Seagrass Watch workshop: Level 1 field session
on the teamseagrass blog and wild shores of singapore blog
Colourful fiddler crabs of Chek Jawa
on the wonderful creation blog
Orange-breasted Trogon takes a moth
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
The Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity
on the wild shores of singapore blog
Richard Lim, The Star 3 May 09
Shifting priorities and greater awareness among the nation’s future custodians have resulted in a green revolution in schools and campuses.
STRANGER things have happened but it is safe to say that few predicted the wave of “new environmentalism.”
Once misconstrued to be limited to tree huggers or those who go native ala Bruno Manser (who was an environmental activist and champion of the native Penan in Sarawak in the 1990s) eco-awareness has become inclusive following its fuse with retail.
Bling is now passé while green and sustainable are luxe. People craze over organic food and the arrival of hybrid cars in Malaysia should be well-received – given the government’s generous tax rebate.
But while ethical branding may be novel, jeans from Levi’s Eco range which incorporate recycled cotton, biodegradable coconut-shell buttons and a green (not red) tab may be out of reach for most.
One man’s coral
“Although we can’t purchase everything, we, the common people are the ones who can really save the environment,” says Universiti Malaya (UM) marine biologist and lecturer Affendi Yang Amri, 39.
“Many green products are good but overpriced. And frankly, how many can afford them? I’m quite a green person as I work closely with the environment but I’m not rich.”
A specialist in coral reef studies, Affendi teaches coral reef ecology and the science of swimming and diving to his students. An avid researcher, he is often at the local reef hotspots like Pulau Tioman and Pulau Layang-layang.
Affendi constantly elucidates the importance of conserving nature to his students. However, this isn’t easy as not all of them ticked marine biology as their first choice.
“Some students are tough customers but experience has shown me that many fall in love with nature by accident,” he opines.
“I normally show new students photos and slides of underwater life and my diving experiences. Of course, I show the good pictures first!
“I explain more about nature after they’re interested and virtually all my students are surprised that Malaysia’s waters are frequented by pygmy whales, sei whales and dolphins.”
Many of Affendi’s students join him in his research and some even undertake conservation efforts of their own. One of them is currently researching on the damage done to coral reefs – snorkelers and fishing being the main culprits.
“This profession offers a different kind of reward,” says Affendi. “Being able to see nature’s beauty up close is gratifying and the future generation must recognise this, if nature is to be preserved.
Affendi’s thoughts are shared by concerned parents and the SK Bukit Damansara’s parent teacher association (PTA) has been advocating environmental education since 1999.
Christened the Save Our Endangered Animals Programme in 2000, the effort sees environmental education conducted during school hours. As the programme is supported by the school administration, virtually every student is involved in one way or other.
“The core vision of this programme is to save endangered species and green the earth,” explains SKBD PTA president Seth Yahya.
“We adopt a different endangered animal in Malaysia annually and use drama and art competitions to emphasise it to students.
“They are Malaysia’s future custodians and they must understand that their future actions will have great bearing on the planet.”
SKBD’s theatre productions have been held at KLPAC for the past four years and last year’s play highlighted the plight of the Borneo Sun Bear. Themed Goldilocks and the Bears, the production showcased synchronised movement, signing, acting, script writing and chorus work.
The students wrote the script themselves and even appeared on television to promote the play. Rehearsals lasted up to four hours during school holidays and the students didn’t disappoint on stage.
Year Six student Johaan Abraham, 12, was part of the acting troupe, playing a “cool bear.”
“There are lots of environmental related activities and this makes things fun to learn,” enthuses Johaan. “We even go on field trips and getting close to nature allows us to experience something more.
“Championing environmental issues is hard work but we do it out of pleasure at SKBD. We get to share ideas and be part of something big.”
Solar power to the people
SMK (P) Sri Aman is another green school.
Now, having a green office or school block is one thing, but what if your entire school is geared towards the environment?
At Sri Aman, rain water is harvested and used for lavatory and botanical purposes. With assistance from the National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (Nahrim), rain water is collected from the rooftops and filtered.
Also, students collect leftover greens and other organic waste from the canteen and mash them into fertiliser. Named Kompos, this endeavour ensures that nothing goes to waste.
Despite these initiatives, the crown jewel of Sri Aman’s green projects has to be its solar panel system.
“The system generates electricity from the sun’s rays and we sell the electricity back to Tenaga Nasional Bhd,” explains vice-principal Yeap Kooi Ngoh.
“The electricity generated is enough to power two or three air-conditioning units. This isn’t much but we’re setting an example by using alternative energy. And it’ll reduce costs in the long run.
“Embarking on a green route was the collective decision of the school administration and we want to equip our students with a strong sense of morality and responsibility.”
Funded by the United Nations Development Programme - Global Environment Facility and the Government, the system was open to all eligible schools and Sri Aman won the privilege to host it based on its track record with environmental companies.
Like the other projects, students do their part in monitoring the system and tabs are kept on how much electricity is generated each month.
Secret garden
A lush and peaceful environment is said to have a positive relationship with learning outcomes and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been taking this seriously.
Its University in a Garden concept was coined in 2001 and the numbers of trees on campus has skyrocketed.
The Durian Valley eco-hub – named for obvious reasons – in the main campus has been converted into a small forest and with help from the forestry department, indigenous Penangite tress like the penaga laut are being planted.
“The Durian Valley is memorable as students used to steal durians and rambutans until they were chased away,” recalls Prof Lee Lik Meng of USM’s School of Housing, Building and Planning.
“Every tree is precious now but that wasn’t always the case. Angsana trees used to make way for car parks but we’re more conscious of what we’re doing now.”
There is radio frequency identification for more than 1,000 trees of USM’s campus now detailing the age of the trees, species, and other relevant information. Plans are afoot to construct an eco trail where visitors can get close and learn more about national trees.
USM is also embracing the concept of a green office. Minutes of meetings are no longer printed but instead, circulated via email.
Water is not dispensed through plastic bottles and waste is frequently recycled by contactors.
Bicycles are becoming a common sight as well.
“Cycling reduces the level of carbon emissions,” adds Prof Lee. “It would be good if the campus could mirror the city of Barcelona, Spain, where many cycle.”
Also, USM students are active in environmental efforts.
The White Coffin campaign against the use of polystyrene containers took the campus by storm last year and received international recognition from Hong Kong and Japan.
Meanwhile, student research topics focus on fuel energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable lifestyles and other green topics.
However, Prof Lee isn’t satisfied just yet.
“More needs to be done,” he muses. “The four Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle must be practised by every student.
“If that is practised, everyone can save the environment be it in the field, or from the comfort of their desks.”
The new eco-warriors
COOKING oil has many uses but Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Mechanical Engineering student Vigrem Raha, 24, found one of the more innovative ones – powering a motorcycle.
A member of the team that designed Malaysia’s first bio-diesel motorcycle, Vigrem fell in love with the environment by chance.
“I wasn’t environmentally-aware of many things before this,” he says. “However, my stint as a research assistant at USM’s engineering lab changed that.
“I helped my lecturers do interesting projects and they made me realise why environmental conservation is important.”
Unwilling to limit himself to bikes, Vigrem is also interested in renewable energy. In fact, he helped construct a wind turbine at USM’s engineering school.
“I love science and I believe that technical achievements can have more significant results than individual efforts.
“The Kyoto protocol plans to reduce emission levels and unless we see a drastic fall in the number of vehicles on the road, the only way we can achieve this target is by producing more efficient engines.”
While the love of science may fuel Vigrem’s fire, others have a more personal take on the environment.
Having grown up by the Port Dickson seaside, Universiti Malaya’s Marine Biology Masters student Lau Chai Ming, 24, misses his hometown’s heyday as a holiday hotspot. Today, he fights for paradise lost.
“My mother used to tell me how blue and clean Port Dickson’s waters used to be,” he laments. “It got worse as I was growing up and the town has little to boast about now.
“You could say that my environmental awareness is a reaction to this.”
An avid swimmer and snorkeler, Lau decided to get more hands-on – or flipper-on for that matter – and signed up for the Marine Conservation Project (MCP) that does beach clean-ups, underwater surveys, and erects barriers to stop boats from coming into close proximity of coral reefs.
He has since become involved with Reef Check, a marine underwater survey organisation that collects data on coral reefs.
“We also look at fish, invertebrates and subtrates (corals and sand),” explains Lau.
“We may be doing a lot of environmental work but it allows us to get close to nature’s beauty and for me, it’s worth it.
“My involvement with MCP also allows me to share my experiences with school children and that is fulfilling.”
Stephen Then, The Star 2 May 09;
KUALA BARAM:Wildfires are ravaging huge plots of land near the Sarawak-Brunei boundary in the Kuala Baram district, some 40km north of Miri.
Thick, choking smog from these fires has made breathing quite a misery for the 30,000 residents living in numerous housing estates leading from the city to the border, especially at night and in the early morning hours.
A check by The Star found some big fires adjacent to the 1.2km-long transboundary bridge linking Sarawak and Brunei.
Vast stretches of land next to the Sarawak-Brunei highway have also been burned. Smoke could be seen billowing from deep forested land in the district a few kilometres away.
Many residents have complained that they have been breathing in smoke and ashes during the night and in early morning hours.
At the Miri Divisional Fire and Rescue Department, firemen were busy dealing with calls from concerned residents.
''Banyak panggilan. Sini, sana pun ada (Many calls, here and there also got),'' quipped the station master on Saturday.
It is learnt that about three dozen fires have been reported so far as at 2pm yesterday.
A department spokesman said the causes of the fires were still being investigated, but that these were most likely caused by open-burning activities.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam said that he would convene an urgent meeting soon with the relevant authorities to deal with the issue.
It was only four days ago that the ASEAN sub-committee on transboundary haze met in Bandar seri Begawan in Brunei and warned about the possibility of haze from now until September due to the anticipated onslaught of the dry spell.
Pulau Semakau
on the teamseagrass blog with sightings on the wild shores of singapore blog
Seagrass Watch workshop: Level 1 classroom session
on the teamseagrass blog
St John's Island
on the Psychedelic Nature blog
A woodpecker’s hyoid apparatus
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo building nest
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Cake
on the annotated budak blog
But it's hard to wipe out as trade is global and sales go online
Nicholas Yong, Straits Times 2 May 09;
A SINGAPOREAN who tried to smuggle live birds through the Woodlands Checkpoint in his car in mid-February was given away by squawks coming from the glove compartment.
Customs officers found a plastic bag containing three newspaper- wrapped bundles. Inside were a zebra dove and two long-tailed parakeets, which he claimed he had bought.
The birds were confiscated and the case referred to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).
The parakeets, highly endangered, are worth about $250 each; prices for the zebra dove start at $150 and go up to as much as $50,000.
Ten cases of possession or illegal import of protected wildlife cropped up in the first quarter of this year.
Last year, there were 17 wildlife- related enforcement cases, down from the 46 cases the year before. The numbers have been on the downtrend since 2004's high of 97 cases.
Singapore is a signatory to an international agreement that seeks to ensure trade does not threaten wildlife species with extinction. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or Cites as it is called, protects about 5,000 species of animals and 28,000 species of plants.
A person found guilty of smuggling protected wildlife here can be fined up to $50,000 for each species on the Cites list, up to $500,000 in total, or jailed up to two years, or both.
The same applies for those caught possessing, selling or offering for sale endangered species illegally imported into the country.
The AVA has been stepping up enforcement against the illegal wildlife trade. Its officers at the various checkpoints have been briefed on Cites and wildlife smugglers' tactics.
But wiping out the smuggling is tough because the trade is global, estimated by Interpol to be worth US$10 billion (S$14.7 billion) to US$20 billion a year.
Wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic said the problem is 'rampant' in South-east Asia. Contributing factors include the region's diverse collection of animals and plants and its uneven enforcement measures stemming from a lack of resources.
Traffic has listed Singapore, Malaysia and the United States among the world's top 10 wildlife smuggling hubs. Traffic's regional director for South-east Asia Azrina Abdullah said the 'world-class' infrastructure in these countries facilitates the trade.
Mr Louis Ng, executive director of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), said constant enforcement here is paying off.
In the last three years, 9,000 animals have been confiscated as a result of public tip-offs, and fewer pet shops are selling protected species.
Mr Ng noted, however, that the illegal wildlife trade had gone online - Acres now gets tip-offs on websites selling exotic wildlife almost weekly.
There is an upside to this. 'People are more aware now, when previously, they might not have known that these animals were illegal,' he said.
48 seized animals are with zoo
Straits Times 2 May 09;
WHEN the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) raided three locations on March 25, it netted 48 illegally kept animals.
The haul comprised 31 reptiles such as snakes and tortoises, and 17 arachnids such as spiders.
Ms Lye Fong Keng, who heads the AVA's wildlife regulatory department, said investigations are ongoing. The animals have been sent to the zoo.
Animals confiscated by the AVA are either sent there, to the Jurong BirdPark or Underwater World. Some of them are released into nature parks.
The AVA handled 10 wildlife-related enforcement cases in the first three months of this year. Eight cases involved illegal possession of live wildlife; the other two involved attempts to illegally import such animals.
No decision has been made yet on whether the 48 animals seized in the March 25 raids will eventually be absorbed into the zoo's collection.
All animals sent to the zoo are quarantined - reptiles for a month, and primates and hoofed animals, up to three months. By the end of the quarantine, the zoo would have decided where to put them:
# Local animals such as squirrels or pangolins may be released back to nature parks.
# Exotic animals which the zoo already has may be sent to partnering institutions.
# Some animals may be absorbed into the zoo's existing collection.
Former zoo favourite, the orang utan Ah Meng, for example, was confiscated from a family that kept her illegally as a pet. She was given to the zoo in 1971.
Animals are put down only as a last resort, for instance if they are in poor condition. Of the 342 animals the zoo received last year from the AVA, police or members of the public, only five were euthanised.
Members of the public turned in 47 animals to the zoo last year. While some donations are genuine finds by members of the public, others could have been illegally kept pets that people decided to give up, said the zoo's assistant director of zoology Biswajit Guha.
'Some people claim to have come across the wild animals in their gardens, but in some instances, you can tell it's a lie.' he said.
'You can see that they are really sad to give up the animals.'
In Singapore, keeping wild animals without a licence is an offence under the Wild Animals and Birds Act. The fine can be up to $1,000 per animal.
ANG YIYING
The haul comprised 31 reptiles such as snakes and tortoises, and 17 arachnids such as spiders.
Ms Lye Fong Keng, who heads the AVA's wildlife regulatory department, said investigations are ongoing. The animals have been sent to the zoo.
Animals confiscated by the AVA are either sent there, to the Jurong BirdPark or Underwater World. Some of them are released into nature parks.
The AVA handled 10 wildlife-related enforcement cases in the first three months of this year. Eight cases involved illegal possession of live wildlife; the other two involved attempts to illegally import such animals.
No decision has been made yet on whether the 48 animals seized in the March 25 raids will eventually be absorbed into the zoo's collection.
All animals sent to the zoo are quarantined - reptiles for a month, and primates and hoofed animals, up to three months. By the end of the quarantine, the zoo would have decided where to put them:
# Local animals such as squirrels or pangolins may be released back to nature parks.
# Exotic animals which the zoo already has may be sent to partnering institutions.
# Some animals may be absorbed into the zoo's existing collection.
Former zoo favourite, the orang utan Ah Meng, for example, was confiscated from a family that kept her illegally as a pet. She was given to the zoo in 1971.
Animals are put down only as a last resort, for instance if they are in poor condition. Of the 342 animals the zoo received last year from the AVA, police or members of the public, only five were euthanised.
Members of the public turned in 47 animals to the zoo last year. While some donations are genuine finds by members of the public, others could have been illegally kept pets that people decided to give up, said the zoo's assistant director of zoology Biswajit Guha.
'Some people claim to have come across the wild animals in their gardens, but in some instances, you can tell it's a lie.' he said.
'You can see that they are really sad to give up the animals.'
In Singapore, keeping wild animals without a licence is an offence under the Wild Animals and Birds Act. The fine can be up to $1,000 per animal.
ANG YIYING
Schools, firms are taking the lead to recycle used devices like phones and IT products
Tan Weizhen, Straits Times 2 May 09;
SCHOOLS and companies are leading the drive to give used gadgets such as phones and computer equipment renewed life, reducing the electronic waste that is piling up at an increasing rate.
The move to recycle e-waste is slowly picking up, thanks to students like those at the Singapore Management University (SMU), who have started collecting unwanted thumbdrives for the needy, and the National University of Singapore (NUS), who recently donated 1,000 old phones to be recycled.
Landfills are rapidly filling up, said recycling companies here such as Recycling Point Dot Com and TES-AMM, which have noticed more items being discarded as people cycle through their TV sets, computers and other appliances more quickly.
Several years ago, Recycling Point collected only fiveto 10 tonnes of e-waste a month from households and companies. Now, it collects as much as 50tonnes in just one week. 'People, especially youth, are upgrading their gadgets all the time,' said Recycling Point founder Joseph Tan.
Phone company Nokia has chosen to work with schools to 'cultivate a sense of ownership of and responsibility to' the environment among youth. It has proposed a long-term e-recycling programme with NUS and Nanyang Technological University.
Late last month, it did the same with four primary and secondary schools, as well as St Andrew's Junior College. Under the programme, students who donate phones get trees planted in their names in the reforestation programme with the World Wide Fund For Nature in Indonesia. They can view their trees on online map Google Earth.
Nokia will donate $3 for every phone donated at the schools to any of their green projects.
About 1,000 old phones were collected from NUS students at its first drive in December. The phones will be put through mills to have the raw materials recycled. One donor, Mr Loo Deliang, 26, contributed five phones. 'They have very little value left, so I might as well turn them in for recycling and do something good for the earth.'
SMUstudents have started a year-long 'Flash Your Thumb' campaign to collect 3,000 old thumbdrives for needy students here and overseas. The team is working with the North West Community Development Council, other universities and schools to set up collection points for unwanted devices.
Project chairman Loreen Zhuo said: 'People are going for thumbdrives with higher and higher memory these days. We do not want to see workable thumbdrives go to waste.'
The higher-capacity thumbdrives will go to pupils at local primary schools, while thumbdrives below 1GB will go to students overseas.
There are also more opportunities now for the public to hand over old and unwanted devices.
At the Sitex IT shows in the last two years, visitors exchanged their old computer monitors, hard drives, keyboards, laptops and printers for cash.
Cash Converters, a second-hand goods company, gave out $40,000 last year, and $28,000 the year before, for goods in working condition.
IT firms like Nokia and Fujitsu have drop points for customers to return unwanted laptops, cellphones, chargers and batteries. But Nokia said only 2per cent of all customers do so because of a lack of awareness.
Nokia's environment manager Francis Cheong said Singapore is doing its fair share for the environment. It is one of the few countries which allow other countries to bring in electronic waste for recycling. 'Many other countries do not currently allow that as irresponsible e-waste recycling and recovery can pollute the environment.'
Vegetarian society enlists RI students to promote healthy lifestyle among youth, raise environmental awareness
Amelia Tan, Straits Times 2 May 09;
THE Vegetarian Society of Singapore (VSS) wants to spread its creed among youth and has roped in a dozen Raffles Institution (RI) students for the job.
The boys, all in Secondary 3 in RI's Integrated Programme (IP), will spread awareness about health and environmental problems caused by eating and producing meat. They will do so by giving talks and mounting exhibitions in schools.
Their mission: To get fellow students to eat more vegetables and cut down on their meat intake by year's end. With help from VSS, they will also try to get canteen stall owners on board by suggesting ways of including more greens in their menus.
The IP students are doing this project under Research Education, a subject in their curriculum.
Just a month in, the 12 ambassadors of vegetarianism have yet to decide on the schools where they will promote their cause, but they scored a victory two weeks ago when they persuaded RI's Indian food stall owner to sell vegetarian burgers.
To fan publicity for these new-style burgers, they ran a quiz on environment-related issues over two days. Students who answered at least two questions could buy the $1.50 burger for 50 cents.
The team's head of publicity Amos Mah, 14, said 300 burgers were sold on each of the two days of the campaign, but this has fallen to under 100.
Undaunted, he said: 'We learnt that it is not easy to change eating habits and mindsets. But we believe that, over time, by presenting our schoolmates with the facts on the effects of eating meat, they will be encouraged to make changes to their lifestyles.'
The team has been busy: It has produced posters, now plastered all over RI, on the environmental and health benefits of a more plant-based diet.
VSS education officer Loh Yeow Nguan said the society decided it was best that students be the ones to persuade their peers to eat more greens, since VSS has not had much success after years of giving talks and holding exhibitions in schools.
He added: 'Getting the students directly involved helps them to understand better the damage that eating meat can do to their health and the environment.'
This has certainly been true for team member Cheong Kah Wah, 16, who said: 'I did not know eating meat could cause so many health and environmental problems. I've decided to eat less meat and am cutting down on fast food.
'I hope that, by doing this, I can encourage my friends to change their eating habits too.'
In recent years, efforts have been made in several countries to change the eating habits of youth. Britain, for example, has banned junk food from its school canteens.
Here, schools under the 'Model Tuckshop' Programme do not sell drinks with more than 8g of sugar per 100ml as well as deep-fried food and preserved meat more than once a week.
VSS president George Jacobs said these efforts are heartening, but more needs to be done. 'We can restrict the number of times fried food is sold in schools, but it won't make much of a difference if students do not believe in the importance of healthy eating. They will still buy fried food from other places.'
Straits Times 2 May 09;
ALLOW me to offer an anecdote from Choa Chu Kang with reference to the report, 'Mango season hits the streets' (April 19).
The signs installed by the National Parks Board (NParks) at the public park in Choa Chu Kang opposite my flat warn visitors to beware of falling durians.
The durians on the trees in the park ripen twice a year. In the more than 10 years that I have lived there, I cannot recall any park visitor being struck by falling durians or being seriously hurt as a consequence.
Was it because of the warning signs? I doubt so.
The signs may have paradoxically created a buzz by revealing the existence of durians in the park rather than convey the honest-to-goodness intention of NParks to warn visitors about the fruit for safety reasons. The signs may well have attracted more people to the trees - durians being irresistible to the average Singaporean's palate.
So, what occurs each durian season at my neighbourhood park is a ritual involving packs of durian hunters from all walks of life, who land there for a free harvest of the king of fruits.
Some even take the trouble to camp overnight as they wait for the durians to fall.
It's durian season again at Choa Chu Kang Park. Bunches of durians have been spotted hanging from the branches of the trees in recent weeks. There has been much excitement as regular park users speculate when the fruit will ripen and drop.
Which brings me to NParks' warning to the public in the article not to harvest ripening mangoes from roadside trees for various reasons. I would like to know, for instance, how picking a fallen durian is harmful to the tree? Will the board now install signs warning durian hunters to stay away on pain of a $200 fine?
I hope not. I would hope that NParks keeps to its current policy of hiring a contractor to clear the durians for public safety - never mind the fact that the ritual involving durian hunters from all walks of life takes care of the job just as well.
Tan Peck Cheong
A village will be built in Johor to introduce youth here to a more rustic way of life
Theresa Tan, Straits Times 2 May 09;
WORRIED about children who are growing up hooked on television and computer games and have no contact with Mother Nature, two men are aiming to develop a kampung in Johor to introduce Singapore's youth to a more rustic way of life.
Mr Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation, which promotes clean toilets and sanitation, is offering his 4ha plot of land in Johor - at a nominal $1 rent a year - for the non-profit project, called Kampung Temasek.
Joining forces with him is well-known architect Tay Kheng Soon, 68, who is designing a village where 'children can plant organic vegetables, go on hikes, climb trees, go river rafting and milk cows'.
'My friends with young children are telling me their children are growing up absurd,' Mr Tay told The Straits Times.
'They are afraid of ants and insects, think that chickens come in plastic bags without feathers and spend their time playing computer games, watching television and shopping.'
At Kampung Temasek located at Sungai Tiram, less than a 30-minute drive from Johor Baru, families can join 'get back to nature' programmes and stay in one of the 65 non-air-conditioned huts for a few days to weeks at a stretch.
There will also be three longhouses, which can sleep up to 100 children each.
The village, estimated to cost about $5 million to develop, will be open to the public - who can pay to join its programmes - as well as to charities, which can use the place to run adventure camps for youth, for example.
The two men hope the initiative will also attract artists and farmers to live and work there, adding to the kampung atmosphere.
So why is Mr Sim, 52, offering his land which he bought for RM$400,000 back in 1993, for next to nothing?
The father of four said: 'The land is sitting empty and I thought, why don't I offer it up for a good cause...Besides, my children are now in their teens and have no use for it until maybe in 20 years' time when they can take over the land.'
The businessman turned full-time campaigner for clean toilets feels that Singapore's urban, high density, fast-paced living will eventually take its toll on the younger generation.
Mr Sim, who grew up in a poor family in a kampung near Paya Lebar, said: 'Life here can be dehumanising sometimes. We are so orientated towards economic development and often, we are not in touch with our feelings, other people and nature. If you are isolated from people and nature, you will find it hard to work with others.'
He added: 'With Kampung Temasek, we hope to bring back the old feeling, the old Singapore we enjoyed so much. It's not that we don't like Singapore today, but we feel that kampungs are missing here...Since there are no more kampungs here, let's create one.'
Kampung Temasek is expected to be completed in about a year's time.
The Star 2 May 09;
I TRAVEL widely and appreciate the great outdoors of Malaysia. We truly have an array of diverse landscapes waiting to be explored, especially the mountains and river ecosystems.
However, what irks me is the rapid unsustainable development at the river riparian zones, whether they are in places like Johor, Pahang, Perak or other parts of the country.
These areas are fundamental buffer zones that form part of the greater river ecosystems, better known as wetlands, throughout the world.
The river systems in Malaysia are an integral part of the water resources. There are over 150 river systems in Malaysia, contributing more than 90% of the raw water supply source.
My concern is where is the enforcement to ensure that those who damage such resources don’t get away.
Time has taught us that floods are man-made disasters, caused by lackadaisical
planning and inertia about the importance of riparian zones and wetlands.
The end result is disastrous as floods in Kota Tinggi and Segamat, Johor, have shown.
Wanton agriculture and human settlement are part of the problem.
What makes me even more angry is the mushrooming of contractors being hired to clear the rivers of sedimentation everywhere, including the river mouths such as those of Sungai Johor and other rivers and canals in all states.
If only someone care to be pro-active enough to analyse the problems and take preventive and educational approaches, the national budget for such unsustainable works could be reduced and millions of ringgit saved.
Clearing the silt by dredging alone is a short-term answer and is costly.
Dredging changes the ecology of the area and affects marine flora and fauna while it can also cause long term erosion.
Sustainable communities all over the world do not practise this negative approach and they always look at the root cause for remedial action.
All stakeholders must be involved.
More strategies need to be evaluated and stakeholders educated.
Environmental consciousness is the critical element in laying the foundation of sustainable development.
Let us educate ourselves on the important role of these wetlands, which include the riparian zones to ensure we live in harmony with these vital natural ecosystems.
The future generation has a right to clean rivers and the rich wetland ecosystems.
The Drainage and Irrigation Department, fisheries, town planners and local authorities need to revisit the key wetlands and Ramsar (wetlands of international importance) sites and be briefed on the importance of their roles and how every Malaysian can help protect them for the benefit of all.
Kuala Selangor Nature Park (Selangor), Matang (Perak), Kinabalu wetlands (Sabah), Tanjung Piai and Kukup Island (Johor) are some of the vibrant educational centres that can assist the local authorities and relevant people to make them appreciate the value of the river ecosystems and wetlands.
We must save and protect them.
Conservation is everyone’s job, more so for the politicians and leaders.
Let’s act before our rivers and wetlands are treated as wastelands and become continuous flood zones!
There are vast materials of technical input on water resource management that needs to be carried out.
We must also cease to be “penny wise, pound foolish”.
HARBAN SINGH,
Johor Baru.
Are you unwittingly contributing to the devastation of the rain forests?
Does your shopping basket contain KitKat, Hovis, Persil or Flora? If so, you may be contributing to the devastation of the wildlife-rich forests of Indonesia and Malaysia, where orangutans and other species face extinction as their habitat disappears.
Report by Martin Hickman, The Independent 2 May 09;
It's an invisible ingredient, really, palm oil. You won't find it listed on your margarine, your bread, your biscuits or your KitKat. It's there though, under "vegetable oil". And its impact, 7,000 miles away, is very visible indeed.
The wildlife-rich forests of Indonesia and Malaysia are being chain-sawed to make way for palm-oil plantations. Thirty square miles are felled daily in a burst of habitat destruction that is taking place on a scale and speed almost unimaginable in the West.
When the rainforests disappear almost all of the wildlife – including the orangutans, tigers, sun bears, bearded pigs and other endangered species – and indigenous people go. In their place come palm-oil plantations stretching for mile after mile, producing cheap oil – the cheapest cooking oil in the world – for everyday food.
It's not that people haven't noticed what is going on. The United Nations has documented this rampage. Environmental groups have warned that what we buy affects what is happening in these jungles. Three years ago, Britain's biggest supermarket, Tesco, was persuaded to join the only organisation that just might halt the chopping, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
In his globe-trotting Tribe series two years ago, the TV explorer Bruce Parry was visibly moved by the sad fate of the Penan, a forest-dwelling tribe in Borneo. Most recently, the BBC's prime-time Orangutan Diary showed the battle to create fresh habitats for "red apes" orphaned by deforestation, principally for palm oil.
But if there's plenty of evidence of the devastating environmental effects of palm-oil, little of it can be seen on the products in Britain's biggest supermarkets.
Until now, the best estimate of the number of leading supermarket products containing palm oil (Elaeis guineensis) has been one in 10, the figure quoted by Friends of the Earth in its 2005 report, "The Oil for Apes Scandal". After a two-month investigation, The Independent has established that palm oil is used in far greater quantities. We can reveal for the first time that it is confirmed or suspected in 43 of Britain's 100 bestselling grocery brands (see box, right), representing £6bn of the UK's £16bn annual shopping basket for top brands. If you strip out drinks, pet food and household goods, the picture is starker still: 32 out of 62 of Britain's top foods contain this tree-felling, wildlife-wrecking ingredient.
It's in the top three loaves – Warburtons, Hovis, and Kingsmill – and the bestselling margarines Flora and Clover. It's in Special K, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Mr Kipling Cakes, McVitie's Digestives and Goodfella's pizza. It's in KitKat, Galaxy, Dairy Milk and Wrigley's chewing gum. It's in Persil washing powder, Comfort fabric softener and Dove soap. It's also in plenty of famous brands that aren't in the top 100, such as Milkybar, Jordan's Country Crisp and Utterly Butterly. And it's almost certainly in thousands of supermarket own brands. Yet none of these manufacturers can prove their supply is "sustainable".
What, then, is "unsustainable" palm oil? Step one: log a forest and remove the most valuable species for furniture. Step two: chainsaw or burn the remaining wood releasing huge quantities of greenhouse gas. Step three: plant a palm-oil plantation. Step four: make oil from the fruit and kernels. Step five: add it to biscuits, chocolate, margarine, soaps, moisturisers and washing powder. At breakfast, when millions of us are munching toast, we're eating a small slice of the rainforest.
From outer space, borneo and sumatra resemble giant emerald stepping stones between Thailand and Australia. Reaching the heart of their still-massive jungles takes days of boat trips and trekking. Gibbons hoot and long-tailed macaques squawk. Mongooses and pangolins scamper through the undergrowth. Large-beaked rhinoceros hornbills soar above the forest. The huge green and black Rajah Brooke's butterfly flutters by.
These rainforests are honeypots for flora and fauna, among the most biodiverse places on Earth. Consider the figures. Sumatra – the size of Spain, owned by Indonesia – has 465 species of bird, 194 species of mammal, 217 species of reptile, 272 species of freshwater fish, and an estimated 10,000 species of plant. Borneo – the size of Turkey and shared between Indonesia and Malaysia – is even richer: 420 birds, 210 mammals, 254 reptiles, 368 freshwater fish and around 15,000 plants.
All these species evolved to live in this unique forest environment. The Sumatran rhino is the smallest, hairiest and most endangered in the world; the Sumatran tiger is the smallest tiger. The black sun bear, with its U-shaped patch of white fur under its chin, is the smallest bear. Some of them are curious in the extreme: the bug-eyed western tarsier; the striped rabbit; the marled cat; and the tree-jumping clouded leopard, which feasts on pygmy squirrels and long-tailed porcupines.
Of all the animals, though, the most famous by far is the orangutan (or "man of the jungle"). With its orange hair and long arms, the orangutan is one of our planet's most unusual creatures. And one of the smartest, too. The Dutch anthropologist Carel van Schaik found that orangutans could perform tasks which were well beyond chimpanzees, such as making rain hats and leakproof roofs for their nests.
The primatologist Dr Willie Smits estimates that orangutans can distinguish between 1,000 different plants, knowing which ones are edible, which are poisonous, and which cure headaches. In her book Thinkers of the Jungle, the psychology professor Anne Russon recalled that one orangutan keeper took three days to solve the mystery of who'd been stealing from the fridge. It turned out that an orangutan had been using a paperclip to pick the lock of its cage, then hiding the paperclip under its tongue.
Along with chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos, orangutans are great apes, sharing 97 per cent of their DNA with humans, having split from us a mere 13 million years ago. They exist only in these forests of Borneo and Sumatra, and it is their arboreal nature that leaves them so vulnerable to deforestation. Between 2004 and 2008, according to the US Great Ape Trust, the orangutan population fell by 10 per cent (to 49,600) on Borneo and by 14 per cent (to 6,600) on Sumatra. As the author Serge Wich warned: "Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great-ape species to go extinct."
Native people too, known in Borneo as Dayaks, are under threat. About 10,000 members of the semi-nomadic Penan tribe survive but their traditional lifestyle – which includes harvesting the starchy sago tree – is being felled.
A researcher with Survival International, the London-based human-rights organisation, returned to the UK last month with transcripts of interviews with the Penan conducted deep in the jungle. According to one headman, called Matu, hunters were increasingly returning empty-handed. "When the logging started in the Nineties, we thought we had a big problem," he complained. "But when oil palm arrived [in 2005], logging was relegated to problem No 2. Our land and our forests have been taken by force.
"Our fruit trees are gone, our hunting grounds are very limited, and the rivers are polluted, so the fish are dying. Before, there were lots of wild boar around here. Now, we only find one every two or three months. In the documents, all of our land has been given to the company."
"There were no discussions," said another Penan. "The company just put up signs saying the government had given them permission to plant oil palm on our land."
Indonesia is trying to crack down on illegal foresting, but corruption is rife hundreds of miles from Jakarta. Satellite pictures show logging has encroached on 90 per cent of Borneo's national parks – and according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): "New estimates suggest 98 per cent of [Indonesia's] forest may be destroyed by 2022, the lowland forest much sooner."
In its 2007 report, "The Last Stand of the Orangutan", UNEP warned that forest rangers were outnumbered and outgunned by logging guards with military training and automatic weapons – and faced "high and sometimes lethal risks" in confronting them. The programme's executive director Achim Steiner wrote: "The driving forces are not impoverished farmers, but what appears to be well-organised companies with heavy machinery and strong international links to the global markets."
In its own way, palm oil is a wonder plant. Astonishingly productive, its annual yield is 3.6 tonnes a hectare compared with half a tonne for soy or rapeseed. Originally found in West Africa, palm oil is uniquely "fractionable" when cooked, meaning its properties can be easily separated for different products. Although high in artery-clogging saturated fat, it is healthier than hydrogenated fats. For manufacturers, there is another significant benefit. At £400 a tonne, it is cheaper than soy, rapeseed or sunflower.
Some 38m tonnes of palm oil are produced globally, about 75 per cent in Malaysia and Indonesia. Borneo's 11,000 square miles of plantations produce 10m tonnes a year while Sumatra's 14,000 square miles yield 13m tonnes.
Since 1990, the amount of land used for palm-oil production has increased by 43 per cent. Demand is rising at between six and 10 per cent a year. China's billion-plus population is the biggest consumer, importing 18 per cent of global supply. About 16 per cent arrives in the EU.
In the UK, almost every major food manufacturer uses palm oil, among them Kellogg's, Cadbury, Mars, Kraft, Unilever, Premier Foods, Northern Foods and Associated British Foods (ABF). Companies typically say they are working to source sustainable supplies – and insist their use is "small", "very small" or "minute".
The US household giant Procter & Gamble, which uses palm oil in detergents, shampoos and soaps, says: "P&G uses very little palm oil – about 1 per cent of a worldwide production of palm and its derivatives." One per cent of global production is 380,000 tonnes a year. P&G says it hopes to source a sustainable supply by 2015 – six years' time.
Right now no multinational can vouch that its supply is sustainable. The Anglo-Dutch household giant Unilever, the world's biggest user of palm oil, is swallowing up 1.6m tonnes a year, 4 per cent of global supply. It admits the product causes huge damage, but believes it has a solution. Together with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Unilever set up the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2004. For its first four years – to the frustration of green groups – the RSPO talked, devising eight principles and 39 practical criteria designed to protect native peoples, plantation workers, small farmers and wildlife.
Forty per cent of palm-oil suppliers are now members of the RSPO and it hopes all of them will eventually join. Members promise not to chainsaw any virgin forest; but they are still allowed to chop down "degraded forest" – where some trees have been felled – preventing other trees from re-growing and animals from returning.
Palm-oil plantations are barren places. When vast blocks of palms are planted in straight lines, stretching for mile after mile, 90 per cent of the wildlife disappears. In the words of Junaida Payne, of WWF Malaysia's Sabah office, they are "biological deserts".
Jan Kees Vis, Unilever's director of sustainable agriculture and chairman of the RSPO, says it is "not realistic" to halt palm-oil expansion, but believes much growth can be achieved by raising yields. The best plantations currently yield 10 tonnes per hectare, but in the future this could hit 18 or even 50 tonnes, he says.
The best plantations can obtain RSPO certification for sustainability – but only 4 per cent of global supply (1.5m tonnes) is currently certified sustainable. The first shipment arrived in Rotterdam last November and costs about 35 per cent more than normal supplies. Another scheme, Green Palm, is already bringing prices for RSPO supplies down further, adding just 5 per cent to the cost.
Unilever has publicly committed to sourcing only certified palm oil by 2015. Premier Foods has a date of 2011, United Biscuits 2012. Most companies, however, including Cadbury, Kellogg's, Nestlé, Mars and Heinz, have given no commitment to switch to an RSPO-certified supply. They merely say that their suppliers are members.
As Vis puts it bluntly: "The volume of certified palm oil traded is disappointingly low so far; the reason for this being that many companies are not prepared to pay a premium for certified oil."
Environmentalists fear that the RSPO is itself greenwash, cover for a programme of vicious and unrelenting deforestation. Even the RSPO concedes that its members have subsidiaries who plant palm oil, and who are not bound by – and do not abide by – its rules.
As if this were not enough, in the rush to replace diminishing fossil fuel, palm oil is being mixed into petrol. The EU Biofuels Directive aims to put biofuels in 5 per cent of all fuel pumps. Destroying peat forests for palm oil is especially bad for the climate, as these semi-saturated soils are dense "carbon stores" which release colossal quantities of C02 when they are burnt to make way for palm oil.
In its "Cooking the Climate" report, Greenpeace calculated that the burning of South-east Asia's peat forests – largely for palm-oil plantations – spewed 1.8bn tonnes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere: 4 per cent of global climate-change emissions from 0.1 per cent of Earth's land. According to Greenpeace forest campaigner James Turner, "The destruction of these forests is a really serious cause of climate change, but some companies are still trying to look the other way. It's time for them to cancel contracts with the worst suppliers, because purchasing power is a highly effective tool in changing this industry."
Conservationists are increasingly wondering whether the wholesale destruction of rainforests to make margarine is the most striking of all examples of environmental lunacy. It isn't just destroying one of the last great wildernesses, its rare animals and some of the remaining people whose ways are at odds with modern living. It also threatens to damage our own lives in the West.
Deforestation causes 18 per cent of Co2 emissions, according to British government figures – a key element in the rising temperatures that in coming decades will alter our world for ever. No one can be exactly sure what climate change will bring but, in Britain, we can expect more flooding and winter gales, drier summers, water shortages, and more food poisoning and skin cancer. The sea will not just sweep over Bangladesh and the Maldives, but possibly threaten low-lying parts of Britain, such as London, too. Meanwhile, millions of people in developing countries with failing agriculture could migrate to northern Europe.
The wealthy Western countries who have already felled their own forests (woods once covered Britain from Cornwall to Caithness) may have to pay more and more to protect those that remain in other parts of the world. At the Copenhagen summit in December, Britain and other countries will press for REDD (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation) – essentially a scheme for funding jungles in developing countries.
In the meantime, forest campaigners hope that big companies will come under increasing scrutiny over palm oil. The Unilever-backed RSPO wants them to commit to a sustainable supply. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace say palm-oil use should be reduced or phased out altogether. A few have already done so – PepsiCo, for instance, is phasing out palm oil from its remaining two products. United Biscuits says it has reduced palm oil in Digestives by 65 per cent and in McCoys by 76 per cent since 2005.
So far, companies have managed to avoid much scrutiny over the havoc palm oil is wreaking. For now, it is "only" the native peoples, the orangutans and the other animals of the rainforest who have experienced the most profound changes. They are losing the habitat that they thought would be around for ever.
"When I was a young girl I used to be so happy walking in the forest," one Penan woman told Bruce Parry after trekking overnight to pass on her message. "I used to sing while I was looking for sago. I loved to hear the sound of the wild peacocks, the hornbills and the gibbons, and when I looked at the forest it was lovely."
Palm oil facts
90 per cent of Sumatra's orangutan population has disappeared since 1900. They now face extinction
90 per cent of wildlife disappears when the forest is replaced by palm, creating a biological desert
98 per cent of Indonesia's forests may be destroyed by 2022 according to the United Nations
43 of Britain's 100 top grocery brands contain or are thought to contain palm oil
Phil McKenna, New Scientist 1 May 09;
Smoke from forest fires may contain potent mutagenic compounds that can damage human DNA, according to a controversial new study of fire emissions.
Researchers found nitrogen-rich alkaloids in smoke billowing from a controlled burn of Ponderosa pine trees in Missoula, Montana.
The findings could have significant health implications for those downwind of forest fires, especially smouldering, low-temperature fires such as prescribed burns that produce more smoke than higher-temperature wildfires.
The presence of alkaloids – naturally occurring toxins produced by trees and other plants – has long been suspected in smoke from forest fires, but the new study is the first to detect the compounds coming directly from a blaze.
Julia Laskin of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and colleagues made their discovery using a specialised device to collect ultra-fine particles from the smoke of a forest fire. They then used high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine which molecules the particles contained.
Laskin says the alkaloids can be transported hundreds or even thousands of miles and play an important role in cycling nitrogen through ecosystems, but also have the potential to be quite harmful.
"Some of them are really toxic," says Laskin. "It's very well known that when cows, for example, eat pine needles they die. In a forest fire you emit aerosols into air that contain those same compounds."
'Warning flag'
Ralph Propper, an air pollution specialist at the California Air Resources Board isn't so sure.
"I'd be more concerned about eating heavily charred meat," says Propper, referring to the well-documented carcinogenic affects of burnt food.
He says the study's claim that alkaloids produced by plants can alter or damage genes is an overstatement. "That's just not accurate, a very minor percentage of alkaloids are mutagenic," he says, noting that caffeine and cacao (the key ingredient in chocolate) are also alkaloids.
Propper, emphasising that he is stating his opinion and not that of the CARB, goes on: "The pine needles of Ponderosa pine are toxic to some degree – that's how they defend themselves, with alkaloids – but there isn't anything in this paper to show that they are mutagenic."
The study's main shortcoming is that it identifies classes of compounds found in smoke rather than specific compounds, he says. "It certainly gives a warning flag that the possibility for mutagenic or carcinogenic compounds exists, but they need to do a lot more work to establish that," says Propper.
Journal reference: Environmental Science & Technology (DOI: 10.1021/es803456n)
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