Scorching heat fuels Los Angeles wildfires

Mary Milliken, Reuters 28 Aug 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Firefighters battling four wildfires around Los Angeles saved hundreds of homes in an affluent coastal community but struggled against a larger fire coming down the mountains toward another exclusive suburb.

With temperatures in excess of 100 Fahrenheit (37 Celsius), flames flared above La Canada Flintridge, 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles and home to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Nearly 900 homes were evacuated and 1,500 acres had burned in two days.

"It is very active but hasn't reached the neighborhoods yet," said Gabriel Alvarez of the U.S. Forest Service.

Aircraft dropped water and retardant on the steep terrain, while some residents stayed behind to hose down roofs, trees and lawns of multimillion-dollar homes.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles and Monterey counties due to wildfires that have burned 13,000 acres.

More than 1,000 residents from the coastal enclave of Rancho Palos Verdes were allowed to return home by midday after a fast-moving fire late on Thursday forced the evacuation of 650 homes. Some 230 acres had burned with 70 percent of the fire contained.

"We were very fortunate that the head of the fire ... was stopped at the backyards of those homes," said Los Angeles County deputy fire chief John Tripp.

Two more large fires burned further inland, making this week the worst conflagration in Los Angeles since November 2008, when multiple fires burned hundreds of dwellings.

But unlike that episode, firefighters were benefiting this week from low winds as they battled in the steep, brittle brush that has seen no measurable rainfall since early June.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and John O'Callaghan)

Fire near Los Angeles menaces homes, transmitters
Reuters 29 Aug 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A wildfire in the mountains north of Los Angeles has quadrupled in size since Friday, threatening telecommunications transmitters and prompting a call on Saturday for more homes to be evacuated.

Authorities said about 7,000 acres have burned in the San Gabriel Mountains near the exclusive suburb of La Canada Flintridge.

Mandatory evacuation notices were issued for people in hundreds of homes, including a hilltop subdivision just across a canyon from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon and was just 5 percent contained as of early Saturday, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Mark Savage.

Firefighters were trying to keep the blaze from reaching Mount Wilson, which houses key television and radio transmitters, as well as towers that handle emergency services dispatches.

"This is a very dangerous situation that we are in right now," said U.S. Forest Service fire boss Mike Dietrich. "We had overnight growth up toward the La Canada area, which has prompted additional evacuations there."

Southern California Edison, the utility that supplies power to the region, said it had de-energized two major power lines because of the fire.

Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said the outages were not affecting the utility's ability to service customers.

The city of La Canada Flintridge said 164 houses near a country club were blacked out until it was safe for Edison crews to enter the area.

A National Weather Service spokesman said the agency's automated Los Angeles radio station went off the air at midday due to burned power lines.

Angeles National Forest spokesman Robert Brady said on Friday that it could take a week to contain the flames, which have been helped by hot, dry weather with temperatures higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).

"If there was one silver lining, there are no Santa Ana winds predicted at this point," Dietrich said.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles and Monterey counties due to wildfires that had burned 13,000 acres.

Acting Governor John Garamendi on Saturday added northern California's Mariposa County to the emergency list after a wildfire there consumed about 3,400 acres, also threatening homes and closing roads.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Eric Walsh)

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Study shines light on sun spot-climate link

David Fogarty, Reuters 28 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Small changes in the energy output of the sun can have a major impact on global weather patterns, such as the intensity of the Indian monsoon, that could be predicted years in advance, a team of scientists said.

The sun swings through an 11-year cycle measured in the number of sun spots on the surface that emit bursts of energy.

The difference in energy is only about 0.1 percent between a solar maximum and minimum and determining just how that small variation affects the world's climate has been one of the great challenges facing meteorologists.

Using a century of weather observations and complex computer models, the international team of scientists led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the United States showed that even a small increase in the sun's energy can intensify wind and rainfall patterns.

"Small changes in the sun's output over the 11-year solar cycle have long been known to have impacts on the global climate system," said Julie Arblaster, from the Center for Australian Weather and Climate Research, a co-author of the study published in the latest issue of the journal Science.

"Here we reconcile for the first time the mechanisms by which these small variations get amplified, resulting in cooler sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific and enhancing off-equatorial rainfall."

The researchers found that during periods of strong solar activity the air in the upper atmosphere, in a layer called the stratosphere, heats up. This occurs over the tropics, where sunlight is typically most intense.

The extra warming alters wind patterns in the upper atmosphere, which in turn increases tropical rainfall.

Increased sunlight at solar maximum also causes a slight warming of ocean surface waters across the subtropical Pacific, where clouds are normally scarce, says the study.

This extra heat leads to more evaporation, producing additional water vapor. The extra moisture is carried by trade winds to the normally rainy areas of the western tropical Pacific, driving more rain.

PREDICTIONS

In the tropical eastern Pacific, sea surface temperatures cool a little, creating conditions similar to a La Nina event. La Nina is the opposite phenomenon to El Nino, producing wetter weather in the western Pacific and drier weather in parts of South America.

The Indian monsoon and many other regional climate patterns are largely driven by rising and sinking air in the tropics and subtropics. Solar-cycle predictions could help meteorologists estimate how those circulation patterns, changes in sea surface temperatures and regional weather patterns might vary.

"The sun, the stratosphere, and the oceans are connected in ways that can influence events such as winter rainfall in North America," says NCAR scientist Gerald Meehl, lead author of the study.

"Understanding the role of the solar cycle can provide added insight as scientists work toward predicting regional weather patterns for the next couple of decades."

The sun is presently in a calm period after reaching a solar minimum at the end of last year, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States.

The next solar peak is expected in May 2013. (For more details, see: www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/)

"This paper represents a useful step forward in understanding how solar activity may lead to modest but detectable climatic effects," said Brad Carter, senior lecturer in physics at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

"It is a good reminder that solar activity is not an explanation of global warming over recent decades."

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

How Sunlight Controls Climate
New computer models begin to suggest how changes in the sun's strength might change weather patterns
David Biello, Scientific American 31 Aug 09;

Small changes in the sun's brightness can have big impacts on our planet's weather and climate. And now scientists have detailed how that process might work, according to a new study published August 28 in Science.

For decades some scientists have noted that certain climate phenomena—warmer seas, increased tropical rainfall, fewer clouds in the subtropics, stronger trade winds—seem to be connected to the sun's roughly 11-year cycle, which causes ebbs and flows in sunspots that result in variations in solar output.

That variation is roughly equal to 0.2 watt per meter squared—far too little to explain, for instance, actual warming sea-surface temperatures. A variety of theories have been proposed to explain the discrepancy: ozone chemistry changes in the stratosphere, increased sunlight in cloudless areas, even cosmic rays. But none of these theories, on its own, explains the phenomenon.

Now, using a computer model that pairs ozone chemistry with the fact that there are fewer clouds in the subtropics when the sun is stronger, climate scientist Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and colleagues have reproduced all the observed cyclical climate phenomena as sunlight waxed and waned in intensity over the course of the last century. "Even though [sunlight variability] is a very small number on a global average, regionally or locally it can be much bigger," Meehl explains. Changes to stratospheric ozone chemistry and cloud cover in the subtropics "kind of add together and reinforce each other to produce a bigger amplitude of this small solar forcing signal," he says.

If the model is correct, the mechanism works like this when the sun is at maximum strength: Ozone in the tropical stratosphere traps slightly more heat under the increased ultraviolet sunlight, warming its surroundings and, in turn, allowing increased ozone production. (Warmer temperatures make it easier for ultraviolet light to break up O2 molecules, thereby allowing the resulting free oxygen ions to hook up with other molecules of their kind to create ozone.) That ozone also warms and the cycle continues, resulting in roughly 2 percent more ozone globally. But this change also begins to affect the circulation of the stratosphere itself, which then alters the circulation in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, known as the troposphere, by reinforcing certain wind patterns that then affect the weather we experience.

Meanwhile, the increased radiance during the solar max also adds slightly more heat to the ocean in areas that are already relatively cloudless because of sinking, cooler air. That produces a little more evaporation, which is carried by the trade winds back into the tropics where it comes down again as increased rainfall, but also helps strengthen the upward convection that causes the subtropical cloudless skies. That, in turn, further increases downward pressure back in the subtropics, resulting in even fewer clouds—again roughly 2 percent less clouds over these parts of the Pacific. "You basically spin up this whole system," Meehl says.

But the model did not exactly reproduce real-world conditions. Whereas sea-surface temperatures in the actual eastern Pacific typically decline by roughly 0.8 degree Celsius under a stronger sun, the model could only replicate about 0.6 degree C of cooling. Nor did the model predict changes where they actually occur on the planet. Other factors are likely at work, Meehl says, and even the best computer model can only begin to approximate the complexity of the actual climate.

Right now, the sun is stuck in a period of extremely low sunspot activity, not unlike the "Maunder Minimum" that may have been responsible for the Little Ice Age that cooled Europe in the late 17th century as well as the fall of imperial dynasties in China. And, for the latter half of the 20th century, the sun's output remained relatively constant as global temperatures rose—ruling out our star itself as the direct source of global warming.

Nevertheless, the research begins to explain the physical mechanisms by which changes in the sun's radiance can have outsized impacts on the planet. And that means that the next uptick in the solar cycle, and thereby the sun's brightness, might bring La Niña conditions—unusually cold surface waters—in the equatorial Pacific. "Whenever it happens," Meehl predicts, "chances are it would behave like a weak La Niña–like pattern."

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 28 Aug 09

The Meaning Of Outreach
from Fish, Respect And Protect

Chek Jawa Boardwalk: 29 Aug Saturday
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Life History of the Blue Spotted Crow
from Butterflies of Singapore

Nesting White-rumped Shama
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Rain out at Changi Beach
from Urban Forest

NUS experiment off Tanah Merah
from wild shores of singapore

Spider Web Fishing in the South Pacific
from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

What's Killing the Planet's Coral Reefs? -A Galaxy Code Red
from The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond

Read more!

Sand dredging "a problem on all the Vietnam’s largest rivers"

Vietnam’s rivers call for help
VietNamNet Bridge 28 Aug 09;

Exploitation of sand – vital to the construction industry -- has become a problem on all the Vietnam’s largest rivers. The Vietnamese press unanimously reports that unregulated exploitation of alluvial sand is a national problem that demands a national solution.

In this story, VietNamNet Bridge surveys and summarizes reportage from Vietnam’s leading newspapers and expert sources to report a national environmental catastrophe.

In the north: an eroded Red River

Many sections of the banks of the Red River, the northern Vietnam’s largest river, are being eroded. Since October 2006, over 20 houses in Ngoc Thuy ward alone of Hanoi’s Long Bien district have fallen into the river because of landslides. Local residents said landslides have suddenly become serious in the last two years.

Traveling along the Red River from Lao Cai on the border with China past the cities of Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Ha Tay, Hanoi, Thai Binh and Nam Dinh, one can see that landslides are alarming. Hundreds of houses and gardens have been swallowed by the river.

Do Ngoc Thien, deputy director of the Dike Management Agency (a unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that sand dredging is an important cause of landslides along the Red River banks. According to Thien, illegal dredging of sand and gravel from the river not only makes landslides on the spot but also causes change in the river’s course, causing landslides to other places that are far from the sand deposits.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ha Tay province, the Red and Da rivers flow for 105 kilometers through the province. The government has allocated hundreds of billions of dong to the province to deal with landslides. Early this year, the provinces received an additional 30 billion for this task, yet the landslides is get worse and worse.

Why is this? Experts say that the landslides now are different from previous years. In the past, the bank was eroded gradually. These days, large chunks of land suddenly fall to the river. It means that big holes have appeared under the bank and these holes are caused by sand dredges.

Hundreds of sand dredge sites are running along the Red River, from Hanoi to Ha Tay, Phu Tho, Yen Bai, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh. Many of them are illegal. Also, hundreds of sand sucking boats are working along the river. Many boats place suck sand from sites only twenty to thirty meters from the bank. Many sections of dikes have become ‘sand warehouses.’

Do Ngoc Thien from the Dike Management Department said that there are many reasons for landslides along the Red River bank but the biggest reason is illegal sand dredging.

Thien said illegal operators violate all rules on sand dredging. They suck sand deeply from the river bed and even from alluvial sites, causing big holes under the banks.

Thien noted that sand dredges can impact water flows so even the places that are protected by embankments and dikes can suffer from landslides. Thus the Government will have to invest billions of dong annually to repair and upgrade the river dikes.

National Assembly deputies mentioned the serious landslides along the Red River, calling them a threat the life and livelihood of the people who live along the river, at the legislature’s session in June.

Not only the Red River is threatened by illegal sand dredging. Other big rivers in the north are in a similar situation, including the Day, the Thai Binh, the Cau, and the Dao in Nam Dinh province

In Central Vietnam, the fabled ‘Perfume River’ is bleeding

The Huong, or Perfume, River, an icon of the ancient capital city of Hue, is also suffering from illegal sand dredging. The dredging began around four years ago. Now it takes place both day and night, particularly near the villages of Thuy Bang, Huong Tho, Phu Thanh, Phu Mau, Huong Vinh and Huong Phong. Hundreds of big vessels, barges and small boats are busy all day seven days a week transporting sand from the dredging sites. During the high season for construction, from April to July, hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sand are exploited from the Huong River.

Because of sand exploitation, nearly 5km of the bank of Huong River have been eroded, threatening the life of hundreds of families and many dikes, construction works and especially some historic sites on the shores of the river.

Minh Mang Road, a thoroughfare for tourists that connects the tombs of Kings Minh Mang, Thieu Tri and Gia Long, has been harmed since 2003 after six sand dredging enterprises were located along the road. So, according to local press reports, are tourism activities at the Hon Chen Temples and the Thien Mu Pagoda, two famoust tourist sites in Hue City.

Tran Khanh Vy, a Vietnamese-Australian tourist, commented after visiting Hon Chen Palace that “Sand dredging here seems to be very random. I see no sign that marks the sand pits but many barges work near Hon Chen. Even the sound from these barges annoys tourists a lot”.

Local residents have tried to stop sand exploiters but they have failed. Even local police can’t stop them.

The Thua Thien – Hue People’s Committee in 2001 issued regulations on sand dredging that permit exploitation of sand found thirty to fifty meters from the banks of rivers. Specifically on the Huong River, the work must be at least 50 meters from the riverbanks, at least 100 meters from dikes and water drainage and bridges and at least 500 meters from historical sites. The regulations are ignored; sand miners dredge sand at the distance of 10 meters from the banks everywhere.

According to the local media, sand dredging is also rampant in many other rivers in the central region and Central Highlands, such as the Ma River in Thanh Hoa province, Ngan Pho River in Ha Tinh province, Thach Han River in Quang Tri province, Vinh River in Da Nang City, Ha Thanh river in Binh Dinh province, the Lam and Hieu rivers in Nghe An province, the Tra Khuc, Tra bong and Ve rivers in Quang Ngai provinces, Krong Ana and Krong Pack rivers in Dak Lak province, Cai River in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province

In the south, the Dong Nai and Cuu Long rivers also harmed by sand dredging

The Dong Nai, the second larget river in southern Vietnam, runs for 800 kilometers through 12 provinces and cities. It is also a victim of sand miners. Sand has been mined for several years in the river’s upper sections, the section crossing the Central Highlands provinces of Lam Dong, Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai, seriously impacting the water environment and the ecological system of the Cat Tien National Park, .

Local authorities have granted sand dredging licences to dozens of companies and set specific conditions on their operation, but nobody actually controls them. Most dredgers exploit sand exceeding their licence and violate the rules.

Not surprisingly, just like Hanoi’s Red River and Hue’s River Huong, the banks of the Dong Nai river are being eroded. More seriously, sand dredge activities are harming 90 kilometers of river bank in Cat Tien National Park. The park has asked the local government to deal with this situation but it has not received the local authorities’ warm feedback.

The Dong Nai River Commission says that this river is being polluted and the pollution gets worse from the upstream to the downstream while the harm to biodiversity increases from the downstream to the upstream. One of the major reasons is sand dredge.

The commission said that the profit that Lam Dong authorities earn from sand miners (around 5 million dong per month from a company) is minor to the consequences caused by sand dredge to the Dong Nai river and the Cat Tien National Park.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Vietnam last year reported that landslides along the Dong Nai river is getting serious, particularly the section in Lam Dong province, where sand dredging is uncontrolled. Landslide causes losses worth dozens of billions of dong for Lam Dong.

Sand dredging has recently developed in the section that crosses Dong Nai province, serving the demand for sand from HCM City and industrial zones and new residential urban developing projects.

Other big rivers in the southern region are being harmed by sand dredging, including the Saigon River in HCM City, the Co Chien River in Vinh Long province, the Tien and Hau, or upper and lowerbranches of the Mekong River, particularly the sections near Can Tho city and in Dong Thap province and Vinh Long province. In this region, the situation has become critical as production expands to serve Singapore’s need for sand from Vietnam following Cambodia’s embargo on sand exports in May.

In Vinh Long province, over 500 landslides are recorded, totaling 10 km of river bank threatening nearly 5000 familes. The local government planw to build 25 resettlement areas from 2010 to 2015 to host 1720 families who have lost their houses by landslide. Vinh Long and Can Tho have had to invest dozens of billion dong to build dikes.

In recent years, over 30 people in the Mekong Delta have been reported to die because of landslides; five streets, six villages and thousands of houses have been swept away.

What are local authorities doing?

Despite the Vietnamese media’s continuous reports of illegal sand dredging activity and its impacts to rivers and people, the situation has not improved.

All local governments claim they have tried but they cannot stop illegal sand miners. They lack equipment and personel for this task, they say, and the profit from dredging and selling sand is high. In some localities, it is reported that illegal sand miners threaten any inspectors who turn up, and attack local people who protest their activities.

In some locations, local authorities are willing to “compromise” with sand miners by collecting small fees from them. These officials explain that the local market needs construction materials so it is necessary to allow sand dredging.

In the Vietnamese press, there’s a consensus that the situation is getting worse; it is a nationwide problem fueled by the possiblity of big profits, and the central government’s intervention is a must to protect lives, livelihoods and the environment.

Boxed information

Major rivers in the northern region:



The Red River flows from southwestern China through northern Vietnam to the Gulf of Tonkin. The Red River begins in China’s Yunnan province and enters Vietnam at Lao Cai. Once reaching the lowlands near Viet Tri, the river and its distributaries spread out to form the Red River Delta. The Red River is notorious for its violent floods and seasonally wide volume fluctuations. The delta is a major agricultural area of Vietnam with vast area devoted to rice.



The Day River is a distributary of the Red River, draining into the Gulf of Tonkin. 240 km long, it has a drainage basin of more than 7,500 km², flowing through Hanoi and the provinces of Hoa Binh, Ha Nam Ninh Bình and Nam Dinh.



The Thai Binh river is a branch of the Thai Binh river system, which runs through Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Hai Phong and Thai Binh provinces.



The Cau River is the most important branch in the Thai Binh River system, one of the most important water systems in the north. The river is 290km long, running from Bac Kan to Thai Nguyen province. It is also the natural borderline between Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces.

The Ma River originates in northwestern Vietnam. It runs for 400km through Vietnam, Laos, and then back through Vietnam, meeting the sea at the Gulf of Tonkin. The largest tributaries of the Ma River are the Chu River, the Buoi River, and the Chau Chay River. All of them join the Ma River in Thanh Hoa province. The Ma River creates the Ma River Delta (also called the Thanh Hoa Delta), the third largest in Vietnam.

The Saigon River rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about 225km and empties into the Nha Be River. The river is joined 29 km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City by the Dong Nai River, and just above Ho Chi Minh City it is joined by the Ben Cat River.

The Saigon River is important to Ho Chi Minh City as it is the main water supply as well as the site of Saigon Port, which handled more than 35 million metric tons of cargo in 2006.

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100 Day: UN calls for signatures fo Action on Climate Change

UNEP 28 Aug 09;

Nairobi, 28 August - The United Nations is calling for millions of online signatures for a climate petition and is launching the first-ever Global Climate Week as part of its Seal the Deal! campaign, 100 days ahead of a crucial UN climate change summit in Copenhagen (COP 15) in December.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leading the call for communities around the world to take advantage of Global Climate Week from September 21-25 to encourage leaders to seal a fair, balanced and effective agreement on climate change.

"Time is running out. Scientists warn that climate impacts are accelerating. Now more than ever, we need political leadership at the highest level to ensure we protect people and the planet, and to catalyze the green growth that can power the 21st century economy," the UN Secretary-General stressed.

"With just 15 negotiating days remaining before the start of COP15, now is the time for people in every corner of the world to urge their governments to seal a fair, effective and ambitious deal in Copenhagen," he added.

On 1 September, Mr. Ban will visit a Norwegian island deep inside the Arctic Circle near the North Pole to witness the problem of glacial melt and other climate change impacts.

Global Climate Week will coincide with the Secretary-General's Summit on Climate Change at UN Headquarters in New York on September 22, one day ahead of the annual General Assembly meeting.

Among the events planned for more than 120 countries are youth assemblies, tree planting drives, a climate neutral day and a 'Go Green Day'. New York and other cities around the world have set up a full programme for the week.

"A scientifically-credible deal in Copenhagen can catalyze a transition to a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy which is so essential on a planet of six billion people, rising to over nine billion by 2050. As such, it will represent perhaps the biggest and most far reaching stimulus package of 2009 and beyond," added Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Communities, businesses and individuals are encouraged to add their voices to the Seal the Deal! campaign during Global Climate Week by signing the Climate Petition at www.sealthedeal2009.org to coalesce millions of signatures.

The Climate Petition is a consolidation of appeals supported by the UN Seal the Deal! campaign. The petition will be presented by civil society to the governments of the world in Copenhagen.

The Prime Minister of Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the President of Ethiopia, Dr. Girma Woldegiorgis and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, Han Seung-soo and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai are amongst those who have lent their support to campaign.

The campaign has also attracted the support of Austrian pop group My Excellence with a song called "Come On (Seal the Deal)" which was performed for the first time live on August 28 in a ceremony at the United Nations Office at Vienna attended by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"Efforts made today to combat climate change are one of the smartest possible investments we can make in our future. We need to show our support for green stimulus packages and a fair deal in Copenhagen which will determine the path of the global economy and the well-being of hundreds of millions of people throughout the 21st century," said Mr. Ban.

To sign the petition, go to www.sealthedeal2009.org.

To pledge your support and to sign up for Global Climate Week go to http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/global-climate-week.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is supporting the Internews Earth Journalism Awards to honour the best climate change reporting in the run up to Copenhagen: http://awards.earthjournalism.org/content/climate-change-negotiations-award.

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Hijacked by climate change?

Richard Black, BBC News 27 Aug 09;

As the UN climate summit in Copenhagen approaches, exhortations that "we must get a deal" and warnings that climate change is "the greatest challenge we face as a species" are to be heard in virtually every political forum.

But if you look back to the latest definitive check on the planet's environmental health - the Global Environment Outlook (Geo-4), published by the UN two years ago - what emerges is a picture of decline that goes way, way beyond climate change.

Species are going extinct at perhaps 1,000 times the normal rate, as key habitats such as forests, wetlands and coral reefs are plundered for human infrastructure.

Aquifers are being drained and fisheries exploited at unsustainable speed. Soils are becoming saline, air quality is a huge cause of illness and premature death; the human population is bigger than our one Earth can currently sustain.

So why, you might ask, are the world's political leaders not lamenting this big picture as loudly and as often as the climate component of it?

Has climate change hijacked the wider environmental agenda? If so, why? And does it matter?

These are questions I've been able to put to a number of leading environmental thinkers for a BBC Radio Four documentary, Climate Hijack.

Mike Hulme, who led the influential UK Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research until recently, believes the climate issue is rather enticing for the modern leader.

"The characteristics of climate change are quite convenient for politicians to use and to deploy both at a popular level but also at a political level," he says.

He argues that climate change is seductive to politicians because it is a long-term issue - so decisive action is always posited for some time in the future, at a time that can always be made yet more distant - and someone else can always be blamed.

So Europeans used to blame the US, the US would blame China and India, and developing countries would blame the entire developed West.

"It's very easy to pass responsibility for failure somewhere else… and in the process of doing that, one is able to keep one's own credibility and record, with the appearance of being much more progressive and constructive."

According to this analysis - and in contradiction to Al Gore's famous phrase - climate change has acquired its huge profile largely because it is a far more convenient truth than poor air quality or biodiversity loss or fisheries decline, where the actions needed are more likely to be national or local - and certainly more convenient than tackling the issues that underpin everything else, the size of the human population and our unsustainable consumption of the Earth's resources.

Mindset monoculture?

"I don't think it's a competition, actually," says UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.

"We're coming to see that we've got a bit of a problem and we've got to live within the Earth's means."

In an ideal world, he would surely be right - all of these issues would receive the appropriate amount of political time and action.

But as far as the UK is concerned, there is a widespread feeling among environment groups - hard to quantify, and not always something they are willing to say on the record - that the government is only really interested in climate change.



And some say the balance has been tipped further by the creation of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) under Ed Miliband, which removed most climate responsibilities from Defra.

The head of one large UK environment group told me last year: "If we want to talk about climate change, we can get a meeting with the prime minister. If we want to talk about biodiversity, we can't even get a meeting with the environment secretary."

This is a picture that Hilary Benn rejects; he says his department's doors are very much open to people bringing concerns about biodiversity, or about any other issue within his remit.

Nevertheless: "Climate change is at the forefront of most politicians' minds who are concerned about the environment," says Graham Wynne, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), probably the UK's most influential conservation group.

"I would obviously wish that our most senior politicians were able to hold two environmental thoughts at the same time - but there is a political reality; climate change is sexy, so we get most traction there."

… which means this is where groups such as the RSPB are likely to focus most of their lobbying.

Former UK Environment Secretary John Gummer is clear that concern about climate impacts on the natural world is not the only reason why conservation groups are increasingly taking up the climate banner.

"I think we've got to be very blunt about it; campaigning groups for the environment or anything else are in the marketplace.

"So if you want to raise money to do something about the marine world (for example), you do it by campaigning on dolphins.

"It's exactly like a business, and in that sense we have to realise that the choice they make is with mixed motives. This is not a criticism, but they are as likely to be partial in what they choose as any business or any politician."

To a large extent, environment groups set the concerns of the environmentally aware citizen; so if they prioritise climate change, perhaps that means a loss of awareness of all the other things that people might be - or used to be - concerned about.

Earth's loss

On the global stage, loss of biodiversity - in plain speech, loss of nature - is one of the issues you will rarely hear leading politicians lamenting - despite the fact that governments pledged to do something about it as far back as the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, at exactly the same time that they were pledging to do something about climate change.



Deutsche Bank economist Pavan Sukhdev leads a UN-sponsored project aiming to quantify the economic costs of losing the "goods and service" that nature provides - something, he says, on which the evidence has been ignored for far too long.

"Work in this field has been going on for so long that it is a shame the idea of pulling this together and presenting it to the public and to governments as an issue wasn't done earlier."

Preliminary calculations indicate the cost of forest loss alone dwarfs the cost of the current banking crisis - a conclusion that has been met with resounding silence at the political level.

A much more comprehensive analysis is due for publication next year; but he is not holding out too much hope that it will sway minds.

"Climate change is already occupying mind space and heart space, and for biodiversity to occupy the same space is going to be a challenge."

Population concerns

Even more difficult than putting something like biodiversity loss on the agenda, says former government adviser Jonathon Porritt, is getting politicians and the wider environmental community to accept that underpinning everything are the unsustainable size of the Earth's human population and our unsustainable (and rising) hunger for the Earth's natural resources.

Recently he raised the population issue in his blog - only to be excoriated by columnist Melanie Phillips for having a "sinister and de-humanised mindset" - which is perhaps an indicator of why other contemporary environmental thinkers are so reluctant to raise it publically, despite admitting its importance in private.

"Too controversial," he says.

"Population raises all these issues about religion, about culture, about male dominance in the world; and (people) get very uncomfortable about that."

Nevertheless, he argues, the logic is undeniable.

Speaking recently at Mr Porritt's Forum for the Future, a Chinese government official described the one child per family policy as having led to "400 million births averted" - which she then converted into the greenhouse gases those extra human inhabitants would have produced, and noted that no other country had done as much to curb climate change.

But, he continues: "You don't have to accept the China route to that logic.

"You can look to all kinds of alternative ways of reducing human numbers which aren't done as coercively as the one child per family policy was done in the past.

"However, when I was director of Friends of the Earth, could I get our local groups or my colleagues to go along with that? I have to admit complete failure."

Same tune

In contrast to the 1970s, the decade of the first global attempts to look at environmental decline, population is not now on the political radar.

Neither is the question of whether stopping that decline is possible without deep reform of the world's economic system.

Biodiversity loss, desertification, unsustainable fishing… where are the spaces at the top table for these?

By singing the climate tune so loudly, have environmental groups unwittingly helped to create a situation where climate change is all that politicians and the public hear?

Has the media contributed? A couple of years ago I added up the number of articles we had written on the BBC News website within the preceding nine months about various issues.

The scores were four for deforestation, four for desertification, 17 for biodiversity - and on climate change I stopped counting when I reached 1,000.

In large part, what journalists report reflects what is going on in the big world; but have we, too, forgotten the larger messages of the UN Geo-4 report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and other audits of a society whose environmental problems run much wider and deeper than climate change?

None of the people I interviewed for the programme argue that man-made climate change is not real or not important; there is no suggestion of a swindle here.

Some believe a narrow focus on climate is justified - either because they feel it is so much more serious than every other issue, or because they feel there is real political momentum to solve it now and time enough to deal with everything else once that is done.

But others argue there is no time; that society needs, urgently, to see the wider picture of global decline in all its complexity - and that climate concerns have hijacked the broader agenda, to the detriment of us all.

Climate Hijack is broadcast on BBC Radio Four at 2100 BST in the UK on Thursday 27 August

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Singapore's dengue situation shows downward trend in 2008, 2009

Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia 27 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE : The dengue situation in Singapore has shown a downward trend in 2008 and 2009 - the first time in three decades. And this is despite a global surge in dengue cases.

Singapore registered 3,272 dengue cases up to August 22 this year - that's 15.3 per cent lower than the same period last year.

Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) said the country is on track to buck the cyclical increase in dengue cases, particularly during the warmer months from April to July.

This is the period when Singapore can typically register up to 150 cases a week.

But for April to July this year, Singapore had only about 100 cases a week.

The NEA said Singapore's dengue situation usually peaks after a 5 to 6 year cycle.

In 2007, it projected some 15,000 cases but Singapore only registered about 8,800 cases - down 20 per cent.

This downward trend continued last year when 7,000 cases were registered, much lower than the projected 20,000 cases.

This year, although the NEA has conducted 70 per cent more checks for mosquito breeding sites, the number detected has not increased significantly.

But it's still prepared to up the number of inspection officers by another 30 per cent to control the situation.

"We have successfully instituted and integrated a dengue control approach, using laboratory surveillance and field surveillance, and integrating these two components into a pre-emptive... kind structured regime to control dengue," said Tai Ji Choong, head of Operations, Environmental Health Department, NEA.

NEA said it will also work with other government agencies to manage the dengue situation in Singapore.

Of the four dengue strains, the dengue virus type 2 (Den-2) strain is the predominant dengue virus in Singapore. But the number of Den-3 cases has been increasing, especially in the West Coast area. - CNA /ls

Dengue cases on the slide
Straits Times 28 Aug 09;

THE dengue situation here is still under control, with the number of cases on a downward trend.

There is a 15 per cent decrease compared with the same period last year.

While the region is still seeing a spike, Singapore is bucking the trend, recording 3,272 cases so far this year, compared with 7,031 last year and 8,826 in 2007.

Singapore is now in the third year of a cycle that began in 2007. Each country has its own cycle. Dengue cases here usually follow a six- to seven-year cyclical trend, with each year's figures surpassing those of the year before.

In Malaysia, the number of dengue cases has surpassed that of the same period last year. Globally too, dengue cases have shot up by over two-fold compared with a decade ago.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said its multi-pronged approach - surveillance and enforcement, community outreach and education, and research - has helped to minimise outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue.

It will keep fine-tuning its approach of focusing its manpower in areas that are highly susceptible to outbreaks. This year, 21 areas scattered across the island were identified, based on past data and risk factors.

The NEA will analyse this year's dengue cases and see if it needs to widen the areas focused on. More people will be deployed if the need arises, such as if there is a switch in the dengue virus type, which will cause an increase in dengue cases.

Switches in the types of dengue - mainly Den-1 and the current predominant type, Den-2 - usually occur here every two to three years.

Mr Tai Ji Choong, head of operations at the NEA's environmental health department, said that the situation is now under control but there is still uncertainty over the dengue type switching.

'We need to balance resources with the situation. With the current resources, we are able to control the situation,' he said. 'At the same time, we can't reduce resources as we don't know when the switch in dengue virus type will come.'

The number of breedings detected in homes has also been dwindling since 2007, from 0.25 per 100 homes inspected to 0.13 this year.

JESSICA JAGANATHAN

Stricter malaria control in 13 workers' dorms
Regular pesticide sprays, netted screens required in dorms in 13 high-risk areas
Jessica Jaganathan, Straits Times 28 Aug 09;

DORMITORIES housing foreign workers in sites conducive to malaria mosquito breeding must now follow stricter measures to keep the problem at bay.

Interior and exterior walls must be sprayed regularly with pesticide, and windows must have netted screens to keep out mosquitoes. Weekly larvicidal oiling or spraying and night fogging must also be carried out by the management.

There are 13 dormitories in 13 'malaria-receptive areas' - in proximity to natural habitats like forested areas and coastal areas - around the island, including Dairy Farm Road and Punggol Point.

If any worker is suspected or confirmed to have acquired malaria locally, the employer must step up mosquito control and provide insect repellent or mosquito nets for workers who sleep on the premises.

The Ministry of Health is also conducting ad-hoc blood screening on all foreign workers living or working in these areas.

Dorm operators who fail to spray their dorms may face fines of $2,000.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said that dorms built in the future should be fitted with netting on the windows, and carry out spraying of the walls.

Singapore is seeing its worst malaria outbreak in years, with 28 people infected here since early May.

The victims were living in, or had visited, one of three areas: Mandai/Sungei Kadut, Jurong Island or Sembawang. The latter two clusters are still active. Most of those infected were foreign workers living in dormitories.

Since it was told about the cases, NEA has waged an aggressive war against mosquito breeding, first in the affected areas, and then fanning out to the other vulnerable sites.

No company has been fined.

Malaria parasites are carried by the female Anopheles mosquitoes, which need to feed on blood to reproduce. When a mosquito bites an infected person, it picks up the parasite from his blood, and passes it to the next person it feeds on. Anopheles mosquitoes bite at night but are most active at dawn and dusk.

'The Anopheles mosquito does not breed in dorms but goes inside to bite people, so we are trying to keep the mosquitoes out,' said Mr Tai Ji Choong, head of operations at the NEA's environmental health department.

There are two species of Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria here: Anopheles sundaicus and Anopheles maculatus.

Mr Tai said that more manpower may be committed to stamp out the malaria scourge, depending on the situation. He said that Singapore is still malaria-free as the virus has not become endemic here. The NEA is still studying if the outbreaks signal a more persistent trend or are one-off cases.

Singapore has been declared malaria-free since 1982, although it still sees between 100 and 300 cases a year. The majority are residents who become infected overseas. The last big outbreak was in 2006, when 13 people were infected locally.


Mozzie fight shows results
Dengue record shows downward trend, despite rise in cases worldwide
Ong Dai Lin, Straits Times 28 Aug 09;

EVERY five to six years, the number of dengue cases in Singapore rises to a peak, making up a typical cycle.

But for the first time since there were dengue records in 1960, the numbers have actually seen a downward trend in the middle of a cycle, instead of a steady rise.

The current dengue cycle started in 2006, with 3,126 cases, increasing to 8,826 in 2007.

But last year, the number dipped to 7,031 - and with just five months before this year ends, the number of dengue cases so far stands at 3,272.

And this number is unlikely to rise sharply for the remaining months, said Mr Tai Ji Choong, head of operations at the National Environment Agency's (NEA) Environmental Health Department.

This is because Singapore is approaching the end of the traditional peak period of dengue transmission from May to October. Cases are likely to remain low if there is no change in the predominant dengue strain.

The downward trend comes at a time where there is a worldwide trend of growth in dengue cases.

For example, in Malaysia, there have been 27,542 dengue cases this year as compared to 25,796 in 2008.

Mr Tai attributed Singapore's success to effective pre-emptive efforts by the Government and the public.

"After 2005, we reviewed our strategy and looked at the whole dengue situation and operations from the fundamental principles. We have successfully instituted an integrated dengue-control approach," he said.

NEA not only conducts inspections at premises and identifies high-risk dengue areas where more surveillance is needed but also conducts public education programmes to prevent mosquito breeding in homes.

It has also stepped up its number of inspections by 70 per cent so far this year as compared to the same timeframe last year, Fewer households have also been caught breeding mosquitoes.

The agency is also looking to increase its pool of environmental health offices from 750 to 1,000.

But the challenge of fighting dengue remains a tough one.

There are four strains of dengue, and any change in the predominant strain in Singapore can result in a huge increase in cases, said Mr Tai.

For instance, from March to May, there was a 30 per cent increase in the number of dengue cases caused by Den-3, a strain that had not been common in Singapore for about 10 years.

The result was that the population had a low immunity to it, and more people were vulnerable to infection.

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NDP spectators send in two items in green gesture

Today Online 28 Aug 09;

THOUSANDS of the spectators who attended the country's National Day Parade in Marina Bay earlier this month have taken the "Care, Share and Be Green" theme to heart.

They have responded enthusiastically to the green message, making the effort to return more than 10,000 of the Mr Bean hand drums and the heart-shaped lanterns, which were available in the NDP09 funpack, for a recycling initiative by the soya bean food and beverage retailer Mr Bean.

The company had sponsored the hand drum that was included in the funpack.

There are still a few days to go for those spectators who have yet to hand in these recyclable items.

They can bring them to selected Mr Bean kiosks by Aug 31. A list of the kiosks is available at www.mrbean.com.sg.

As a gesture of appreciation, Mr Bean gives a reward card for every item recycled: Those who buy a cup of Super Soya Milk (16oz) will get a second cup free.

Thereafter, the items will be collected by Purechem Veolia Environmental Services for recycling.

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Selling Indonesian islands a 'serious violation'

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post 27 Aug 09;

State Secretary Hatta Radjasa said Thursday that Indonesia could not possibly sell any of its more than 17,000 islands because it would be a "serious violation" of the law.

Hatta told reporters at the Presidential Palace that investors might buy or develop resorts on those islands, but they could not possibly own any of them.

"There is no way that [any of our] islands can be sold; perhaps the people who rent them don't know that.

"But it is evidently a serious violation [of the law]. No [Indonesian] island can be put up for sale," he said.

Hatta was responding to the offering for sale of three Indonesian islands in the Mentawai archipelago, West Sumatra, at www.privateislandsonline.com.

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Sunda Strait bridge lacks proven technology: Expert

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post 24 Aug 09;

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reiterated last week the government’s ambitious plan to connect Java and Sumatra with a massive bridge over the Sunda Strait, but at least one expert has pointed out several weaknesses of the plan.

Daniel M. Rosyid, a naval architect and lecturer at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology’s (ITS) School of Marine Technology in Surabaya, said Saturday that the plan to construct the 29-kilometer long bridge was both “cost-ineffective” and lacked any “well-proven technology” needed to realize the plan.

He said that a pre-feasibility study conducted by construction firm PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, a subsidiary of Artha Graha Network, which found that the construction of the bridge would cost up to Rp 100 trillion (approximately US$20 billion), was off the mark.

“Based on a calculations conducted by me and some of my colleagues at the ITS, it would cost between Rp 120 trillion and Rp 200 trillion to construct the bridge,” Daniel said in a phone interview with The Jakarta Post.

“The huge amount will be funded from the state budget. Public dialog is required before approval.”

Besides being costly, the construction would require at least 10 years to complete, he added.

Daniel further said that there was no proven technology available that could support the construction of the bridge, a 3,500 meter segment of which would be suspended.

The longest suspension bridge in the world is 2,200-meters long.

The planned Sunda Strait bridge would be 29 kilometers long – six times the length of the newly-officiated Suramadu bridge, which connects Java and Madura — and, with six car lanes, double railway tracks and motorcycle lanes, 60 meters wide.

Daniel said upgrading the ferry system that serves the strait, including replacing old ferries, renovating the harbors on each side and adding new ones, would be more feasible.

“If we use the advanced ferry system, we might need to invest just Rp 10 trillion or Rp 15 trillion, about 10 percent of the amount needed to construct the bridge; and it can be completed within three years,” Daniel said.

Meanwhile, Wiratman Wangsadinata, a retired structural engineering professor from the Bandung Institute of Technology, who has been hired as a consultant for the bridge project, said further study needed to be done to decide on the best structure for the bridge.

President of director of Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, Tommy Winata, said Krakatau’s presence created many challenges.

“We will be prepared for any technical, financial and other problems in winning the project. We want President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to issue a presidential instruction on the government’s decision to start this project within the next five years and to appoint a side to carry out the project or offer it up for bidding,” Tommy said.

Deputy minister for infrastructure and regional development at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Bambang Susantono, said the government was also mulling the construction of a 33-kilometer long underwater tunnel as an alternative to the bridge.

“The tunnel option would require less money; about Rp 49 trillion in investment, but it would have shorter life time, only some 20 years, compared with 100 years of the bridge,” Bambang said.

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Sea Turtle Eggs Seized, Four Nabbed in Sabah

Bernama 27 Aug 09;

SANDAKAN, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- The Sandakan Marine Operations Force arrested four foreign nationals, including three women, and seized 1,250 turtle eggs from a boat off the Mile 7 Beach here on Wednesday.

Its commanding officer, ASP Muhammad Sallam Spawi said the eggs were believed to be taken from islands off Sabah near the Philippine border.

Those arrested aged between 12 and 61 were arrested under the Immigration Act 1959/1963 and the Wildlife Conservation Act 1997, he said in a statement today.

Muhammad Sallam said turtle eggs were sold illegally here between RM1.20 and RM2 each.

-- BERNAMA

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Saving the ‘Salad Bowl’: A personal account of the struggle to rehabilitate Filipino coral reefs

Gregg Yan, WWF 27 Aug 09;

Batangas, Philippines: Through my foggy mask, I make out my dive buddy giving the go signal. I back-roll, ingloriously, into the turquoise waters of northern Batangas in the Philippines. Scant seconds pass as I find my bearings, but soon the scene unfolds: a pulsating shoal of blue green chromis, interspersed with a few ubiquitous sergeant majors, hail us to Poseidon’s realm.

Beneath is a modest garden of branching and soft corals – not quite like Tubbataha, but slowly getting there.

Led by WWF Hamilo Coast Project Manager Paolo Pagaduan, our dive team is assessing Santelmo cove – a former refuge for blast fishermen, now a reef in regrowth – and the country’s newest marine protected area or MPA.

We level off at 25 feet and come face-to-face with a spotfin lionfish. It is a cool Wednesday morning, just another day at the office.

The Philippines: Welcome to MPA Heaven

The Philippines forms the apex of the Coral Triangle and is the world’s second-largest archipelago. Within this exquisite region sit 7,107 emerald isles fringed by 27,000 square kilometres of unique coral reef.

This region has been hailed by globally-renowned coral expert and Corals of the World author Dr. Charlie Veron as ‘the center of world marine diversity’ – an area so implausibly productive that a single square kilometre can keep on producing over 40 metric tonnes of fresh snapper, grouper and other forms of seafood year on year.

With proper protection, these coral reefs can eradicate Asian poverty and feed billions – a coral-coated cornucopian horn unlike any other.

There’s trouble in paradise, however.

For over a century, unchecked coastal development, overfishing, coral mining, sewage, chemical pollution, acidification, sedimentation, ocean warming and destructive fishing practices have been waging an undersea war against these marine enclaves. Now the Philippines, together with Indonesia, hosts the world’s most threatened coral reefs, less than 5 percent of which remain in excellent condition. Faced with this problem, many archipelagic countries throughout Asia have turned to the MPA solution.

“The establishment of protected areas evolved when people realized that portions of coral reefs needed continual protection to stay productive,” said WWF Conservation Programs Vice-President Joel Palma. “These areas go by a host of names: MPAs, fish sanctuaries or no-take zones. All are loosely defined as inter or subtidal spots reserved by law for the protection of a given area.”

The Sumilon Experiment

The Philippine MPA story began in 1974 – a time when cyanide and blast fishing were at their peak.

Under the guidance of Silliman University, a portion of Sumilon Isle off the south-eastern tip of Cebu was declared a no-take zone – leading to the creation of the country’s first MPA. From 1974 onwards, 25 percent of Sumilon’s coral reefs were meticulously protected. Ten years of improved fish yields from both within and outside the protected zone proved the strategy was sound.

Protection waned in 1985 however, causing fish yields to dwindle. Because of a lack of enforcement or a functioning quota system, dynamite and cyanide fishers quickly overfished the area.

“There is a need for long-term or decadal protection of reserves before fish export from reserves may be expected,” said Dr. Angel Alcala of Silliman University.

The Sumilon experiment proved that constant vigilance was essential to keep MPAs alive and productive.

Today the Philippines hosts about 10 percent of the world’s MPAs – over 500, a figure far greater than any in Southeast Asia. Established largely through local government initiatives and maintained through the efforts of local coastal communities, these undersea enclaves are scattered throughout the archipelago and provide vital safe havens for Philippine marine life.

Sadly, many MPAs are plagued by a lack of funding. Mismanagement is rife, and it is estimated that only 100 of the 500 existing MPAs are properly administered. The rest are dubbed as ‘paper parks’ – areas urgently needing funding and professional management.

Two of the country’s best-managed MPAs are Apo and Danjugan Isles in Negros, both of which received best-managed MPA awards in 1996 and 2001, respectively. The awards were bestowed upon the two sites by the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of Agriculture (DA).

“Community support is paramount in achieving success,” said Pagaduan. “By protecting their area’s reefs, coastal communities also safeguard future sources of food and livelihood.”

WWF, the local to global conservation organization, has long pioneered the establishment and upkeep of protected areas in the Philippines’ largest coral reef systems. In October 2007, WWF and the local government of Sablayan in Mindoro spearheaded a ban on fishing in Apo Reef, the country’s largest reef system. Fishing was replaced by successful livelihood programmes and an ecotourism drive designed to keep livelihoods afloat while allowing the reef ample time to recover.

Dramatic results are already evident in other model sites. From 2004 to 2005, the world-renowned Tubbataha Reefs off Palawan doubled yearly fish biomass from 166 to 318 metric tonnes per square kilometre – a yield seven times more productive than a typical reef.

WWF and Hamilo Coast are now working with the local government of Nasugbu and allied organizations to establish three new MPAs off the northernmost tip of Batangas.

Nasugbu’s Newest Protected Areas

Composed of 13 limestone-ringed coves demarcating Batangas and Cavite, Hamilo Coast is the first true Filipino community master-planned for ecological sustainability.

Realizing that its best assets lay beneath the water, Hamilo Coast developer SM Land partnered with WWF-Philippines to craft and implement a coastal resource management (CRM) plan designed to revive the once-rich marine habitats along the coast.

The program began with exhaustive assessments of coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangal or mangrove forests and offshore fishing sites.

“Many surveyed reefs bore pockmarks from bomb blasts, scars from 40-years of dynamite fishing,” said Pagaduan. “We eventually identified three priority coves needing urgent protection – Santelmo, Etayo and Pico de Loro.”

Closure of the sites was the first step to recovery.

“At first there was a lot of dissent,” Pagaduan said. “Locals relied on each of the 13 coves for food and livelihood so absolute closure would rob them of income. It took over 10 months of negotiations to convince them that, given time to recover – the coves would be more productive than they could imagine. Two years later, we are ready to finally close off Santelmo for fishing.”

Pagaduan says that since 2007, the difference in fish yields has been noticeable.

“We catch more fish now than two years ago,” said local fisherman Adelito Villaluna.

Local fishers reel in from four to 12 kilograms daily – a figure attributed not just to the MPAs, but to increased enforcement efforts against illegal fishers.

Saving the Salad Bowl

Arguably the best of the three coves, Santelmo has been dubbed the ‘salad bowl’ – owing to the proliferation of Montipora, a curious-looking hard coral which closely resembles a lettuce head. Santelmo reef will now be declared a ‘no-take zone’, while Etayo and Pico de Loro’s reefs will be declared as ‘marine reserves’ – meaning a limited number of hook-and-line fishermen may continue to fish.

“This is a compromise we deemed acceptable,” said WWF Vice-Chairman and CEO Lory Tan. “Originally, we wanted all three coves declared as no-take zones. However, our top priority is still the welfare of Nasugbu’s people, so until enough spillover from Santelmo cove can accommodate their fishing requirements, we cannot deny them their right to fish.”

In the face of worsening climate impacts, protecting biodiversity enclaves makes perfect sense.

“MPAs focus on much more than just the conservation of biodiversity: should we succeed in halting climate change, these pockets of marine resilience will provide the building blocks needed to restore natural mechanisms which provide food and livelihood for millions of people," Tan said. "It’s a natural investment.”

* * *

Back at the Santelmo salad bowl, we find ourselves tracking a dozen-strong school of longfin batfish, graceful residents which vaguely resemble the silver-and-black striped freshwater angelfish familiar to aquarists. As they fade off into the blue, I self-consciously check my air pressure gauge.

At 300 PSI and low on air, we finish up and ponderously begin our ascent, inflating our BCs to begin our rise to the world above. I take a final glimpse of the ghostly batfish and smirk as I imagine how beautiful Santelmo reef will be in a decade. Will it be as beautiful as the coral-covered drop-offs of Balicasag Isle? Will it have the thousands-strong schools of fairy basslets in Coron?

Only continued protection – and time, will tell.

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