Pet Sterilization in the US Grows Controversial

Maryann Mott, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 13 May 08;

For some pet owners, spaying or neutering their animals is no longer a choice - it's the law.

Nearly 40 mandatory sterilization bills have been introduced this year alone in cities and counties nationwide, including Dallas, Texas and Palm Beach, Fla. So far, only a handful has passed.

During local hearings, the controversial proposals attract legions of animal enthusiasts who pack rooms to voice their strong opinions. The issue is also being argued online in chat rooms where spirited discussions fill electronic page after page after page.

Supporters believe these "fix it or ticket" laws will ultimately reduce the millions of animals abandoned and destroyed annually in shelters . But opponents say such measures often lack funding to subsidize the surgery and rely heavily on voluntary compliance, allowing for easy evasion of the law.

The Los Angeles model

Earlier this year the City of Los Angeles passed a universal spay-neuter ordinance requiring most cats and dogs over the age of 4 months to be altered. Pet owners who don't comply by October could face fines up to $500.

But animal control officers won't be knocking on doors and peaking under pets' legs to see if they've been fixed. Instead the law will largely be enforced when officers encounter nuisance animals. Ed Boks, general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, says the public agency receives 600 complaints daily, mostly involving intact (unsterilized) dogs chasing kids, biting people and fighting with other dogs.

"There's little we can do," he explains. "We can write a leash law warning and try to educate people - that sort of thing - but we've been doing that for 34 years and it just doesn't solve many of the problems."

The new ordinance is a valuable tool in making city neighborhoods safer, he says, because altered dogs are less likely to cause problems to which his officers must respond. In many cases sterilization reduces canine aggression and roaming.

Other California cities may soon join Los Angeles. A statewide bill, which stalled last year in a Senate committee, is expected to be heard again in late June, says a spokesperson for the bill's author, Assembly member Lloyd Levine.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles has opened two low-cost spay-neuter clinics for financially strapped pet owners and plans to operate seven more by the end of the year. And Boks says he's flooded with calls from other cities interested in enacting a similar ordinance.

Quick recovery

Spaying and neutering is a fast, simple surgery that stops animals from reproducing. Spaying refers to the removal of a female's ovaries and uterus; neutering removes a male's testicles.

Puppies and kittens 4 months-old or less not only recover faster but experience virtually no pain or complications, says veterinarian Marvin Mackie, an early spay-neuter specialist who has performed 250,000 surgeries during his 32-year career.

"The youthful patients are truly resilient," he says. "Their anesthetics are metabolized more rapidly and they are up quicker than their [older] counterparts. They are pretty much totally unaware of their surgery."

An educational effort nationwide by public shelters and humane societies pushing people to alter their pets has largely paid off, particularly in the Northeast where there's now a puppy shortage. To fill the void, young dogs from overcrowded shelters in Southern states are transported to facilities in communities where they're in demand.

Most animal advocates agree spaying and neutering is one of the most effective tools in reducing the number of unwanted and stray animals in a community, but it's not a silver bullet. Other types of programs are also needed to stem the flow into shelters, such as animal training to stop frustrated owners from relinquishing unruly pets.

In some cities, feral and free-roaming cats are bigger problem for shelters than dogs, requiring humane workers to take a different approach in controlling populations including a popular yet controversial method called Trap-Neuter-Return.

Not a new idea

Forcing people to fix their pets is only now being hotly debated - and sometimes legally challenged - but it's not a new legislative idea. A handful of communities have quietly had such ordinances on the books for years, although it hasn't always produced desired results.

Since 1996, the northern California cities of San Mateo and Belmont, as well as unincorporated areas of San Mateo County, have required sterilization of most dogs or cats over six months of age.

The thinking at that time was if a few cities passed the ordinance, they'd see wonderful results such as increased pet licensing, which in turns boosts city revenue, as well as fewer animals entering shelters and euthanized, said Scott Delucchi, president of the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA, which provides animal control services for all 20 cities in San Mateo County.

But that never happened.

"There was no A causes B relationship that they could prove," he says.

In fact, in some cases, Delucchi says, the Pet Overpopulation Ordinance, as it's dubbed, had just the opposite effect. Consequently other cities weren't interested in passing the statute and the effort was largely dropped.

Subsidized surgeries

Fast forward to today. PHS/SPCA in San Mateo County isn't in favor of California's statewide spay-neuter bill (AB 1634) because it lacks a good enforcement component and doesn't subsidize spay-neuter, said Delucchi.

If the bill passes, he thinks irresponsible and ignorant owners - the root of pet overpopulation - will simply ignore it.

A better way is to provide low-cost or free surgeries to the community, he said, something PHS/SPCA has done since the 1970s. Back then, the shelter took in 45,000 unwanted dogs and cats. Today that number has plummeted to 9,000 animals, despite the area's increased human and pet population.

The organization also operates a spay-neuter mobile clinic that targets low-income neighborhoods, and last year fixed 1,000 cats and dogs countywide.

"We know we're reaching a lot of people who probably otherwise wouldn't be altering their animals," he said.

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Best of our wild blogs: 14 May 08

Want to go to Cyrene Reef? Now is your chance!
All the details are announced on the leafmonkey blog!










Heartfelt Responses for May Day Outreach
on the flying fish friends blog

Sand mining and sand dumping next to Labrador and near Cyrene Reef and Sentosa latest MPA notice on the wildfilms blog

Seagrass-Watch bulletin: Dugong feeding trails galore!
on the teamseagrass blog

When birds die, they get recycled!
on the bird ecology blog

Feast of termites under a lamp post
on the bird ecology blog

Cyrene snapping shrimp
video clip on the sgbeachbum blog

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34 rays die mysteriously at Canadian zoo

Yahoo News 13 May 08;

Authorities said Tuesday they suspect foul play in the recent deaths of dozens of rays at a zoo in western Canada.

Staff at the Calgary Zoo are "puzzled and shocked" by the sudden deaths of its rays, said spokeswoman Laurie Herron.

"It's really devastating for the staff that cared for the animals," she told AFP, calling the deaths "suspicious."

"We cannot find a reasonable explanation for why this happened," she said, adding that "activists' groups or individuals who have become more militant" may be responsible.

The deaths were "certainly not for lack of care," Herron said.

According to a zoo statement, keepers noticed the rays swimming erratically Sunday and observed that they seemed to be in "extreme distress."

Then started dying off. By Monday morning, 34 of the 43 cownose rays were dead.

A preliminary examination found that their gills were very irritated, but otherwise, the animals had seemed in good health.

The zoo's director of conservation Cathy Gaviller said there was no mechanical failure in the tank's life support system, and numerous water tests since the exhibit opened in February were normal.

The zoo sent food and water samples, as well as ray tissue samples to a lab for testing Monday to determine if there were toxins in the water.

"We're still waiting for the latest water chemistry results," Herron said.

The nine surviving rays, meanwhile, were transferred to a separate holding tank and "appear to be doing marginally better today," she said.

Canadian zoo investigates puzzling stingray deaths
Yahoo News 13 May 08;

Officials at the Calgary Zoo remained baffled on Tuesday as they tried to puzzle out just why 34 of their stingrays suddenly died.

The juvenile cownose stingrays, about the size of a dinner plate, were kept in a "petting" tank where visitors were able to touch them, a common feature in a number of North American zoos and aquariums, according to the zoo officials in the Western Canadian city.

On Sunday, within a few hours of opening, the normally voracious fish lost their appetites, became discolored and started dying, with 34 of the 43 rays quickly succumbing to an ailment or cause that has yet to be diagnosed.

"It was a very acute onset of something, a very sudden change," said Cathy Gaviller, director of conservation, research and education for the Calgary Zoo. "It was high mortality in a very short period of time."

The zoo, as yet, has no real idea of what happened to the rays, which are common in the waters off North America's east coast.

Water tests show there were no problems with the tank or its filtration system, though the zoo has also sent off samples for independent testing.

Gaviller said that because of the speed of the deaths, disease or parasites were unlikely causes, but nothing is being ruled out. However results from tissue and toxicology tests won't soon be ready.

"It's unfortunate that we have very few facts," she said. "But the No. 1 likelihood is that something in the water changed suddenly."

She added that there were no signs that a zoo visitor caused the rays' deaths.

The incident is the latest in a number of animal deaths at the zoo that have sparked criticism of the facility.

A hippopotamus being moved to Calgary from Denver, Colorado, died in October. As well, a baby gorilla died in August after other gorilla disrupted the mother's nursing routine.

(Reporting by Scott Haggett; editing by Rob Wilson)

Stingrays probably poisoned, says zoo
Eva Ferguson, Canwest News Service, Canada.com 15 May 08;

CALGARY --The Calgary Zoo has called in the police in the mysterious deaths of 39 cownose rays, now believed to have been poisoned by a visitor.

"This is a huge tank, so something substantial had to have been put in. We don't know if it was a powder or a liquid," said Laurie Herron, a spokeswoman for the zoo.

"But at this point we're thinking it was not accidental."

Tests from an independent local lab released yesterday found the water chemistry of the ray pool was within acceptable ranges. Levels of ammonia, dissolved oxygen, PH, salinity and other natural minerals were measured. Initial tests, however, can't identify possible toxins in the water.

Late Sunday, 26 of the 43 rays died, with other deaths following over the next few days, including one Tuesday evening and another four overnight. The rays were suffering from breathing problems and inflamed gills.

Only four now remain.

Zoo veterinarian Doug Whiteside, who performed the necropsies, said the dead rays had changed from their normal light-grey colour to having splotches of dark grey and yellow. The colour change is normally a reaction to some kind of stress.

The sudden death of so many rays makes it likely a poison was added to the water, said zoo spokeswoman Cathy Gavillier.

"It's disturbing to think of this as a possibility, but we have so far been unable to pinpoint any other cause that would provoke such an acute and severe reaction in the rays," Gavillier said.

Because the rays sickened and died so quickly, disease is an unlikely culprit, she said. Nor was there any mechanical failure in the life-support system.

The ray pool, which allows visitors to reach in and touch them as they swim, was introduced at the zoo in February.

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World tree planting drive sets goal of 7 billion

Alister Doyle, Reuters 13 May 08;

OSLO (Reuters) - A campaign to plant trees worldwide set a goal on Tuesday of seven billion by late 2009, just over one for each person on the planet, to help protect the environment and slow climate change.

The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), an organizer of the tree planting drive begun in late 2006 with an initial goal of a billion by the end of 2007, said governments, companies and individuals had already pushed the total above 2 billion.

It set a target on Tuesday of an extra five billion plantings by the time a U.N. climate conference in Denmark starts on November 30 next year that is meant to agree a new long-term treaty to combat climate change beyond the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.

"In 2006 we wondered if a billion tree target was too ambitious; it was not," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

"The goal of two billion trees has also proven to be an underestimate. The goal of planting seven billion trees, equivalent to just over a tree per person alive on the planet, must therefore also be do-able," he said in a statement.

UNEP said that safeguarding and planting forests were among the most cost-effective ways to slow climate change, blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel on emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants and cars.

Trees soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when burnt or when they rot. Deforestation accounts for over 20 percent of the carbon dioxide humans generate.

The campaign registers pledges of plantings on the Internet but does not check that all seedlings or saplings are actually planted or survive.

"Regional and national governments organized the most massive plantings, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, followed by Turkey (400 million), Mexico (250 million), and Kenya (100 million)," it said.

Millions of individuals have also taken part, including schoolchildren or religious groups. "It has given expression to the frustrations but also the hopes of millions of people around the world," Steiner said.

One U.N. official said that seven billion trees would, as they grow, soak up roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide emitted by Russia in a year. Russia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States and China.

Among projects, mangroves were planted in Indonesia after the devastating 2004 tsunami to help protect coastline. And the Replant New Orleans initiative sponsored plantings of fruit trees to help communities recover after Hurricane Katrina.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

Two billion trees planted in UN campaign
Yahoo News 13 May 08;

More than two billion trees were planted around the world as part of the UN's campaign to combat climate change, the world body's environment programme (UNEP) said Tuesday in a statement.

The Nairobi-based agency said the tree planting campaign, inspired by Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, will help mitigate the effects of pollution and environmental deterioration.

The campaign launched in 2006 saw two billion trees planted, double the original target, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, Turkey at 400 million, Mexico at 250 million and Kenya at 100 million trees.

The campaign set a new target of seven billion by late 2009, when governments gather in Copenhagen for a crucial climate change conference.

"The goal of planting seven billion trees -- equivalent to just over a tree per person alive on the planet -- must therefore also be do-able given the campaign's extraordinary track record and the self-evident worldwide support," UNEP chief Achim Steiner said in a statement.

"It is a defining issue of our era that can only be tackled through individual and collective action. I am convinced that the new target will be met -- one tree at a time," he added.

Heads of state participated in the campaign, as did corporations, cities, faiths and communities, but individuals accounted for over half of all participants, UNEP said.

Experts say that trees are the most cost-effective way of containing carbon that accumulates the heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change.

"Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide," UNEP said.

"Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20 percent of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivaling the emissions from other sources."

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U.S. Major Importer of Illegal Asian Timber, Study Says

Stefan Lovgren, National Geographic News 13 May 08;

Vietnam has become a hub for processing Asia's illegally logged timber, much of which is sold in the United States as outdoor furniture, conservationists say.

In a report released in March, the U.K.-based nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner Telapak warned that the illegal timber trade is threatening some of the last intact forests in Southeast Asia, especially in Laos.

"Despite wide awareness of the problem of illegal logging and a series of political commitments to tackle the issue, demand for cut-price wood products is still fuelling the illegal destruction of some of the worlds most significant remaining tropical forests," said Julian Newman, head of the EIA's forest campaign program.

It is currently legal in the United States to import illegally sourced wood products. But legislation now under consideration in the U.S. Congress would ban imports of wood products derived from illegally harvested timber.

Endangered Species at Greater Risk

EIA estimates that the illegal logging business, which the agency says is orchestrated by cross-border criminal syndicates working with corrupt officials, costs developing countries some 10 billion to 15 billion U.S. dollars a year.

A rise in timber prices has prompted some wood-producing countries, such as Indonesia, to clamp down on illegal logging.

Other countries, such as China and Vietnam, have taken measures to sharply reduce all logging of their own forests, while importing timber from neighboring countries for their growing timber-processing industries.

Around 60 percent of the trade in tropical timber moves between the countries of southern and eastern Asia, according to EIA.

"One of the biggest shifts in the timber industry in Asia over the last decade or so has been the emergence of a huge wood-processing industry in China and Vietnam," said Newman.

The Mekong region—which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and China—has some of the most valuable and vulnerable tree species sought by the international timber trade, including rosewood, keruing, teak, and yellow balau.

Mekong forests are also home to a range of endangered animals, including the clouded leopard, tiger, and Malayan sun bear.

Many of the remaining forests in the region have been so heavily logged that they are now of critically low quality. In Laos, for example, only around 10 percent of forests remain commercially viable, according to the report.

Undercover Investigations

In Vietnam logging is restricted to 5.3 million cubic feet (150,000 cubic meters) from forests grown for timber production.

To satisfy its demand for raw products, Vietnam is exploiting the forests of neighboring Laos despite Laotian laws, which ban the export of logs and cut timber, the EIA report claims.

In the Vietnamese port of Vinh, undercover investigators found piles of huge logs from Laos awaiting sale.

At one border crossing 45 trucks carrying logs were seen lining up on the Laos side waiting to cross into Vietnam.

The agencies estimate that at least 17.7 million cubic feet (500,000 cubic meters) of logs move illegally from Laos to Vietnam every year.

"This trade is organized by informal networks involving timber brokers and government and military officials on both sides of the border," Newman said.

"The losers are the rural communities [in Laos] who traditionally rely on forests for their livelihood."

According to the Laotian government, forest cover in the country has declined from 70 percent in the 1970s to 40 percent today.

Large volumes of timber from Laos also go to China's burgeoning wood-processing industry, researchers say.

Jeff Hayward is the verification manager of the SmartWood Program for the Rainforest Alliance in Washington, D.C.

"The EIA study illustrates the ways and means for illicit timber to end up in the workshops of Vietnam, resulting in consumers [in Europe and the United States] unwittingly buying furniture that comes at the cost of forests in Laos and Cambodia," he said.

New Legislation

Vietnam's furniture exports reached U.S. $2.4 billion in 2007, a ten-fold increase since 2000.

The United States is by far the largest market for Vietnamese wooden furniture, accounting for almost 40 percent of the exports.

"Illegal logging and trade are rife, but most businesses don't ask hard questions about the source of the wood they buy, because they simply don't have to do so," said Andrea Johnson, the forest campaigns coordinator for EIA in Washington, D.C.

"Until consumer markets like the U.S. change their no-questions-asked policy, irreplaceable forests from Indonesia to Vietnam to Honduras to the Congo are going to continue to end up as dining room tables and porch swings."

The U.S. legislation being considered prohibits the import or trade of illegally sourced timber and wood products.

The bill has broad political support and is backed by virtually all major environmental organizations and the U.S. timber industry.

Illegal logging costs U.S. companies as much as a billion U.S. dollars a year in lost exports and reduces prices for timber products, according to the American Forest and Paper Association.

"This law will send a major signal to the global timber sector that the world's largest consumer market is closing its doors to illegal wood," Johnson said.

"Companies who source on the up-and-up and conduct strong due diligence will now be rewarded with market share rather than undercut by cheaper illegal products."

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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.

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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."

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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

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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

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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

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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;

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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.

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