Best of our wild blogs: 12 Jun 13

Friday (14th June 2013), 7-9pm: "Do the Math" Movie Screening
from Lazy Lizard's Tales

Sat 15 Jun 2013: 3.00pm, talk at Select Books on “Pulau Ubin: The Last Kampung” – A photoessay by Nurfasihah and Nur Shafiqah from Otterman speaks

Nature Macro Photography Workshop @ Science Centre Singapore from Macro Photography in Singapore

Fri 28 Jun 2013: 1.30pm – 4.00pm: Public Seminar on Pangolin Conservation from Otterman speaks

Two Weekend Tours
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.

Sentosa battered by blue drums?
from wild shores of singapore

Seagrasses of Singapore (Part 2)
from Lazy Lizard's Tales and Part 3

Some Critters and Flowers @ Gardens by the Bay
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

#10 Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
from My Nature Experiences

Asian Koel – Attempts To Mate?
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Conserving the long-neglected freshwater fish of Borneo from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

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LTA meets nature groups over Cross Island Line, study to be done on its impact

Royston Sim Straits Times 11 Jun 13;

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) met nature groups on Tuesday evening - the first time it has done so - after concerns were raised over the environmental impact of the proposed Cross Island MRT Line.

Preliminary plans have a portion of the line passing underground through the nature reserve in the central catchment area.

The groups have offered to conduct a study of the line's impact on the flora and fauna of the nature reserve, which is expected to take several months.

LTA chief executive Chew Hock Yong said the authority will decide on its next step and how it should conduct an environmental impact assessment after taking in findings from the study.

He noted that the actual corridor of the line has not been decided upon, as planning is still at a very early stage.

The 50km Cross Island Line, which will run from Changi to Jurong, is slated for completion in 2030.

LTA begins talks with activists on environmental impact of Cross-Island Line
Saifulbahri Ismail Channel NewsAsia 11 Jun 13;

SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has begun talks with nature groups to understand the environmental impact of the Cross-Island MRT line.

LTA met nine green activists on Tuesday and assured them that no works will start before a good understanding has been achieved.

Chew Hock Yong, chief executive at LTA, said: "We have met them and they say they will do a study to look at some possible options in terms of how the Cross-Island Line can go through the area and then they will share with us the outcome of the study and that to us will be the first step that we take to understand better the environmental impact of the MRT line that we are building."

LTA said the study will be a joint effort by the various interested nature groups and it expects it to be completed within several months. LTA will then take into account results of the study when doing its own Environmental Impact Assessment.

The Central Catchment Nature Reserve, the largest of four nature reserves in Singapore, is home to a rich variety of plant and animal species.

Nature groups are concerned that tunnelling works for parts of the 1.4-kilometre long Cross-Island Line, which passes through the nature reserve to connect Bukit Timah and Ang Mo Kio, could cause habitat fragmentation and soil erosion.

LTA unveiled the line in January this year, which is slated for completion in 2030.

The Nature Society Singapore has called for a realignment of the line to protect the nature reserve.

The society is asking LTA to divert the line to the south of the nature reserve.

With the diversion, the line could stretch to two kilometres.

LTA said it will study all options and consider whether such a diversion is technically feasible.

Tony O’ Dempsey, council member of the Nature Society of Singapore, said: "Our position is very simple. Nature reserves are for the conservation of native flora and fauna and they are not for the purpose of infrastructure. We want the line to go around the nature reserves to the south. At an average speed of 30 km an hour, that would represent an extra four minutes of travel time. We don't think that's too much to ask to save our natural heritage."

- CNA/xq

Nature groups to study impact of Cross Island Line
Sumita d/o Sreedharan Today Online 12 Jun 13;

SINGAPORE — Six nature groups will be embarking on studies to determine the impact of the Cross Island Line (CRL) on the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, said Land Transport Authority (LTA) Chief Executive Chew Hock Yong yesterday.

The groups will study all possible options, which include cutting through the nature reserve and skirting around it, and highlight all implications to the LTA. No timeline has been set for the studies, which could take several months.

“We will not start any work until a time when there is proper understanding on what is the correct way to do it so as to minimise the impact on nature,” Mr Chew said.

Nature groups have been up in arms since the 50km train line was announced in January as construction work may harm rare fauna and flora in the central catchment area, which includes four reservoirs.

To be completed by around 2030, the line will start from Changi and run through areas such as Pasir Ris, Ang Mo Kio and Bukit Timah, and terminate at the Jurong Industrial Estate.

Last night, representatives from the groups met the LTA, which was seeking input on the Environmental Impact Assessment study it will be conducting.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Chew stressed that the alignment of the CRL has not been finalised and all considerations will be factored into the final decision. Other factors that will be examined include the impact on travel time, land use for the area and the effect on homes.

The LTA’s Environmental Impact Assessment study is expected to start in the second half of this year or early next year, and input from the nature groups will be taken into consideration, he said. Sumita Sreedharan

LTA delays environment study
Royston Sim Straits Times 12 Jun 13;

THE Land Transport Authority (LTA) will hold back its study of the environmental impact of the Cross Island MRT Line until after nature groups have completed their investigations.

It made the decision after its officials met nine representatives of several nature groups yesterday. The meeting was the first face-to-face session between the LTA and the groups since they expressed concern about the proposed MRT line passing through the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

The groups, which include the Nature Society Singapore and Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, offered to conduct a study on how different alignments of the line would impact flora and fauna in the nature reserve.

In accepting it, LTA chief executive Chew Hock Yong said the authority will consider the findings before deciding how to conduct its own environmental impact assessment.

Preliminary plans have an estimated 1.4km of the line passing underground through the reserve. Several groups had expressed concern that even soil investigations for the line would damage the nature reserve's ecosystem, and called for the line to go around the reserve instead of through it.

Mr Chew said the nature groups' study will help the LTA avoid undue impact on the environment. "We will not start any work until such time where there is a proper understanding of what is the correct way to do it, so as to minimise the impact on the nature reserve," he said.

He noted that plans presented in January were a "broad brush stroke", and the LTA will consider several factors before it decides on an alignment.

This includes environmental impact, overall travel time, how the line fits into the land use plan and whether it will affect any existing house.

Engineering studies are also needed to decide if it is technically feasible to have the line skirt around the reserve.

Mr Tony O'Dempsey, the Nature Society's spokesman on the issue, said the meeting was positive and the study should take about six months.

Mr Chew said the LTA had intended to call a tender for environment studies late this year or early next year. Plans for the line remain on track even though the LTA is waiting for the study to be completed, he added. The line will run from Changi to Jurong, and is slated for completion in 2030.

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That uniquely Singaporean crab disappearing fast

Local scientists trying to save a crab that's found nowhere else in the world
David Ee Straits Times 12 Jun 13;

MENTION crab, and Singaporeans will think of it on a plate smothered in chilli sauce.

But local scientists are now fighting to save a crab, barely larger than a 50-cent coin, found nowhere else in the world but here.

Numbers of the Singapore freshwater crab have declined drastically, they have found, though its exact population is unknown.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed it as critically endangered, and considers it one of the 100 most threatened species in the world. It is found only in several isolated forest streams in Bukit Timah, Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak.

A two-year study begun last July to assess its numbers and habitat conditions is under way, spearheaded by the National Parks Board and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Every month, NUS ecologist Darren Yeo tramps into the dense forests to search for the tiny crustaceans.

It is no easy task, he said. The nocturnal crabs tend to find shelter under rocks on the stream bed, feeding on worms.

But he has drawn one important observation from his strenuous work: populations of the crab in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve appear to have plummeted.

Scientists are unsure why. "One possible reason could be changes in water quality, caused perhaps by acid rain. But we haven't drawn a link," he said.

One indicator of water quality is the pH scale, which measures how acidic or alkaline water is. Pure water has a neutral pH of seven and pH falls as water gets more acidic.

The crab is known to prefer fast-flowing streams with a near- neutral pH concentration, as it evolved in relatively pristine conditions.

But the impact of urbanisation and pollutants may have altered the pH of its habitats, said wildlife consultant Subaraj Rajathurai.

While few Singaporeans may know or care about the little crab, they should consider its rarity, said NUS crab expert Peter Ng, who named the species in 1986.

"This animal is uniquely Singaporean, to use the Singapore Tourism Board's words," said the director of the Tropical Marine Science Institute.

"It evolved in Singapore in isolation. There are not many like it. Ninety-nine per cent of species found here are also found elsewhere in the region."

There are several other species unique to Singapore, including the Swamp forest crab found only in Nee Soon swamp forest, and the Johnson's freshwater crab found in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

National Biodiversity Centre director Lena Chan said that NParks may consider starting a breeding programme for it.

Introducing it into new habitats is another option, said Prof Yeo.

Both urged people not to disturb the crabs or their habitats.

Professor Ng acknowledged that it was unlikely for people to get excited over such a small animal. "But by trying to save it, it says a lot to the world about who we are as a people, a nation. We don't have to do it, but we should."

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Changi Motorsports Hub plan off, says SSC

Patwant Singh Channel NewsAsia 12 Jun 13;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) confirmed Wednesday it will not proceed with the re-tender for the Changi Motorsports Hub site, effectively putting an end to the ambitious race-track project.

This follows the conclusion of an extensive international and local market sounding and Request for Information (RFI) exercise.

The council said it was unable to proceed with the re-tender as it could not accede to certain conditions from potential investors.

These include requests for flexibility of lease terms and land use, as well as tax concessions.

SSC CEO Lim Teck Yin said the land take and proposed use under the project "do not justify an operating model that involves significant government subsidies or concessions".

The council had received seven proposals from six consortia, the majority of which were motor-sports related.

Proposed motorsports ideas included a FIA grade 2 or 3 circuit, a CIK graded karting circuit, a racing academy, a dragstrip, and bonded warehousing. Non motorsports-related ideas included a theme park and watersports marina. Common ideas cutting across the majority of the proposals include retail and F&B.

The 41-hectare site in Changi will be reinstated to authorities.

Mr Lim said: "While we work towards handing the site back to the authorities, SSC is also actively working with the relevant agencies on possible interim uses for the site for motorsports-related activities, such as karting, for the community."

The race track project has stalled since 2011 when the Japanese-led consortium that won the bid ran out of money.

- CNA/jc

End of the road for Changi Motorsports Hub
Royston Sim Straits Times 13 Jun 13;

AFTER three tumultuous years, plans to restart the Changi Motorsports Hub project have officially been scrapped.

The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) announced yesterday that it would not be putting the 41ha site up for a second tender, as it could not accept certain conditions that potential investors had asked for.

This effectively spells the end of the Republic's bid to build a permanent motorsports racetrack, which seemed to take off when Japanese-led consortium SG Changi won a $36 million bid to build the facility in 2010.

But the wheels began to fall off the project a year later, when the consortium ran into delays and financial difficulties, amid allegations of corruption.

The SSC terminated its contract with SG Changi last year. It then launched a market-sounding exercise to gather information from potential bidders - and received seven proposals from six consortia during this period.

All of the proposals asked for subsidies or concessions, such as land being given for free or doubling the existing 30-year lease.

At least one proposal asked for the land - next to the grounds for the Singapore Airshow - to be converted to mostly retail use.

"These significant conditions for the project to be commercially viable are things that the SSC cannot accede to," SSC chief executive Lim Teck Yin said at a press briefing yesterday.

Marina tycoon Arthur Tay, together with venture capitalist Tommie Goh, was one of those who submitted proposals. Mr Tay told The Straits Times: "It is not realistic (without subsidies) based on land and cost."

"Worldwide, such facilities are supported by municipalities. We don't have to go too far - look at Johor," he said, referring to plans to build a similar motorsports facility in Iskandar.

But Mr Lim explained that the land size and its proposed use "do not justify an operating model that involves significant government subsidies or concessions".

When SG Changi won the initial tender, its plans included a 3.7km racetrack, a grandstand that could accommodate 20,000 spectators, a racing academy, a hotel and video arcades.

On whether the project was now a wasted effort, Mr Lim said: "That would be too strong a language to use, to say we have wasted our time...I think we have explored it to the extent we can in Singapore."

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Malaysia: Perak lauded for gazetting forest

Isabelle Lai and Edmund Ngo The Star 12 Jun 13;

PETALING JAYA: Conservationists have lauded the Perak Government for gazetting 18,866ha of forest in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex (BTFC) as a permanent forest reserve.

The area, named the Amanjaya Forest Reserve, extends some 1.5km from either side of the East-West Highway. Around 130 million years old, the BTFC is made up of two forests 1,175sq km of the Royal Belum State Park to the north and 1,477sq km of the Temengor Forest Reserve to the south.

It is older than Brazil's Amazon rainforest and is home to an astounding variety of flora and fauna.

It is one of two sites in Malaysia where all 10 hornbill species can be found. Mentri Besar Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said the move was part of a master plan to provide a suitable area for wildlife to move about the forest complex.

Plans to rehabilitate the area were in the pipeline, including reforestation programmes, he said.

“Planting new trees there is also part of fulfilling the state Barisan Nasional's election pledge to plant at least one million trees,” he said.

The Amanjaya Forest Reserve, gazetted on May 9, was previously earmarked as a development corridor along the highway.

The area has been identified as a vital wildlife corridor under the Federal Government's Central Forest Spine (CFS) Masterplan for a contiguous network of forests in the backbone of the peninsula.

Malaysian Nature Society president Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed was glad that the area would not be converted into monocrop plantations such as rubber, oil palm or acacia.

He said rehabilitation programmes must begin immediately to restore the area, which had been mostly degraded by logging activities.

World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma praised the gazetting as well as impending construction of a wildlife viaduct as “critical first steps” to secure connectivity in the BTFC.

“This is an example to be followed in other ecological linkages.”

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Global carbon emissions hit record high in 2012

Nina Chestney PlanetArk 11 Jun 13;

China led a rise in global carbon dioxide emissions to a record high in 2012, more than offsetting falls in the United States and Europe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.

Worldwide CO2 emissions rose by 1.4 percent to 31.6 billion tons, according to estimates from the Paris-based IEA.

China is the biggest emitter and made the largest contribution to the global rise, spewing out an additional 300 million tons. But the gain was one of the lowest China has seen in a decade, reflecting its efforts to adopt renewable sources and improve energy efficiency.

In the United States, a switch from coal to gas in power generation helped reduce emissions by 200 million tons, bringing them back to the level of the mid-1990s.

Even though the use of coal increased in some European countries last year due to low prices, emissions in Europe declined by 50 million tons because of the economic slowdown, growth in renewables, and emissions caps on industrial and power companies, the IEA said.

Japan's CO2 emissions increased by 70 million tons, as efforts to improve energy efficiency failed to offset increasing use of fossil fuels after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.

TEMPERATURE RISES

Scientists say global average temperature rise needs to be limited to below 2 degrees Celsius this century to prevent devastating climate effects like crop failure and melting glaciers.

That would only be possible if emission levels are kept to around 44 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020.

However, the IEA said the data shows the world is on a path to an average temperature rise of between 3.6 and 5.3 degrees Celsius.

"Global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 are projected to be nearly 4 billion tons higher than a level consistent with attaining the 2 degree target, highlighting the scale of the challenge still to be tackled just in this decade," the agency said.

The IEA urged governments to quickly adopt four policies that would ensure climate goals could be reached without harming economic growth. They are: improving energy efficiency in buildings, industry and transport; limiting the construction and use of inefficient power plants; halving methane emissions; and partially phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

These would reduce global energy-related emissions by 8 percent or 3.1 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020, the IEA said.

"Delaying stronger climate action to 2020 would come at a cost: $1.5 trillion in low-carbon investments are avoided before 2020, but $5 trillion in additional investments would be required thereafter to get back on track," the IEA said.

International negotiators are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until Friday for U.N. talks aimed at getting a new global climate treaty, which would cut emissions, signed by 2015.

However, the talks got off to a slow start last week due to attempts by three nations to amend one of the meeting's many agendas to discuss how future decisions should be made.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Best of our wild blogs: 11 Jun 13

DO something! 20 Jun (Thu): Nature and the Big City - the Leafmonkey Workshop returns from wild shores of singapore

Seagrasses of Singapore (Part 1)
from Lazy Lizard's Tales

Random Gallery - Blue Pansy
from Butterflies of Singapore

Finding a lost pangolin and the reality of hunting pressure in the forest from sundapangolin

NASA: Deforestation jumps in Malaysia
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

Illegal wildlife trade flourishes in Sumatra
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

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Wildlife after death: Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research

Half a million specimens of South-east Asian animals are stored at the NUS faculty of science
Corrie Tan Straits Times 11 Jun 13;

The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research's public gallery looks like it has just been ransacked.

Exhibits are gone from the walls. An eclectic mix of colourful information panels, seemingly pushed together at random, form an impenetrable wall. Cardboard boxes and conservation-grade packing paper take up most of its floor space.

Tucked away on the third floor of the concrete maze that is the National University of Singapore's faculty of science, the cramped 200 sq m gallery looks even smaller when Life! visits. But have no fear - nothing has been stolen. This is simply part of the big move to a spanking new building.

When the museum opens its doors in the second half of next year, the 8,500 sqm, seven-storey Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum will be home to a priceless collection of about 500,000 specimens of vertebrates and invertebrates, along with three dinosaur fossils. This is more than three times the size of the Raffles Museum's current storage facilities.

For now, the rest of the specimens are under lock and key in the back rooms. It closed to the public in March for the small team of staff and four curators to start on their daunting task: cleaning the thousands of specimens both wet and dry, taking inventories and chasing researchers and students to return specimens they have taken out on loan.

All of the specimens shown to Life! by collections manager Kelvin Lim, in his 40s, do not usually go on public display.

He explains: "Type specimens are the original specimen which the species is described from. We usually don't display or let people play with it. Especially when something is known from only one or two specimens, it's quite precious."

The geography and sociology graduate from NUS has been working at the museum since 1991. As exhibition manager of the public gallery when it opened in 2001, he was in charge of its layout and design. One of his main interests is in documenting the diversity of fishes, amphibians, reptiles and mammals found in Singapore.

He shows Life! a drawer full of three- striped squirrels that are extinct here. When packed tightly, dozens of the dark brown creatures can fit into a single drawer. The reason why most of the animal specimens are stiff and flat is a practical one.

Mr Lim says: "They are preserved in such a way that you can store them in a small space. If you were to mount them in a life-like pose, one specimen would take up a lot of space. When they're flat, you can stack them up and put them in a box."

Specimens that need to be stored in ethanol, such as fish, are kept in a different room on the floor below. The museum also receives calls to pick up roadkill - including pangolins - once or twice a year.

The collection has grown from 160,000 in 1988 - when President Tony Tan, then education minister, opened the Zoological Reference Collection at the NUS science faculty - to half a million today.

The new building will be located about 850m from the current premises. NUS has raised $46 million for a purpose-built museum that will house one of the largest collections of South-east Asian animals in the region.

But there is still some way to go. The museum needs another $10 million in endowment for professorships, fellowships and staff costs. Members of the public can give to this fund-raising drive at http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/buildingfund/index.html.

In the vault

RAFFLES MUSEUM OF BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH

Year of founding: 1849, as part of the old Raffles Museum, which was mooted by Sir Stamford Raffles who was himself an avid naturalist. In the 1970s, the museum inherited the natural history collection after the old Raffles Museum was renamed the National Museum of Singapore. It was closed in March to prepare for the move to the new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.

Year it will reopen: Next year

Floor area: 2,200 sq m

Number of visitors last year: 5,856

Number of artefacts: About 500,000

Oldest known artefact: Believed to be a flycatcher, a type of bird collected in Malacca in 1862. However, it was acquired by the museum only in the early 1970s when the zoological collection of the old Raffles Museum was transferred to the National University of Singapore.

Most common animal groups: Fish and crabs. These animals are the research subjects of a number of professors, staff and graduate students associated with the museum.

Mr Kelvin Lim, collections manager at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, highlights six specimens from the museum’s collection:

MENTAWAI PALM CIVET (PARADOXURUS LIGNICOLOR)

The museum has one specimen of this golden-brown, cat-like creature, collected on Sipora Island in October 1924. Sipora is one of the four Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra, where the Mentawai Palm Civet is endemic.

The wild population numbers of this particular palm civet are unknown and it is considered by some researchers to be a subspecies of the Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), the mascot of the Raffles Museum.

SARAWAK MUD GUDGEON (POGONELEOTRIS HETEROLEPIS)

The fish pictured was bought from a fish market in Sarawak in January 1996. The museum has three specimens in total.

Very little is known about the habits of this fish, save for the fact that it lives in large muddy rivers where it is possibly a bottom-dwelling carnivore. So far, this species is known only from the rivers of Sarawak and is very rare in museum collections. Wild populations have not been studied.

SODHI'S SNAIL (KENYIRUS SODHII)

This species was named last year, in memory of the late NUS biology lecturer, Professor Navjot Sodhi, who was highly regarded in the fields of ecology and conservation biology. Out of the two specimens presently known of Sodhi's snail, the museum has one. This species was found in the forests of Terengganu in Malaysia and nothing is known of its habits and biology.

Kenyirus is named after Lake Kenyir, where the terrestrial snail was discovered in 2006 in the rainforest surrounding the lake.


SINGAPORE RUBBLE CRAB (FAVUS GRANULATA)

The English naturalist W.F. Lanchester discovered this elusive crab on Singapore's shores in 1900. The tiny creature has been found only in Singapore's coastal seas so far and has not yet been collected anywhere else.

The museum has two specimens of the Rubble Crab and the one photographed was obtained at Sentosa in 1982. It is possible that this crab may in fact be common, but due to the fact that it looks almost like a coral pebble, it is very difficult to detect.

BORNEAN BRISTLEHEAD (PITYRIASIS GYMNOCEPHALA)

The Bornean Bristlehead pictured here was collected at Mount Dulit in Sarawak in October 1891. It is one of three specimens in the museum's collection.

This bird is named after the coarse and stiff feathers on its yellow head. It is endemic to the island of Borneo where it lives in lowland rainforest in flocks of six to 10 birds in the forest canopy and appears to feed largely on insects.

KINABALU FERRET-BADGER (MELOGALE EVERETTI)

The museum has four specimens of the Kinabalu Ferret-Badger, a brown animal with white stripes. They were collected in 1929 from Mount Kinabalu in East Malaysia.

This species is endemic to the montane forests of Sabah on Borneo. It is nocturnal and rarely seen and also scarce in museum collections. It apparently feeds on earthworms, insects and other small animals.

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'Cut number of cleaners' to keep Singapore clean

Move will make people think twice before messing up public areas
David Ee Straits Times 11 Jun 13;

IT IS a suggestion that sounds perverse: keeping Singapore clean by cutting the number of cleaners here and cleaning up after Singaporeans less regularly.

But the head of the Keep Singapore Clean Movement Liak Teng Lit is convinced that this is what needs to done to make people think twice before they litter or leave a mess in public areas.

The Government is cleaning Singapore so efficiently that people are conditioned to behave badly, he told The Straits Times, ahead of the Keep Singapore Clean conference on June 29.

"We rely too much on cleaners. It is because they are cleaning so much that people don't even feel it when they litter.

"You find litter everywhere, but most Singaporeans don't see it because it is cleared at dawn."

Singapore has about 70,000 cleaners, a third of whom are foreigners. Those contracted by the National Environment Agency and town councils clean public areas and estates up to three times daily, beginning at dawn.

Mr Liak said that Singaporeans' reliance on cleaners extends to many families with domestic help and those who eat out.

"In hawker centres we eat like pigs, with food and tissue all over the tables. It's a disgrace. We don't eat like that at home."

The group chief executive officer of Alexandra Health is leading by example at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, which his group runs. There, cleaners vacuum offices just once every few weeks, leaving staff to ensure their own spaces are hygienic and tidy. Staff and members of the public are also encouraged to return their own trays at the food court.

So far, he estimates that about 30 per cent of staff have taken his message to heart. Some even pick up litter thrown by members of the public.

He is drawing other similarly civic-minded organisations such as schools and malls to the cause and is planning to start a ground-up movement which begins with personal responsibility.

For example, students could be made responsible for keeping their own classrooms and common areas clean, leaving cleaners to take on the heavy-duty work.

More than 50 organisations have already committed to the initiative he calls "Bright Spots".

It will be featured at the conference and include pre-school chain NTUC First Campus, the Ascendas group and several government agencies.

Singapore Kindness Movement general secretary William Wan noted that Singapore is already struggling to recruit cleaners because of low wages.

"The day will come when we will have not enough cleaners. Who will we rely on? It is only good sense if people do their part and don't litter," he said.

But National University of Singapore sociologist Daniel Goh was not persuaded.

"Those who pay conservancy fees for cleaning common areas would expect that it be done. This won't automatically stop the litterers," he said.

However, volunteer neighbourhood watch groups are an example of people uniting and taking responsibility for their community. "The difference is, littering doesn't carry the same sense of urgency as security," he said.

Ultimately, people first have to care if anything is to change, said Mr Liak. "It's all about being considerate to the next person.

"Wherever you are, don't leave a mess behind. We need to create that vision. Hopefully there are enough people who feel the current state of affairs is not good enough."

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Malaysia: Wildlife traders netting sales online

P. Aruna The Star 11 Jun 13;

PETALING JAYA: Local wildlife traders are resorting to private chats and exclusive groups over the Internet to sell exotic animals following the enforcement of the Wildlife Con­servation Act 2010.

While the online trade was still rampant, the sales are done in more “secretive” ways, said wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic South-East Asia senior communications officer Elizabeth John.

“Previously, Malaysians negotiated the sales of exotic and endangered animals on public forums and popular trading websites.

“While some may still use these websites, now the traders use private messages to communicate instead of stating everything in the open,” she said here yesterday.

Under the Act, anyone who sets or uses any snare for the purpose of hunting faces harsher penalties, with fines ran­ging between RM50,000 and RM100,000, and jail time of up to two years.

It was reported yesterday that between 2008 and last year, enforcement officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) found and destroyed 2,377 snares set by poachers in forests and protected forest reserves.

The global illegal wildlife trade is worth an estimated US$5bil (RM15.46bil) to US$20bil (RM61.84bil) annually, with China, the United States and Europe the prime markets.

Meanwhile on Facebook, a Ma­­­laysian user was found openly selling a critically-endangered bird, a yellow crested Cockatoo, for RM5,000.

The man posted a photograph of the exotic bird, found in Indonesia, along with his phone number.

A user had even replied to the advertisement, asking for the price for a pair of the bird.

A check on a local online forum, under the topic “exotic animals”, showed a user seeking to buy a crocodile and inquiring the price.

Another local website had users trading the Indian Star Tortoise, which is banned from export, and the Radiated Tortoise and Ploughshare Tortoise, both of which are critically endangered.

Elizabeth said it was difficult to catch those trading wildlife on­- line as their identities were kept secret.

“This is why it is so important for Internet users to immediately re­­port to the authorities if they suspect such activities online.”

Perhilitan said it was in the midst of investigating the online trade of two Asian Leopard Cats and a Blood Python, adding that another case involving the sale of two Lesser Bird of Paradise was brought to court last year.

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Malaysia: Sabah islands set to become marine research centre

The Star 11 Jun 13;

KOTA KINABALU: Three islands in Sabah – Billean, Lankayan and Tegaipil – are set to become part of a centre for international research into tropical coral reef ecosystems.

The centre, which encompasses the islands under the Sugud Islands Conservation Area, off Sabah’s east coast, will also see efforts being undertaken to restock commercially important and threatened marine species in the state.

The Sugud Islands Marine Research Centre (SIMRC), covering 46,317ha in shallow reef area, was set up following a memorandum of understanding signed between the Sabah Wildlife Department, Reef Guardian Sdn Bhd and Cardiff University on Sunday.

State Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, who witnessed the signing, said the centre would enhance research and conservation of the marine ecosystem and scientifically assess the success of the conservation area.

“This will definitely increase the interest of local and international scientists for coral reef ecosystem research in the region as well as boost eco-tourism in the east coast of Sabah,” he said.

Cardiff University research associate Dr Benoit Goossens said the centre would provide a world-class education and research facility with the necessary structure and resources to study advanced marine ecosystem science, particularly in the field of small tropical islands and coral reef ecology.

“We will offer field courses to our students and others to undertake training at the centre,” he said.

He added that, among others, it would help to raise funds for goods and extra laboratory equipment.

Reef Guardian research officer and SIMRC manager Davies Austin Spiji said the centre would assist in efforts to restock commercially important and threatened marine species in Sabah through mariculture practices.

The centre will also promote awareness on conservation among local stakeholders.

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Malaysia: Cleaner flows to keep rivers clean

Meng Yew Choong The Star 11 Jun 13;

The importance of keeping rivers clean is seldom highlighted.

Throughout the whole of last year, Malaysia has been talking about clean rivers, and more so after the multi-billion ringgit River of Life (RoL) project was launched two years ago.

RoL is a Federal initiative to improve the water quality of the Klang River from something untouchable (categorised as either a Class IV or V river) to something that is suitable for recreational use (or close to Class IIb).

A class IV or V river can either be polluted with excessive levels of sediment, heavy metals or microbial life, such as the Eschericia coli (E. coli) bacteria or worse, the Enterococcus sp. and Cryptosporidium.

Most people still associate cleaning up rivers with installing boom traps to collect floating rubbish or throwing mudballs infused with a bacterial mix that is touted as a miraculous solution that will turn even the most putrid waterway into something clean.

While harvesting rubbish does have a role, it is the capture of the invisible stuff like dissolved heavy metals, fine suspended solids and nutrients (anything containing nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium) that will finally elevate the river to a more desirable state.

Capturing rubbish, while needful, tantamounts to picking up after the people. This alone is not sustainable, and in fact, does little to clean up a highly polluted river, argues river expert Dr K. Kalithasan.

Harvesting physical rubbish is an ongoing process as it is both the logical and expedient thing to do, and most municipalities do it. For example, Kuala Lumpur City Hall nets in at least 20 tonnes of river trash daily.

“No doubt, rubbish is an eyesore, and floating rubbish is the easiest to take care of. But it is time we stop judging whether a river is clean or dirty just by the amount of rubbish or even the colour of the water,” said Kalithasan of non-governmental organisation Global Environment Centre (GEC).

Data from the Drainage and Irrigation Department show that improperly treated or untreated sewage and wastewater from businesses are a significant source of pollution in rivers. For the Klang River, urban domestic pollution is the highest pollution contributor.

“We cannot just rely on gross pollutant traps (GPTs) and rubbish traps as they do not solve the problem at the source. The fact is that other significant pollutants are the many harmful suspended or dissolved chemical compounds in the water,” said Kalithasan.

Man-made inputs like soil erosion, surface runoff, faecal matter, detergent, urban domestic waste, industrial effluent, fertiliser runoff and residential waste all affect river quality.

Sewage is a significant source of pollution that can impede river cleansing efforts. According to Datuk Ahmad Suhaili Idrus, a Pemandu director for National Key Economic Areas (Greater KL/Klang Valley), improperly treated wastewater has the potential to impede the success of the RoL project that covers a portion of the 120km-long Klang River.

Sewage, which encompasses grey water like those from bathrooms and kitchens, should not be discharged into open drains but into the sewerage system.

Eateries are also a culprit when they discharge wastewater from their cleaning operations, or worse, allow oil and grease into open drains. Other than this, there is also seepage from improperly constructed landfills or illegal dumpsites all over the Klang Valley.

Though oil and grease (O&G) is biodegradable, their presence in the river raises the demand of oxygen, other than choking aquatic life by forming an impermeable film on the water surface.

The problem can be contained by the mandatory requirement (at least in Kuala Lumpur) for grease traps but KL City Hall does not have a standardised design for it.

“All commercial premises dealing with food must have it. Unfortunately, when it comes to monitoring its efficiency, there is no emphasis on how to maintain it.

“Who is going to collect the waste oil from the trap when it is full? Right now, the user installs it merely because the law requires it, and that’s about it,” said Mohd Ridhuan Ismail, executive director at the sewerage regulatory department of the National Water Services Commission.

He feels that local authorities should compel eateries to connect their washing basins to the septic system, instead of discharging directly into the drain. A proper setup means the wash water will flow through a strainer, then the grease trap, and, finally empties into the sewerage system. Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) confirms that the biggest problem it faces is (solidified) O&G in sewerage pipes. Hardened O&G leads to blockages.

Part of the sewage pollution problem is inherited. The thousands of sewage treatment plants (STPs) built before 1999 follow a standard that is outmoded now.

“Discharge from these STPs can never meet current environmental standards, no matter how well they are operated,” said Ridhuan.

IWK was awarded the concession by the Government in 1994 to manage sewerage services nationwide.

Since then, it has taken over the sewerage services from local authorities in all areas except Kelantan, Sabah, Sarawak, parts of Terengganu that come under the Central Terengganu Development Board (Ketengah), and parts of Johor that come under Johor Baru, Pasir Gudang, and the South-East Johor Region Development Authority (Kejora).

IWK operates around 4,700, or about half the STPs in the country, and it still “discovers” forgotten or dilapidated small STPs on a regular basis.

“A lot of STPs are owned by private parties such as hotels and institutions. We believe that there are about 4,000 STPs that are privately managed or forgotten, and it is quite difficult for us to monitor them,” said Ridhuan.

“IWK also needs to improve as not all of the 4,700 STPs are operating well. STPs built after 1999 are designed to meet new requirements, but under actual operating conditions, some do not meet the requirements all the time. For those located in the Klang Valley, the ROL programme will upgrade these plants or rationalise them by closing off smaller plants and rerouting the sewage to larger plants.”

Having fewer but more efficiently managed larger plants will enable the Department of Environment to monitor them. IWK maintains 79 regional facilities which are linked electronically to its headquarters and state DOE offices. These larger plants are said to consistently comply with current environmental standards.

“DOE is actually after the smaller plants as they are often the ones that fail to comply,” said Ridhuan.

IWK maintains that the load of biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, oil and grease, and ammoniacal nitrogen from its treated discharge in 2011 was below permissible levels, indicating “that our plants are generally functioning well in treating the sewage effluent before discharging into the waterways,” according to its 2011 performance report.

In Selangor, the South Klang Valley sewerage catchment is identified as one of the critical sewerage service areas due to its large number of housing and commercial lots, and wedged between these developments are a host of STPs and individual septic tank systems.

A RM110mil contract has been given out by the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry for works associated with sewerage rationalisation in Klang, which falls within the South Klang sub-catchment.

Expected to be completed in January 2017, this rationalisation is part of the works proposed under the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley National Key Economic Area.

Under this project, a number of old STPs will be closed down, new pumping stations built along with new trunk sewers to channel the existing flow to larger regional STPs. This rationalisation will increase the operating efficiency and lower the operational expenditure of the sewerage system at sub-catchments.

While the Government takes care of the big ticket items like river cleansing, there is much to be done to educate the public on their role in clean rivers, added Kalithasan.

“People want to flush and forget, and don’t want to know where it all ends up. We still have people who are not paying their sewerage bills or desludging their individual septic tanks regularly. People just don’t see the importance of that.”

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