Rainforests Key to Carbon Trading

The Jakarta Globe 15 Apr 09;

Bogor. For the past decade, forestry has been categorized as a sunset industry, although forests themselves have now taken on a new economic value — not from exploitation but from protecting them.

With 75.27 million hectares of rainforest, according to Ministry of Forestry data, Indonesia could earn billions of dollars in carbon trading if it were able to protect and properly manage its forests.

In fact, Frances J. Seymour, director of the Center for International Forestry Research, or CIFOR, which has its headquarters in Bogor, West Java Province, said Indonesia could earn at least $1 billion a year.

At the top of the agenda at the international convention on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December this year, will be deliberation about the standard to be used in the carbon trade mechanism.

Seymour sees the convention as an opportunity for Indonesia to show the world its carbon potential and its significance in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and in so doing, slowing the rate of global warming. But to do this, Indonesia will need to overcome all the problems related to its forest management.

The assumption of $1 billion in carbon revenue is no exaggeration when looking at the country’s large potential for emission-reducing projects, estimated conservatively at 250 million to 500 million tons of carbon a year.

The Copenhagen gathering will set a new mechanism for carbon trading, and international standards to limit carbon emissions by industry.

The mechanism will require corporations and countries exceeding a carbon-credit cap to buy carbon credits from other countries. And with 75 million hectares of forested area, Indonesia has everything it takes to become a major player in the scheme.

One response to this was President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s establishment of the National Commission on Climate Change in 2005, which has so far approved 24 carbon trading projects.

Among them are a small-scale hydroelectric power plant in South Sulawesi Province, with an expected emissions reduction of 68,238 tons a year; a biomass electricity plant in North Sumatra Province, at 1.1 million tons; and a waste-handling and disposal operation in West Kalimantan Province, saving 1.9 million tons. Nine of the 24 projects have been registered with the United Nations.

Approved carbon-reduction projects receive Certificates of Emissions Reduction, or CER, from the United Nations, based on the tonnage of carbon emissions offset.

The CER allows carbon trading with 38 industrialized nations that have committed themselves to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels. A ton of reduced carbon dioxide is currently priced at between $5 and $10.

EcoSecurities Indonesia alone has set sales targets for next year as high as 25 million tons worth of carbon credits. The carbon credit volume is valued at between $250 million and $300 million.

“The 25 million tons of carbon credits is just our target. If other companies or organizations develop these kinds of projects, the figure could be much higher,” said Agus Sari, country director for EcoSecurities Indonesia.

EcoSecurities is an international trader in carbon credits from greenhouse gas emission reduction projects. It established its Jakarta office in Septemer 2006.

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism allows emission reductions achieved in developing countries to be bought by developed and industrialized countries struggling to meet their own compliance targets.

Currently, the carbon market is voluntary, based on the Kyoto Protocol, but after 2012, the market will become compliance based.

Seymour said the compliant carbon market would be a blessing to Indonesia if the country could meet some conditions. It would need to develop a more transparent forest management regime, including management of funds raised from forestry, and the government would have to ensure better coordination between institutions — between government institutions themselves and between the government and community groups.

“Indonesia should also find what is the best way of spending money earned from the carbon trade,” Seymour said.

She said the toughest job would be how the government deals with disputed claims on forested areas between the central and local governments; disputes between local administrations, local communities and forest concession holders; and disputes stemming from state law and traditional law, or hukum adat , on forest ownership.

Seymour said the issue was complicated, with many technicalities, and the way in which carbon values and prices were calculated still unclear.

Deliberations will focus on how to set a clear mechanism of mandatory carbon payment.

The compliant carbon trade market will require companies and countries to hold an equivalent number of allowances, or credits, which represent the right to emit a specific amount of carbon dioxide. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed.

According to Bruce Usher, EcoSecurities’ chief executive, clean development projects in Indonesia are coming along slowly compared to India, Malaysia and Brazil, even though the country possesses 10 percent of the world’s carbon credit supplies.

“Such dawdling is mostly caused by unclear government regulation,” Usher said.

He said he believed Indonesia could take a leading role among countries with large areas of forest to push the process of carbon trading and bring advantages to all parties involved: industry, local communities, government and Mother Earth.

New Mechanisms to Help Developing Countries Protect Forests

Twenty percent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere comes from global deforestation and forest degradation, and 30 percent of this world volume comes from Indonesia.

Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, carbon trading has been conducted on a voluntary basis, with developed countries and international corporations that release unacceptably high levels of carbon dioxide financing emission-reduction projects in developing countries.

One example of the voluntary mechanism is Norway, which pays $1 million a year to Brazil to encourage protection of its rainforests.

In the United States now, carbon trading is conducted voluntarily through the Climate Action Reserve, a new set of standards meant to bring transparency and accuracy to the US carbon reduction market.

The reserve is a division of the California Climate Action Registry, a nonprofit public organization started by the state of California to serve as a voluntary registry that verifies and tracks emission reduction projects and their inventories of gas reduction tonnage.

It sets project protocols for specific industry sectors based on best practices, as determined by stakeholder work groups representing industry, government, science and environmental sectors.
Owners and developers of emission reduction projects can register their projects and the associated inventories as Carbon Reduction Tons, or CRTs, pronounced “carrots,” on the reserve’s Web site.

After that, a project is verified by an independent third party to ensure the project has met the protocol standards and to accurately quantify the greenhouse gas reductions.

The Kyoto Protocol will end in 2012. Over the last five years, green activists and scientists have been involved in a joint effort to bring forward a new emission-reduction scheme called REDD, an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

The name suggests that this scheme’s base is in areas or countries with large tracts of forested land, which obviously includes Indonesia.

If carbon dioxide emission rates reach “red,” or dangerous levels, REDD is expected to bring them back into green levels.

The scheme essentially brings in mechanisms for developed countries to pay developing countries for reducing emissions from deforestation.

The basic principle of REDD is that rich countries finance poor countries to build their capacity to protect their forests.

The book “Moving Ahead with REDD,” published by CIFOR in 2008, explains that the core issue for REDD is to create multilevel payments, both national and international, for environmental services.

The mechanism is still being deliberated, but there are two basic systems: voluntary-based and compliance-based.

At the Copenhagen convention in December, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will decide whether or not REDD will be included in the post-2012 global framework.

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Time to act on carbon markets

Michael Grubb, BBC Green Room 15 Apr 09;

Despite a volatile beginning, carbon markets promise to be a key player in the fight against climate change , says Professor Michael Grubb. However, he warns that governments must not "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory" by failing to take the necessary steps to ensure their longevity.

Barack Obama wants one; Gordon Brown wants one; the planet desperately needs it, but still an effective carbon market remains stubbornly elusive.

Prices in the EU's version, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), exceeded 20 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide (tCO2) throughout 2008.

Yet, earlier this year, they fell below 10 euros/tCO2. Prices for international carbon credits that fund emission reduction projects in developing countries have been dragged down further.

However, they are still way above a newly formed carbon market in the US, which languishes at about 2.6 euros/tCO2.

Unlike most markets, these were created by governments to deliver specific policy goals.

They established a market in allowances to emit CO2 to drive emission reductions efficiently, promote low carbon investment, and fund projects internationally on least-cost market principles.

Too cheap to notice wasn't the idea, because a year or more of rock-bottom prices will gut many emergent carbon reduction businesses. Confidence will be destroyed, low carbon investment deterred and scepticism reinforced.

'Victim of own success'

It's only fair to acknowledge that the price variability is partly a problem of success. The carbon savings from credit mechanisms that fund developing country projects have exceeded expectations.

Europe has also been more successful than expected in cutting its own emissions, partly in response to the EU ETS and other policies.

This has cut demand, which is driven by the gap between domestic emissions and targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol.

The Bush Administration said these targets were far too hard to be met, yet they are turning out to be collectively too easy.

The tragedy is that governments now seem determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, with a mantra of non-intervention.

"Not our problem, guv," they say.

"To make the system stable and predictable, it is important we don't change the rules."

Sadly, it's looking all too predictable.

The UK's pilot emissions trading system peaked around 20 euros/tCO2 before declining to oblivion.

The first phase of the EU ETS, which started in 2005, also had prices above 20 euros before collapsing slowly to zero.

To create a market that collapses once is unfortunate. Twice is careless; thrice would be outright foolish.

Banking on allowances

Partly, governments are relying on the fact that this time round, companies can "bank" any unused EU allowances for use in the next round, which begins in 2012 - after the current Kyoto commitments expire.

The EU has already put its cards on the table with cutbacks to 2020. In theory, "buy to bank" should bolster short-term prices. but not by much.

The EU's unilateral commitments might - just - shore up future prices within the EU, but to do that they largely insulate the EU ETS from the global market, and the EU's targets don't toughen up without a global deal.

Re-engaging the US around wide-ranging cutbacks after 2012 offers the best long-term solution, and the UN Copenhagen conference at the end of this year is aiming towards this.

But a final, robust and bankable deal will take longer. And twice bitten, thrice shy: markets won't bet much this year on a successor deal driving prices high after 2012.

The defining feature of the carbon market - that governments set the quantity - is the key to its salvation.

We currently have a unique structure in which supply is fixed and impervious to price.

Not surprisingly, the result of highly uncertain demand is then huge volatility.

Yet this feature also holds the key to stabilisation.

Some of the emission allowances in the EU ETS are to be auctioned, and there is nothing that prevents those auctions having a minimum reserve price.

If companies pay the price, fine; if they don't, those additional allowances won't enter the market. It acts as a price floor, in ways clearly and simply set out in advance.

The volume of allowances still to be auctioned in the current phase (to 2012) offers a buffer sufficient to forestall risk of further collapse this year.

Knowing that the only way from the reserve price is up, the markets would settle somewhere above it.

For governments holding these auctions, selling fewer allowances at a moderate price is better than selling a lot of allowances for next to nothing.

Auction reserve prices would need to be co-ordinated, but only a few countries had the sense to retain some allowances for auction, and these are dominated by the UK and Germany.

These two pioneers of global climate change action now find the keys in their hands. Let's hope they have the wisdom to use them.

Professor Michael Grubb is chief economist for the Carbon Trust and a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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Spam tramples environment with huge carbon footprint

Cliff Saran, New Scientist 15 Apr 09;

This article was originally published on ComputerWeekly.com

The 62 trillion spam emails sent in 2008 created carbon emissions equivalent to that of 2 billion gallons of petrol burnt in a car engine, according to a report (pdf) by computer security firm McAfee.

The report looked at the energy expended to create, store, view and filter spam on personal computers and servers across 11 countries, including Australia, China, France, the US and the UK. It found that the level of spam-related emissions generated in these countries is proportionate to its number of email users and the percentage of email that is spam, making it possible to estimate the total energy used by spam worldwide.

Nearly 80 per cent of the energy used by spam comes from end-users deleting it from their inboxes and hunting for legitimate email. While spam filtering software takes up a further 16 per cent, it also reduces the overall energy impact of unsolicited email.

The annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours, the report concludes, which is equivalent to driving around the Earth 1.6 million times or the energy usage of more than 2 million typical homes.

"Stopping spam at its source, as well investing in filtering technology, will save time and money, and will pay dividends to the planet by reducing carbon emissions as well," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development at McAfee.

As computer use continues to grow, scrutiny on the energy use of the servers that power everything from the internet to banking services is increasing. Last year, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and chipmaker Intel showed that delaying the flow of network data by just a few milliseconds can cut power consumption of some hardware by 50 per cent.

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Can oil from tar sands be cleaned up?

Bob Holmes, New Scientist 15 Apr 09;

IN THE Canadian province of Alberta the ground is skinned and gutted. Rising oil prices and dwindling reserves have pushed oil companies to exploit what was once considered unexploitable: tar sands, the dirtiest oil on Earth and the most expensive to extract.

This strip-mined landscape is bad enough, but another method of extracting the oil is on the rise, and it is even more damaging to the environment. Yet new technologies offer hope that tar sands could one day be transformed into one of the cleanest fossil fuels.

The Canadian tar sands contain an estimated 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil, second only to Saudi Arabia's reserves. As the name suggests, the fuel must be separated from sand. Today, most operations dig up the tarry bitumen in gigantic open pit mines, then separate and refine it. The process destroys habitat and creates vast lakes of toxic residues. Worst of all, processing it requires large amounts of energy. The Canadian government estimates that oil from tar sands takes three to five times as much energy to produce as conventional oil.

That carbon cost is likely to get even higher. Only about 20 per cent of the tar sands lie shallow enough to be mined. If you drive an hour south of Fort McMurray in Canada's gigantic Athabasca Tar Sands, you leave behind the vast strip mines and enormous processing plants where sandy bitumen is shovelled out of the bowels of the earth and turned into oil. The boreal forest once again dominates the landscape. In a bulldozed clearing amid the spruce trees, accompanied by the gentle hum of pumps and turbines, you will find a few low, metal-clad industrial buildings surrounded by a tangle of piping.

This is ConocoPhillips's Surmont production site, the new face of the Athabasca Tar Sands. Within a few years, most plants will probably look more like this than the strip mines. At first sight, that seems a good thing, and it is, if you live nearby. But Surmont's benign appearance belies the fact that from a global perspective, it is even worse than the strip mines.

The facility pumps huge amounts of steam at 305 °C several hundred metres underground to separate fuel from sand in situ, a process called steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). At room temperature the bitumen is more viscous than peanut butter, but after several months of heating it becomes as runny as heavy cream and can be pumped to the surface.

Generating all that steam takes energy - more than mining, says Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute, an environmental group based in Calgary, Alberta. In fact, if you include the energy needed to upgrade and refine the fuel, every three barrels of oil extracted with SAGD consumes nearly a whole extra barrel, says Pedro Pereira, a chemical engineer at the University of Calgary.

Matt Fox, who manages oil sands operations for ConocoPhillips, is optimistic that improvements can be made as engineers gain more experience with SAGD, which has only been in commercial use for eight years. But he admits that the process will always consume more energy than pumping conventional oil. "The oil sands have got nowhere to hide on the greenhouse gas issue," says Fox. "We have a major challenge we have to address."

There's hope on the horizon. Nascent technologies may further reduce the greenhouse gas cost of tar sands extraction. Pereira is leading a team that is trying to transform the bitumen into lighter oil underground, before it is pumped to the surface. The process requires higher temperatures than SAGD, but compensates by saving more energy further down the line when the fuel is processed. And many of the toxic sulphur and nitrogen compounds remain underground, which removes the surface pollution.

So far, the team has developed a catalyst for use in the underground deposits and is working on proving the concept in the lab. Eventually, they hope to complete most of the refining process underground, yielding usable oil at a carbon cost comparable to conventional crude oil.

A much cleaner and truly inventive solution, though, can be found in the laboratory of Stephen Larter, also at the University of Calgary. Together with colleagues at Newcastle University, UK, he thinks it might be possible to induce bacteria to digest the bitumen into methane, which could be extracted just like conventional natural gas. The process occurs naturally underground: bacteria called Syntrophus digest the oil and release hydrogen as a waste product. A second group of archaebacteria called methanogens then converts the hydrogen to methane. "They're already there. All you do is add fertiliser," says Larter.

Last year, Larter's team showed that by adding nitrogen, phosphorus, vitamins and trace minerals to oil-field samples in the lab, they can convert the hydrocarbons to methane in about 600 days (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06484). Their newly founded company, Profero Energy, is about to begin field tests to see whether the method can produce methane economically from a natural underground reservoir. "If it's an economic success, it is a game-changer. You have suddenly got a huge amount of a relatively clean fuel, methane," says Larter. "But it has absolutely not been proven in the field yet."

Even if Larter's microbial conversion proves practical, of course, no amount of technological trickery can get around the fact that burning any fossil fuel adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. But, "the oil industry is not going to disappear overnight", says Larter. "Cleaning up the tail end of the industry is a crucial thing, otherwise we'll have really serious problems." Burning methane provides more useable energy per tonne of CO2 emitted than any other fossil fuel (see chart), making it the best choice for weaning society off fossil fuels altogether.

In the long run, Larter notes, a similar process could someday offer the ultimate in clean energy: a hydrogen economy. Methanogens are very efficient at using up the hydrogen Syntrophus produces, so it does not last long enough to tap. But if the researchers could find a way of inhibiting the methanogens, their system would offer the possibility of producing immense quantities of hydrogen, a zero-carbon fuel.

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UN backs Norway claim to Arctic seabed extension

Yahoo News 15 Apr 09;

OSLO (AFP) – Norway has won the backing of the UN in its sovereignty claim over a potentially resource rich area of seabed, including a region in the much-courted Arctic Ocean, the government said Wednesday.

Based on the evidence supplied by Norway in 2006, the UN Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) approved Oslo's claim to the vast chunks of seabed in the Norwegian Sea, the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

"All that remains is to incorporate (the decision) into Norwegian law and then the extension of our continental shelf will be effective," said Rolf Einar Fife, director of legal affairs at the Norway's foreign ministry.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that any coastal state can claim territory 200 nautical miles from their shoreline and exploit the natural resources within that zone.

Nations can also extend that limit to up to 350 nautical miles from their coast if they can provide scientific proof that the undersea continental plate is a natural extension of their territory.

The CLCS decision means Norway's continental shelf has been extended by 235,000 square kilometres (146,000 square miles), or "the equivalent of seven football pitches" for each Norwegian citizen out of a population of 4.8 million, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said.

The decision means Norway will benefit from exploitation rights in almost two million square kilometres in the Arctic region, Fife added.

However, Norway has yet to agree with Russia how to share one chunk of the Barents Sea in its newly extended continental shelf, the so-called Loophole, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas.

The CLCS found both had a legitimate claim to the area and said it was up to the two countries to find a sharing agreement between themselves.

The five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean -- Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States -- dispute the sovereignty over parts of the region, believed to contain vast amounts of untapped oil and gas reserves.

Oslo sets limit on Arctic seabed, short of North Pole
Alister Doyle, Reuters 15 Apr 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway became on Wednesday the first Arctic state to agree limits to its northern seabed, stopping short of the North Pole in a regional territorial scramble driven partly by hopes of finding oil and gas.

Norway's newly defined continental shelf covers 235,000 sq kms (90,740 sq miles), or three-quarters the size of mainland Norway, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said.

To the north, the shelf ends in deep water 550 kms (341.8 miles) from the Pole that is claimed by both Russia and Denmark.

"Norway is the first polar nation to complete this work," Stoere told a news conference of talks with a U.N. Commission that is trying to agree limits to continental shelves of coastal states as part of a revisions to the U.N. Law of the Sea.

Agreement on shelf limits gives states the right to exploit resources on and beneath the seabed, such as oil and gas or the genes of marine organisms, officials said.

A U.S. official report last year said the Arctic contains enough oil and gas to meet current world demand for three years, or 90 billion barrels. And global warming may make the region more accessible.

Norway accepted adjustments by Commission experts to a submission Oslo made in 2006 and would write the new limits into national law, Stoere said. Other states ringing the Arctic Ocean are the United States, Russia, Canada and Denmark via Greenland.

Stoere said boundaries were set between Norway and Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes.

"In the discussion about who owns the North Pole -- it's definitely not us," he said.

RUSSIAN FLAG

Russia planted a flag on the seabed 4,261 meters (13,980 ft) beneath the Pole in 2007 in a symbolic claim. Denmark has also said that the Pole is Danish, because of a subsea ridge running north from Greenland toward Russia.

Stoere said the Norwegian shelf still has some undefined areas because of long-running disputes with Russia to the east and over how to define the area around the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard -- open to all signatories of a 1920 treaty.

Under the Law of the Sea, coastal states own the seabed beyond existing 200 nautical mile zones if it is part of a continental shelf of shallower waters.

Some shelves stretch hundreds of kms before reaching the deep ocean floor, which is owned by no state. Stoere said that Norway was not gaining territory, merely defining what was its under international law.

The Commission has set a deadline of May 13 this year for most coastal states to submit limits on their shelves. Countries such as the United States, which have not ratified the Law of the Sea, are exempt.

Elsewhwere in the world, a few nations including Australia and New Zealand have completed similar negotiations as Norway.

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Nigeria fines Shell for oil spill

Yahoo News 15 Apr 09;

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigeria fined Anglo-Dutch petroleum giant Shell one million naira (6,800 dollars, 5,100 euros) for failing to clean up an oil spill within reasonable time, a company official said Wednesday.

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) had been fined over the September 2008 spill in the southern state of Bayelsa which resulted in a fire in adjoining farmland, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Nigeria's spill detection agency also ordered SPDC, a Shell subsidiary, to pay compensation to victims from the local Peremabiri community once a detailed assessment had been carried out, media reports said.

Oil companies in Nigeria often attribute such incidents to vandalism by armed groups and local residents, although the company official who spoke to AFP Wednesday did not say whether this 2008 spillage was caused by sabotage.

With extensive on-shore facilities, Shell is particularly vulnerable to such criminal acts and has seen big production losses since armed groups in the Niger Delta stepped up attacks in 2006.

Other oil companies have also been affected and Nigeria's total crude production has fallen to 1.78 million barrels a day from 2.6 million barrels in 2006.

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Best of our wild blogs: 15 Apr 09

Greater Bird of Paradise spotted at ECP
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Fun at Lower Pierce Reservoir
on the Fun with Nature blog

Brown-throated Sunbird mobs Blue-tailed Bee-eater
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Condo sponge w brittlestars @ P Hantu
on the sgbeachbum blog

Not giving up the ghost
on the annotated budak blog and Hantu hell fire and up yours

Seashore plant at Pulau Hantu: Desmodium umbellatum
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Special seagrass on Pulau Sekudu: Halophila decipiens
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Wildfacts updates: snails, gobies and more
on the wild shores of singapore blog

Durian Loop better than Botanic Gardens
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Environmentalists Increase Efforts to Save Borneo’s Sun Bears
on the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation blog

Eating "Trash"
on the Midnight Monkey Monitor blog

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7 Chinese poachers arrested off El Nido, Palawan

GMANewsTV 15 Apr 09;

MANILA, Philippines — Maritime authorities have arrested seven Chinese nationals for poaching on Philippine waters off Palawan, an environmentalist group said on Wednesday.

The intruders were caught red-handed while poaching endangered green sea turtles off the coast of Cadlao Isle in northern Palawan. by the Joint Task Force Malampaya (JTFM) and composite Municipal Environment Desk Officer (MEDO), said RJ de la Calzada, a project manager of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

De la Calzada said that when the JTFM and MEDO team, acting on a tip, approached an unidentified speedboat fishing right inside El Nido’s municipal waters, the suspects fled. But after brief chase, they were cornered near Cawayan Island at around 9:30pm on April 7.

“Thirteen dead green sea turtles greeted the composite team. A live turtle was found struggling amid the fishers' nets. It was quickly tagged and released by the staff of the El Nido - Taytay Managed Resource Protected Area Office (ENTMR-PAO)," de la Calzada said in a statement.

Fishing paraphernalia, including a five-kilometer long net, were also found aboard the unmarked craft, he added.

De la Calzada said that foreign turtle poachers are no strangers to El Nido's rich waters, dubbed as the “Poacher's Paradise" for the frequency of foreign intrusions.

Despite constant vigilance from local government and military units plus the support of WWF, poachers continue to hunt for sea turtles - the shells of which are used for tortoiseshell - a material used as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman eras to fashion jewelry, combs and brushes.

The poachers will be charged for violating the Philippine Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act (RA9147), penalties for which can incur a fine of up to one million pesos, coupled with a six-year jail term, De la Calzada said.

They may also be charged with illegal incursion and breaking the Fisheries Code of 1998 (RA8550).

“These are but the latest in a long line of poachers who encroach upon Philippine waters to plunder our nation's dwindling marine resources. Each turtle killed is a fast-forward button towards extinction. We have to raise the stakes and be more serious in persecuting offenders if we are to stamp out this trade," he said.

Last August, 101 dead hawksbill turtles were recovered from Vietnamese fishing vessel Q.ng 91234-TS five nautical miles east of Cabaluan Isle, El Nido.

On 6 July 2008, four Vietnamese aboard vessel Q.ng 95986 were arrested for alleged poaching off Guntao Isle, El Nido. Four other fishing boats, believed to be Vietnamese, escaped.

On 13 April 2008, a 23-man Vietnamese poaching detail aboard the Quang Mei was arrested in Balabac, southern Palawan. Retrieved from the craft were assorted fish and a sea turtle.

“Such blatant intrusions do much to undermine the strong enforcement efforts initiated by the local government," said El Nido Mayor Leonor Corral.

“For years we have invested in the protection of Palawan’s rich marine resources. The source of food and livelihood for thousands of our people," he added.

Meanwhile, JTFM Commander Esteban Castro expressed further support for the protection of northern Palawan's marine sanctuaries and to stop “loathsome and illegal acts only abuse the country's natural wealth."

The bodies of the 13 green sea turtles are now bound for an El Nido burial lot - where the remains of 101 hawksbill turtles were also buried. - GMANews.TV

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Eco-Islam: Malaysia's Imams to preach against poaching

WWF 14 Apr 09;

Malaysia's Muslim preachers have been enlisted in the fight for wildlife conservation, using passages from the Koran to raise awareness and help protect some of the world's most endangered species.

After a successful campaign last year, when more than 400 mosques in the state of Terengganu held sermons focusing on turtle conservation issues, WWF decided to extend the project to support efforts to tackle poaching.

The conservation group is running workshops for local imams, explaining the importance of wildlife protection.

“There are several passages within the Koran which talk about the responsibility of humans in protecting our environment and wildlife,” said Umi A’ Zuhrah from the Tiger Conservation Programme at WWF-Malaysia.

“Religious leaders are very influential and greatly respected in this community, so they are the best people to carry this message across.”

The Malaysian peninsula is home to some of the world's most amazing and threatened wildlife including the Sumatran rhinos, Malayan tigers and Asian elephants. But these, and many other species in the region, are under increasing threat due to poaching and the demand for their body parts in the illegal wildlife trade.

ALL CREATED BY GOD

Poaching is arguably the biggest threat to tigers in Malaysia, with the current population estimated at about 500, down from 3,000 almost 50 years ago. Tigers are poached for their parts, which often end up in traditional chinese medicine shops and exotic meat restaurants in Malaysia and other neighbouring countries.

The newly modified sermons will be read at 21 mosques in the district of Jeli, Kelantan, in June this year and will talk about the need to stop illegal hunting and reduce human-wildlife conflict using specific passages from the Koran

“We hope that religious-based initiatives such as these will complement our monitoring and anti-poaching efforts to conserve Malaysia’s endangered wildlife,” Umi A’Zuhrah said.

Questionnaire surveys developed by WWF-Malaysia for those who heard the previous sermons indicated an increase in their levels of concern for turtle conservation.

“In Islam, the conservation of the environment is based on the principle that all individual components of the environment were created by God, and that all living things were created by the Almighty Creator,” Mawil Y. Izzi Deen says in an essay called ‘Islamic Environmental Ethics, Law and Society’.

“In fact, we are encouraged not to exploit the non-human world (natural environment and animals).”

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Sabah Anglers Association’s campaign against shark’s fin

Yahya hails campaign against finning sharks
The New Sabah Times 13 Apr 09;

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Anglers Association’s campaign against shark’s fin harvesting received a strong support from the government who iterated their commitment not to have the delicacy on the menu at official functions and dinners.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Datuk Seri Yahya Hussin branded the move as noble and congratulated the association for resurrecting an issue that had been raised in the past at the federal level.

The minister said now that the government has played its part, industry players should respond to the campaign likewise.

“I iterate that commitment and encourage all restaurants and hotels in the state to stop serving shark’s fins. I lend my support to this campaign and also the association’s call for sustainable fishing as problems which are created by humans will take serious human interventions to reverse,” he said when speaking at the closing of the Sabah International Fishing Tournament at Sutera Harbour yesterday. His speech text was delivered by assistant minister Datuk Haji Musbah Jamli.

Also present were Sabah Tourism Board chairman Dato Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin and Sabah Anglers Association president Datuk Wilfred Lingham.

Yahya also praised the association for being vocal on issues affecting marine biodiversity which is crucial to the socio-economic development of the state as well as the livelihood of the people particularly the traditional coastal fishermen.

“Indeed, it is good to have a marine watchdog who are always out at sea and will be in the best position to inform the government and relevant authorities of the problems they have witnessed,” he said.

On the fishing industry, Yahya stressed the need to balance between productivity and environmental concerns.

“Our survival as a state depends very much on keeping this commitment because as Sabah progresses there will be greater demand for quality products as well as quality environment.”

He also urged the Fisheries Department and Marine Police to be one step ahead of unscrupulous individuals who poached and encroached upon territories where there may be endangered species.

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Beware of green technology advocates: Malaysian Consumers' Association

Bernama, New Straits Times 14 Apr 09;

The government must exercise caution so as not to see 'red' in the green technology recommended by glib-tongued foreign promoters.

The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (FOMCA) feels that such promoters could inflict more harm than good to the country.

Its environment desk programme manager, S. Piarapakaran, said most foreign promoters were nothing more than smooth-talking salesman out to sell outdated innovations to countries which were beginning to show interest in the green revolution.

He said as Malaysia was now placing much emphasis on green technology, the country could attract such 'salesman' and it should therefore, be wary of them because the innovation they sell might not be suitable to our needs.

Piarapakaran said the setting up of a new ministry of energy, green technology and water was a very positive step as the world was moving towards protecting environment and conserving energy.

He said Malaysian universities, research institutions and non-governmental organisations should now be encouraged by the new ministry to conduct more research to suit local needs.

He pointed out that currently, there were significant growing market opportunities for a green movement in the country as consumers were now seeking more environment-friendly products.

Even schoolchildren were taught about recycling and encouraged to recycle used products like newspapers, bottles, cans and boxes, he said.

Communities were also advocating and encouraging the use of electrical gadgets in homes that used less energy, added Piarapakaran.

He said FOMCA would continue to provide education and guidance to consumers to embrace the green revolution.

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'Karachi faces tsunami risk as mangroves reducing’

Amar Guriro, The Daily Times 15 Apr 09;

KARACHI: Environmental experts have expressed concern over the reduction of mangrove forests along the Sindh coast, warning that if the mangroves are not protected, the city fears a greater risk of being hit by a tsunami in the future.

“Land reclamation along the coastal areas is the cause of this rapid reduction in mangrove forests,” said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan National Coordinator Masood Lohar. “Besides the reclamation, the domestic and highly toxic industrial effluent that is being poured in the Arabian Sea has also damaged the mangrove forests,” added Lohar, as he guided a group of journalists on a visit to the mangrove forests located near the Kakapir village, Sandspit, where the UNDP, in collaboration of the Small Grants Programme, has launched an awareness programme among the indigenous communities.

“Mangroves are the shields of the coast that stop tsunamis. The level of damage caused by the industrial effluent to the mangroves can be gauged from the fact that most of the mangrove forests along the coasts of Karachi are filled with chemicals, severely affecting the natural growth of these trees,” he said, while adding that the decreasing mangrove plantation is also the reason for the changes in the weather pattern of the city.

During the tour, journalists visited the newly-built safety shed. “Local people have initiated a boat ride and a safety shed in the sea, to promote eco-tourism,” said Abdul Ghani, a resident of the village. Federal Additional Secretary for Environment Imtiaz Inayat Elhai had inaugurated the safety shed, which floats in the backwaters of the village.

Talking to the media, Elahi said that the federal government is planning to launch an awareness program to highlight the importance of the mangrove forests. Interestingly, when the agreement between the Sindh government and the federal government for the release of 10 million acre feet (MAF) of water in downstream Kotri, annually, to facilitate the survival of the mangroves and the subsequent inaction in this regard was brought to his notice, the federal additional secretary expressed completed ignorance about any such an agreement.

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