in the world of sustainable seafood and marine and freshwater conservation.

It aims to enable leading private-sector stakeholders to be proactive in the management of unsustainable sources of seafood, and help them to buy sustainable products.

"We need to get the international market to agree not to buy unsustainably produced seafood from Indonesia," says the SFP's Jakarta-based chief operating officer, Sari Surjadi.

"If the demand is there from the lucrative overseas markets for sustainable products, then the producer has no choice but to supply it," she adds.

As a veteran of the environmental NGO community, having previously worked for a decade for the Indonesian arm of Conservation International, and witnessed many destructive fishing practices, Sari is now seeing signs that the market is becoming more responsible.

In Indonesia, the SFP is focusing its initial efforts on the challenge of protecting the future viability of the blue swimming crab.

The SFP is making headway in getting the export industry to reject egg-bearing female crabs and ones that are too young, which are all-too-often being scooped from the seas.

But there's a long way to go. As marine habitat destruction abounds, more of Indonesia's magnificent marine species are facing extinction, especially the grouper, reef fish and turtle.

And the viral-like spread of fish farms, inappropriately located along some shorelines, is destroying mangroves that play a vital role in protecting coastal communities from battering from the seas. Indeed, there is evidence that the mangroves saved communities from devastation in the tsunami.

If we don't respect marine life it will disappear, thus depriving people of jobs, making coastal communities vulnerable to the elements, and irreversibly destroying our rich biodiversity.

The message has yet to resonate with ordinary Indonesians. It's important for citizens to vote with their feet. The time has come for Indonesians to ask more questions about how their seafood is being harvested and produced.

Ask questions when you buy. Can the supermarkets and restaurants assure you that their fish products have been sustainably sourced? If in doubt, why not leave it out.

People power can save our marine life, safeguard jobs and protect coastal communities.

We are the foot soldiers in the war to save our seas. For the sake of our environment and our economy, we cannot afford to lose.

Jonathan Wootliff is an independent sustainable development consultant specializing in the building of productive relationships between companies and NGOs. He can be contacted at jonathan@wootliff.com

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 13 May 08

Stop demolishing, start integrating
by Tan Mingjuan on yawning bread

Big, Beautiful and Bizarre: low tide highlights
a roundup of some of the sightings during the last week of spring low tides on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Corals and Climate Change
on the wildasia website

Where do birds go when they die?
on the bird ecology blog

May Day Dugong Ambassadors Outreach at Chek Jawa
in the news on the pulau ubin stories blog

Green Tip #12: on furniture
Select refurbished, recycled or eco-friendly furniture and building materials on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Cyrene Synaptid in action
video clip on the sgbeachbum blog

Cyrene cucumber in action
video clip on the sgbeachbum blog

Moon snail feeding
a video clip on the manta blog

Short-tailed Babbler
on the bird ecology blog

Recycling at Schools
on the SG Recycle blog

Read more!

Dubai's "The World" project

Worldly pursuits in Dubai
No doubt about it - The World in Dubai belongs to the rich and famous. This cluster of real estate is shaped like a map of Earth
Cara Van Miriah, Straits Times 13 May 08;

YOU can buy Australia, New Zealand, Shanghai or even the Antarctica, and develop it into a private kingdom.

But first, you have to be invited to purchase this exclusive piece of real estate located 4km off the coast of Dubai - The World, a spectacular man-made archipelago shaped like a map of Earth.

Every year, 50 invitations are sent to businessmen, celebrities and members of royalty.

Nakheel, the United Arab Emirates-owned property developer behind the project, wants to turn it into the world's first island community for the elite.

Covering 931ha, The World is twice the size of Sentosa, which has a total area of 463ha.

According to Mr Christopher O'Donnell, Nakheel's chief executive officer, half of the 300 islands with names such as Ireland and Shanghai, have been sold.

Although there had been talk that celebrities such as British singer Rod Stewart, footballer David Beckham and Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have each bought an island here, Nakheel did not confirm any of these purchases.

Instead, the confirmed buyers include Chinese businessman Bin Hu who paid 103 million dirhams (S$38 million) for Shanghai island with plans to build a resort; Kuwait-based investment group The Investment Dar and Efad Holdings, which will transform Australasia into a resort with private residences; and Singapore-based firm Cinnovation Group, which will build a 730 million-dirham resort and spa on Nova Island.

Each island, with an average size of 300,000 sq ft, is priced between 73.5 and 183.6 million dirhams, says Nakheel spokesman Aaron Richardson.

He declined to reveal the exact cost of the multi-billion-dollar project. With The World's barren islands, buyers will have to factor in other costs, such as building a house, ferry terminal and desalination plant.

Currently, only one island that is part of Greenland is fully developed with a three-storey glass-framed mansion, equipped with water, sewage and electrical systems. Mr Richardson would only reveal that the island belongs to an 'influential local family'.

According to locals, it is believed to be owned by Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice-president and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai.

He is also the man behind Nakheel's other island developments, such as The Palm Jumeriah, the smallest of the three artificial palm-shaped islands along the coast of Dubai.

These island developments, along with the skyscrapers rising rapidly from the desert plains, have reshaped Dubai in recent years.

The remnants of the old city, though, is tucked away at the Bur Dubai, known for its winding alleys, beautiful palaces, mosques and old homes.

Just like the old days, the bustling local markets or souks see merchants selling spices, gold, silk, fishes and textile.

As developers compete to build the world's tallest supertower in this fast-growing city, mega-resort Atlantis will open at the 560ha Palm Jumeirah in September.

Located on the Palm's crescent, the facilities will include an Aquaventure water park and a 1,539-room resort.

On the Palm, there are also waterfront condos and double-storey villas, which are located on the 16 'fronds'.

According to Edward Sands Towers properties, which specialises in the Palm's residences, a 1,184 sq ft one-bedroom seaview apartment is priced at 3 million dirhams, while a four-bedroom garden villa, spanning 5,000 sq ft, costs 15 million dirhams.

Homeowners come from China, South America, Britain, the United States and even Nepal.

So far, more than 4,000 properties have been snapped up, with 2,000 families now living on the island.

But with over 5,500 residential units, and more to come from third-party developers plus 30 new hotels, the island is in danger of becoming congested.

The construction of the Palm also sparked environmental concerns. The continuous breakwater was subsequently modified to create gaps on either side to allow tidal movement to oxygenate the water within and prevent it from stagnating.

Mr O'Donnell tells Life!: 'During the planning stages, we have local, regional and international institutions to prepare a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of the marine environment.

'The creation of new landscapes and seascapes promotes the existence of marine life.'

And two F-100 Super Sabre fighter jets have been stripped and sunk near the island to create an artificial reef, intended to encourage marine life.

At the end of this year, Nakheel will be developing yet another man-made island called The Universe.

Spanning 3,000ha of reclaimed land below The World, it will form a cluster of islands in the shape of the solar system. It is expected to have residential units and hotels.

Asked what would follow next, Mr O'Donnell jests: 'We have already conquered The World and next, The Universe. These are icons of Dubai.'

Making of The World
Straits Times 13 May 08;

Design: Map of Earth

Number of islands: 300

Size: 931ha (twice the size of Sentosa)

Reclamation: 320 million cubic m of sand dredged from the sea, plus 34 billion kg of rocks to construct 27km of breakwater

New coastline: 232km

Reclamation period: Five years

Types of real estate: Private homes, estate homes, luxury resorts and community islands, plus retail and dining options

Number of islands sold: Half Price of each island: From 73.5 million dirhams (S$28 million) to 183.6 million dirhams

Average size of each island: About 300,000 sq ft, about 100m between each island

Island facilities:

# Marinas to service estates and customers of resort islands

# Transportation: Helicopter, seaplanes and boats. Journey to and from the mainland takes about 10 to 15 minutes each way

# Coming up: Centralised system to provide water, power and sewage disposal

# Source: www.theworld.ae, Nakheel

The Palm, his island paradise
Before The World, there was The Palm Jumeirah. Fanned out like a palm tree, it is a development that boasts luxury living
Cara Van Miriah, Straits Times 13 May 08;

BRITON Andrew Dukes could have bought a luxurious holiday home in Monaco or France.

But the 44-year-old retired businessman bought not one but two beachfront villas in Dubai, where temperatures can soar to a sweltering 50 deg C during summer.

Mr Dukes, who used to run an animation company based in Britain and Dubai specialising in electronic greeting cards, paid 5.6 million dirhams (S$2 million) for a five-bedroom villa at The Palm Jumeirah in 2006.

In February, he forked out 10 million dirhams for a four-bedroom seafront villa nearby.

Both properties, spanning 5,500 sq ft each, are located along one of the 16 'fronds' of the palm-shaped island.

Mr Duke tells Life!: 'I heard about the villas from my friends a few years ago. At that time, I was considering a holiday home in Monaco because of its proximity to London.

'But Dubai is a better choice because it's a tax-free city. It is also cosmopolitan with a large expat community.'

The Yorkshire-born entrepreneur, who now lives in his second villa, was among the first to move onto the Palm in February last year, according to its developer Nakheel.

He recalls, with a laugh: 'I didn't even see the villa before I bought it in mid-2006. No one was allowed on the Palm until last January. But Dubai is known for its pristine beaches and I like the privacy the Palm offers.'

Mr Dukes' homemaker wife Jane and two daughters - Georgia, 11, and Mariella, nine - live in London and spend about five weeks of the year with him in Dubai.

He says they had initially planned to move as a family but have put that plan on hold for now.

So far, he has spent about 430,600 dirhams furnishing his first villa, which has a modern and colourful interior.

The second villa, which has a contemporary design, is still under refurbishment.

When asked why he bought the second property, he points to The Palm Jumeirah's positioning as a major tourist attraction.

He says he bought the waterfront villa so he could lease his first villa to holiday-makers. He advertises it on his website www.dubai-holiday-villa.com.

Last year, he rented out his villa for 15 weeks when he was visiting his family in London.

With rental rates averaging around 35,900 dirhams for six days, and 1.7 million dirhams for a year, he could recoup his initial investment of 5.6 million dirhams in less than four years.

He says: 'The properties have 12 to 14 per cent annual returns. When the theme parks and hotels are completed in the next few years, the property prices will appreciate even more.'

But the Briton says he has no intention to sell his villas for a tidy profit.

He explains: 'It's a wonderful experience waking up to a beautiful beach every morning. Although it can get very warm between June and August, Dubai has a cool season from September.

'I have no reason to relocate anywhere else in the world. It's a paradise here.'

Palm facts and figures
Straits Times 13 May 08;

Design: Shape of a palm tree, consisting of a trunk, a crown with 16 fronds, and a surrounding crescent island that forms an 11km-long breakwater

Size: 560ha (equivalent to over 600 football fields)

Reclamation: 94 million cubic m of sand and 7 billion kg of rocks

New coastline: 78km

Reclamation period: Over five years

Types of real estate: Villas, garden homes, canal cove town homes and shoreline apartment buildings

Total number of residential properties: Over 5,500

Properties sold: More than 75 per cent

Price of property: From 4.4 million dirhams (S$1.6 million) for three-bedroom seaview apartments to 15 million dirhams for double-storey four-bedroom villas

Island facilities: Beaches, marinas, themed parks, 30 hotels, restaurants, cafes and retail outlets

Transportation: Car and boats

Eco features: Two F-100 Super Sabre fighter jets have been stripped and sunk near The Palm Jumeirah to create an artificial reef, intended to encourage marine life

Coming up: A 5.4km-long monorail is being built on the island, which will transport 2,000 to 3,000 people to and from the island every hour

# Source: Nakheel, Edward Sand Towers

Related article
Pitfalls in paradise: why Palm Jumeirah is struggling to live up to the hype
Low-paid workers and villa gripes cast a cloud over 'eighth wonder of the world' in Dubai by Robert Booth, The Guardian 26 Apr 08;

Read more!

Visually handicapped kids get a feel of nature

Lee Pei Qi, Straits Times 13 May 08

FOR 21 students - most of them at least partly blind - a visit to the mangrove wetlands in Pulau Ubin yesterday gave them a chance to touch the sea creatures they could not see.

Goh Wei Bin, 12 and partially blind from birth, felt what it was like to have a hermit crab crawl across his palm. And Sakinah Zainal, also 12 and partially blind, touched the rough skin of a starfish for the first time.

Both were thrilled.

Wei Bin, a self-confessed science enthusiast with limited vision, said he had never come this close to marine animals like starfish, sea cucumbers and sand dollars before.

He said: 'I like to touch and feel all these things because I cannot see clearly.'

The pair were in the group, aged between nine and 16 and hailing from the Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped, who visited the island with guides and volunteers.

The jaunt, sponsored by the Singapore Press Holdings Foundation and initiated by the National Parks Board, was part of a Special Projects to Understand Nature or Sun Club programme organised for children with special needs.

Sun Club has 60 such nature trips lined up this year for about 1,200 children.

Seven schools are now in the club, with four more due to join it this year.

Read more!

4 cats found dead - 3 with stab wounds

Straits Times 13 May 08;

ANOTHER four cats have been found dead in Pasir Ris, bringing the death toll to seven felines since May 2.

Of the four, three were found in Pasir Ris Town Park yesterday, within 50m of one another and with abdominal puncture wounds.

The fourth cat was found nearby, in an open field near Block 536. It had a fractured jaw.

It had no other observable wounds, and it is not known whether its death was related to that of the other three.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), alerted to the deaths, said the wounds on the three in the park were stab wounds, not the result of dog bites.

On May 2, three cats were found in Pasir Ris Street 21, doused with what is believed to be thinner.

Two died and the third was eventually put down as a result of its injuries.

The SPCA is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person or persons involved in this spate of cat deaths.

The SPCA may be contacted on 6287-5355, Extension 9.

Read more!

Think green before printing e-mail - that's the message

Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times 13 May 08;

CIVIL servant Shayne Prashan signs off his e-mail these days with an image of a small pine tree and a green message: 'Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.'

The 28-year-old associate for social programmes at the Ministry of Finance learnt about this eco-friendly signature in January this year, when the corporate communications department asked staff members to consider putting it in their e-mail sign-offs.

'It's a natural extension of what I do and it's to remind others to also take the step,' said Mr Prashan, who tries not to print documents but downloads them instead on his laptop, which he takes to his meetings.

The Ministry of Finance is not alone in advocating this green message. The National Parks Board's (NParks) 700-plus employees were encouraged early this year to use a similar tagline.

Theirs reads: 'Save our planet. Please don't print this e-mail and/or attachments unless you really need to. Thank you.'

Some companies have adopted variations of the same message, including transport group ComfortDelGro.

Since February, its e-mail messages come with the tagline: 'At ComfortDelGro, we are committed to the preservation of the environment. We encourage you to print this e-mail only if it is absolutely necessary.'

Said its spokesman Tammy Tan: 'It's part of our green movement.' It complements a range of green measures the group has adopted, from rolling out buses that meet Euro IV emission targets, to introducing paper recycling at all its offices.

Multinational companies here, such as marketing agency Ogilvy and real estate provider CB Richard Ellis, have also adopted similar taglines.

A spokesman for CB Richard Ellis said it took on the tagline last June after a directive from its Los Angeles headquarters.

Individual employees are also doing it on their own. Like public relations manager Bernadette Low, who learnt about the tagline from an Australia-based colleague last year.

She had become more eco-conscious after watching former United States vice-president Al Gore's climate-change movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

'I believe in it,' said Ms Low, 33, who does not print most of her e-mail. If she does, she uses both sides of the paper. 'There are a lot of things you don't need to print. But usually people don't think twice and just click the print button. So it's a good reminder.'

The eco-friendly taglines appear to have surfaced en masse abroad last year, and spread further, though detractors say most taglines are hardly noticeable and will be missed by most people.

But Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw thinks it is an important first step to promoting a green office, especially with the public sector - which accounts for one-fifth of commercial activity - also cottoning on.

So far, the only government agencies that have obtained the green office label are the National Environment Agency and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.

They practise measures like separating paper waste from other waste, and recycling printer and ink cartridges.

Mr Shaw thinks the new taglines in the Ministry of Finance and NParks are a positive start. And while the council does not have a similar tag as yet, he said: 'I'll consider it.'

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Underground 'city' to free up space

Ronnie Lim, Business Times 13 May 08;
Possibilities include power stations and logistics centres beneath the surface

(SINGAPORE) Singapore is looking at building underground power stations, water reclamation plants, wafer fabs and R&D labs, data centres, warehouses and port and airport logistics centres to free up surface land for other economic uses.

Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation has called a tender for a wide-ranging 'underground rock cavern (URC) usage feasibility study' to see how best caverns beneath the island can be used.

The consultant awarded the study will have to work with various government agencies on possible uses for the caverns.

For instance, it will have to work with the Energy Market Authority on power stations, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore on airport logistics, or the Public Utilities Board on water reclamation plants.

The study will cover such 'space, technical and functional requirements, operation and maintenance requirements and identification of issues of concern', the tender document says.

The tender, called on Friday last week, closes on June 6. Due to the specialised nature of the project, only tenderers with proven URC expertise and experience are eligible.

The winning consultant will have to identify and study proven URC usage in other countries and determine the technical and operational feasibility of such usage here.

The consultant will also have to look at the environment, health and the likely public reaction on such matters as radiation and pollution, harmful airborne particles and damage to existing buildings or infrastructure, among other things.

A JTC spokeswoman said yesterday JTC will be the facilitator for the multi-agency study. 'The study will look at possible uses for URCs as well as costs,' she said. 'The latter include costs for excavation and facility construction for each specific use.'

JTC declined to say which areas of Singapore have potential for URCs. 'The latest feasibility study is looking just at usage, and not sites,' the spokeswoman noted.

Singapore has so far used underground caverns for munitions storage for the defence forces. It blasted caverns out of granite beneath the disused Mandai Quarry.

And it is currently constructing Phase 1 of the $700 million Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC) project beneath Jurong Island to store 1.485 million cu m of crude oil and oil products like naphtha, condensate and gas oil.

JRC will be used by petrochemical companies such as Jurong Aromatics Corporation, which is building a US$2 billion aromatics complex and is the first committed customer.

The first of five caverns being built under Phase 1 will start operating at end-2010. Phase 2 of the project will add another 1.3 million cu m of storage.

In March, when Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean commissioned the underground munitions facility at Mandai, he said it would free up 300 ha of land - half the size of Pasir Ris Town - and need 20 per cent less manpower to operate than a surface facility.

Likewise, JRC will free up 60 ha of surface space - bigger than Bishan Park - to accommodate the storage needs of the oil industry here.

Land on Jurong Island is being snapped up by new petrochemical investors. BT understands that no more land is available from JTC for above-ground oil storage terminals, after Hin Leong's Universal Terminal and Emirates National Oil Company's Horizon Terminal.

Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation has called a tender for a wide-ranging 'underground rock cavern usage feasibility study' to see how best caverns beneath the island can be used.

An underground reservoir?
Govt tender to study feasibility of more facilities in rock caverns
Ansley Ng, Today Online 14 May 08;

LAND-SCARCE Singapore is already storing some of its military munitions in this way. And work is underway on similar storage facilities for crude oil and oil products.

Now, the Government wants to look at building power stations, warehouses, incineration plants, airport logistics centres and reservoirs — all below ground.

Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) last Friday called a tender for a "underground rock cavern usage feasibility study" to see how subterranean grottos could be used to maximise land use. Among other things, the winning consultant will have to study the costs and the use of underground caverns in other countries. It will also advise JTC on the possible environmental and health issues, such as pollution, radiation and damage to existing buildings and infrastructure.

Last July, Today broke the story of how government agencies including the JTC were exploring the feasibility of creating caverns for living.

Professor Zhao Jian, who led early feasibility studies on cavern development in Singapore, had said then that the potential for space underground was "almost limitless" and was "particularly useful for any facilities that are not desirable at surface level, for example, sewage treatment plants".

The study now up for tender will look merely at feasibility and not sites, a JTC spokeswoman told the Business Times.

However, potential sites could be areas with deposits of igneous rock, such as granite, in the central, northern and northeastern areas of the island.

A 1995 paper by Nanyang Technological University researchers including Prof Zhao, in the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology, concluded that the Bukit Timah granite — which forms one-third of the surface area of Singapore — had good potential for underground cavern construction.

The tender closes June 6, and the consultant is expected to work with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Energy Market Authority, among others.

other cavern projects:

• In March, the Ministry of Defence opened caverns under the disused Mandai Quarry to store ammunition such as bullets, bombs and missiles. The warehouse caverns – each about the size of six basketball courts – were blasted out of solid granite underneath the quarry, freeing up surface land the size of Pasir Ris town.

• The JTC is constructing the $2-billion Jurong Rock Cavern beneath Jurong Island, for use by petrochemical companies. The first caverns under Phase 1 should begin operations in 2010.

• A plan in the late 1990s to construct a Science City, a mixed-use commercial project, under Science Park 2 was derailed by cost factors.

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Green buildings in Singapore: Going green to stay in the black

Business Times 13 May 08;

Builders who go green can also expect to see more cost savings in their bottom lines over time, reports JOEL CHUA

A NEW species of building is sprouting up in our concrete jungle. And in the near future, the proliferation of this species may render the term 'concrete jungle' an anachronism.

'Green buildings' are taking root across our cityscape and redefining our living and working environments. They may serve the same functions and generally occupy the same forms as conventional buildings, but they do so with more energy-efficiency and greater regard for the environment in terms of the materials and construction methods used.

While the impetus for this new building paradigm was ecological, it has since taken on an economic dimension as well. And it is the latter consideration that is fuelling the commercial viability of the trend. Industry experts say that companies which make their office buildings green will eventually add more black to their bottom line in energy cost savings.

And the government, with its new green thumb, is actively helping to prune the industry of unnecessary waste.

From April this year, the authorities have made it mandatory for all new buildings to be certified with the Green Mark, a scheme under the Building and Construction Authority that ensures structures are environmentally friendly.

Besides that, the authorities are giving cash incentives to builders who achieve certain standards set out under the scheme. To attain the certificate, new building plans are graded on five areas - energy efficiency, water efficiency, environmental protection, indoor environmental quality as well as green features and innovation.

According to the director of local energy-audit firm G-Energy Global, Vincent Low, getting certified should not be the main focus of building planners. In his experience, builders sometimes approach the Green Mark as though it were a test, trying to score easy points in less challenging areas (50 out of 100 is the pass mark).

But this, he says, is myopic and defeats the purpose. They need to appreciate the spirit of going green in the first place. While bureaucratic standards may require them to score a certain amount of points in an overall assessment, builders need to look at the big picture - saving their clients money in the long run through cutting energy consumption. And there are various ways to do this.

Construction materials and processes also determine how green a building is. During construction, how much material from existing structures is recycled for use in a new building is a factor in the Green Mark assessment.

As is how conscientious contractors are in preserving trees and greenery on site. Specialised materials and paints that do not harm the environment also add to the score.

Energy-saving functions

A green building is more energy-efficient than a grey one because of technologies and design elements that enable it to adapt to the behaviour and changing needs of its occupants without compromising functional quality and comfort. It does this by dynamically tracking human and environmental factors, then moderating the allocation of resources to parts of the building that require them. Less energy is wasted.

According to G-Energy Global's Mr Low, if properly designed and managed, a green building can save up to 30 per cent in energy. This is something that developers need to focus on when deciding how much to invest in typically more expensive green materials and technologies.

Such a level of energy-efficiency translates into significant operational cost savings in the long run. The government has, in fact, set up a $10 million fund to subsidise up to 50 per cent of the cost of companies that wish to audit the energy efficiency of their buildings.

But the 'long run' is an issue that must be reconciled with this move to green technologies.

With his years of experience, the past-president of the Singapore Institute of Building, Yan Kum Seng, has noticed that buildings here are generally torn down or renovated after just 10 years. He believes that installing green components makes sense only if buildings last for at least a couple of decades. If not, spending on more expensive technology designed to save money in the long term won't make any sense.

But according to Chan Kim Kai, the manager of Temasek Polytechnic's Intelligent Building Technology course, a building need not employ sophisticated technology for it to be green. Changi Airport Terminal Three (T3) is a good example. It employs technology and simple but effective design in order to save energy.

Sophisticated sensors are used in the ceiling louvres that react to sunlight and adjust their angle automatically to let in an optimal amount of natural light and a minimal amount of heat. This results in less energy spent on artificial lighting and, because it also keeps heat out, less is spent to cool the interior.

There doesn't seem to be anything particularly hi-tech about the air-conditioning vents in the departure hall, apart from the fact that they are placed as close to the ground as possible. The simple but thoughtful design element is their energy-saving efficiency - because they are close to human level, the ventilators do not have to be on full blast for occupants to feel their effect.

Another simple feature with significant benefits - which T3 shares with several other green buildings - is a 'green wall'. Surfaces that are covered with greenery tend to absorb less heat and thus help keep the internal temperature cool. And of course, they look great too.

But well-considered basic design touches will only take a building so far. It will still require technology to deepen a building's shade of green. Centralised controls that regulate lighting, air-conditioning, water-flow, waste management and security, ensure that every ounce of energy and resource is expanded to its fullest potential.

Colour of money

These features do not just make buildings green, but also 'intelligent'. Indeed, a building that responds intuitively to facilitate the human and organisational activities of its occupants, while saving money at the same time, warrants such a term.

And with regulations now calling for all buildings to encompass green components, the intelligent building industry is growing, as Singapore becomes an attractive market for companies that specialise in building materials and equipment.

One such example is Baur Asia, a Swiss company that markets European building materials and precision equipment. Having set up shop here a year ago, it is using Singapore as a regional hub. According to Eleonore Taillens, its business development manager, the prospects are attractive and the company has achieved good growth so far. She says that companies here are generally enthusiastic about adopting newer technologies and materials, even though they may initially cost more. They understand the cost-saving aspect of such investments.

One area of the industry caters to customers with special needs, typically physically-challenged people who need customised equipment to negotiate conventionally-structured spaces.

With government regulations that require buildings to be outfitted with specialised devices to facilitate accessibility by the physically handicapped, this is another niche industry that is expanding. IGV is an Italian company that designs and builds specialised elevators. These lifts, known as hydraulic vertical platforms, can be retrofitted with relative ease into existing buildings to make them compliant with those regulations.

According to Nicole Wong, the marketing manager of Lift-Mech Engineering, a Singapore company that markets and installs IGV products, this is particularly useful for heritage buildings that may have renovation limitations. Without a lift, such a building may not qualify as handicapped-accessible.

Compared with conventional lifts, which require a pit of up to 1.5m-deep to be dug, hydraulic vertical platforms needs only a depression of 150mm to be installed.

Ms Wong also reveals that for the first time, such a lift was recently approved by the Housing and Development Board to be installed in a maisonette for an occupant who has trouble climbing stairs. The lifts are also relatively energy-efficient, requiring the same amount of energy as a washing machine.

With innovations such as these and interest growing in the intelligent and green building industries, Singapore is quickly becoming a hub for such products.

The burgeoning local construction industry, which is expected to generate US$55 billion by 2011, is one sure sign of the opportunities that lie ahead for industry players.

Another sign is the BEX Asia Exhibition that takes place here later this month. It is expected to bring together not only the latest construction technologies and materials from around the world, but experts from various industries as well.

Green, as they say, really is the colour of money.

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Microwaves 'cook ballast aliens'

Mark Kinver, BBC News 12 May 08

US researchers say they have developed an effective way to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride in the ballast waters of cargo vessels.

Tests showed that a continuous microwave system was able to remove all marine life within the water tanks.

The UN lists "invasive species" dispersed by ballast water discharges as one of the four main threats to the world's marine ecosystems.

The findings will appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Shipping moves more than 80% of the world's commodities and transfers up to five billion tonnes of ballast water internationally each year, data from the UN shows.

Vessels, especially large container ships, need ballast tanks to provide stability in the water and correct any shift in the ships’ mass.

When a ship's cargo is unloaded, it fills with ballast water; when it is later reloaded, often on the other side of the world, the water is discharged.

Co-author Dorin Boldor, from Louisiana State University’s Agricultural Center, said the team envisaged the microwave device being fitted to the exit valve of a ballast tank.



"The basic idea is that you take the ballast water and pump it through a microwave cavity."

He added that the system would follow the same principle as a household microwave oven.

"The power level is much higher and a different frequency, but it creates a very high intensity electric field in the centre of the cavity that oscillates rapidly.

"The water molecules are going to start spinning around very fast and they are going to create a lot of friction that generates heat," Dr Boldor explained.

"But it generates heat in the whole volume at the same time, unlike if you try to use another heating mechanism where you have to take the heat from somewhere else and conduct it through the liquid."

This means that the researchers have a high degree of confidence that the system is treating all of the water to remove the unwanted organisms.

"It is extremely fast and very efficient at transferring the energy from the microwaves into heat," he told BBC News.

Biological stowaways

For thousands of years, marine species have been dispersed throughout the oceans by natural means, such as currents and drifting on debris.

But natural barriers, such as temperature differences and land masses, have limited the range of some species' dispersal and allowed different marine ecosystems to evolve.

Since the emergence of the modern shipping fleet and growing trade between nations, these natural barriers have been broken down, allowing the introduction of alien species that upset the equilibrium of ecosystems.

The UN-led Global Ballast Water Management Programme (GloBallast) estimates that at least 7,000 species are able to be carried across the globe in ships' ballast tanks.

While many of these plants and creatures do not survive the journey, some find the new environment favourable enough to establish a reproductive population and go on to undermine native species.

For example, GloBallast says, European zebra mussels ( Dreissena polymorpha ) have infested more than 40% of the US's inland waterways.

Between 1989 and 2000, up to $1bn (£500m) is estimated to have been spent on controlling the spread of the alien invader.

The arrival of an invasive jellyfish-like organism, Mnemiopsis leidyi , led to a major ecological "regime change" in the Black Sea, which contributed to the collapse of commercial fisheries in the region.

At one stage, the species accounted for about 90% of the sea's entire biomass. Its appetite for native plankton stocks meant that other fish species were unable to compete and re-establish viable populations.

In February 2004, the international shipping community agreed to establish tougher measures to prevent discharges of ballast water releasing potentially invasive species.

The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediment requires all vessels over 400 tonnes to eventually fit systems to treat ballast water.

The team’s development is ideally suited to help commercial operators meet their obligation under this legislation, Dr Boldor explained.

"It will probably work very well for it to be installed on very large ships themselves, but when you are talking about smaller vessels it may be more cost effective to have some sort of barge system based in the ports.

"It can just pull up to the ship, take and treat the ballast water while the ships are waiting to berth at the dock."

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