Food prices in many countries remain very high

FAO 16 Jul 09;

High prices affect poor people in rural and urban areas

16 July 2009, Rome - Domestic food prices in developing countries remain high despite a sharp decline in international prices and overall good cereal harvests, FAO warned today in its latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.

In several countries, prices exceed the already high levels of a year ago or are still at record levels, creating hardship for millions of people.

In sub-Saharan Africa 80 to 90 percent of all cereal prices monitored by FAO in 27 countries remain more than 25 percent higher than before the soaring food price crisis two years ago. In Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean prices are monitored in a total of 31 countries, and between 40 and 80 percent of these remain more than 25 percent higher than in the pre food-crisis period, according to FAO data.

"The high food price situation continues to give rise to concern for the food security of vulnerable populations in both urban and rural areas, as these groups spend a large share of their incomes on food," FAO said.

In Eastern Africa, in Sudan, prices of sorghum in June were three times higher than two years ago. In Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia prices of maize have doubled compared to two years ago. In Southern Africa, prices of maize have declined in recent months due to a bumper harvest but remain above the pre-crisis level. In Western Africa, prices decreased in late 2008 following good cereal harvests, but increased again in 2009. In Ghana, prices of maize in Accra have more than doubled since June 2007.

Among the reasons for high food prices, the report listed reduced harvests, higher or delayed imports, civil conflict, strong demand in neighbouring countries and regional trade flows, devaluation of national currencies, changes in food and trade policies, increased incomes and demand, and transport constraints and higher transport costs.

World cereal supply remains satisfactory

The outlook for world cereal supply and demand is satisfactory, despite an estimated 3 percent decline in world cereal production in 2009 from the 2008 record level, FAO said. World cereal production in 2009 is forecast at 2 208 million tonnes, 3.4 percent down from last year's record harvest, but nonetheless the second largest crop ever. Reductions are forecast for wheat and coarse grains.

In Low-Income Food-Deficit countries, prospects for 2009 cereal crops are generally favourable and aggregate production is forecast to increase for the second consecutive year. However, the outlook is uncertain in parts of Western and Eastern Africa as well as in Asia reflecting an erratic start of the rainy season.

30 countries in crisis

Despite a positive outlook for global cereal supplies, 30 countries around the world are in crisis and require assistance as a result of natural disasters, conflict or insecurity, and economic problems.

A World Food Summit is to be held at FAO Headquarters in Rome from 16-18 November with the aim of securing a broad consensus on the eradication of hunger, on improved governance of the international agricultural system and on policies and programmes to ensure world food security.

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Want to predict the weather? Watch the dragonflies

Reuters 16 Jul 09;

HANOI (Reuters Life!) - Can dragonflies warn of impending rain? Can you predict the weather by looking at the color of a cloud or by observing animals? For generations of Vietnamese farmers and fishermen, the answer is yes.

Although the weather in Vietnam is forecast using hi-tech satellite imaging, many communities still predict floods, storms and drought the traditional way -- by tracking nature.

For example, in a drought prone area of the coastal Ninh Thuan province, farmers believe that if the dragonfly flies high it will be sunny and if it flies low there will be rain.

In north-central Thua Thien Hue Province, fishermen are likely to bring their boats back to the shore if, in January or February, they look to the north and see a silver cloud that quickly disappears, as it is a sign of cold weather.

Many of these beliefs, which are kept alive through proverbs, folk songs and legends and which have so far been passed down orally, are now being recorded by a group of aid agencies in the Southeast Asian country as part of a project to see whether they still hold true in times of rapid climate change.

"The communities know a lot about disaster adaptation and the question now, in Vietnam, is to see if this indigenous knowledge is still accurate or not with the climate changing very quickly," Guillaume Chantry, project coordinator of Development Workshop France (DWF), told Reuters.

Climate change is expected to hit low-lying Vietnam hard.

In April, the Asian Development Bank said by the end of this century, Vietnam's rice production could dramatically decline while rising sea levels could submerge tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and uproot thousands of families living in coastal communities.

For the next two months, a group of agencies led by DWF will visit 10 disaster-prone areas from the mountainous north to the steamy Mekong delta in the south to collect information about traditional beliefs in the hope it could be used in programs to reduce the risk of natural disasters.

Dr. Ben Wisner, a hazards expert at Oberlin College, Ohio and London's University College, says indigenous knowledge can help make disaster prevention programs more effective by pinpointing areas that are vulnerable to flooding and which are not visible on satellite images or official maps.

The idea of using local knowledge to create better ways to adapt to climate change and reduce the risk of natural disasters is slowly gaining ground as experts, scientists and aid workers scramble to find ways of predicting and dealing with the threat.

Critics dismiss traditional ways of reading the weather as backward and old-fashioned.

But, according to a U.N. report, during the devastating 2004 tsunami, the Moken nomads on the coast of Thailand were among other Asian communities that were largely spared, because they noticed the change in environment, using knowledge passed down through generations, and fled to higher ground.

"It's important for us practitioners to know how communities usually protect themselves," Chantry said.

(Reporting by Thin Lei Win; editing by Katie Nguyen and Miral Fahmy)

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Ocean current switch due to warming could be slower than feared

Yahoo News 16 Jul 09;

CHICAGO (AFP) – The nightmare global warming scenario which provided the plot for a Hollywood blockbuster -- the Atlantic Ocean current that keeps Europe warm shuts down and triggers rapid climate change -- has long worried scientists.

But a study published Thursday in the journal Science found it may not occur as quickly as previously feared.

There is evidence that this current has shut down with some regularity in the past -- and sometimes quite rapidly -- in response to large influxes of fresh water from melting glaciers.

However, it appears as though the current rate of glacial melt is occurring at a more gradual pace which will "give ecosystems more time to adjust to new conditions," said study coauthor Peter Clark, a professor of geosciences at Oregon State University.

"Our data still show that current is slowing, and may decline by 30 percent by the end of this century," Clark said.

"That's very significant, and it could cause substantial climate change. But it's not as abrupt as some concerns that it could shut down within a few decades."

Clark and his colleagues constructed a massive computer model which simulated the atmospheric and oceanic conditions of the height of the last ice age and the changes which resulted in the Earth's last major global warming some 14,500 years ago.

The simulation presented results that are in line with the fossil and geological record and confirms the accuracy of some models of future climate change scenarios.

It found that the "climate dominos" began to fall when the glaciers which blanketed most of North America began to melt, said co-author Zhengyu Liu, director of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Massive amounts of water poured into the North Atlantic and lowered the ocean's salt levels, which are key to powering the convection current that carries warm tropical surface water north and cooler, heavier subsurface water south.

The fresh water stopped the current, cooling the North Atlantic region and causing heat to build up in southern waters.

The cooler temperatures slowed the glacial melt and eventually the ocean current restarted. But there was a much larger reserve of heat to haul north.

"All that stored heat is released like a volcano, and poured out over decades," Liu said in a statement.

"That warmed up Greenland and melted (arctic) sea ice."

While the model was not able to determine the rate of ice melt during the period, it found that both a slow decrease and a sudden end to melt run-off resulted in the same consequence: a 15-degree warming.

"That happened in the past," Liu said. "The question is, in the future, if you have a global warming and Greenland melts, will it happen again?"

The researchers continue to run the massive program, which has simulated about a third of the last 21,000 years.

It will eventually run up to the present and then 200 years into the future.

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Are the deserts getting greener?

Ayisha Yahya, BBC News 16 Jul 09;

It has been assumed that global warming would cause an expansion of the world's deserts, but now some scientists are predicting a contrary scenario in which water and life slowly reclaim these arid places.

They think vast, dry regions like the Sahara might soon begin shrinking.

The evidence is limited and definitive conclusions are impossible to reach but recent satellite pictures of North Africa seem to show areas of the Sahara in retreat.

It could be that an increase in rainfall has caused this effect.

Farouk el-Baz, director of the Centre for Remote Sensing at Boston University, believes the Sahara is experiencing a shift from dryer to wetter conditions.

"It's not greening yet. But the desert expands and shrinks in relation to the amount of energy that is received by the Earth from the Sun, and this over many thousands of years," Mr el-Baz told the BBC World Service.

"The heating of the Earth would result in more evaporation of the oceans, in turn resulting in more rainfall."

But it might be hard to reconcile the view from satellites with the view from the ground.

While experts debate how global warming will affect the poorest continent, people are reacting in their own ways.

Droughts over the preceding decades have had the effect of driving nomadic people and rural farmers into the towns and cities. Such movement of people suggests weather patterns are becoming dryer and harsher.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned recently that rising global temperatures could cut West African agricultural production by up to 50% by the year 2020.

But satellite images from the last 15 years do seem to show a recovery of vegetation in the Southern Sahara, although the Sahel Belt, the semi-arid tropical savannah to the south of the desert, remains fragile.

The fragility of the Sahel may have been exacerbated by the cutting of trees, poor land management and subsequent erosion of soil.

Namibia

The broader picture is reinforced by studies carried out in the Namib Desert in Namibia.



This is a region with an average rainfall of just 12 millimetres per year - what scientists call "hyper-arid". Scientists have been measuring rainfall here for the last 60 years.

Last year the local research centre, called Gobabeb, measured 80mm of rain.

In the last decade they have seen the local river, a dry bed for most of the year, experience record-high floods. All this has coincided with record-high temperatures.

"Whether this is due to global change or is a trend anyway, it's hard to distil actually out of the [data] but certainly we've had record highs of temperature," said Joh Henschel, director of Gobabeb.

"Three years ago we had the hottest day on record, 47 degrees Celsius."

The mean annual evaporation is several hundred times higher than the actual rainfall. This is an intense environment.

Fluctuation

His colleague Mary Seely agrees.

"Deserts and arid areas always have extremely varied rainfall," she said.

"You would have to look at a record of several hundred years to maybe say that things are getting greener or dryer. For the last few years there has been higher than average rainfall.

"That said, there is even greater variability in the rainfall and the weather patterns than there has been in the past."

Though positioned on the Atlantic coast, the rain that falls on the Namib desert actually comes from the Indian Ocean, having travelled across Africa.

It is therefore hard to explain an increase in rainfall without accepting that higher temperatures globally are causing shifts in established patterns.

The thing these scientists are most keen to work out is what is man-made change and what is natural fluctuation.

Since 1998 the centre has observed a steady but unmistakable trend of rising levels of C02.

They are sure this increase has not been caused locally, since Gobabeb is in a pristine, isolated part of the world with no local sources of pollution.

This is a change that comes about on a global level.

Manufacturing green

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the continent, things are moving at a faster pace.

Global warming may be greening the desert in small, barely measurable ways but, in parts of Egypt, the greening is being advanced in an artificial way, and on an industrial scale.

Egypt has an expanding population and water is becoming an ever more a precious resource.

Waiting to find out if the deserts are greening is not a realistic option.

Remote sensing, radar imagining from space, began in 1981 and showed scientists what was going on under the Saharan sand.

The aquifer, a collection of reservoirs trapped underground between layers of permeable rock, was studied and mapped for the first time.

Tapping into this supply has meant deserts areas can, with skill and judgement, be transformed into farmable land.

Thank to the work of people like Mr el-Baz, the greening of the desert is happening in Egypt in a controlled way.

Out of the newly irrigated desert we now see the commercial growing of oranges, limes and mangoes.

Further, the Egyptian government is actually sponsoring people to settle in the desert to farm, using the water supply they can now tap into and pump out from under the sand.

The programme is part of an ambitious and controversial plan to reclaim 3.4 million acres of desert.

The trend in other parts of the continent may be a migration of people into the cities and away from arid and semi-arid places, but in Egypt, where the desert is undeniably getting greener, the reverse is true.

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Sun's Activity Cycle Linked to Earth Climate

livescience.com Yahoo News 16 Jul 09;

When the sun is at its most active, it can impact Earth's climate in a way that is similar to El Niño and La Niña events, a new study suggests.

The sun experiences a roughly 11-year cycle, during which the activities on its roiling surface intensify and then dissipate. (One noted sign of a highly active period is the number of sunspots dotting the solar surface).

The total energy reaching Earth from the sun varies by only 0.1 percent across the solar cycle.

Scientists have sought for decades to link these ups and downs to natural weather and climate variations and distinguish their subtle effects from the larger pattern of human-caused global warming. But that link has proven difficult to find.

Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., used computer climate models and more than a century of ocean temperature records to tease out just such a connection.

"We have fleshed out the effects of a new mechanism to understand what happens in the tropical Pacific when there is a maximum of solar activity," said study leader Gerald Meehl. "When the sun's output peaks, it has far-ranging and often subtle impacts on tropical precipitation and on weather systems around much of the world."

Solar La Niña, El Niño

The model results, detailed this month in the Journal of Climate, showed that as the Sun reaches maximum activity, it heats cloud-free parts of the Pacific Ocean enough to increase evaporation, intensify tropical rainfall and the trade winds, and cool the eastern tropical Pacific.

The result of this chain of events is similar to a La Niña event, although the cooling of about 1-2 degrees Fahrenheit is focused further east and is only about half as strong as for a typical La Niña.

Over the following year or two, the La Niña-like pattern triggered by the solar maximum tends to evolve into an El Niño-like pattern, as slow-moving currents replace the cool water over the eastern tropical Pacific with warmer-than-usual water.

Again, the ocean response is only about half as strong as with El Niño.

True La Niña and El Niño events are associated with changes in the temperatures of surface waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

After a couple of years of El Niño-like conditions, the event settles down and the system returns to a neutral state.

Weather effects

These solar-induced trends could affect the naturally occurring La Niña and El Niño events, by reinforcing them or counteracting them.

"If the system was heading toward a La Niña anyway," Meehl said, "it would presumably be a larger one."

Meehl and his colleagues found that the solar-driven La Niña tends to cause relatively warm and dry conditions across parts of western North America. More research will be needed to determine the additional impacts of these events on weather across the world.

"Building on our understanding of the solar cycle, we may be able to connect its influences with weather probabilities in a way that can feed into longer-term predictions, a decade at a time," Meehl says.

Sunspots linked to Pacific rain
Sudeep Chand, BBC News 28 Aug 09;

A study has shown how sunspots could affect climate in the Pacific.

Writing in the journal Science, the international team detailed how the 11-year sunspot cycle might influence the amount of rain falling on the ocean.

It is hoped the findings will lead to better models for regional climate predictions.

The authors emphasised the findings "cannot be used to explain recent global warming because of the trend over the past 30 years".

Sunspots are cooler areas on the Sun's surface that are marked by intense magnetic activity.

Although dimmer than their surroundings, their presence is usually accompanied by bright spots, or faculae, which result in a slight general overall brightening of our star when it is most active.

Sunspots and rain

The new study suggests that relatively small variations in sunspot activity might result in changes in climate.

Two mechanisms are involved.

The first is "top-down" where changes in the upper layers of the atmosphere contribute to wetter conditions below.

The second is "bottom-up" where the ocean evaporates and more clouds are produced.

The study used models to show how these two mechanisms might act together to produce rainfall similar to that observed in the tropics.

In addition, the models predict a cooling effect of the surface of the ocean in equatorial regions.

A step forward

Brad Carter, from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, said: "This paper represents a useful step forward."

Others, however, were not so convinced.

In an interview with the journal Science, Joanna Haigh from Imperial College London, UK, said: "It is not nearly as conclusive as they would have it."

In the same interview, David Rind of the US space agency (Nasa) added that "even if the amplifier exists, its climate leverage is still relatively puny".

In response Dr Meehl, one of the authors of the study, told BBC News: "There could be other mechanisms in the system that also connect solar variability to climate.

"But the new result here is that we have identified these two (mechanisms) that can produce signals of the size we expect to see in the observations.

"And we've reproduced them in a climate model simulation for the first time."

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Best of our wild blogs: 16 Jul 09

Did Sentosa's natural shores survive Exercise Northstar VII?
from wild shores of singapore

Quenched
from talfryn.net

Crab! How am I supposed to eat with these two claws?
from The annotated budak

Bomb Shell
from Urban Forest

Azure-winged Magpie defending its food
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Flowerpeckers and Clidemia hirta
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Less rain in Singapore over last 30 years

Experts cite climate change and rapid industrialisation to explain fluctuating rainfall
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 16 Jul 09;

NEW data shows Singapore's rainfall has been dwindling over the last 30 years and more extreme weather changes are predicted to hit the region in the coming years.

A report from the Energy Studies Institute (ESI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that from 1907 to 1967, average annual rainfall levels were up to 80mm above the long-term average of 2,346mm. But since 1967, rainfall has mostly remained at less than 40mm below the long-term average.

The study was based on data over the last 100 years obtained from the National Environment Agency's (NEA) Meteorological Services Division.

Confirming the findings, a spokesman for the NEA said: 'There was a gradual decreasing trend in rainfall, mainly due to a natural variability in Singapore's climate.'

The years 2006 and 2007 saw rainfall peak above the long-term average, but this was an exception to the trend, the report noted.

Some experts pointed to factors such as Singapore's rapid industrialisation during the 1970s to explain the pattern of falling rainfall.

'The effects of global climate change have been more pronounced only during the last two decades, so the rainfall change occurred a little too early,' noted Professor Lim Hock, founding director of Temasek Laboratories, which conducts research into areas of science and technology identified as critical to Singapore.

'The significant change in the landscape and ground cover condition of Singapore can affect the local distribution of clouds and rain, and hence, the observed reduction in rainfall.'

Singapore, with limited land for catchments to collect and store rainwater and with no groundwater, is also vulnerable to water scarcity issues.

Climate change - where the frequency of extreme weather patterns such as droughts and floods is expected to increase - was another factor, said experts.

The findings support forecasts made by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that annual rainfall levels in South-east Asia will fall in the first half of this century, said Associate Professor Ho Juay Choy, principal research fellow from ESI, who led the research effort.

Global warming predictions point to South-east Asia suffering from 'water stress', which refers to periods of extreme drought, brought about by a lack of fresh water supply.

'Climate change will likely affect health, agricultural, economic activities as well as water supply,' said Prof Ho.

Reduced rainfall was part of a wider trend in the region, particularly in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, Prof Ho added.

The only exception to the trend was the Philippines.

The United Nations predicts that by 2025, 1.8 billion people worldwide will be living in conditions of absolute water scarcity.

Professor Liong Shie-Yui, principal research fellow at NUS' Tropical Marine Science Institute, said it was important to consider that rainfall levels also vary substantially year-on-year.

For example, it is not uncommon for rainfall to peak at 3,200mm one year and drop to 2,200mm the next.

Despite the variability of shifting weather patterns, Singapore's integrated approach to water management means it is well equipped to cope, said Prof Liong.

For example, desalination and Newater - sources which have the advantage of being independent of fluctuations in rainfall - have been added to its water supply.

'These measures have enhanced our resilience against climate-change uncertainties such as fluctuating rainfall,' he added.

amreshg@sph.com.sg

# Thunderstorm days: An average of 14 thunderstorm days per month was recorded over the past 50 years. Although considered high, this is consistent with the local weather patterns.

# Wet days: There were 169 wet days on average in Singapore over the last 50 years. A wet day is defined as one in which there is more than 0.2mm of rainfall recorded.

# Temperature: Temperature variations over the past 50 years confirm a trend of temperatures rising more in the last 20 years.

SOURCE: ENERGY STUDIES INSTITUTE

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Tourism and turtles for Pulau Upeh, Malaysia

Jason Gerald John, The New Straits Times, AsiaOne 16 Jul 09;

MALACCA, MALAYSIA - The state government is planning to turn deserted Pulau Upeh into a centre for Hawksbill turtle conservation as well as an eco-tourism attraction.

The island is the country's main landing site for the critically-endangered sea turtle species which belongs to the family Cheloniidae.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the state government would be working with a private investor for this purpose and the planned development would include upgrading the 120 chalets that had been abandoned for 10 years and the construction of new ones.

"The island was initially bought by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and was supposed to be turned into its training centre but the plan did not materialise.

"We have now bought the island back for RM6.5 million and would be developing it with the private sector.

"Work on the island will begin next month and is expected to be completed in a year.

"The shores around the island will be preserved for turtle conservation."

Ali said this after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the purchase of the island between Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI) and TNB.

CMI was represented by Malacca State Secretary Datuk Omar Kaseh and TNB by its president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh.

Ali said Pulau Upeh had the potential to be the next big tourism attraction in the state. He added that its location, close to the Klebang beach, made it easily accessible.

"The island would also be a stone's throw from the soon to be constructed RM250 million Arab City Klebang," he said, adding that the island could be accessed via boat from Sungai Melaka or the Boat Explorer jetty in Klebang.

Ali said tourists could visit the island to catch a glimpse of the Hawksbill turtle and this would also be promoted by the state.

"I have asked the state Tourism Promotion Board to look into offering packages for tourists to visit Pulau Upeh," he added.

Every year, between 200 to 300 Hawksbill turtle nests are identified in Pulau Upeh and the nearby beaches.

This population is significant as it is the largest nesting congregation in Peninsular Malaysia.

--NST

Threat to Hawksbill turtles
Martin Carvalho and Chen Pelf Yeen, The Star 17 Jul 09;

MALACCA: A proposed private development project on Pulau Upeh, off the coast here, could see one of Malaysia’s top nesting sites for the endangered Hawksbill turtles being lost for good.

Located off the reclaimed land in Limbongan, the 2.5ha island has a 100m stretch of beach which is home to some 100 turtle nests, almost 30% of the entire estimated 350 nests in peninsular Malaysia.

The latest threat to the nests comes from the approval by the state government to a private company to revive and expand the island’s abandoned resort.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the Government had made up its mind to develop the island as a tourist spot.

“I believe it can succeed this time as tourism development in Malacca is extraordinary,” he said on Wednes­day.

In the late 1980s, the state developed a resort and 120 chalets on the island through the State Economic Development Corporation.

However, it was abandoned in the mid-1990s and the state subsequently sold it to Tenaga Nasional Bhd as a training centre for RM10.4mil in 2003.

A private company applied to carry out the latest revival project and the state approved it last week.

Mohd Ali said the company, which would begin work next month, would increase the number of chalets to 200.

He noted that the state had earlier proposed to the Fisheries Department to convert the island into a turtle-nesting centre but the proposal fell through due to lack of federal funds.

Worldwide Fund for Nature Malaysia chief technical officer for peninsular Malaysia Surin Suksuwan expressed shock when told of the revived resort project.

“We are concerned that the project, if carried out indiscriminately, will result in irreversible impact on the turtles nesting and their nesting behaviour,” he said.

He said the WWF had briefed state officials three weeks ago on the turtles and proposed a low-impact turtle eco-tourism project.

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Riau Considering Malaysia's Offer To Put Out Forest Fires

Bernama 15 Jul 09;

JAKARTA, July 15 (Bernama) - Riau, which is blanketed in haze due to forest fires in 140 areas and 11 sub-districts, is considering Malaysia's offer to put out the fires.

Forestry Department spokesman Said Nurjaya said he received a letter from Malaysia forwarded by the Indonesian Environment Ministry on the note of understanding on cooperation to put out forest and peat soil fires.

"Putting out the fires will help reduce haze," he told Antara news agency in Pekanbaru, Riau on Wednesday.

He said the Indonesian Environment Ministry leave it to Riau's Forestry Department to prepare equipments for the fire fighting job.

Other Indonesian provinces involved in the Malaysia-Indonesia cooperation are Kalimantan Tengah, Aceh and Jambi.

The haze situation in Riau has reached serious stage and strong winds from South-east to North-East may blow the haze to Malaysia dan Singapore.

Pekanbaru, the provincial capital of Riau is covered in heavy haze from forest and peat soil fires.

-- BERNAMA

Malaysia, United States Offer Assistance as Riau Struggles With Fires
Budi Otmansyah The Jakarta Globe 15 Jul 09;

Pekanbaru, Riau. Malaysia and the United States have offered to help Indonesia deal with haze resulting from forest and peatland fires that have plagued Riau, an official said on Wednesday.

“The Malaysian government has offered aid to tackle the smog and forest fires, and we’ve accepted the offer,” said Syaid Nurjaya, the head of the Riau Forestry Agency.

Malaysia’s offer was outlined in a memorandum of understanding that was signed by Masnellyarti Hilman, who oversees environmental damage at the State Ministry for the Environment, and Datuk Suboh Mohammad Yasin, an official from Malaysia’s environment ministry, Syaid said.

“We are studying Malaysia’s offer,” Syaid said. “The environment ministry has left all of the decisions to us.”

Haze caused by forest and peatland fires has forced the authorities in Riau to repeatedly delay flights due to poor visibility.

There have also been reports of a spike in respiratory problems among Riau residents.

Health officials in the province said on Tuesday that up to 44,000 people in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, had sought treatment for respiratory ailments since May.

Syaid said on Tuesday that authorities were planning to drop water from planes next week to combat fires ravaging the province and other parts of Sumatra.

Syaid said that assistance from Malaysia could include fire extinguishers specially designed for forest and peatland fires, as well as a program to train Riau officials in how to prevent forest fires.

“Obviously, the aid will not include the deployment of Malaysian firefighters,” he said. “In 1997, a Malaysian team joined efforts to put out forest fires, but they gave up.”

Indonesia experienced particularly serious forest fires in 1997 that sent a thick layer of haze over large portions of neighboring countries Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

A number of other countries, including the United States, have also expressed interest in helping the country deal with the fires in Riau, Syaid said.

A special US Armed Forces team is scheduled to hold a joint training session on extinguishing peatland fires with Indonesia’s Armed Forces (TNI), he said.

“We’ve asked the Wirabima Military Regiment Command [in Riau] to include Riau firefighters and fire rangers from the Riau Natural Conservation Agency in this training initiative,” Syaid said.

He said the training would serve as a forum for the United States to share its expertise with Indonesia, adding that the Americans were experienced at putting out brush fires.

“This also demonstrates the TNI’s commitment to disaster response,” he said, without saying precisely when the joint training would be held.

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Environmentalists Blast Asia Pulp and Paper For Road Project In Jambi, Indonesia

Tempo Interactive 15 Jul 09;

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Environment activist in Jakarta protested against a project to build transport access in a forest in Tebo Regency, in Jambi Province by a pulp and paper company on Wednesday and accused the company of breaching a conservation area.

In a demonstration outside the main office of Asia Pulp and Paper in Jakarta on Wednesday, Centre for Orangutan Protection said a subsidiary of the company, PT Wira Karya Sejati and PT Rimba Hutani Mas have razed forest near the Bukit Tigapuluh orangutan conservation area to build an 82 kilometer road for timber transportation.

Sadewa spokesman for the Centre for Orangutan Protection said “The road was only 5-7 kilometers from the center of the conservation site. ”Sadewa said the companies had not completed its Analysis on Environmental Impacts of their work, but the logs and timbers were scattered around the road access.

Sadewa also criticised the head of Tebo Regency for failing to recognize the situation in his region and said that efforts from local non governmental organisations to promote the problem have failed to gain response from the local government.

There were four major orangutan conservation area in Sumatra; Aceh, Dolok Sembelin and Batu Ardan, southeast of Tapanuli, and in Angkola and Pasaman. In Bukit Tigapuluh there were 103 population of orangutan which were released to the conservation area five years ago.

DIANING SARI

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Advanced Countries Yet To Compensate Forest-Protecting Nations

Bernama 15 Jul 09;

JAKARTA, July 15 (Bernama) -- Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said industrialised countries had yet to honour their promise to compensate developing countries that were protecting their forests, such as Indonesia, Antara news agency reported.

"The compensation is provided for in the Bali Road Map agreement produced at the international conference on climate change in Bali in December 2007," he said.

He said political conditions in the advanced industrialised countries were already stable but those countries still would not meet the promise they had made despite several calls.

At an evironment ministers' meeting in Greenland held concurrently with the G-8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, on July 9-10, Rachmat had also voiced the concern.

He said it was still difficult to reduce gas emissions because until now developed countries still refused to give their assistance.

The minister's fourth deputy, Masneliarti, said the environment ministers' meeting that she also attended discussed efforts to reduce emissions by up to 80 percent by 2050.

She said referring to global concensus reduction of gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 with the developed countries contributing 80 percent reduction was ideal and urgent.

In the meeting she said the developed countries had asked developing nations to make mid-term targets because long-term targets could not be assured as regeneration had taken place by the time.

She said during the meeting no agreement was reached with regard to the amount of aid industrialised countries would give to developing nations to reduce gas emissions. It had only produced mid-term target of reduction by 20 to 40 percent by 2020, she said.

Rachmat said at the G-8 Summit US President Barack Obama said if the developed and developing countries could not make an agreement, the U.S. as an industrialised country, would pay tax on its industrial products exported to developing countries.

-- BERNAMA

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Australia investigates mysterious penguin killings

Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press Yahoo News 15 Jul 09;

SYDNEY – The first battered bodies were found on a small Australian beach, the white sand around them stained crimson with their blood. A few days later, the killer struck again — this time on the nearby cliffs overlooking Sydney Harbor. The cluster of victims were covered in bite marks, their tiny tummies slashed open.

Through blood-spatter evidence and DNA testing, a profile of the killer began to emerge: Stealthy. Fast. Furry.

What is killing the little penguins in Sydney's beachside suburb of Manly? A fox? A dog? Both?

The investigation so far has yielded some clues. Officials can almost certainly rule out humans; the bite marks and blood patterns point to foxes, which often hold prey in their mouths and prance around shaking it, said Sally Barnes, head of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service.

To Manly's "Penguin Wardens," a 30-member group of volunteer penguin protectors who spend hours each night guarding the birds, the culprit behind what they've dubbed the "Massacre at Manly Point" is less important than making sure it doesn't happen again.

"It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from," said grief-stricken chief penguin warden Angelika Treichler, a 67-year-old retired teacher who has been watching over the fluffy blue-and-white waddlers nearly every night for the past five years.

The investigation into the nine penguin deaths to date — and efforts to protect those still alive — has spread beyond the wardens to the New South Wales government. The parks service has sent DNA samples to a lab, but won't have results for at least a week.

As they hunt for the killer, parks service officials have set fox bait and traps, and warned residents to keep dogs locked up or on a leash.

"Really, it doesn't matter whether it's a fox or dog — we're not going to wait for the results," Barnes said. "We're just throwing everything we can at keeping the penguins safe."

This week, the parks service sent two "snipers" — trained sharpshooters from the state pest authority, armed with night vision goggles and .22-caliber rifles — to the cliffs to kill any foxes caught in their crosshairs.

Extreme? Not so much. This is, after all, a country that's considering building fences across chunks of Tasmania to help prevent endangered Tasmanian Devils with a contagious cancer from infecting the healthy population.

"Australians are generally animal lovers, and I think they're also very connected to native animals," Barnes said. "So they will do whatever's reasonable to protect particularly endangered ones."

And, as Manly Mayor Jean Hay noted: "Everybody's saying, 'Do whatever it takes to protect them.'"

To an outsider, however ...

"Snipers?" U.S. tourist Christy McLeod, from Bend, Ore., asked from her seat on Manly wharf, eyes darting to the sand where her son was playing. "Really?"

Not anywhere nearby, she was assured. And their targets are foxes, not people.

"That's creepy," she muttered. "They're PENGUINS."

Little penguins, actually. Also known as fairy penguins, they are the world's smallest penguin species, standing around a foot tall.

They are often seen in southern Australia and New Zealand, but are rare in New South Wales; the 120 that live in Manly are the only breeding colony left on the state's mainland, and they are considered endangered by the state government.

Five years ago, Treichler noticed a small group of penguins shuffling each night from the ocean to their nests under the wooden ramp leading to the adjacent beach. She was smitten — and petrified. Who would ensure their safety?

Thus began her nightly vigils next to the birds' nests. She puts off what most would consider important tasks — such as hip replacement surgery — until the three months of the year that the penguins head out to sea.

Others soon joined her, and today, 30 volunteer Penguin Wardens rotate night shifts. Aside from dogs and foxes, 22-year-old warden Elissa Barr cited other dangers: Flash photography disorients the birds. Trash can get stuck around their necks. And drunks sometimes step — and, Barr noted dryly — urinate on them.

But the volunteers can't be everywhere, as evidenced by the recent killings.

Treichler believes the birds were taken during their nightly march home. "In autopsies that were done, they had fresh fish in their tummies," she said from her perch on the Manly pier, the chilly nighttime breeze ruffling her white hair.

So the wardens stepped up their watches. On this night, seven stand guard over a nest of four. The birds are laying low, including the normally flamboyant Mr. Stickybeak. Treichler believes the silence from the private beach where the latest slaughter happened has alerted the Stickybeaks and their neighbors — Mr. and Mrs. Silverwing — to the danger.

"They are usually singing their love songs," she said. "But it's eerily quiet at the moment."

Suddenly, a man and his 6-year-old son approached with unsettling news: Just yesterday, they saw a dead penguin at a beach south of Sydney.

"Did he have his tummy opened?" Treichler asked.

"Yeah," the man replied. "And he was missing his head."

Treichler's face fell. A pained murmur rustled through the group.

"That's a fox," Treichler said.

She and another volunteer scurried off to check on the nests at the private beach. As she slipped away into the night, she conceded with a smile: "It's a bit illegal."

But the chief penguin warden had a job to do. Somewhere in the darkness, the killer still lurked.

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