Best of our wild blogs: 29 Jun 12

Laced Woodpecker and durians
from Bird Ecology Study Group

New articles on Nature in Singapore website
from Raffles Museum News

96 percent of the world's species remain unevaluated by the Red List from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

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Decision to build Gardens by the Bay not an easy one: PM Lee

Saifulbahri Ismail Channel NewsAsia 28 Jun 12;

SINGAPORE : Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said the decision to build Gardens by the Bay was not an easy one.

Speaking to some 700 guests at the official opening of the Gardens on Thursday, Mr Lee pointed out the land could have been used for more valuable developments.

But he said that looking at it now, the decision to build it was correct.

Gardens by the Bay is Singapore's latest manifestation of its 'City in a Garden' vision.

Spanning 101 hectares, the S$1 billion superpark houses over a quarter of a million rare plants.

It is now an icon of the redeveloped Marina Bay.

But the decision to build it was not easy.

Mr Lee said: "(We) could have used this for far more valuable commercial or residential developments, right in the middle of the new Singapore city. But our planners in URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) believed that a large and beautiful park was an important element of our new downtown in Marina Bay South, just like Central Park in New York, or Hyde Park in London.

"Mr Mah Bow Tan, who was then the Minister for National Development, strongly supported this project. He saw value in having Gardens by the Bay right in the city, value beyond enhancing the value of the rest of the land in Marina Bay."

Mr Lee said Gardens by the Bay is not just a pretty flower to admire from afar, but the "people's garden" for all to enjoy every single day.

And he urged all Singaporeans to visit the Gardens and embrace it as their own.

Mr Lee said: "This is just one example of how we are transforming Singapore's living environment. It may be a densely populated city, maybe one of the densest in the world, but we are determined that our people should be able to live comfortably, pleasantly, graciously.

"Not just good homes, efficient public transport, which we are working hard to improve, or safe streets. But also be in touch with nature, never far from green spaces and blue waters."

Gardens by the Bay features two conservatory domes - known as Flower Dome and Cloud Forest.

Cloud Forest contains a man-made mountain that houses a variety of high altitude plants that are not normally found in tropical Singapore, while Flower Dome features an indoor Mediterranean garden and seasonal changing floral displays.

There is also an Outdoor Gardens which members of the public can go to free of charge.

The Gardens cost about S$1 billion to build.

CEO of Gardens by the Bay, Dr Tan Wee Kiat, explained: "First of all, this is reclaimed land; in order to be the first project in here, you have got to drain the place, provide canals, bring in roads, electricity - in other words, a lot of the money is spent, half of it is on infrastructure.

"The major portion of the other half are the two glass domes. Twenty per cent of that budget, which is very high for most developments, goes into securing plant material. And it is money rightfully spent because Singaporeans want a bit of spring and autumn, which you can never in the land of perpetual summer."

The new green space opens to the public on Friday, and more than 30,000 visitors are expected to flock here.

- CNA/ms

Gardens by the Bay not an easy decision: PM
Vital to have such green space despite giving up 101ha of prime land, he says
Tan Dawn Wei Straits Times 29 Jun 12;

SETTING aside 101ha of prime land in the heart of Singapore's new downtown for Gardens by the Bay was not an easy decision, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.

The land could have been used for far more valuable commercial and residential developments, but planners believed in the value of an iconic green space - one that would be a key part of the new downtown in Marina Bay South and Singapore's answer to New York's Central Park and London's Hyde Park.

Speaking at the opening of the attraction, at which he unveiled a silver plaque, he said that with the city-state being so densely populated, such green lungs were needed.

'In fact, the more developed a city Singapore is, the more important it is for us to have such peaceful oases amid our tropical concrete and expressways, in order to give us emotional well-being and a sense of belonging.'

He was addressing 700 civil servants, corporate partners and students who were at the Flower Dome conservatory for the opening ceremony. He had earlier gone on a tour of the Gardens, taking in the sights from the OCBC Skyway, a 128m-long aerial walkway linking two 42m-tall Supertrees.

Mr Lee had announced the idea for the Gardens in his National Day Rally speech in 2005.

By far the largest and most expensive endeavour undertaken by the National Parks Board, the facility is made up of three gardens and is the latest manifestation of the city-in-a-garden vision.

The first and largest of the gardens, Bay South, took five years and $1 billion to build. It has two cooled conservatories that are among the largest in the world. The other gardens, Bay East and Bay Central, will be developed later. A global design competition in 2005 was won by British firm Grant Associates, which came up with the idea for the Supertrees.

A construction boom fuelled by developments like Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa resulted in the cost of the Gardens going up by 35 per cent.

After some rethinking, the number of Supertrees was halved to 18, and excavation work for a full basement carpark forgone.

The Gardens' chief executive Tan Wee Kiat said the project had its share of problems, chief of which was that it was a full-fledged garden built on reclaimed land - and in a short time at that.

Yesterday, Mr Lee singled out former national development minister Mah Bow Tan for pushing for the project when he was in charge.

'He saw value in having Gardens by the Bay right in the city, a value beyond enhancing the price of the rest of the land in Marina Bay,' said Mr Lee.

Speaking to The Straits Times later, Mr Mah said no one would think of putting a commercial value on New York's Central Park. He said: 'Can you imagine if someone said, 'We should have built houses on Hyde Park'? Or 'Let's turn Botanic Gardens into good-class bungalows'?'

National Parks Board chief Poon Hong Yuen said he expects the new Gardens to attract five million visitors in its first year.

Guests at yesterday's opening took many pictures of the lit Supertrees, but the one thing that left most of them awestruck was the 30m waterfall in the Cloud Forest conservatory. 'Wow!' was the word that escaped many lips.

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West's Wildfires A Preview Of Changed Climate: Scientists

Deborah Zabarenko PlanetArk 29 Jun 12;

Scorching heat, high winds and bone-dry conditions are fueling catastrophic wildfires in the U.S. West that offer a preview of the kind of disasters that human-caused climate change could bring, a trio of scientists said on Thursday.

"What we're seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like," Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer said during a telephone press briefing. "It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster ... This provides vivid images of what we can expect to see more of in the future."

In Colorado, wildfires that have raged for weeks have killed four people, displaced thousands and destroyed hundreds of homes. Because winter snowpack was lighter than usual and melted sooner, fire season started earlier in the U.S. West, with wildfires out of control in Colorado, Montana and Utah.

The high temperatures that are helping drive these fires are consistent with projections by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said this kind of extreme heat, with little cooling overnight, is one kind of damaging impact of global warming.

Others include more severe storms, floods and droughts, Oppenheimer said.

The stage was set for these fires when winter snowpack was lighter than usual, said Steven Running, a forest ecologist at the University of Montana.

Mountain snows melted an average of two weeks earlier than normal this year, Running said. "That just sets us up for a longer, dryer summer. Then all you need is an ignition source and wind."

Warmer-than-usual winters also allow tree-killing mountain pine beetles to survive the winter and attack Western forests, leaving behind dry wood to fuel wildfires earlier in the season, Running said.

"Now we have a lot of dead trees to burn ... it's not even July yet," he said. Trying to stop such blazes driven by high winds is a bit like to trying to stop a hurricane, Running said: "There is nothing to stop that kind of holocaust."

Fires cost about $1 billion or more a year, and exact a toll on human health, ranging from increased risk of heart, lung and kidney ailments to post-traumatic stress disorder, said Howard Frumkin, a public health expert at the University of Washington.

"Wildfire smoke is like intense air pollution," Frumkin said. "Pollution levels can reach many times higher than a bad day in Mexico City or Beijing."

The elderly, the very young and the ill are most vulnerable to the heat that adds to wildfire risk, he said. The strain of fleeing homes and living in communities in the path of a wildfire can trigger ailments like post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

The briefing was convened by Climate Nexus, an advocacy and communications group. An accompanying report on heat waves and climate change was released simultaneously here.

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Best of our wild blogs: 28 Jun 12

Oil spill at Tanjung Piai, Johor
from wild shores of singapore

A fearsome threesome
from The annotated budak

White-crested Laughingthrush encounter
from Bird Ecology Study Group

eagle showtime @ the esplanade - June 2012
from sgbeachbum

Celebrating the Durian Season
from G33k5p34k's Blog

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Malaysia: Tanjung Piai National Park Closed Due To Oil Spill

Bernama 27 Jun 12;

PONTIAN, June 27 (Bernama) -- The Tanjung Piai National Park here has been closed to tourists due to an oil slick measuring about 600 metre-long sighted on the beach yesterday afternoon.

Johor National Parks Corporation director Suhairi Hashim said the closure was to facilitate cleaning-up work which would take three days.

"We are awaiting the Beach Cleaning Committee's decision before launching the clean-up operation.

"The committee is made up of several agencies, including the Department of Environment (DOE), the Pontian Land Office, and the Pontian District Office," he told reporters here Wednesday.

Suhairi said the oil slick, which was believed to have occurred during fuel transfer from vessels off Tanjung Piai, was spotted by Tanjung Piai National Park personnel at about 2pm yesterday.

-- BERNAMA

Oil spill forces park closure
Ahmad Fairuz Othman AND Sim Bak Heng New Straits Times 28 Jun 12;

ECOLOGICAL PROBLEM: Tanjung Piai National Park and Pulau Kukup affected

An oil slick in the swamp area at the Tanjung Piai National Park. Pic courtesy of Taman Negara Tanjung Piai

PONTIAN: The Tanjung Piai National Park here will be closed after an oil spill washed up onto a 600m coastal stretch located in the park and nearby Pulau Kukup.

The park, which has received about 30,000 tourists since January, will be closed to facilitate a three-day clean-up.

The oil spill was believed to have occurred when illegal vessel-to-vessel fuel transfers off the coast here took place since Tuesday.

The national park's staff were notified of the incident at 2pm on Tuesday. It was also reported to the Pontian District Office and the Marine Department.

"The oil spill could be seen along a 600m stretch along the main walkway heading towards the globe structure, which is the main landmark at the national park. The globe marks the southernmost tip of mainland Asia," said Johor National Parks Corporation director, Suhairi Hashim.

It also damaged the pedestrian walkway at the national park, causing birds and mangrove trees to be covered in oil sludge and affecting at least 10 species of marine life and insects in the park.

"It is feared the incident will endanger further the species of birds, shellfish and fish, as the oil has covered mangrove tree roots and can cause the plants to wither in two months."

The incident at the eco-tourism spot, listed as a Ramsar site, was the second incident since February this year. Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention of 1971.

"Checks showed that the oil spill has also affected the Pulau Kukup National Park which is located not far from Tanjung Piai National Park."

Additional reporting by Jassmine Shadiqe

Lack of skills hampers oil sludge clean-up
New Straits Times 29 Jun 12;

PONTIAN: The lack of expertise and equipment is hampering the cleaning up of oil sludge at the Tanjung Piai National Park.

A Pulau Kukup National Park employee hard at work cleaning up an area spoilt by an oil spill. The park was closed after an oil spill washed up onto a 600m stretch in the park and nearby Pulau Kukup. Pic by Zulkarnain Ahmad Tajuddin

Johor National Parks Corporation director Suhairi Hashim said more than 30 workers from the national parks in Johor, including those from the Pulau Kukup National Park, had been roped in to help with the operation.

He said the cleaning was done manually with equipment like hoes, spades and absorbents provided by the state Department of Environment.

"They are digging up the oil sludge, packing them in plastic bags and wiping the mangrove tree roots with absorbent pads.

"The cleaning job is difficult because Tanjung Piai covers about 562ha and has over 1,000 mangrove trees.

"We expect the oil sludge will destroy more trees and kill more marine life.

"Last February, we had a similar clean-up which cost us RM50,000, yet more than 300 trees withered two months later.

"We expect to spend more than RM50,000 this time, too, but hope to rope in agencies, such as the Malaysian Nature Society, to help us with their expertise to minimise the impact of the pollution on our flora and fauna.

"As the cleaning exercise will stretch for five days, we welcome anyone with expertise and equipment to assist in our work so that it could be done faster and more effectively."

Those interested to assist in the cleaning can contact Tanjung Piai National Park at 07-6969712.

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Rhinos in Indonesia in more critical condition

Antara 27 Jun 12;

Bandarlampung, Lampung (ANTARA News) - The International Rhinos Foundation (IRF) disclosed that the rhinos in Indonesia are in a critical condition compared to those in other parts of the world.

"Since the last 20 years, the rhinos in Indonesia, especially in Sumatra, have practically lost their habitat as the result of massive illegal hunting," IRF Manager Sussie Ellise said in East Lampung on Wednesday.

She said the ILF with a partnership of the Indonesian Rhino Foundation (YABI) will be giving its firm support to the team in Indonesia to the survival of the big animals.

"Especially now that Andatu, the recently born rhino, will serve as a momentum in efforts for the survival of the rhinos in Sumatra," she added.

She also said that she has received many short messages and emails from many parts of the world congratulating the birth of Andatu, especially as the rhino population has not increased in the last 140 years, and that Andatu`s birth was the fourth in the world and the first in South East Asia.

Coordinator of the Sumatra Rhinos Wildlife Reserve (SRS) Dedi Chandra said the tiny rhino born to from a male Andalas and female Andatu is now in an excellent condition and continued familiarizing with its surroundings.

"Immediately two hours after its birth yesterday (June 26), it began searching for its mother`s milk, although often falling in the effort," Dedi.

In the next two weeks a team of Indonesian and foreign doctors will be monitoring until Andatu has reached a truly good and stable condition considering that the first two weeks following birth are critical.

A male Sumatra rhino was born in SRS TNWK East Lampung on Saturday (June 23) at 00.45 West Indonesia Time.

In a press release head of TNWK Institute Iwen Supranata said the birth of the rhino was the first after the breeding conservation in Asia 124 years ago.

"The birth of the rhino served as an historical milestone for the preservation of Sumatra rhinos and would hopefully increase world confidence in the government in preserving the rare animals in Indonesia," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru

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Best of our wild blogs: 27 Jun 12

Singapore's sea bed is rich with marine life!
from wild shores of singapore

Random Gallery - Tajuria dominus
from Butterflies of Singapore

The Bidadari Squirrel
from Urban Forest

Caught Red Handed
from Macro Photography in Singapore

Extensive survey near submerged reefs off Pulau Hantu
from wild shores of singapore and Floating barriers installed along Sentosa shore and Work on seawalls at Labrador

the kamikaze? @ the Riverwalk - June 2012
from sgbeachbum

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More 'flight' than 'fight' in wild boars

Straits Times Forum 27 Jun 12;

HAVING lived in Thomson Road for 16 years, I have had my fair share of wild boar sightings, which have increased over the past few years.

Many of these wild boars have more 'flight' than 'fight' in them.

They usually appear late at night when there are few people around. When they are startled by passing cars, they hurriedly dash back into the forested area.

I do not deny that wild boars can be a threat to public safety, but then again, wouldn't most wild animals attack if cornered?

Culling wild boars is not the way to control their population. Fencing up the places where they are often sighted would be a better solution, to prevent not only wild boars from venturing out, but also other wildlife that wander around and get run over by passing cars.

It would be a safer option for both the wildlife and the public.

I remember getting very excited over my first wild boar sighting, and I still get that feeling every time I spot one.

I am sure many people who do not live around forested areas will also be as thrilled. Some people even take their families to these areas to catch a glimpse of the wildlife, such as monkeys and wild boars.

I hope the wild boars will be spared. Let us enjoy nature in our urban city.

Teng Jiahui (Miss)

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South Korea to ban catching of dolphins for shows

AFP Yahoo News 27 Jun 12;

South Korea will ban the catching of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins for use in shows by designating them as protected mammals, the maritime affairs ministry said Tuesday.

An upcoming bill will also designate sea turtles and sea horses as protected species, the ministry said.

Currently it is legal to catch dolphins and whales for a show or for research if authorities give prior approval. Otherwise, it is punishable by a jail term of up to two years or a fine of up to five million won ($4,300).

The revised law would authorise seizures only for research. It would raise penalties to up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 20 million won.

Dolphins are widely used for shows in South Korea. But Seoul's main zoo agreed in March to suspend its popular show over claims by activists that one of the dolphins was captured illegally.

In April, a court on the southern holiday island of Jeju ordered the release into the ocean of five dolphins which had been captured without permission and used in a show.

Some experts say dolphin shows have educational value and released mammals may not be able to adapt to the open sea. But animal rights activists have called for a ban on dolphin shows and tough rules on seizures.

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Keeping Asia's big cities afloat

Gavin Jones for The Straits Times 27 Jun 12;

BANGKOK, Jakarta and Manila are the megacities of South- east Asia today and, as with most other megacities, they are beset by environmental concerns.

These three megacities sit in low-lying coastal areas barely above sea level, although parts of outer Jakarta and Manila are elevated. So flood woes are prominent in Manila from typhoons, and in Jakarta from its yearly wet season.

Residential developments in nature and water catchment areas have exacerbated the flooding, including a luxurious housing estate in north Jakarta in a conservatory forest area. The forest was to have prevented seawater intrusion and stabilised high tides and floods but now, without it, routine flooding plagues the area.

As for Bangkok, in years when the Chao Phraya River brings run-off from unusually high seasonal rainfall from Thailand's north to central plains, floods can be disastrous. Last year, for example, the total rainfall in the Chao Phraya basin was between 50 per cent and 100 per cent more than the yearly wet season average.

Another aggravating factor seems to have been the conversion of low-lying agricultural land for urban use. Farmers in flood-prone areas of Thailand used to plant long-stem varieties of rice because these could keep ahead of rising floodwaters but now, land paved over for urban use is unable to absorb floodwaters. This, on top of coastal erosion, provides multiple challenges for Bangkok's planners.

Meanwhile, Jakarta and Manila are in the throes of transportation woes. Both have more vehicles than road capacity for them - neither capital has a subway either. Indonesia's petrol subsidies, for example, have spawned a housing sprawl around its major toll roads, causing much rush-hour congestion.

It is hard to measure exactly how large these megacities are, chiefly because official metropolitan boundaries fail to capture the considerable population and economic spillovers from downtown to outlying urban areas.

For example, in 2000, when Jakarta and Manila's total populations were adjusted to include people in surrounding built-up areas, the resulting megacity population estimates jumped from 8.4 million to 17.8 million for Jakarta, and from 9.5 million to 16.2 million for Manila. Similar adjustments for Bangkok raised its population from 6.3 million to 8.3 million.

These populations have since increased considerably and I am now leading a study under the auspices of National University of Singapore's Global Asia Institute (NUS-GAI), to find ways of projecting the populations of such megacities and the urban regions around their metropolitan boundaries.

Might moving South-east Asia's capital cities to less environmentally challenged locations be a solution?

Such a decision cannot be taken lightly. The concentration of wealth and power in these mega-urban regions is such that it contributes as much as 30 per cent to a country's gross domestic product. So moving to greener areas will not greatly stem the flow of people into cities.

The only way, it seems, is to work consistently on many fronts to improve the liveability of these megacities, on which the well-being of so many people depends.

Professor Gavin Jones is director of the J.Y. Pillay Comparative Asia Research Centre at NUS-GAI and he will be speaking at the NUS-GAI Signature Conference on Thursday and Friday.

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Best of our wild blogs: 26 Jun 12

Flying Fish Friends Speak
from Flying Fish Friends

Secret Sirens of Singapore: Dugongs in our midst
from wild shores of singapore

Another side of Mandai mangroves
from wild shores of singapore

Palp romance
from The annotated budak

eagle v kamikaze @ high street - June 2012
from sgbeachbum

Brown-Throated Sunbird Collecting Cocoon Silk
from Bird Ecology Study Group

The Asian Green Youth Challenge Conference 2012
from Green Drinks Singapore

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Researcher, residents study and observe wild boars

Evelyn Lam/Valerie Chang Channel NewsAsia 25 Jun 12;

SINGAPORE: News that a wild boar wandered out of the forest around Lower Peirce Reservoir and charged at a security guard and a five-year-old boy at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park last Friday may have raised concerns in some quarters.

But now a wild life researcher says wild boars moving out of the woods does not necessarily mean that there is an overpopulation of them.

Mr Ong Say Lin, Research Student, Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore, said: "This may not just be a sign that their numbers are increasing too quickly. We don't know that for sure yet, and I can't deny that as well. They are coming out and they are spreading to bigger areas. And they can't tell the difference between a natural area and a housing estate that has planted fruit trees. To them it's really all the same, and it's just their normal foraging behaviour."

And observing wild boars' foraging behaviour has become a new past-time for some of the residents at Upper Thomson.

They say wild boars foraging for food by the roadside is now almost a daily occurrence, which attracted many drivers to take snapshots of them.

One resident even turned his home-grown jackfruit tree into an 'observation post', where he spends up to two hours watching the wild boars from a safe distance.

To better understand wild boars, Mr Ong has put in place more than 30 camera traps to track the animals.

He has also set up a webpage and Facebook page where he published his research findings, to be shared with the public.

The public can share their sightings or knowledge of wild boars on the Facebook page to help others learn more about the habits and behaviour of the animals.

- CNA/de

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