Seagrass monitoring at Tuas
on the teamseagrass blog
Common fruit bat
on the urban forest blog
Oriental Pratincole: Adult and juvenile
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Memories of Priscilla the Pig of Chek Jawa
on the wild shores of singapore blog
The Friday Starfish Sing Along!
on the The Echinoblog
Singapore firm helps Da Nang with urban tree planting
VietNamNet Bridge 26 Sep 08;
Central Da Nang City has announced that Singapore’s National Parks Company will lend its expertise to a planning scheme to develop urban tree systems in the city.
At a recent working session with National Parks representatives, Da Nang authorities entrusted the company with designing a pilot project to plant trees along extended sections of Nguyen Van Linh Street and around the March 29 Square.
The pilot project will also replace a number of trees on two roads running along the Han River, as well as in a number of city parks.
National Parks has pledged to assist Da Nang City in the training of planners and the selection of species of trees proven to be suitable to the city’s soil as well as transfer its tree care techniques to local workers.
The Singaporean company expects to submit detailed planning to the Da Nang People’s Committee for approval in October.
Da Nang’s green-space currently stands at 2.2 sq.m per capita, much lower than the criteria set for an environmentally-friendly city, which requires an average green-space of 4-5 sq.m per person.
Natural disasters and the local residents’ poor sense of protecting trees are blamed for the rapid decrease in the number of trees in the city’s downtown area.
National Parks is a prestigious company operating in an urban ecological area. It has successfully designed a number of parks in China, the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East.
Letter from Micheal Chiam, Today Online 26 Sep 08;
MONDAY was Car-Free Day in Seoul, during which vehicles were restricted to certain roads only, and residents of the city enjoyed photo exhibitions and other recreational activities.
This weekend, Singapore, in its push to be a global city, will be hosting the inaugural Formula 1 night street race.
The event is an opportunity for the F1 organisers to promote Car-Free Day here.
They can restrict cars on roads like Nicoll Highway to prevent jams before and during the race days. Sponsored public transport can ferry commuters on these car-free roads.
Perhaps the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources could endorse this campaign, calling on Singaporeans to abandon their cars for the duration of the F1 as a gesture of concern for the environment.
This will add to the intangible benefits of showing off our country to the millions of television viewers around the world.
Senior Minister Goh sees eco-city as financial, R&D and training hub
Lin Yanqin, Today Online 26 Sep 08;
BEFORE the first spade goes into the ground at the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city,Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong already has his eye on the economic growth to come from the environmentally-friendly development.
In Tianjin for Sunday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Mr Goh, who first mooted the idea of an Eco-city to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao 17 months ago, made some suggestions to Tianjin party secretary Zhang Gaoli yesterday about the city’s future.
“I think both sides should begin to think about the kind of economic activities we want in Eco-city,” said Mr Goh, who was visiting Tianjin for the first time.
“The Eco-city is not just meant to be a very pleasant residential township, it must have economic activity.”
For one, the Eco-city, suggestedMr Goh, who is also chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, could be a “sub-regional financial hub” for north-east China. “This is something that will in turn drive other activities in Tianjin,” saidMr Goh.
Also, Tianjin could be used for training people in skills “for new jobs which are not there yet”, said Mr Goh.
“This will require research and development as to the kind of industries China will want to go into in the future,” he added.
Finally, research and development into environmental technology — like waste-water recycling — would be a “natural focus” for the Eco-city.
This will require attracting talent into the city.
These suggestions, said Mr Goh, along with the “three harmonies” — people-people, people-environment, people-economy — could help Tianjin Eco-city stand out amongst the other Eco-cities “mushrooming” around China.
Mr Zhang, who was meeting Mr Goh for the first time, welcomed these suggestions.
Making Tianjin a financial centre was in line with the Chinese government’svision for the city, which will require financial planning and reform.
With the economy currently in turmoil, carrying out such changes would be complicated, he said.
Mr Goh emphasised the importance of ensuring that leadership change would not affect the long-term development of Eco-city.
He said while it was natural over time for there to be disagreements between Singapore and Tianjin, they should not drag the whole project down.
In response, Mr Zhang gestured at the other Chinese officials present in the room and said the future leadership was already here, drawing chuckles.
Earlier in the day in Beijing, Mr Goh also called on Central Organisation Department Minister Li Yuanchao and State Councillor Liu Yandong — two of China’s “sixth generation” leaders, and met with the Beijing Olympics organising committee.
Tianjin eco-city could be a financial hub: SM Goh
He will officiate at the ground-breaking ceremony for the 50b yuan project
Chew Xiang, Business Times 26 Sep 08;
THE Tianjin eco-city project developed by a Sino-Singapore joint venture could become a financial hub for China's north-east region, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong suggested yesterday at a meeting with Tianjin Party secretary Zhang Gaoli and mayor Huang Xingguo.
'That will in turn drive other economic activities in the eco-city,' Mr Goh said.
The Senior Minister is in China on a five-day working visit. He will officiate at the ground-breaking ceremony for the 50 billion yuan (S$10.4 billion) Tianjin eco-city project on Sunday.
Mr Goh, who is also chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said that the possibility of a financial hub may have to be considered in detail by the joint working committees.
At the hour-long meeting, the first between the two, Mr Zhang said he 'fully agreed' with the suggestion and added that the city has applied to host China's first over-the-counter market. The OTC market will allow smaller firms to raise capital from investors without going to the main bourses in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, which have more onerous listing requirements.
A financial hub in Tianjin would fit in with Chinese government plans to make the Bohai area an economic centre, after Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas, Mr Zhang said.
Yesterday, Mr Goh also made two other suggestions for industries in the eco-city - skills training and research, and development of environmental technology.
He said that the eco-city could be a centre for institutes that train workers in the kind of skills needed in the future. 'We are not trying old skills, but new skills. This requires research and development as to the kind of industries that China will go into in the future,' he said.
He noted that there are plans for many other eco-cities in China, including at Tangshan, which was a candidate with Tianjin as a location for the Sino-Singapore eco-city project.
'We have to look for ways to make Tianjin's stand out. It must do things which other eco-cities will want to copy. But Tianjin is not selfish. We have to share the knowledge with other parts of China.' Mr Goh said.
Yesterday, he also called on up-and-coming Chinese leaders in Beijing, saying he went there en-route to Tianjin to 'meet old friends and make new friends'.
In the morning, he met Central Organisation Department Minister Li Yuanchao, who characterised himself as an 'old friend' of the Senior Minister. Mr Li, who was previously Communist Party secretary of Jiangsu province, worked closely with Singapore on the Suzhou Industrial Park project.
Mr Goh also met Liu Yandong, the only female member of the Chinese Politburo.
Tuas Power to build $2b 'clean' plant
It will be first here to run on clean coal and biomass
Clarissa Oon, Straits Times 26 Sep 08;
TUAS Power, the third-largest power generator here, plans to build a $2 billion steam and electricity production plant.
It will be the first plant here to run on clean coal and biomass, ensuring the efficient and non-polluting use of coal to power industries on Jurong Island.
Given the nod by the National Environment Agency, construction of the Tembusu Multi-Utilities Complex will start soon, Tuas Power said yesterday.
The company believes if the plant proves successful, it could pave the way for greater use here of clean coal combined with other fuel sources.
Hastening this change: soaring global oil and gas prices.
Tuas Power said the new complex will start operating in 2011, to supply steam, chilled water and electricity, and treat industrial waste for up to 10 petrochemical companies on Jurong Island.
The plant will be powered by 80 per cent low-ash, low-sulphur coal and 20 per cent biomass, which is waste woodchips and palm kernel shells. Coal is the world's most abundant fuel but is controversial for its high carbon emissions.
Tuas Power plans to keep emission levels down with the latest biomass and clean coal boiler technology from Japan. Biomass is a renewable, zero-emissions energy source.
'Overall, we are able to produce one unit of energy at a more competitive cost,' said Tuas Power president and CEO Lim Kong Puay.
It will translate into cost savings of about 10 per cent of a factory's utilities bill compared to energy generated by a gas-fired plant, he told The Straits Times.
With the plant, clean coal will contribute 15 per cent to Tuas Power's revenue by 2012. It is now wholly reliant on gas.
'The approach we are taking is to incorporate very efficient energy processes and renewable biomass to minimise the impact on the environment,' said Mr Lim.
Its diversification into other fuel sources was welcomed by the Energy Market Authority (EMA), which said in a statement yesterday the move would 'serve as a hedge against rising oil prices'.
Currently, about 80 per cent of Singapore's electricity is generated from natural gas, the cleanest available fossil fuel, and the rest from oil.
However, the EMA stressed the Government is not about to allow the use of coal for power generation 'solely or on a large scale' any time soon.
This stems from its decision two years ago to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) and build an LNG terminal, to diversify Singapore's sources of natural gas.
'We will not allow any entry of coal to adversely affect and jeopardise the viability of the LNG project,' it said.
Apart from moving into new fuel sources, Tuas Power is the first of the big three power-generating companies (gencos) to offer utilities beyond just electricity. These multi-utilities would include steam or chilled water power.
Tuas Power is expanding beyond its core business of electricity production after being acquired earlier this year by China Huaneng, China's largest coal-fuelled power producer.
Last week, the Singapore genco won a contract to supply multi-utilities to Finnish company Neste Oil Corp's $1.2 billion plant which produces renewable diesel.
Mr Lim believes his company has the 'core skills' to go into multi-utilities as 'the production of electricity involves the production of steam as well as very high-grade water for boilers'.
The integrated supply of different utilities to clients is expected to contribute about 30 per cent of Tuas Power's total revenue by 2012.
clare@sph.com.sg
Green features
# No exposure of coal to the environment: Coal from neighbouring countries is transported in covered barges, unloaded through fully enclosed conveyors and stored in covered silos.
# Biomass clean coal boilers: This technology allows combustion to take place at lower temperatures, keeping emissions to a minimum.
# Total carbon emissions are around 400g per kilowatt of power, which is lower than the 700g per kilowatt emitted by an oil-fired power plant.
# Filters have been installed to ensure particulate matter emitted meets National Environment Agency requirements. Ash generated will be reused in the plant.
# High-energy efficiency: 70 per cent of energy fed into the plant can be turned into useful energy in the form of steam and electricity. This is comparable to the 40 to 50 per cent efficiency of steam or gas-fired power plants.
Greener fuel for Jurong Island
Today Online 26 Sep 08;
High oil prices are pushing Singapore power suppliers to embrace more efficient energy generation technologies, in order to help industries cut costs.
Tuas Power, for one, is investing $2 billion to build a state-of-the-art complex on Jurong Island featuring three different plants, which will provide cogeneration, desalination and waste water treatment to corporate clients located there.
The Tembusu Multi-Utilities Complex will be the first such facility in Singapore to use biomass and clean coal technology.
The biomass burnt will be comprise mostly waste woodchips and palm kernel shells, which will be sourced both locally and from neighbouring countries.
Tuas Power said this will make energy cheaper by as much as 10 per cent for petrochemical firms on Jurong Island.
Mr Lim Kong Puay, chief executive of Tuas Power, said: “The efficient use of the cogeneration technology coupled with biomass and clean coalallows us to achieve savings, and this saving will be passed on to our industrial consumers.”
The new technology uses 20 per cent biomass and 80 per cent coal to produce steam and electricity.
As a result, system efficiency can reach as high as 70 per cent, 30 per cent more than an oil-powered plant.
Some residual energy will also be produced, half of which will be channelled back into the plant for internal consumption, while the rest will be exported to the national grid.
It is also expected to reduce carbon emissions by roughly20 per cent compared to a coal-fired plant.
Mr Lim said: “By providing centralised multi-utility services, we are able to offer competitive solutions, and this provides an attraction for investors to Jurong Island.”
Construction for the complex will start next year and it is expected to start operations by 2011.
Currently, Tuas Power has a market share of 24 per cent of the power generation market in Singapore.
NORWEGIAN firm Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) has yet to start operations at its Singapore plant, but some of its solar modules have already been earmarked for roofs here.
Its modules will be used in Singapore's largest solar installation - spanning 2,780 sq m - commissioned by Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Lonza Biologics.
Lonza awarded the million-dollar contract to Singapore-based Phoenix Solar yesterday at the inaugural Norway-Singapore energy conference.
Phoenix Solar, a unit of Germany's Phoenix Solar, will install a 181 kwp (kilowatt peak) solar system on Lonza's $480 million Tuas facility, which is due for completion next June.
The solar installation system will eventually supply about 4 per cent of the plant's energy needs.
Related articles
Tuas solar plant to begin output in 2010
Chia Yan Min, Straits Times 19 Jun 08;
Straits Times 26 Sep 08;
ANOTHER 13 cases of chikungunya have surfaced over the past week.
Six were imported cases, most likely from Johor. Another six were linked to existing clusters.
The last, a 55-year-old businessman living at St Martin's Drive, has not travelled recently.
National Environment Agency (NEA) officers have combed the area but have not found any mosquito-breeding sites.
The NEA hopes to prevent the disease from becoming endemic here, in the way dengue has.
But with over 120 locally transmitted cases out of 231 known cases this year, this may not be possible, especially since the disease is already endemic in neighbouring countries.
The vast majority of imported cases comes from nearby Johor.
As for local transmissions, cases have been found in 25 areas here.
Like dengue, chikungunya is spread by the Aedes mosquito. Symptoms too are similar and include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle ache, rash and joint pain.
A joint statement from the Health Ministry and the NEA appealed to the public to help eradicate mosquito breeding to keep the disease in check.
SALMA KHALIK
Another 13 cases, with 6 imported
Alicia Wong, Today Online 26 Sep 08;
IT WAS yet another update in a series, with the Health Ministry having released fresh statistics at least once a week since August, and this frequency is almost startling, considering the sporadic news on chikungunya earlier this year.
In yesterday’s statement, the MOH said another 13 people had come down with chikungunya fever since Sept 17. This time, six of the cases were imported — three Singapore residents and three Malaysians had travelled to affected areas in Johor.
The first case of local chikungunya transmission was reported in January. Nearly five months had followed before the next major development broke: The discovery of a cluster at Teacher’s Estate in June.
The next round of cases surfaced in August, and since then, new cases or clusters have been reported just about every week.
Asked if the disease has taken root in Singapore, the MOH said “it is still too early to conclude that chikungunya fever is already endemic here”.
“Imported cases may still be the major factor leading to local transmission,” a spokesperson said.
The Johor outbreak, which began only a few months ago, has had “a major impact in Singapore” with most imported cases being people who had been in Johor shortly before falling ill.
The spokesperson added that the risk is “high given the huge volume of people moving between Johor and Singapore every day”.
Early this month, Malaysia had 1,703 notified cases of chikungunya fever, according to Bernama. Johor registered 996 cases.
As of Wednesday, Singapore had recorded 231 notified chikungunya cases, of which 108 were imported. Eighty-seven cases involved people who had travelled to Johor, while 12 had been to other Malaysian states. Others travelled to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Maldives.
Locally transmitted cases numbered 123 across 25 work or residential locations. Six of the seven new local transmissions last week were linked to existing clusters at Lim Chu Kang, Sungei Kadut, Bah Soon Pah Road and Mandai Estate.
One isolated case was the infection of a 55-year-oldbusinessman who stays atSt Martin’s Drive and has no recent history of overseas travel. He developed symptoms on Sept 16 and recovered after outpatient treatment.
The National Environment Agency is carrying out vector control operations at the infected people’s residences, as well as their work places and areas they frequent. No mosquito breeding has been found so far at the St Martin’s Drive area.
Ilsa Chan, ChannelnewsAsia 25 Sep 08;
SINGAPORE: Singapore is on track to complete its first permanent race circuit in Changi by 2011.
Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said this on Thursday.
While Mr Teo did not reveal the number of interested tenderers, he said the government is in talks with several parties and is exploring the different possibilities of developing the facility which will be fully funded by the private sector.
He said: "We are committed to wanting to develop a race track. We are open to different ideas which are coming forward because for the government side, we want to make it successful, and it must be a win-win partnership between the consortium that ultimately wins it and operates it, and the government as well."
"We are also assessing what needs to be done in that race track. It is a seafront race track, so we must maximise that piece of land there, not just as a race track but possibly an area where tourists will come, locals will go there and everybody would look at it as more than just for car races, but it is a family outing area as well," added Mr Teo.
The race track, which will be built on a 20-hectare plot, is likely to stretch between 2.8km and 3.5km, short compared to the Singapore Grand Prix circuit of 5.067km.
"That piece of land there is quite vast, but there are other needs for that piece of land, so I would say there is no confirmation or final (decision) on size and all that, we will talk to the different parties and decide later," said Mr Teo.
The Changi race track will be capable of hosting major motorsports events, except for F1 races, which need Grade 1 circuits, and include facilities such as a racing and driver training school, and a pit building and grandstand.
Hafiz Koh, a Singapore pro race driver, said: "It's definitely a good training ground for drivers to move forward if you have a track and you could start earlier but for GP drivers like myself, who drive GP cars, we still need to travel a lot and test different tracks. The only way you can learn is to drive different cars on different tracks."
- CNA/il
Sea level rise may produce Pacific islander refugees
Alvin Powell, Harvard University 25 Sep 08;
The leader of the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati laid out an extraordinary plan Monday (Sept. 22) that would scatter his people through the nations of the world as rising sea levels submerge the islands they have called home for centuries.
President Anote Tong said the half-meter sea level rise projected by climate scientists over the next century would submerge a significant proportion of the land on which his people live. Salinization of ground water due to rising seas would render even more land uninhabitable.
Kiribati is made up of 33 islands that straddle the equator in the vast South Pacific Ocean. Most of Kiribati’s islands are coral atolls — low, circular islands built on reefs that remain above water when the original mountainous islands they surround erode into the sea. Consequently, most of Kiribati’s territory lies within two meters of sea level.
“Most [islands] are so narrow that if you stand on the ocean side and shout, the people on the lagoon side will hear you,” Tong said.
Tong spoke at the Science Center as part of the Harvard University Center for the Environment’s “Green Conversations” lecture series. The event, which drew several hundred to the hall, was hosted by Center for the Environment Director Daniel Schrag and featured Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography James McCarthy, who questioned Tong after his formal remarks concluded.
“Kiribati faces going out of existence because of climate change, and that is extraordinary,” Schrag said.
Tong’s plan to relocate Kiribati’s 100,000 people was born, Tong said, out of the realization that he had to do something. If scientists are right, his nation is facing a humanitarian crisis and the world isn’t paying attention, he said. Kiribati residents have already seen unusual natural events that could be due to climate change, such as higher tides, coral bleaching, and a recent 12-month drought.
The government plans to continue to repair damaged public buildings on the waterfront but is advising private entities and residents to move back from the shoreline. The problem is that they are running out of room.
“We are in danger of falling off the other side if we keep moving back,” Tong said.
Tong said he is sometimes frustrated by the lack of response he’s received. Though Kiribati is one of the world’s lowest emitters of greenhouse gases, it will be one of the first areas to feel the effects of changes brought on by industrialized nations. Even so, Tong said, when he talks about the coming humanitarian disaster, other nations only want to talk about terrorism or the economic impact of steps to curb global warming.
“While it may be a matter of economics for some of you, for us it’s not economics; it’s a matter of survival,” he said.
Though it may be too late to head off the sea level rise that would be disastrous to Kiribati, Tong urged other nations to take steps to curb climate change. And, despite the ecological problems the nation faces, Kiribati is still working to safeguard the Earth’s natural heritage, recently creating the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.
“That is our contribution to humanity. We are waiting for a contribution from any country of a piece of land so we can move to it,” Tong said.
Despite his frustration, Tong said he realized that anger wouldn’t help his people. While Tong would prefer that some nation step up and offer land that Kiribati’s people could call their own, he realizes that is unlikely to happen. His backup plan, he said, is more likely to be palatable to governments around the world.
“As a leader, what do you do? Tell them to wait for the water to come and they will drown and I will drown with them? What we want to do is deal with it now. It would be silly to do nothing,” Tong said.
Tong’s proposal would have groups of Kiribati citizens — perhaps 1,000 per year — receive job training and then seek skilled jobs in other nations. They would form a dispersed resource that others could turn to as the environmental situation becomes critical at home.
Job training is an important component of his plan, he said, because he would like the dispersal to occur methodically and with as much dignity as possible; he does not wish for his people to wind up as environmental refugees.
The plan has already begun to be implemented, with small groups of nurses going to Australia for training and other workers to New Zealand.
“Hopefully, our people will spread out so that when the time comes they will assist with the integration of [the rest of our] people into their communities … and also make it easier on the host country,” Tong said.
Steve Connor, The Independent 25 Sep 08;
More than half of all amphibian species in Europe could become extinct by 2050 because of a combination of habitat loss, infectious diseases and the effects of climate change, scientists have found.
The latest assessment of frogs, toads, salamanders and newts suggests many will be severely threatened in the coming decades, especially in southern Europe where the climate is expected to become significantly warmer and drier.
But even familiar British amphibians such as the common frog and toad are highly vulnerable, said Trent Garner, of the Zoological Society of London.
"Published projections show that climate change alters amphibians' habitats so we expect a large number of species to be faced with loss of habitat and, ultimately, extinction," Dr Garner said yesterday.
"In the UK, we are already seeing common toads losing condition and experiencing reduced survival. As climate change continues to impact habitats, the situation gets far worse for these native species," he said.
A succession of mild winters has meant hibernating toads in Britain have emerged early from their winter sleep and become sickly because food is not available.
Sir David Attenborough also voiced his concern about the threat to amphibian species. "Amphibians are the lifeblood of many environments, playing key roles in the functions of ecosystems, and it is both extraordinary and terrifying that in just a few decades the world could lose half of all these species." Sir David said.
In addition to climate change and habitat loss, a deadly skin fungus called chytrid that has killed many amphibians around the world has been found in Britain.
Dr Garner said the chytrid fungus may have arrived with alien species, notably the African clawed toad used in research. British amphibians are also being attacked by ranaviruses, which kill thousands of frogs, toads and newts each year. These may have been introduced with the release of the North American bullfrog.
There are more than 6,000 known species of amphibian and a 2004 assessment suggested that at least a third of them are threatened with extinction.
Amphibians facing a wipeout by 2050
Sir David Attenborough has joined scientists in an alert on how climate change and disease may lead to extinction
Lewis Smith, Times Online 26 Sep 08;
Half of Europe’s amphibian species could be wiped out in the next 40 years. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London say that the combined force of climate change, pollution, disease and habitat loss and degradation has left many with “nowhere to run”.
After assessing the amphibians’ prospects, they predicted that more than 50 per cent of the 81 species native to Europe faced extinction by 2050.
Even surviving species, they said, were likely to suffer a decline in numbers and distribution, including the common toad in Britain, which is already being affected by climate change.
Trent Garner, Jonathan Baille and Helen Meredith announced their findings last night at a ZSL event hosted by Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist and broadcaster.
They said that in the short term many species would need to be taken into captivity because they faced extinction in the wild.
In the long term, although pollution could be reduced and habitats restored in limited areas, the survival of amphibians in Europe depended on solutions to climate change and cures to diseases being found.
They based their predictions on a review of past published papers and modelling programmes, combined with findings from current conservation projects.
Sir David described amphibians as “the lifeblood of many environments” because of the important role they played in them, such as providing food for larger animals.
“It is both extraordinary and terrifying that in just a few decades the world could lose half of all these species,” he said. He hoped “that we will not be hearing the dying croaks of these amazing creatures in the years to come”.
Dr Garner, a ZSL research fellow, said that the species most under threat were those that could not escape threats by migrating into new territories. Island species were particularly vulnerable but even mainland European amphibians faced geographical barriers such as mountains.
Dr Garner said that Lataste’s frog had declined in numbers because of the encroachment of agriculture and urban development into its sole habitat, the Po flood plain in northern Italy. It had never been found above 700 metres and the Alps blocked its route to northern Europe.
One of the most threatened amphibians in Europe is the Majorcan midwife toad, the male of which carries the fertilised eggs until they are ready to hatch.
The toads are limited to only 30 sites in Majorca, on which the deadly chytrid fungus was found recently.
On Sardinia, there are seven amphibian species found nowhere else in the world but they could all disappear because of the spread of chytrid fungus. The disease has already killed masses of Sardinian painted frogs and affected the numbers of the Sardinian brook newt.
The main threat facing the Alpine salamander, which is rarely seen outside its mountain environment, is climate change. Rising temperatures, the scientists say, will force the salamander to climb higher in search of cooler conditions until it runs out of mountain.
Dr Garner described the Alpine salamander as one of the oddest amphibians known to zoologists – the young cannibalised each other while still in the womb until only two were left.
In Britain the effects of climate change has already disrupted the hibernation of common toads. Warmer weather in winter has hampered the toad’s ability to shut down its bodily systems, forcing it to use up extra energy. This leaves it in a poorer condition when it wakes up in the spring.
Speaking shortly before last night’s presentation, Dr Garner said: “A lot of amphibian habitat is going to become unsuitable. That puts them at risk. Combined with that there are other pressures including disease, existing habitat loss and pollution. I think greater than half are threatened with extinction by 2050.”
Ms Meredith, who coordinates the amphibian element of ZSL’s Edge (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered) programme, said: “Clearly there is no time to waste if we are to prevent further species loss and effectively conserve unusual, threatened and neglected amphibian species in the wild.”
Assessments carried out to establish the level of threat faced by amphibians worldwide concluded that almost half are in decline and a third face extinction. Dr Baille is the ZSL’s conservation programmes director.
Last chance to see
Natterjack toad Found commonly in Britain and is likely to suffer from effects of climate change. It lays its eggs in temporary pools, so tadpoles will be in a race to turn into toads before the water dries out
Sardinian brook newt Found only in Sardinia. During courtship the male seeks out females and grabs them with its mouth, often copulating by force
Olm A type of salamander that has retained gills. It never leaves water and is found in underground caves. A lifetime spent in darkness has left it bright white in colour
Iberian midwife toad Its name derives from the male’s practice of caring for its eggs. He carries the eggs about in his hind quarters until they are ready to hatch, whereupon he takes them to a pond
Habitat destruction, logging, wildlife trade drive sun bears toward extinction
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com 25 Sep 08;
Industrial logging, large-scale forest conversion for oil palm plantations, and the illegal wildlife trade have left sun bears the rarest species of bear on the planet. Recognizing their dire status, Siew Te Wong, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montana, is working in Malaysia to save the species from extinction.
Known as "Sun Bear Man" in some circles, Siew Te Wong is setting up the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The project aims to save sun bears, which have largely overlooked by conservationists, through research, education, rehabilitation, and habitat conservation.
"The primary goal of the proposed BSBCC is to promote Malayan sun bear conservation in Sabah by creating the capacity to rehabilitate and release suitable orphaned and ex-captive bears back into the wild, providing an improved long-term living environment for captive bears that cannot be released, and educating the public and raising awareness about this species," he said in an interview with Mongabay.com. "[Sun bears] remain as one of the most neglected bear and large mammal species in Southeast Asia."
Siew Te Wong's efforts are partially supported by the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), an innovative group that uses a venture capital model to protect some of the world's most endangered species. WCN will be hosting Siew Te Wong at its upcoming Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco, California on October 4th. Expo attendees will be able to meet Siew Te Wong firsthand. The event, which is open to the public and costs $25-50 per person, also features 16 other conservationists working to protect wildlife around the world.
AN INTERVIEW WITH SIEW TE WONG
Mongabay: What is your project?
Siew Te Wong: I have been working on several projects on sun bears over the past 10 years or so. These included research projects on sun bears ecology, studying the impacts of logging on sun bears, looking at the effects of fruit production and climatic patterns on sun bears, surveying the status and distribution of sun bear in Malaysia, improving living condition and helping captive sun bears, and working on the conservation of sun bears.
Currently, I am setting up the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre or BSBCC, in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. This is a long-term project that focus on four aspects, i.e., education, rehabilitation, conservation, and research, on sun bears. The primary goal of the proposed BSBCC is to promote Malayan sun bear conservation in Sabah by creating the capacity to rehabilitate and release suitable orphaned and ex-captive bears back into the wild, providing an improved long-term living environment for captive bears that cannot be released, and educating the public and raising awareness about this species. You can read more about the project at http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/
Mongabay: Why did you choose to work on the sun bear?
Siew Te Wong: Actually I did not choose to work on sun bear. The opportunity was given to me in 1994 when I first came to the US to pursue my undergraduate degree majoring in wildlife biology at University of Montana. Dr. Christopher Servheen, a renowned bear biologist from U of Montana, was looking for a student to study the least known bear in the world at that time - the sun bear in Malaysia. Equipped with experiences radio-tracking large mammals (I was working on radio-telemetry study of Formosan Reeve’s muntjac from 1992-1994) and strong interest to study wildlife, I took his offer and begun to prepare myself for the next three years to conduct the first ecological study of sun bear at the same time learn as much as possible on the conservation issues on wild and captive sun bears.
In 1998, I started the 3-year field works to study the basic ecology of sun bears stationed at Danum Valley Field Centre, Sabah, as my Masters of Science thesis project. The study not only revealed the elusive life history and ecology of sun bear in a tropical rainforest for the first time, but also exposed more questions and challenges of sun bear survival due to the human disturbances in sun bear habitat, namely logging and other conservation issues. Because these unknown questions need to be answered for sun bears and the many conservation issues that the bears faced, I decided to continue working on sun bear upon finishing my master degree. I studied the effects of logging on sun bears and bearded pigs as the topic of my doctorate dissertation as well as tropical rainforest productivity from 2005-2008 in Sabah. During the same period of time, I also started working on sun bear conservation issues since I considered them desperate issues. I did a lot of education work and helped some very unfortunate captive sun bears as much as I could.
Although sun bear is now better known than it was 10 years ago, unfortunately they remain as one of the most neglected bear and large mammal species in Southeast Asia.
If I don’t help sun bear and work on them, nobody would!
Mongabay: How do you track sun bears? What have your learned about them?
Siew Te Wong: To study this elusive sun bears in rainforest, I first have to trap them and then fit them with a VHS radio-collar. It sounds easy than actually doing it. In reality, it is very difficult to trap wild sun bears. During 6 years bear trapping in the field, I only managed to trap and to radio-collar 10 wild sun bears. Trapping bears is difficult and tracking them in the rainforest is even more challenging. I used triangulation method to locate them on a map remotely. After knowing their location on a map, I then ground-track them with a receiver, directional antenna, GPS unit, and try to get as close as possible, looking for feeding signs, scat, bedding sites, microhabitat and anything about bears that I could possibly find in the forest.
From these data, I learned their basic ecology and biology like their diets and food habits, home-ranges sizes, movement and activity patterns, bedding and denning sites, arboreal behavior, and the limited and critical resources in the forest. I also documented a famine period that lasted a year in 1999-2000 where my radio-collared bears and many bearded pigs in the forest died and emaciated in the study area. The famine was caused by a prolong food shortage that related to the El-Niño Southern Oscillation/La-Nina Southern Oscillation, a fig (Ficus spp.) production failure, and logging that destroyed sun bear habitat and disrupted the migratory behavior of bearded pigs.
I also learned that sun bears could live in selectively logged forest. However, there are few “critical” resources in the forest they must have in order to survive. Fruit trees like mature fig trees and oak trees that do not follow the mast fruiting cycle and fruit year round are very important and critical food resource for sun bears. I consider mature fig trees as “super key-stone species” for many wildlife in Bornean rainforest including bear, due the lack of other wild fruits in the forest during the non-fruiting period that can last for many years. The other non-food critical resources are tree cavities from fallen big trees on forest floor that either serve as day beds or den sites. Due to the high rainfall and generally wet climatic condition year round, dry and safe dens in these huge tree cavities on the forest floor are critical for female bears to successfully nurse and raise cubs.
Mongabay: What are the biggest threats to sun bears?
Siew Te Wong: The biggest threat to sun bears is habitat destruction. Sun bears are “forest-dependent species” that will not survive without good and large forest. They need large contiguous forest to maintain healthy populations. Over the past few decades, the parts of Southeast Asia where sun bears are found underwent tremendous deforestation and transformation from world demand for tropical hardwoods, development, and agriculture, especially large-scale monoculture plantations. The rapid disappearance of these forested land and suitable sun bear habitat is the major cause for the serious decline of wild sun bears to approximately 10,000 individuals! For comparison, the population of the endangered Bornean orangutans is about 41,000 animals on the island of Borneo. Beside habitat destruction, keeping sun bears as pets, poaching for its body parts for consumption, medicine (gall bladder), and souvenirs, are some other threats to the sun bears.
Mongabay: Is there any way to make industry more responsive to the plight of sun bears, for example protecting key habitat or making operations "greener"?
Siew Te Wong: As I mentioned earlier, sun bears, like many kinds of wildlife, are forest-dependent species. For the forested areas that were destroyed and converted to other land uses, it is too late for us to do anything. We simply cannot “recreate” a tropical rainforest that is the same as the original forest. Our efforts to save sun bears should prioritize the full protection of existing forest from deforestation and any kind of disturbance. Different countries in SE Asia have unique problems in land use and forest conservation issues. Here I'll look at how the timber and palm oil industries in Malaysia and Indonesia can help the plight of sun bears.
Sun bear can live well in “good” selectively logged forest. I am emphasizing “good” because selective logging has been transformed from a relatively low impact logging practice (only few commercial valuable timber stands were removed from the forest) in the past to a highly destructive, nearly clear-cut type of practice now-a-days due to the world demand for timber products and wood processing technology that turns the “poor quality” timber into something useful. Although generally speaking the regeneration in tropical rainforest is fast due to optimum climatic condition for plant growth, forest trees are extremely difficult to recruit in this kind of “trashed” forest after undergrowth vegetation like creepers, vines, rattans, wild gingers, tall grass, etc., carpet the forest floor and remain there for decades. Thus, in order to have a win-win situation for both human hunger for timber products and bears that need their habitat, governments have to apply strict logging regulations to force timber producers to follow low impact logging guidelines. At present, if total protection of sun bear habitat is not an option and we have to harvest timber in sun bear habitat, timber certification programs from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management is the way to help reduce degradation of sun bear habitat. In addition, delineating key forest patches as refugia from disturbance within large logging concessions can be an important way to mitigate the impacts of logging disturbance.
A small number of sun bear feed on oil palm fruit in plantations adjacent to forests that still sustain bears. However, the extra feeding opportunity in plantation does not benefit sun bears since it increases their vulnerability to poaching. Due to the scale of transformation of lowland tropical rainforest into oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia – probably history's most massive conversion over such a short period of time – sun bears have lost a tremendous area of habitat and there is no argument that palm oil industry directly impacts the survival of sun bear. I urge for no further conversion of tropical rainforest into oil palm plantation.
Although the industry could take more responsible and environmental orientated measures to “relatively” mitigate their impacts (such as the implementation of “eco-friendly” palm oil production practices and joining the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that may or maybe not help wildlife), I strongly believe that damage cause by replacing sun bear habitat to monoculture plantation is irreversible. The other measure that the oil palm industry could do to help sun bear is to work with local wildlife authorities and plantation workers to reduce any human related mortality of sun bear to a minimum.
Mongabay: What is being done to reduce consumption of bear parts in Malaysia or is the market mostly China?
Siew Te Wong: Sun bear is a protected species in Malaysia. Any killing, eating and using bear parts is totally prohibited by law. There are three different laws protecting sun bear and other protected species in Malaysia: Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 in Peninsular Malaysia, Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 in Sabah and Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998 in Sarawak. At the international front, Malaysia is a signatory of Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) and a member of Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-WEN). Thus, the law that available to protect this species is sufficient. However, the problem of sun bears being killed for all kind of purposes results from lack of enforcement on the ground. In addition, there is also a lack of educational outreach to educate people in the country that it is a felony to kill and to consume bears parts. Unlike the tiger where there are several conservation and education programs in Malaysia to reduce the consumption of tiger products, very little being done to reduce consumption of bear parts apart from the wildlife protection laws, which I've already said are poorly enforced.
The market for bear parts from Malaysia limited to China, it also includes local demand by the Chinese community and indigenous communities in Sarawak.
Mongabay: What are other ways to help sun bears?
Siew Te Wong: The first thing we need to understand is the fact that the sun bear is an endangered species. The number of sun bear in the wild throughout the world is much more fewer than many endangered species, like the Bornean orangutan. Many these endangered species benefit from the many NGOs, biologists, conservationists, and governments working to help them. This collaboration can be an effective way to protect threatened species as we can see with many endangered species in Asia such as tigers, rhinos, elephants, orangutans, panda, and many others. Unfortunately, none of this has happened for sun bear. Thus the first way to help sun bear is to adopt the models in use for other endangered species. We need a big team of biologists, conservationists, and NGOs as well as the full support from the public and the local government to tackle the threats and conservation issues of the sun bear. The sun bear is clearly far behind many endangered species. What I've been doing for the past many years is studying this species to understand it as much as possible. It is now time for us to move on to the next level: the conservation stage, where we work hard to conserve the species with the knowledge and resources we have in hand. The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center will be the very first initiative and a big step toward helping sun bears in Malaysia. We hope to establish this center as a model and catalyze other countries in Southeast Asia to help conserve sun bears. At the same time, we obviously need funds to operate the various activities to be carried out by the center: educational outreach and lobbying for the protection of more sun bear habitat. We need everyone to get involved, from the local communities who live close to bear habitat to the top politicians who can provide financial, institutional, and policy support for the sun bear.
http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/
In the Sunderbans forests between India and Bangladesh, climate change is pitting people against tigers - with deadly consequences. John Vidal reports on how extreme weather and shrinking habitats are bringing humans and beasts into closer and more perilous contact
John Vidal, The Guardian 25 Sep 08;
Tarak Babu could have seen or heard little in the seconds before he died. His village of Jelepara in the far south-west of Bangladesh is desperately poor and has no electricity, and the young fisherman was walking back with food for his family at about 8.15 in the evening.
It was June 20 - monsoon season. Tarak was walking along the high earth embankment that protects Jelepara from the river Chunkuri, and had just passed a small Hindu temple with its gaudy, painted wooden effigies of the tiger god Dakshin Ray. He would not have seen the real tiger that had just swum across the river from the great Sunderbans forest 400 yards away. It hauled itself out of the water and mauled him from behind. No one even heard Tarak cry out.
But that was just the start of the drama in Jelepara that night. According to Selina, a young woman who lives only a few hundred yards from the scene of the killing, the beast then dropped down off the embankment, and silently entered Gita Rani's family compound in the village. It tried to take a chicken, but Gita came out when she heard the commotion in the hen house and was promptly killed.
The tiger then went into the house where it killed her father-in-law, Aghoire Mandal. "Word spread fast that a man-eater was in the village," said Selina. "Everyone was very frightened and angry. People came from all around and the tiger ran to another house half a kilometre away. There it killed some goats." Many villagers kept their doors shut and prayed that night, as others kept watch. When dawn came, the damage was counted: three people, two goats, and several chickens had been killed and the tiger was still in the village.
But rather than call the government forest department, 40 miles away, and hope that they would send a marksman to shoot the tiger, the people of Jelepara set about hunting it. It proved to be a brave but brutal exercise.
Now it was the animal's turn to run. First dozens of men tried to corner it, blocking off its escape routes and chasing it away from the village. The tiger was tracked through long grass and rice fields. Finally it leapt on the roof of a house. Film shot on a mobile phone by a villager shows the tiger looking perfectly relaxed.
As people gathered for the spectacle of what would surely be a kill - either of animal or of humans - several men then climbed a tree above the house with a rope. Slowly they lowered a noose above the tiger's head and secured the rope to the tree. At a given moment, the villagers then all started shouting and the tiger leapt forward in a desperate attempt to escape. But the noose tightened, and the rope, held by the tree, steadily began to strangle it.
Men then came forward and clubbed the beast senseless, but it took the strength of many people to hang it up and finally execute it. "Everyone was astonished how big it was," said Selina. "It was at least 8ft long."
If it was a human victory, it was one tinged with great sadness. This man-eater was a Bengal Royal, one of the largest of all tiger species, but this was hardly the magnificent beast of the forest seen on TV nature programmes; it was huge, but it was also old, thin and mangey, and had clearly come to the village half-starving.
"It was responsible for about half a dozen other deaths in recent months. It became a man-eater and every now and then it entered villages to look for prey," said Rajesh Chakma, from the forestry department, who arrived later with colleagues and took away the body.
The tiger attack and the village's revenge on the animal was not unexpected. The Sunderbans' maze of swamp, islands and mangrove forests lying between India and Bangladesh is one of the very few places left in the world where man is not top of the food chain. It is possibly the most dangerous place on earth.
Whereas tiger populations are plunging around the world to the point where there may be only about 6,000 left, in the Sunderbans it is believed that numbers are at least stable. At least 500 are known to live there and this almost inaccessible watery wilderness is now the greatest stronghold of tigers left in the world.
But in the past few years man and tiger have been confronting each other more and more in the Sunderbans, and for once, it seems that tigers are getting the upper hand. "More people are being killed in the forest and more tigers are coming out of the forest into human communities than ever," says Mamun Rashid, author of a study of 180 human-tiger confrontations in Bangladesh.
The Jalepara tiger was the first trapped and killed by a Bangladeshi community in more than four years, but it followed a pattern, says Rashid. "If a tiger is found in a village the word spreads quickly. Often the tiger is kept cornered somewhere for a long time while people from the village and places nearby come to see the spectacle. Eventually the people try to kill it by stabbing it with spears, knives, axes and or by throwing rocks. Cornered and injured, the tiger often lashes out at someone."
Officially, there are about 40 human deaths a year from tigers in the Bangladeshi Sunderbans but this is a major underestimation, he says. "There is a definite increase in people being killed. On the Bangladeshi side of the Sunderbans, at least 70 people are being killed a year now."
It is the same story in the smaller, Indian portion of the Sunderbans where there is a national park and an established tiger protection zone. "In Indian Sunderbans last year there were officially 16 deaths by tigers but the actual number of deaths is certainly much more," says Pradip Shukla, director of the Sunderbans biosphere reserve. In the past few months there have been seven deaths, he says. "Many killings go unrecorded; often villagers don't report attacks in restricted forest areas for fear of being fined or having their fishing permits cancelled."
While tigers may be killing more, humans are largely responsible for their own deaths, according to Rashid. Up to 5,000 people now to go into the forest regularly for food, he says. "What i s happening is that human poverty is increasing greatly in the Sunderbans. This is because fish catches are declining, the rivers are silting up and, because of climate change, there is an increased frequency and intensity of cyclones."
Climate change is a reality in the Sunderbans. Rising sea levels, constant erosion and increasingly salty waters make life in the tangle of islands and mangrove forests harder for animals. Bangladeshi scientists record sea levels in the bay of Bengal rising three millimetres a year, resulting in less fresh water, more floods and erosion. One of the largest islands is predicted to shrink by 15% by 2020. On top of that, new irrigation and hydropower projects have reduced the flow of the Ganges. The net result is less space and prey for the tiger.
"The only way that communities can survive is by going deeper into the forests to collect resources, like honey, fish, shrimps and crabs, and wood for their boats and homes," says Rashid.
"They are more vulnerable than they used to be. People now rely far more on the forest for subsistence.
"In the past, people could cross the river and go into the forest without too much danger; now the tiger is attacking people more," says Selina. "In the last five years, 10 people from Jelepara have died in tiger attacks. There are many tiger widows here. Ten years ago perhaps one tiger would cross the river a year. The animal would take a cow or a goat and that would be that. Now we have two or three visits a year."
Tigers are being forced to come out of the forest more because they have less prey than before, says Rashid. His research suggests that most of the victims were attacked from behind and that nearly 80% died. It also put to rest theories that tigers always eat their victims. In just 7% of the attacks did they fully consume humans. Usually, it seems, they took just a few bites, or, as in Jelepara, just killed and left them.
Theories abound as to why Sunderbans tigers are more aggressive than elsewhere. Some wildlife experts say the water in this coastal area is more salty and this puts them in a state of constant discomfort. Others speculate that the only way a tiger can defend its territory in these tidal areas is to physically dominate everything that enters. Another possibility is that these animals have grown used to human flesh due to the weather. Cyclones kill many people each year and human bodies drift into the swampy waters, where tigers scavenge them.
Equally possible is that tigers in the remote, largely inaccessible Sunderbans were never subject to the hunting massacres that took place in colonial times on the subcontinent, and so have never developed a fear of humans.
Today, the villagers' fears are well-founded. "One man in Jelepara was so afraid of being killed by a tiger that he moved to India to find work. But he was sent back and had to go to the forest to subsist. He was killed immediately," says another man in the village.
The hostility between the world's two top predators has been based on equal amounts of fear and respect. Fishermen and honey collectors say prayers and perform rituals to the forest gods before setting out on expeditions. In some areas, people going into the forest wear masks looking like faces on the back of their heads, in the belief that tigers always attack from behind. This is said to have worked for a short time, but it seems that the tigers quickly realised it was a hoax, and the attacks continued. On the Indian side of the Sunderbans, people going into the forests wear stiff pads on their backs to prevent the tigers biting the spine, one of their favourite ways to attack.
"If you want to stop the tiger killing people and want to protect the tiger, then you must reduce poverty in the region," says Rashid. "If you reduce poverty you can increase biodiversity. Development is the best conservation here. Otherwise, the tiger will come again and again to the villages and will kill more people. And people will not stop going to the forest, so the deaths will continue".
Heading for extinction?
The animals under greatest threat from a warming world
Animals and plants have evolved very slowly to live in specific environments, but climate change is happening very fast and leaving them unable to adapt. Those suited to cooler climates must move polewards or uphill when the climate becomes just that little bit warmer. That's easy enough for birds and fish; species that would normally only be found in the Mediterranean or further south are now turning up in British waters as the plankton and insects they feed on move north. But for large animals, which often have restricted space in reserves, the future looks uncertain.
Polar bears
The polar bear could disappear in the wild unless the pace of global warming slows. It uses sea ice as a floating platform to catch prey, but this is melting at a rate of 9% a decade. Last week, arctic ice fell to its second lowest level ever.
Tigers
Tigers are threatened by climate change, and not just in the Indian and Bangladeshi Sunderbans, where sea level rises and increased salinity is reducing habitat. In Sarawak, Nepal and elsewhere, the already critically endangered animals are finding fewer animals to prey on, as monsoon patterns change, and as people near their reserves compete more with them for food.
Elephants
In Africa, elephants face a range of threats including shrinking living space, which brings them more frequently into conflict with people. With less space, they are not able to escape any changes to their natural habitat caused by global warming, including more frequent dry periods.
Frogs
Frogs and other species depending on freshwater are being hit by a droughts in Australia and elsewhere. Since they rely on water to breed, any reduction or change in rainfall can reduce frog reproduction. In addition, higher temperatures dry out their breeding pools.
Orangutans
Their last remaining strongholds in the Indonesian rainforests are threatened by oil palm plantations, but also by climate change increasing the duration and frequency of droughts.
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