Best of our wild blogs: 16 May 10

Colourful St John's reef
from wonderful creation and half snorkeling and brittle star hitching a ride on a jellyfish. Also on singapore nature and wild shores of singapore and colourful clouds and Nature's Wonders

Stonefish-ed almost @ St John's Island
from sgbeachbum

Chek Jawa Boardwalk
from Manta Blog

Search for Syonan Jinja, the Shinto Shrine
from Urban Forest

Raffles Museum Treasures: Greater mousedeer
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales and Hairy babirusa

Chestnut Avenue
from Singapore Nature

Juvenile Dark-necked Tailorbird sleeps with one eye closed
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot eating mango
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Is Cambodia Dredging its Rivers to Death?

Christopher Shay Time Magazine 15 May 10;

Paul Ferber was scuba diving in Cambodia's Sre Ambil River shortly after ships had finished dredging the area. As director of Marine Conservation Cambodia, Ferber was used to seeing the Cambodian estuaries teeming with marine life. He was shocked: Over 15 kilometers of river, he saw exactly one fish and two shrimp. "It was crazy to dive and see nothing," he says.

This isn't just happening to Cambodian rivers. Cambodian fishermen say fish stocks have plummeted off the coast of the province of Koh Kong, and that they now need to travel further and further to feed their families. Residents say the timing of these changes points to one main culprit: the sand industry, for which dredgers suck up more than 25,000 tons of Cambodian sand a day to export primarily to Singapore, according to a report released this week by Global Witness, a London-based environmental watchdog.

Along the Kampot River in February, angry residents destroyed nearby dredging equipment after a collapsing riverbank threatened their village. Mu Sochua, an opposition party parliamentarian, said the villagers had already tried pressuring their provincial leaders and sending letters to the Prime Minister and that the villagers "had no other choice." Phay Siphan, a spokesman from the Cambodian Council of Ministers, dismissed Mu's complaints, saying, "From my experience, the opposition party never does the job. They sit down and wait to hear from outside reporters and then take the opportunity to insult the government."

Cambodia does regulate its sand exports — at least on paper. After a host of protests and a raft of bad press, the Cambodian government banned the export of river sand a year ago. But the Global Witness report claims that dredging operations have actually expanded since then and that the dredging of river sand continues unabated. A search of alibaba.com, a Chinese business-to-business e-commerce site, still reveals a number of companies purporting to sell Cambodian river sand.

This booming Cambodian trade, according to the report, is fueled by Singapore's voracious appetite for sand. Since splitting off from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore has become one of the world's wealthiest countries, and as its importance has grown, so, too, has the country. According to Global Witness, since the 1960s, the island of Singapore has increased its size by 22%, or 130 square kilometers (50 miles), and the country has plans to expand at least another 50 square kilometers (20 miles). This has made Singapore one of the world's biggest importers of sand. After Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam limited or banned sand exports because of the environmental impact of dredging, Singapore has increasingly relied on Cambodia, the report says.

The result has been "ecologically and socially devastating," says the Global Witness report. The NGO accuses Singapore of "hypocrisy on a grand scale" for presenting itself as a leader on green issues — even hosting the World Cities Summit with the theme of "Liveable and Sustainable Cities of the Future" — while burying its head in the sand, so to speak, and ignoring the environmental consequences in Cambodia. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Singaporean Ministry of National Development countered, "The report suggests that the Singapore government seeks to import sand without due regard to the laws or environmental impact of the source country, in this case, Cambodia. This is not true. We are committed to the protection of the global environment, and we do not condone the illegal export or smuggling of sand." The statement added that sand is supplied by private entities that are contractually obliged not to cause adverse impact to the environment of the source country and must comply with its laws.

Dredging picked up in Cambodia after Indonesia abruptly banned sand exports in 2007. Prior to the ban, more than 275,000 tons of sand were being exported every month from Indonesia's Riau Islands, according to the Global Witness report, and two islands — Nipah and Sebaik — nearly vanished because of extensive dredging. The Indonesian government had to go back and fill in Nipah in order to save the island, which helps determine Indonesia's maritime border with Singapore. Even with the bans and export restrictions, sand remains big business in the region. Sand smuggling has become a problem in Indonesia with more than an estimated 300 million cubic meters of sand being exported illegally every year, according to the Telegraph. In Malaysia, 34 government officials were arrested in a sex-for-sand scandal in January, where officials allegedly received bribes and sexual favors to help smuggle the sand out of the country.

In Cambodia's Koh Kong province every month, dredgers extract more than 850,000 tons of sand, according to Global Witness, which valued a year's worth of Koh Kong sand at nearly $250 million on the market in Singapore. A Cambodian government-sponsored website claims that dredgers remove only between 40,000 and 60,000 tons of sand per month in Koh Kong, and that the sand mining operations "remain small-scale." Global Witness acknowledges their numbers are only estimates but stands by their claim that the numbers are far greater than the government is reporting.

Exact numbers are hard to come by since the wheeling and dealings of Cambodia's sand trade go on behind closed doors, Global Witness says. The report claims two Cambodian senators with close ties to both Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian military are at the center of this trade. In response to Global Witness, the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in London released a May 11 statement slamming the study, calling it a "cheap and rubbish report" containing "malicious and misleading claims by an international> troublemaker."

It isn't the first time Global Witness has picked a fight with Cambodia's ruling elite. After the release of a 2007 report alleging links between high-ranking members of the government and illegal logging, the Cambodian government denied all charges, the head of the Forestry Department called the report "laughable," and a provincial governor — who also happens to be the Prime Minister's brother — promised that if members of Global Witness ever set foot in Cambodia, "I will hit them until their heads are broken."

Dredging sucks up sand a few feet below the marine floor, disturbing the water. Even temporary increases in turbidity can interfere with spawning and suffocate coral reefs, according. Ferber from Marine Conservation Cambodia dove along a dredging pipe and told TIME the sea was thick with sediment. Overdredging in waterways can lower stream bottoms and disrupt the natural sedimentary processes, leading to the erosion of riverbanks. In Cambodia, the marine life is particularly rich; the seagrass beds of Kampot are the largest in the region and shelters endangered dugongs and dolphins. Chourn Bunnara, a program coordinator at the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), says he's seen dredging in only 10 meters of water that has "completely destroyed" an area, killing nearby mangroves and emptying the waters of fish.

Not everyone has given up on putting a stop to dredging in Cambodia. Chourn knows it will be difficult to end unsustainable sand dredging in Cambodia because of the "rich people and the power men behind it." But his organization, FACT, is nonetheless putting together a workshop in hopes of educating the country's politicians about the dangers of dredging. "We've learned about other countries and the negative impacts that happened there," he says. For her part, Mu says she won't stop fighting but admits, "Civil society has already done everything possible," and says Singapore needs to take more responsibility. Singapore "leads the world in good business that protects the environment." But, she adds, "any country that is part of this is part of the destruction of the environment."

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Asian ivory trade poses danger to African elephant

Michael Casey, William Foreman And Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
Yahoo News 15 May 10;

PUTIAN, China – Carefully, the Chinese ivory dealer pulled out an elephant tusk cloaked in bubble wrap and hidden in a bag of flour. Its price: $17,000.

"Do you have any idea how many years I could get locked away in prison for having this?" said the dealer, a short man in his 40s, who gave his name as Chen.

A surge in demand for ivory in Asia is fuelling an illicit trade in elephant tusks, especially from Africa. Over the past eight years, the price of ivory has gone up from about $100 per kilogram ($100 per 2.2 pounds) to $1,800, creating a lucrative black market.

Experts warn that if the trade is not stopped, elephant populations could dramatically plummet. The elephants could be nearly extinct by 2020, some activists say. Sierra Leone lost its last elephants in December, and Senegal has fewer than 10 left.

"If we don't get the illegal trade under control soon, elephants could be wiped out over much of Africa, making recovery next to impossible," said Samuel K. Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington. "The impact that loss of this keystone species would have on African ecosystems is difficult to even imagine."

Wasser estimated that the illegal trade is about 100 times the legal trade, with a value of $264 million over the past decade.

Demand for ivory runs strong in the Chinese city of Putian, which sits directly across from Taiwan, its outskirts crowded with factories owned by Taiwanese businessmen. These businessmen have a reputation for collecting ivory, a sure way to seal a deal with an important client.

Chen buys his ivory from middlemen. He said he doesn't know its source.

"You don't ask these questions," he said.

_____

Deep within the forests and parks of Africa, the source of ivory to China is clear.

In Kenya alone, poaching deaths spiked seven-fold in the last three years, culminating in 271 elephant killings last year. The Tsavo National Park area had 50,000 elephants in the 1960s; today, it has 11,000. And at least 10 Chinese nationals have been arrested at Kenya's airport trying to transport ivory back to Asia since the beginning of last year.

The Kalashnikov assault rifles slung around the shoulders of Kenyan park rangers are not for animals, but for poachers. It is a dangerous game for both sides: A ranger was killed in a shootout on Christmas Day, and a poacher in a shootout in February.

Poachers use guns, rusty metal snares and poison arrows. It's the poison arrows that worry the rangers because they belong to local Kenyan tribesmen. The pastoral tribes that once protected Kenya's elephants are increasingly becoming their killers.

"Now the trend is different, because they know they can make quick money out of these trophies. They sell it to the poachers," said Yussuf Adan, the senior warden in Tsavo East. Such a sale can net a tribesman hundreds or even thousands of dollars, a life-changing amount.

Last month, ranger Mohamed Kamanya had to cut the tusks out of an elephant killed by a poacher's poisoned arrow. Kamanya says it's like a human death.

"Economic interests have surpassed ecological interests," he said. "I think we're in for a serious problem."

__________

The number of elephants in Africa has dropped by more than 600,000 in the last 40 years, mostly due to poaching.

A global ban on the ivory trade in 1989 briefly halted their demise. But the ban's initial success has been undermined by a booming demand for ivory among Asian consumers, a decline in law enforcement budgets and a thriving black market that takes advantage of rampant corruption in many African countries.

Conservationists said poaching has steadily worsened since 2004 and now leads to the loss of as many as 60,000 elephants each year. Compounding the problem has been the hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers who have migrated to Africa. Some buy up ivory in largely unregulated shops and join the criminal syndicates that smuggle the tusks back to Asia.

"What we found is that the illicit trade in ivory continues to increase and that it is increasing at a much more rapid rate than previously was the case," said Tom Milliken, regional director for Traffic East Southern Africa, which analyzes ivory seizures.

Hidden in containers of mundane consumer products like cell phone parts, ivory is transported through as many as a half dozen countries between Africa and Asia to avoid detection. Shipping documents are forged, and the Asian gangs who control the trade often bribe customs officials to smooth the journey.

The gangs' deep pockets have allowed them to smuggle much bigger shipments — often several tons at a time worth millions of dollars, said Milliken.

Gangs are moving into the ivory trade because it is among the most lucrative enterprises, said Wasser.

"You can move huge amounts of contraband with low likelihood of getting caught," said Wasser, noting that less than 1 percent of all containers are even searched. "The prosecutions are extremely low and fines even lower. That makes this high-profit, low-risk enterprise, which is conducive to the involvement of organized crime."

Peter Younger, who manages a project that targets sub-Saharan Africa for the international law enforcement agency Interpol, said gangs also benefit from the fact that elephants are often living in countries like Somalia or the Democratic Republic of Congo, where law enforcement is nonexistent or preoccupied with keeping civil order.

"It's easy to say to, for example, that Congo, you should do more to protect elephants, when they are doing everything to stop civil war," he said.

The primary destinations for illegal ivory have traditionally been Thailand, Japan and China, which have thriving black markets and some of the world's best ivory carvers. Thailand had three seizures last year and already had its biggest yet in February, when 2 tons of African tusks worth $3.6 million were found in containers bound for Laos.

But these countries are not alone. Over the past decade, half of the largest ivory seizures took place in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, indicating they are also becoming key transit points, according to an October 2009 report by the Elephant Trade Information System.

____

Thailand and China best illustrate the challenges of stamping out the problem.

Thailand has been implicated in 59 seizures worldwide since 2007 as either a destination or transit point for ivory. A survey from TRAFFIC, a U.K.-based group that combats wildlife trafficking, last year found that hundreds of venues — from five-star hotels to the popular Chatuchak weekend market in the capital, Bangkok — were selling tens of thousands of items made from ivory, from pricey carvings of religious deities to cheaper bangles, belt buckles and knife handles.

Police and customs officials acknowledge ivory smuggling is on the rise in the country. And while the government insists it is cracking down on the trade, officials admit corruption is rife within their ranks.

Lt. Col. Adtapon Sudsai, who investigates the illegal trade, said it is not unusual to find ivory carvings in Buddhist temples or the homes of politicians or high-ranking police and military officers as a sign of power.

Investigations falter because local police are rarely trained to detect illegal ivory, Adtapon said. Prosecuting smugglers can also be difficult because traders often mix domestic ivory, which is legal, with the illegal African stocks.

Most shipping documents are forged or include a fake company or a nonexistent address. The person sent to pick up the shipment often knows nothing.

"We're trying to get to those involved but we never have," said Seree Thaijongrak, director of Investigation & Suppression Bureau in the Royal Customs Department.

Many countries, including Thailand, are now starting to track the ivory's source through DNA testing. In making their first ivory arrests last year, Thai police used the testing to prove that ivory being sold by a Thai national to an American on e-Bay was in fact from Africa.

Zambia in 2002 claimed it had lost only 135 elephants over the past 10 years. But Wasser's DNA testing showed it was closer to 6,000, which undercut the government's argument that it should be allowed to sell its ivory stocks.

Wasser also said he used DNA testing to help determine where a shipment of 42,000 ivory signature seals confiscated in Singapore came from. The shipment had been tracked from Mozambique to South Africa, but DNA testing showed the ivory came from Zambia.

Such revelations helped kill a Zambian proposal at U.N. conservation meeting in March that would have allowed a one-off sale of its 48,000 pounds (21,700 kilograms) of ivory. A similar proposal by Tanzania was also defeated.

"The dealers were getting purchase orders — I need so many tusks by a certain date," Wasser said. "They were hammering the same areas over and over again. Law enforcement had no idea this was happening until we had shown the source of the Singapore seizure."

_____

Back in Putian, Chinese ivory dealer Chen shows how difficult it is to control the ivory trade.

Chinese police started cracking down on ivory theft in February. Since the raids, Chen said he has stopped selling the "xiang ya," the Chinese word for ivory, which translates to "elephant tooth."

But not for long.

"I don't dare sell anything now because they're cracking down," he said, over the din of electric saws being used to carve wooden dragon statues. "Come back in early June and I should be able to sell."

___

Associated Press reporter Jason Straziuso reported from Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. Michael Casey reported from Bangkok, Thailand, and Bill Foreman reported from Putian, China.

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Species by species, a habitat takes shape

The eruption of Mount St. Helens 30 years ago destroyed so much that often overlooked is what it created. Scientists are witnessing the assembly, species by species, of an entirely new ecosystem.
Lynda V. Mapes Seattle Times 15 May 10;

The eruption of Mount St. Helens 30 years ago destroyed so much that often overlooked is what it created: an entirely new ecosystem. More than 130 new ponds and two new lakes were birthed at the foot of the volcano. What's going on today in and around these ponds isn't restoration, or renewal, or recovery.

Salamanders, frogs and toads are not just moving back where they were before the eruption. They are taking on whole new territory.

It's the assembly, species by species, of a new habitat.

"Build it, and they will come," said Peter Frenzen, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service here. Scientists working at the monument have found that large disturbances make large changes, which produce habitat, he said.

"Life takes that as a starting point," he said. "It's sort of a new day."

The ash and debris unleashed by the eruption impounded streams and seeps, and depressions between them held rain and groundwater. The result is a full complement of ponds. There are warm, shallow, sunny ponds, called pans, dry by summer. And kettle-like ponds that hold water well into fall.

Charlie Crisafulli, ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, has studied change at the mountain since it blew its stack. He has a name for a deep, groundwater-fed pool as he swishes a dipnet through the 50-degree water, looking for eggs: "Red-legged frog heaven."

To be sure, the evidence of destruction is still everywhere here. Hills of volcanic material, too steep or dry for plants to grow on, remain as stark reminders of the day the mountain turned inside out.

The eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, was a ferocious blast. In all, 57 people died, along with an uncounted number of animals. Within three minutes, a lateral blast from the volcano, traveling at more than 300 mph, blew down and scorched 230 square miles of forest.

It was the most economically destructive volcanic eruption in U.S. history. A plume of ash billowed from the crater for nine hours, spewing gray grit more than 15 miles up into the air. Wind carried the ash eastward across the country, snowing on Yakima, Spokane and western Montana, and dimming skies enough that the streetlights turned on. Interstate 90 between Seattle and Spokane was closed for a week.

It is difficult to comprehend the scope of the destruction. A massive landslide — the largest in recorded history — plugged 24 square miles of North Fork Toutle River valley to an average depth of 15 stories. Mudflows barreled down the volcano as fast as 90 mph, so much sediment that it plugged the shipping channel in the Columbia River some 70 miles from the mountain, blocking oceangoing shipping until emergency dredging was completed.

"What is left behind, from a human perspective, probably looks pretty messy; but from a habitat perspective, it is a lifeboat, and a starting point for the species that come in," Frenzen said.

Pristine habitat created

The ecological reset button pushed by Mount St. Helens was of, well, volcanic proportions: a fivefold increase in pond habitat was created by the eruption.

From the ashes, the new community of frogs, salamanders and toads has risen, even burgeoned, in an environment pristine and new as Eden. Some populations are healthier than anywhere else in the state, without the usual amphibian woes. There is no development here. None of the killer fungus plaguing frogs elsewhere. Populations of garter snakes and other predators haven't yet returned everywhere in usual numbers, giving the frogs, toads and salamanders a temporary leg up.

Over the years since the eruption, some have been tagged and tracked, amazing scientists who learned just how far they travel to get to the ponds or other habitat within the blast zone. One salamander even scaled a 70-degree slope with a 784-foot elevation gain through a blow-down forest. Scientists believe they find the ponds by following moisture and chemical cues, but their migratory finesse isn't fully understood.

"Given a chance, life will find a way," Frenzen said. "It makes you realize what an amazing planet we live on, the power and capacity for change."

Chorus frogs, Western toads, red-legged frogs, Cascades frogs, Northwestern salamanders, and, by the 10th year, the first rough-skinned newts all made the trek to the new ponds. By now, all of the pond breeders typical of the region are present save one, the long-toed salamander, exceedingly rare here even before the eruption.

Some animals, such as the Northwestern salamander, even have played a shrewd survival hand, keeping their gills and living their entire lives as aquatic animals rather than moving onto land as they grow. That enables them to take advantage of their new pond environment, and shrug off the loss of the mature forest they normally use as adults.

An upside of the volcano's swap-out of mature forest for young alders is warm, sunny ponds replete with algae for tadpoles and aquatic salamanders to eat, stoking populations.

Eventually, trees will grow up and shade the ponds, and some shallower ponds will disappear as the trees suck up the water and fill them with leaf litter. And in a typical boom-and-bust cycle, what Crisafulli calls the three p's — predators, pathogens and parasites — will rip on the abundant amphibian feast awaiting them. Their numbers, in turn, will diminished as the frogs, toads and salamanders are knocked down.

Such cycles are at their most extreme at the early stages of a new ecosystem, such as these ponds. The swings will be less dramatic as the ecosystem becomes more mature and in balance over time.

Richness begets richness

Sometimes it's what is not yet here, as the ecosystem assembles, that is striking. For all the delicious ooze around the ponds, skunk cabbage has yet to show up here, but for a few spots. The seeds just aren't here, though the plant thrives in other similar environments.

Also missing in action so far: infestations of exotics and weeds, which have yet to dominate or take over any part of the area. Solid populations of other animals and plants have become keystones of the ecosystem. Elk roam in voracious herds, chewing down willow, paintbrush and sedges. Lupine have enriched the soil, and gophers that survived the blast underground have proved surprisingly important, pushing up nutrient-rich soil from below the ash and even providing migratory tunnels for toads.

Timing helped many animals and plants get a headstart recolonizing the area. The blast came in early spring. Ice and snow protected some plants, and some frogs and toads and salamanders were still tucked away in hibernation pits or lake-bottom sediments. Or they were snugged deep in duff, or protected by a hill, a rise or some other accident of topography.

Three decades later at the ponds, richness has begotten more richness here: beavers, drawn to alders and willows in the ponds and wetlands, are creating ponds of their own, alive with frogs, birds and waterfowl.

The result today is an ecosystem teeming with croaking, chorusing, singing, flying, swimming, chewing life.

Crisafulli pauses by a beaver dam and grand lodge impounding a pond graced with teal and the calliope music of blackbirds. "You look at that grand lodge, you hear the red-winged blackbird, you see the teal," he said. "You can't imagine all this was assembled in three decades. It's quite astonishing."

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Best of our wild blogs: 15 May 10

Singapore No. 1 global eco-destroyer?
from wild shores of singapore

Butterfly of the Month - May 2010
Striped Blue Crow (Euploea mulciber mulciber) from Butterflies of Singapore

Mt Faber and a New Camera
from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore

Reef Alert 2010 - Dayang-Aur
from Psychedelic Nature

Do birds sleep with their eyes closed?
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Refusing to recycle?
from The Straits Times Blogs

IPCC review: friend or foe?
from BBC NEWS blog by Richard Black

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NParks to introduce more orchid species along Orchard Road

Lynda Hong Channel NewsAsia 14 May 10

SINGAPORE : NParks wants to have more orchid species along Orchard Road.

A rare Tiger Orchid seedling, which belongs to 43 critically endangered or rare species in Singapore, is being planted on a tree on Orchard Road.

The planting marks the launch of the Orchid Conservation Fund by the Garden City Fund, which received S$10,000 from TANGS department store and Clarins skincare.

The Fund aims to propagate and re-introduce rare and endangered orchid species back to Singapore.

Once home to 226 native wild orchid species, Singapore now has only 48 species left, and only five are common.

To further raise public awareness, a native orchid display, entitled Orchids: A Conservation Story, will be put up in TANGS department store.

The orchid showcase will serve as a sneak preview of the Singapore Orchid Show, to be held in conjunction with the Singapore Garden Festival in July.

- CNA/al

Orchids' road
Endangered and rare orchid species will now be protected, thanks to a new fund
tay suan chiang Straits Times Life 15 May 10;

Extinct in the wild, the Dendrobium leonis Dr Yam Tim Wing is holding will be reintroduced. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

An orchid may be Singapore's national flower - the Vanda Miss Joaquim - but in the wild, things are not so blooming great for the hybrid's relatives, the native orchids.

Of Singapore's 226 species of native wild orchids recorded locally, 178 of them are now extinct. Of those that cling on, a massive 43 species are either critically endangered or rare.

Step forward Dr Yam Tim Wing, Singapore's saviour of native orchids.

Over the last 10 years, he has been conserving the country's native orchids as part of a programme that has just been expanded to include planting more rare species in urban areas. It is even putting the 'orchid' into Orchard Road.

He has propagated and reintroduced five species of orchids that were considered critically endangered or extinct.

To help save Singapore's flowers, the National Parks Board (NParks) launched an Orchid Conservation Fund yesterday. It hopes to raise $250,000 for the purpose.

The fund aims to conserve and reintroduce rare native species onto Singapore's streets. This is part of NParks' efforts to increase the biodiversity of roadside trees and nature areas and make Singapore's roadside greenery more interesting.

Already, two organisations - Tangs department store and premium French skincare brand Clarins - have donated $5,000 each to the fund.

The public can donate, too. A donation of $50 and upwards will enable an orchid to be planted.

The fund's launch got off to a dazzling start last night: Representatives from the two companies and NParks planted a seedling of the rare tiger orchid on a yellow flame tree outside the Tangs store in Orchard Road.

This is the first time a native orchid has been reintroduced to Orchard Road.

Mr Foo Tiang Sooi, chief executive officer of Tangs, says: 'The reintroduction of rare orchids into the cityscape will not only help in the promotion of orchid conservation, but it is also a great way for the public to experience the wonders of nature on Orchard Road.'

Mr Christian Courtin-Clarins, Clarins' chairman, adds: 'By caring for and giving back to the environment, we ensure our success for generations to come.'

Dr Yam, 50, a senior researcher for orchid breeding at NParks, says: 'Native orchids have disappeared because of habitat loss.' In the past, wild orchids could be seen in mangrove areas and forests, which have made way for development.

The Hong Kong-born and now Singapore citizen has been studying orchids since 1985. He loves them because 'they are beautiful and have unique shapes'. He is no stranger to orchid conservation, having done his PhD on the topic for native orchids in Hong Kong.

The father of two teenagers came to Singapore and joined NParks in 1991 as the 'Botanic Gardens was known for its orchid programme'. Naturally, he grows orchids - hybrid ones - at home, too.

Together with his team, he sometimes still heads into forests and nature reserves and, on rare occasions, discovers native orchids thought extinct.

Dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, he takes along his binoculars, camera, plastic bags, secateurs, and food and water.

He photographs the orchids he finds and takes part of the plants back to the nursery to wait for them to flower so he can confirm the species. It can be a sweaty affair being in the forest. 'I come out drenched. But it is worth it when I see a rare orchid,' he says.

Some native orchids bloom only a few times a year while others, such as the tiger orchid, bloom only once a year.

The Botanic Gardens has some native orchids in its nursery that Dr Yam uses for propagation. For rare orchids that are not available, such as the tiger orchid, he buys them from overseas nurseries.

'Depending on the species, it can cost about $10 a plant to about $100,' he says.

The orchids bear fruit, and their seeds are collected to germinate in a laboratory. They are later grown on fern bark till they are big enough to be planted on trees.

It takes about a month to grow about 2,000 orchids. Using a crane to reach the higher branches of a tree, Dr Yam attaches an orchid to the branch. 'The orchid roots will grow and cling onto the branch,' he says. He returns to check on the orchids every week for the first two weeks, and then once every two months.

He has reintroduced 3,000 plants of five native species over the last 10 years. More than 80 per cent of these planted on trees in parks and nature areas have survived. In time, they will self-propagate.

He now wants to reintroduce at least two species each year over the next three years. They will be planted in locations such as parks and nature areas, and also along Napier and Holland roads, and the East Coast Park Expressway.

'More people can enjoy the beauty of these orchids,' he says.

Orchid's name is for life

What do Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Queen Elizabeth II and actor Jackie Chan have in common? They all have orchids named after them.

Singer Stephanie Sun is the first Singaporean celebrity to have an orchid, Dendrobium Stefanie Sun (above), named after her.

Last Saturday, Bocelli became the latest celebrity to have an orchid given his monicker in the Singapore Botanic Gardens' collection. The Vanda Andrea Bocelli has flowers that are purplish pink with purple spots.

The first VIP orchid here was the Aranthera Anne Black, after the wife of the first governor of Singapore, Sir Robert Black, in 1956.

Since then, Singapore has named more than 100 VIP orchid hybrids, including over 60 for visiting heads of state, such as Jordan's King Abdullah II and Myanmar's Premier Thein Sein. These are placed in a VIP Orchid Garden in the National Orchid Garden, located within the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The Orchid Garden also has celebrity orchids, including those named after Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan and Korean actor Bae Yong Jun.

A spokesman for the National Parks Boards, which manages the Singapore Botanic Gardens, says: 'Orchid-naming is a way to welcome important guests to Singapore. They are usually people who have made significant contributions in their fields.'

He adds: 'Orchids selected for orchid- naming are new hybrids that are the result oftheGardens' orchid-breeding programme.'

But for $3,000 and up, the public can have orchids named after it too. Madam Lee Soong Ying, a project consultant at Orchidville orchid farm, says: 'Some name orchids as gifts or in remembrance of a loved one. A man named one after his fiancee as he wanted to propose to her.'

The farm picks the hybrids for naming and the customer chooses the final plant. The proposed name is then sent to the Royal Horticulture Society in London for approval.

Madam Lee says the society is regarded as the international orchid registrar. Once a name is approved, it will go down into the society's records for life. 'The name of the orchid will be around for eternity,' she says.

Tay Suan Chiang

NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR TIGER ORCHIDS ON ORCHARD ROAD
NParks media release 14 May 10

Singapore, 14 May 2010 - The spectacular sight of the world's largest orchid plant - the tiger orchid - in full bloom on Orchard Road might not be too far away if the organisers of the Singapore Garden Festival (SGF), as well as the European leader in premium skincare house Clarins and TANGS store can help it. This evening, Clarins' Chairman, Christian Courtin-Clarins and TANGS CEO, Foo Tiang Sooi, together with Director of the SGF, Dr Wong Wei Har, planted a tiger orchid plant (Grammatophyllum speciosum) on a yellow flame tree just outside the TANGS store along bustling Orchard Road.

The tiger orchid, together with most of the other 226 orchid species that are native to Singapore, have become extinct, mainly due to habitat loss. For the past 10 years, NParks has been painstakingly working on an orchid conservation and reintroduction programme. This initiative is aimed at propagating and re-introducing native orchid species into natural, semi-natural, and urban environments. We have witnessed substantial results. When the programme first started, some 3000 plants of five native species were planted, with a modest number of seedlings planted each year. More than 80% of the orchids planted on trees in parks and nature areas have survived. In time, these orchids will self propagate.

The tiger orchid was chosen to be the first native orchid to be re-introduced to Orchard Road because it is a spectacular species, the largest orchid plant in the world and is already extinct in the wild in Singapore.

Launch of Orchid Conservation Fund

Today's tiger orchid planting on Orchard Road also marked the launch of the Orchid Conservation Fund, introduced by the Garden City Fund (GCF), NParks' registered charity and IPC. GCF was launched in 2003 by the then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to support the growth and development of Singapore's Garden City. Donations to this fund for orchid conservation will be used to propagate and reintroduce our rare and endangered Orchid species back into the streets, parks and nature areas.

A donation of $50 onwards will enable an orchid to be planted. Clarins and Tangs have contributed $5,000 each to help the Orchid Conservation Fund get off to a blooming start. The Fund aims to raise some $250,000 that will be used to support a few key activities: monitoring existing orchid species, exploring ways to conserve them, increasing their numbers through subsequent re-introduction into appropriate habitats, research and education. From the start of 2010, NParks is reintroducing two new native species every year over the next three years. They will be planted at locations with the right environmental conditions where people can see and appreciate their beauty. These areas will include parks and nature areas and even along tourist corridors like Napier Road, Holland Road and the East Coast Park Expressway near the budget terminal.

Members of the public can also grow their own native orchids at home by buying the plants from some local nurseries. A public talk on how to grow these will be conducted by NParks at HortPark on Sat, 15 May, 3-5pm. Those interested in finding out more can email NParks_Mailbox@NParks.gov.sg.

Dr Wong Wei Har, Festival Director, said: "I would like to thank our partners, Clarins and TANGS for their support of the Singapore Garden Festival, and for their help in putting together this beautiful orchid display around TANGS Orchard, which provides shoppers with a sneak preview of the Singapore Orchid Show segment at July�s Singapore Garden Festival. Orchids are a big part of our national heritage. The launch of the Orchid Conservation Fund goes a long way in allowing us to take the necessary steps to conserve native species of orchids, and to provide us with the opportunity to introduce more species of orchids into the Singapore Cityscape, like the tiger orchid that we planted today outside TANGS Orchard."

"Fully aware that it owes everything to Nature, Clarins has always been committed to protecting the planet's natural resources. Reflecting our core values of listening and respect that naturally contributed to the adoption of a line of conduct, we are committed to the goal of sustainable development. Through this commitment, Clarins highlights its goal of promoting a sense of responsibility among all employees and developing innovative solutions to assure the sustainable development of the Company in a manner that is respectful of mankind, nature and love of life. At Clarins, we know that everything is linked, and by caring for and giving back to the environment, we ensure our success for generations to come. With this, we are proud to be the first organisation to support the Garden City Fund's Orchid Conservation Fund, an important initiative to help the survival of our native orchids," says Christian Courtin-Clarins, Clarins' Chairman.

"We are truly delighted to join NParks and Clarins in their efforts at orchid conservation. As a company with nearly 80 years of history, we understand the importance of preserving our heritage for generations to come. The reintroduction of rare orchids into the cityscape will not only help in the promotion of orchid conservation, but is a great way for the public to experience the wonders of nature in the very heart of Orchard Road." says Mr Foo Tiang Sooi, CEO of TANGS.

Orchid Display at TANGS Orchard and Singapore Garden Festival

For those who cannot wait for the tiger orchids to bloom and are eager to catch a glimpse of more native orchids, Singapore Garden Festival, Clarins and TANGS Orchard have put up a display entitled Orchids: A Conservation Story in the department store to raise public awareness about native orchids and conservation avenues. These native orchids, along with many others, will also be showcased at the Singapore Orchid Show, held in conjunction with the Singapore Garden Festival later in July.

The Singapore Garden Festival, Asia's best flower and garden show, will return to Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 15 to 22 July 2010. The Festival is the only one in the world to bring together top award-winning garden and floral designers from around the world, under one roof. For more information, please visit www.singaporegardenfestival.com.

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Three Indonesian ministers pledge to stop peatland conversion

Jakarta Post 15 May 10;

Activists from environmental group Greenpeace have said that three ministers told them the government would stop issuing new permits to convert peatland.

Greenpeace made the announcement after speaking with Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan and Agriculture Minister Suswono in separate closed-door meetings earlier this week.

"Both have promised to halt new permits for peatland conversion, including in areas that are less than three meters deep," Joko Arif, a Greenpeace forest campaigner, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"We hope Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta will follow through on the issue of *producing a* regulation to protect peatland."

A current draft of a government regulation says peatlands less than three meters deep can be converted to become any of 10 possibilities, including, plantations, fish farms, residential areas or mining or transmigration areas.

An existing decree issued by the Agriculture Ministry applies a total ban on the conversion of peatlands more than three meters deep.

Director general of forest production development at the Forestry Ministry Hadi Daryanto confirmed Greenpeace's claim.

"Minister Zulkifli will temporarily stop issuing new permits for the use of peatland, including for plantations and industrial forest," Hadi told the Post.

"Permits will only be issued for ecosystem restoration projects. But we will analyze the companies' profile to ensure the projects really aim to restore ecosystems in peatland."

However, Hadi said that companies that had already been issued with permits to convert peatland would not be affected by the new rule.

Greenpeace in its statement said that the promise to protect peatland should be kept, and cited the case of one destroyed area of peatland in Kampar Semenanjung in Riau.

"This intention *to protect peatlands* must be realized, as companies continue to clear and drain peatland like in Kampar Semenanjung," Arief said.

An independent team of experts formed by the Forestry Ministry reported that a canal built in Kampar Semenanjung by pulp and paper producer PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper to manage water levels near its factory had damaged a large area of peatland.

Indonesia has around 21 million hectares of peatland. Papua has 8 million hectares of peatland, Sumatra has 7.2 million hectares and Kalimantan has 5.8 million hectares.

With climate change now a serious topic worldwide, talks have stepped up to impose a moratorium on the conversion of peatland in Indonesia.

Masnellyarti Hilman, deputy minister for environmental damage control at the Environment Ministry said that her office was ready to revise the draft to totally ban peatland conversion.

Greenpeace has long called for a moratorium on peatland conversion to meet the government's target to cut greenhouse emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

- JP/Adianto P. Simamora

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Increasing red tides a threat to fish farming in Indonesia

Adianto P. Simamora Jakarta Post 15 May 10;

The high rate of pollution in the sea has sparked algal blooms, which can pose a serious threat to the country's fishery sector amid the government's plan to boost fishery production, a seminar heard Friday.

The Indonesian Maritime Council warned algal blooms, also known as the red tide, could grow to an uncontrollable rate if there was no improvement in watershed management to minimize the influx of pollutants into the sea.

"The red tide may hamper the government's target to produce up to 350 million tons of fishery products per year since about 70 percent of the target would be from marine culture," the council's secretary, Rizal Max Rompas told a seminar Friday.

The pollutants from land agriculture, industries and domestic waste into the sea through the rivers can increase nutrients that will feed the rapid proliferation of the harmful algae, he said.

The red tide could reduce oxygen and increase toxins that would threaten the massive death of marine biota such as fish.

Pollutants will also worsen the quality of sea water that can disturb the population of marine organisms.

Red tides can be seen with the rapid change of sea water colors including red, green and brown.

Rizal said that a number of red tide cases were found in Indonesian waters since the 1980s, causing the death of many fish.

He said that Jakarta Bay suffered red tides at least five times in 1992, 1994, 1997, 2005 and 2006, marked prominently by a sea of floating dead fish.

"The red tides also hit Ambon Bay in 1997 and the Cirebon-Indramayu waters in 2007. It also hit the eastern part of Bali coastal areas four times and East Nusa Tenggara water three times," he said.

The incidents both in Ambon and East Nusa Tenggara reportedly caused the death of 15 people after they consumed fish contaminated with the toxin. "Red tides will cause economic loss. It will cause the harvest failure of shrimp and fish, and impact on the country's tourism sector," he said.

Indonesia has about 7.9 million square kilometers of sea, with a coastline of around 108,000 kilometers.

Director general of spatial planning at the Public Works Ministry Imam Ernawi said that integrated management of watershed from upstream to downstream areas could reduce the phenomena of red tides in Indonesia.

He said the use of chemical fertilizers for agriculture could also lead to the blooming of algae in the sea and coastal areas.

"To anticipate red tides, the government should manage the allocation of protected forest in upstream and coastal areas to maintain the quality and quantity of water," he told the seminar.

A senior official from the agency for assessment and application of technology (BPPT), Jana Anggadiredja, said that an early warning system using buoy technology and remote sensing could be used to mitigate the algal blooming.

A marine expert from the University of Japan, Yasowo Fukuyo, said satellite technology could be powerful in detecting the movement of red algae, including in Indonesian seas. He said that it could detect red tides in the area of less than 10 kilometers to 1,000 square kilometers.

He predicted that the red tide cases could be far larger in Indonesia than Japan due to its huge water area.

"We record some 200 red tides a year in Japan, I suspect red tide cases are much bigger in Indonesia," he said.

Jana said most red tide occurrences were harmful.

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Environmental groups oppose US base plan for Japan island

Yahoo News 14 May 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – Environmentalists voiced their opposition Friday to a Japanese government plan to relocate a US military airbase to a coastal area of Okinawa island, saying it would destroy a fragile marine ecosystem.

A coalition of groups including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Greenpeace said the waters off Henoko boast coral reefs and seagrass and are home to the sea mammal the dugong and other rare species.

"We demand that the government give up the construction plan for a new base which would destroy the biodiversity of the rich ocean," said the coalition of more than 60 groups, also including the Japan-US Citizens for Okinawa Network.

Japan's government is searching for a solution to a long-running dispute over the controversial US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which is locally unpopular, mainly because of noise, pollution and the risk of accidents.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama last week backtracked on an election pledge to move the base off Okinawa and instead agreed to honour an earlier pact with Washington to move the base from a city area of Okinawa to Henoko.

His government has reportedly suggested that the new offshore runways be built on pylons rather than landfill, but the groups said this would still damage the environment by blocking sunlight and changing sea currents.

Okinawa University president Kunitoshi Sakurai, an environmental studies professor, represented the grouping and relayed its views in a meeting Friday with Kinya Takino, the deputy chief cabinet secretary.

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Four African countries sign new Nile treaty

Ben Simon Fri Yahoo News 14 May 10;

ENTEBBE, Uganda (AFP) – Four African countries on Friday signed a new treaty on the equitable sharing of the Nile waters despite strong opposition from Egypt and Sudan who have the lion's share of the river waters.

Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania signed the new framework while Kenya issued a support statement, an AFP correspondent reported.

Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were not represented at the meeting in the Ugandan town of Entebbe.

"This agreement benefits all of us and harms none of us," Ethiopia's Water Resources Minister Asfaw Dingamo said. "I strongly believe all Nile Basin countries will sign the agreement."

The upstream countries want to be able to implement irrigation and hydropower projects in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but without Egypt being able to exercise the veto power it was given by a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.

"We regret the intentional and announced absence of our dear brothers from Egypt and Sudan," said Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwanda's water and lands minister.

Kenya's ambassador to Uganda, Geoffrey Okanga, said his country's water minister "signalled to me her readiness to sign this agreement as soon as possible because the Kenyan position on this matter has not changed..."

The new agreement, the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework, is to replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gives them control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.

The two countries have expressed fears that their water supply would be severely reduced if the seven other Nile users divert the river with domestic irrigation and hydropower projects.

Asfaw said the "Nile is a resource for all countries. Not a resource for some or limited countries" and ruled out the possibility of conflict.

"I don't think we are going to declare a water war because if you manage it properly..., the Nile is enough for the riparian countries and the only problem we were getting up to now is this resource was not being managed as it should be," he said.

Unlike the 1959 accord which allocated Egypt 55.5 billion cubic metres of the Nile and 18.5 billion to Sudan, the new agreement allows countries to use the waters as they please provided they do not harm others.

The 6,700-kilometre Nile is a confluence of the White Nile, whose source is Lake Victoria in east Africa, and the Blue Nile that springs from the Ethiopian highlands.

The two Niles join in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and flow down through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea in a huge delta.

The Nile Basin Initiative, which had been spearheading the talks, will now become the Nile Basin Commission and will receive, review and approve or reject projects related to Africa's longest river.

It will be based in Addis Ababa and have representation from all nine Nile basin countries.

Egypt's State Minister for Legal Affairs Mufid Shehab said the new agreement was a mistake.

"We do not want to view it as a destructive act, but we view it as a mistaken action and we should stop it," state media quoted Shehab as saying late Thursday.

"We never hoped this would happen because it completely goes beyond the framework of cooperation."

Also Thursday, a senior EU envoy urged seven east African countries not to sign the new deal and to settle differences with Egypt and Sudan first.

Marc Franco, who heads the European Union delegation in Egypt, said a separate deal would "make the political problems that exist worse."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned at the weekend that Cairo's water rights were a "red line" and threatened legal action if a partial deal is reached.

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UN science chief defends work, welcomes review

Arthur Max (Associated Press) Google News 14 May 10;

AMSTERDAM — The head of the U.N. scientific body on climate change defended Friday the work of the thousands of scientists who contribute to its reports, even as he welcomed a review of procedures that produced errors undermining the panel's public credibility.

The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, cautioned an independent scientific committee reviewing the IPCC's work not to undermine scientists' motivation for contributing to reports on global warming.

The voluminous reports of the scientific panel are credited with raising the alarm that human emissions of greenhouse gases already have led to a gradual warming of the globe, and if unchecked could lead to catastrophic changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and the extinction of about one-third of the species on Earth. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

But its reports have been dismissed by climate skeptics who attribute global warming to natural cycles. The skeptics were bolstered by a series of errors in the IPCC's 2007 report.

Pachauri told the committee's first review meeting that the panel's conclusions are valid, even in areas where mistakes were discovered.

Pointing to the most glaring error, a claim that the world's glaciers will melt by 2035, Pachauri said glaciers are indeed melting, though not that fast. Nonetheless, glacial melt accounts for 28 percent of sea level rise, and the panel's assessment on glaciers contains "a lot of facts which we can ignore at our peril."

Pachauri said the panel is comprised of volunteer scientists contributing several years of their own time and who disband after issuing their report. The panel has no mechanism for responding to criticism once the reports are issued, other than the small secretariat.

"We need to develop an ability and a capacity to communicate better with the outside world," he told the 15 top scientists from around the world summoned to sit on the review committee..

Pachauri acknowledged the response to the errors was inadequate, but said the attack on the panel was unprecedented.

He said the panel's procedures already are robust, but he welcomed any suggestion that would improve accuracy.

The review is expected to take several weeks before it issues recommendations on how to tighten the IPCC procedures.

IPCC's Pachauri says climate body must 'listen and learn'
Richard Black, BBC News 14 May 10;

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said the organisation needs to learn from recent criticisms and modernise its workings.

But despite making an error over Himalayan glacier melt in its landmark 2007 report, the panel's basic conclusions remain sound, he said.

Rajendra Pachauri was speaking at the opening session of a UN-commissioned review into the IPCC's workings.

The review is due to hear from some of the IPCC's critics in coming months.

Dr Pachauri admitted his organisation had been ill-prepared and ill-resourced to deal with the recent criticism it has received.

"We have to listen and learn all the time and evolve in a manner that meets the needs of society across the world," Dr Pachauri told the review panel.

While the IPCC admits to including an erroneous date by which Himalayan glaciers might disappear in its 2007 Fourth Assessment report, Dr Pachauri said: "We have not been effective at telling the public, 'yes, we made a mistake but that does not change the fact that the glaciers are melting'."

And he rebutted accusations made in some newspapers and websites that the IPCC's intentions have been other than honest.

"I'm afraid these allegations of corruption and malfeasance are completely misplaced and distorted," he told BBC News.

"But we have to make sure we do our best and live up to the expectations of the public and of governments, which are basically our masters."
Friends and foes

Back in February, the IPCC suggested setting up an independent review, feeling that its 20-year-old rules and working practices perhaps needed an overhaul, and also feeling it was perhaps ill-equipped to counter the heat of unprecedented political attention in the wake of "Himalayagate" and the release of emails stolen from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.

Governments endorsed the idea; and in March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commissioned the review from the InterAcademy Council, an international umbrella body for science academies such as the UK's Royal Society.

The council established a 12-strong review panel, chaired by US economist Professor Harold Shapiro, a former advisor to both Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton.

"We're neither friend nor foe," he told BBC News.

"We're a neutral body; most of us have never participated in the IPCC, but all of us have been part of organisations where quality control is an issue; and we have experience in dealing with that, and we hope that experience can help the IPCC."

After Dr Pachauri's presentation, the panel heard from senior UN figures including Janos Pasztor, director of Mr Ban's climate change support team.

"Nothing that has been alleged in recent press reports or from hacked emails has altered the consensus on climate change," he said.

"However, as the IPCC embarks on its fifth assessment report, it's important that… the potential for future errors is minimised."

One of the areas in which the IPCC has come in for criticism concerns its use of data from non-peer-reviewed sources such as the WWF report in which originated the erroneous Himalayan melting date of 2035.

But Dr Pachauri said the organisation had to use such sources - sometimes they were all that was available. It was just that on this occasion, its strict procedures had not been followed.

"The media and several other people have completely misunderstood the need for using non peer-reviewed literature," he said.

"The loose term that's used is 'grey literature' as though this is grey muddied water flowing down the drains.

"But I'd like to highlight what non-peer-reviewed literature constitutes: reports from the International Energy Agency, the OECD, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank... and some NGOs - there are some highly prestigious NGOS that are doing detailed academic work, and you cannot ignore this."
Thought sought

Professor Shapiro said that in due course, the review panel would hear more critical testimony.

"We will not have time to hear from every critic of the IPCC," he said.

"But we will try to put together some public sessions of those who are I would say 'thoughtful critics' - very very respectable and highly thought of scientists with criticisms of the organisation - we definitely want to hear that."

In addition, the panel's website invites comments from anyone.

The panel, which comprises eminent scientists and economists from both the developed and developing worlds including Nobel prize-winning ozone chemist Mario Molina, has until the end of August to prepare its report.

Its conclusions will be peer-reviewed before being presented at the IPCC's October meeting, the point at which Dr Pachauri and his team are due to finalise plans for the fifth assessment report, due in 2013.

UN climate panel chief defends research at review
Yahoo News 14 May 10;

THE HAGUE (AFP) – The head of the United Nations' climate change panel defended the body Friday before an academic council charged with reviewing its research methods after a string of challenges to its findings.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), admitted an error was made in warning that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035, but said there was nevertheless some value in the finding.

"Alright, there was this error, but there is a whole lot of valid information and assessment related to the glaciers which we can only ignore at our own peril and the peril of generations yet to come," he told a public meeting in Amsterdam of the InterAcademy Council (IAC), webcast live.

"Even if the Himalayan glaciers do not melt (by 2035), this is what is happening to the glaciers around the world."

Melting glaciers, said Pachauri, have "already contributed around 28 percent of sea level rise since 1993.... This is something that should cause concern."

The IPCC, made up of several thousand scientists tasked with vetting scientific knowledge on climate change, has come under fire from several quarters over its 2007 report.

Its reputation was damaged by its warning over melting Himalayan glaciers, a claim that has been widely discredited and fuelled scepticism about climate change.

More recently, it has been criticised for a finding that a one-metre (three-foot) rise in sea levels would flood 17 percent of Bangladesh and create 20 million refugees by 2050.

Critics said this ignored the role of at least one billion tonnes of sediment carried by rivers into Bangladesh every year in countering sea level rises.

But Pachauri ascribed the silt argument to "non-peer reviewed research".

"You really can't take one single study like that into account," he told the review panel.

"There are several questions that have to be answered: will that level of siltation we see today continue in the future? Is that silt strong enough to withstand the threat of sea level rise?"

The IAC, which groups presidents of 15 leading science academies, has been tasked with an independent probe of the IPCC's procedures and processes.

"Ever since this problem cropped up with the Himalayan glacier, my colleagues and I in the IPCC have gone to great lengths to see how at every state of the fifth (next) assessment report writing process we bring in these checks and balances," said Pachauri, welcoming the IAC review.

"We are going to do everything humanly possible but we would be grateful for any suggestions that come out for implementation by which we try and make this as foolproof as is humanly possible."

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Best of our wild blogs: 14 May 10

Biodiversity for kids during the June holidays!
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

Tue 25 May 2010: 4pm – “Do apes really not get the point of human communicative behaviour?” from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

‘Leaf’ Me Alone
from My Itchy Fingers

Raffles Museum Treasures: Annandale's rat
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Brown-throated Sunbird eating flowers of Hura crepitans
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Should attempts be made to tame wild birds?
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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