Behaviour modification proposed as solution to macaque problem

Programme would address the ‘root of the problem’, says animal welfare group ACRES
Siau Ming En, Today Online, 9 Oct 13;

SINGAPORE — To resolve the ongoing human-macaque conflict here, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) has proposed a method to manage the monkeys without having to cull them.

Known as “behavioural modification”, ACRES said this programme would address the “root of the problem” and offer a “long-term” solution to it. “The concept of the behavioural modification is really getting the macaques to understand where their boundaries are. At this point, we humans have invaded their territory, so we (have to) now try to show them, by using us humans as obstacles, that they can’t cross beyond us,” said ACRES Chief Executive Louis Ng yesterday at the release of a rescued macaque back into the wild.

The organisation’s new macaque rescue team — which has only two full-time staff — is trained to conduct the behavioural modification programme. Last month, it responded to about 30 macaque-related calls through ACRES’ 24-hour Wildlife Rescue Hotline.

Between January and August this year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) received about 1,460 instances of monkey-related feedback, a nearly 60-per-cent increase from last year’s figures. Noting that most of the feedback was from residents near the Central Catchment and Bukit Timah Nature Reserves, the AVA said over a hundred of those cases were related to “monkey aggression”.

Monkeys can become aggressive when in search of food and may snatch belongings, chase pedestrians, or injure children, the elderly or pets.

Opinions among residents towards the macaques in Lakeview Estate along Upper Thomson have been divided. “In a way, the management is stuck in a predicament because some residents insist that we release the monkeys when we catch them, (while) others want us to increase the number of catches we make,” said Mr Albert Har, Estate Manager of Lakeview Management.

When it comes to the culling of macaques, the AVA said humane euthanasia was its “last resort”, and added that the release of macaques into the forests would not resolve issues of monkey aggression, as those accustomed to human food would continue to venture out of the forests. “Indiscriminate release of aggressive/nuisance-causing wildlife back into the environment merely transfers the problem from one estate to the next,” said the AVA.

The authority said it has received ACRES’ proposal and will be studying its “feasibility and effectiveness”.

In July, a Sunday Times report said almost 360 macaques were killed by the AVA in the first half of this year — an estimated 20 per cent of the total macaque population in Singapore.

No monkeying around with Acres rescue team
It seeks to help residents keep macaques away without culling them
David Ee, Straits Times, AsiaOne 9 Oct 13;

HAVING monkey trouble but would rather not put the furry creatures at risk of being culled? Animal group Acres has an answer with its new Macaque Rescue Team.

Formed last month, the team of two will arrive within three hours after a call is made to the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society's 24-hour Wildlife Rescue Hotline on 9783-7782.

If the macaque has already entered the home, the team will help shoo it away. But more importantly, the Acres staff hope to educate home owners on how to monkey- proof their residences. Said one half of the rescue team, former zookeeper See Han Sern, 34: "Monkeys are opportunistic by nature. They will go around their entire territory to forage for food."

Keeping food out of sight, closing windows and removing fruiting plants would remove the reasons for monkeys to come to an area, he said. His team has so far responded to 30 calls from homes in areas such as Bukit Timah and Upper Thomson, which are close to forested areas.

In the first half of this year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority culled a fifth of the estimated 1,800 macaques found here, in response to a growing number of monkey-related incidents. Between January and August this year, it received 1,460 complaints, compared with 920 last year and 730 in 2011.

"Culling does not solve the issue," said Mr Louis Ng, executive director of Acres, which yesterday released into the wild at MacRitchie Reservoir an injured macaque it had rescued and rehabilitated - a local first, according to the animal group. "The problem is not the number of macaques but, rather, the easily available food sources in residential areas."

He highlighted how Gibraltar, near Spain, stopped culling Barbary macaques in favour of measures such as making rubbish bins harder for monkeys to open.

Acres hopes to impress on residents that their actions can determine whether monkeys encroach on their homes. It also plans to condition monkeys to stay away from homes, by consistently herding them away. But this could take months to do, admitted Mr Ng, who hopes to convince people that there are better ways than culling to deal with the problem.

"Half of the residents think: Since the Government is culling, it must be the best solution. It will take time to change mindsets," he said. "We're not here to, say, protect the monkeys more than the people. Both parties must be protected."

Read more!

AVA contractor fined over illegal trap

He set up cage to trap monkeys about 10m from nature reserve
Feng Zengkun and David Ee Straits Times 11 Oct 13;

A GOVERNMENT contractor has been fined for illegally setting up a monkey trap outside the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Mr Jack Pang was fined for the offence, the National Parks Board (NParks) and Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

But NParks, which fined him, did not respond to queries by The Straits Times about the fine amount.

The AVA said it had hired Mr Pang for animal control operations after receiving feedback about monkey nuisance and aggression in the Bukit Timah area.

However, in July, he had gone beyond the contracted area and tried to catch a monkey about 10m away from the reserve.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduate student Amanda Tan, who was studying a troop of macaques in Bukit Timah, alerted NParks after seeing Mr Pang set up a cage.

"Prior to the illegal trapping incident, the AVA did not receive any complaints regarding Mr Pang," AVA said. It added that it did not hire Mr Pang or his company for the animal control work while NParks was investigating the incident.

Animal welfare groups here and NTU's Ms Tan welcomed the enforcement but asked how AVA ensures that the monkeys caught are from the designated areas.

The contractors are believed to be paid for each animal captured.

The AVA said: "The condition of all animals sent to AVA is checked upon arrival. AVA also conducts surprise inspections on our contractors regularly to ensure compliance."

Separately, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) plans to survey several thousand residents in human-macaque conflict areas, to poll them on their support for culling and to find out more about the problems caused by the creatures.

The study, the first of its kind here, also seeks to find out what residents know about macaque behaviour and why the animals are attracted to certain neighbourhoods.

It is expected to begin later this month and end in the middle of next month, and will cover residences near Upper and Lower Peirce, MacRitchie, Bukit Timah and Bukit Batok. Acres' findings will be shared with AVA, NParks and the MPs of the surveyed areas.

Acres executive director Louis Ng said: "It's very important to find the root of the problem... This way, we can then implement appropriate solutions.

"For all these years, we've just gone on the assumption that culling is the only option, the accepted option."

The study, he said, would gauge residents' support for a range of possible solutions, from culling to "monkey-proofing" rubbish bins, keeping food out of sight and protecting residences with low voltage and non-lethal electric fencing.

In the first half of this year, the AVA culled almost 360 macaques here, about a fifth of the estimated 1,800 population, in response to an increase in monkey-related incidents.

Read more!

Dinosaur trio reunited with arrival of Prince

Tan Dawn Wei Straits Times 11 Oct 13;

THEY walked the Earth about 150 million years ago and were discovered in 2007-2010 at a quarry in Wyoming in the United States.

The skeletons of three sauropod dinosaurs - nicknamed Prince, Apollo and Twinky - have been reunited in Singapore, where they are set to become star draws at the Republic's first dedicated natural history museum.

Prince, the biggest at 4m high and 27m long, arrived in 27 giant customised crates on Monday. He was shipped in from Utah, where the bones were prepared.

Twinky, the smallest at 12m long, was the first to arrive, reaching Singapore in April last year. Apollo came four months later.

They will be kept in a temperature-controlled warehouse until the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum is completed. Located at the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus, it will be ready in the middle of next year.

"I am really pleased and relieved the three are together again and on Singapore soil," said Professor Leo Tan, director of special projects for the Dean's Office at the NUS Faculty of Science. He led efforts to build the museum.

The university's Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research bid successfully for the fossils two years ago, for under $8 million. Much of the bill was footed by Mrs Della Lee, wife of Lee Foundation chairman Lee Seng Gee.

The foundation also gave $25 million to build the $46 million natural history museum. Designed by W Architects, it will house Raffles Museum's vast collection of specimens of vertebrates and invertebrates as well.

Construction work on the second of the museum's seven storeys will start today.

It has not been decided if the dinosaurs will keep their names.

Read more!

URA portal on heritage buildings proves a hit

Site shares wealth of info like archive photos, significance of buildings
Melody Zaccheus Straits Times 11 Oct 13;

THE first public database detailing the history, architecture and stories behind more than 7,100 of Singapore's heritage buildings is proving a hit with users.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) launched the portal on its website last week.

Properties such as conserved shophouses, structures and national monuments are tagged on an interactive map according to, for example, location and historical district.

A pop-out menu allows users to pull up exterior and interior shots, conservation guidelines and procedures as well as past and present publications and photos of the properties. Never-before-seen URA archive photos from the 1960s also feature, including one of 13 Keong Saik Road in Chinatown where a 1928 Nanyang-style temple stands.

The My Conservation Portal is part of the authority's effort to help the public, building professionals and property owners gain access to the wealth of information it possesses.

It also caters to the growing community interest in heritage, said Ms Yeo Su Fen, 34, a senior architect from the URA's conservation department and the project's team leader. "Apart from conserving buildings, the portal also helps to educate the public on what already has been conserved," she said.

In a speech at the URA Architectural Heritage Awards last Thursday, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin also encouraged Singaporeans to "appreciate what we already have" in a rapidly developing country.

Not many, he said, are aware of the significance of buildings we walk or drive past every day.

Most of the 7,100 properties have been gazetted since 1989.

Heritage buff Yeo Hock Yew, 65, said he envisions himself spending a lot of time using the portal and mapping out his own heritage trail from there.

"The visualisation will appeal to the growing number of heritage enthusiasts," he said. "It will help to raise awareness about our built heritage and support research work on the subject."

Architects such as Mr Randy Chan, principal architect at Zarch Collaboratives, told The Straits Times that he and his colleagues liked the way the information has been organised and displayed.

"Usually we have to make an actual trip down to the URA to find out if a building is conserved," said the 42-year-old. "Especially if it's not located in clear-cut historic districts such as Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam. Now we have all the information at our fingertips."

Architect Lim Kam Wing, 60, who worked on the restoration of Hong San See Temple, a national monument in River Valley, was also impressed. But he said: "I hope the authorities and the community can help to add on to the information we already have and that even more comprehensive data can be uploaded over time."

The portal, which took eight months to create, is still a work in progress, added Ms Yeo. The agency hopes members of the public will contribute their own stories and photos through a sharing function on the portal.

"If they have lived in a particular shophouse or if they owned a stall or shop there, these are stories that we want them to share," she said.

Mr Low Seow Juan, a businessman in his late 50s who owns several shophouses in Geylang, Emerald Hill and Blair Road, said the portal has been a long time coming. "It can help you decide if you should buy or invest in a conservation building like a shophouse, based on how complex conservation guidelines might be according to the district and cluster."

Visit the URA portal at www.ura.gov.sg/conservationportal/consmap.html

Read more!

Ubin residents can now tap electricity grid

Grace Chua Straits Times 11 Oct 13;

ELECTRICITY generation on part of Singapore's rustic Pulau Ubin island has just been upgraded to a more environmentally friendly system.

Thirty businesses and residents there have signed up to tap solar and bio-diesel energy from a micro-grid, in place of the diesel generators they used before. It will supply power to sites near the Ubin jetty and is a test project carried out by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and a consortium of companies.

The total project cost is $10 million over 10 years, which is being co-funded by the EMA and the consortium of Daily Life Renewable Energy and OKH Holdings.

Mr S. Iswaran, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry, was guest of honour at its launch ceremony yesterday.

Besides providing cleaner, cheaper energy for Ubin residents and businesses, he said, energy-storage technologies tested on the micro-grid could in future help to boost Singapore's national grid.

He added:"This will enable Singapore to adopt new and renewable energy technologies as and when they become commercially viable."

Residents and businesses pay 80 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for electricity from the micro-grid, compared with $1.20 per kwh for diesel.

Provision shop and seafood restaurant owner Tan Chee Kiang, 65, said he would use grid electricity for some of his refrigerated drink cases and chillers, but will wait to see if the supply is stable before switching over from diesel completely. He pays up to $2,000 a month for diesel.

At the red, wood-panelled Tua Pek Kong Taoist temple nearby, its committee member Doreen Lim, 50, said diesel generators are hard to maintain and blackouts occur several times a year.

She said that with a steady electricity supply, "after the rebuilding of the temple, we'll consider installing air-conditioning".

But some, like resident Tan Long Je, 70, said their homes are not yet connected to the long-awaited power grid. The EMA put this down to wiring challenges.

Plans for the grid were first announced in 2009.

The EMA said data would be collected and the micro-grid's performance tracked for several years. Currently, there are no plans to extend it to other parts of Ubin.


Biofuel-driven energy grid launched on Pulau Ubin
System built to test impact of renewable resources like solar energy on grid operations
Woo Sian Boon, Today Online, 10 Oct 13;

SINGAPORE — About 30 residents and business operators on Pulau Ubin have signed up for electricity from the Energy Market Authority’s micro-grid test bed, which was built to test the impact of renewable energy sources like solar energy on grid operations.

Renewable and greener sources of energy can be unreliable as they are dependent on weather conditions.

Electricity from the micro-grid is harnessed from biodiesel — derived from used cooking oil — and solar energy, and is cheaper, cleaner and more reliable than the generators islanders currently tap on.

The planning and construction of the micro-grid was started two years ago by a local consortium comprising two companies, Daily Life Renewable Energy and OKH Holdings.

Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran witnessed the launch of the project on the island this morning.

“The learning points from the test-bed will help to enhance our ability to manage intermittent energy sources,” he said. “It will enable Singapore to maximise the amount of solar and other forms of renewable energy we can deploy when those technologies become commercially viable.

“This in turn will contribute to our long term goal of diversifying our energy mix and moving towards a sustainable energy future for Singapore.”

With the micro-grid’s completion, EMA will explore how other companies and research organisations could use it as a platform to develop energy-related technologies and solutions.


Residents, businesses on Pulau Ubin to get electricity from micro-grid
Olivia Siong, Channel NewsAsia, 10 Oct 13;

SINGAPORE: About 30 residents and businesses on Pulau Ubin have signed up for electricity from a micro-grid being test-bedded on the island.

Launched on Thursday, the micro-grid will allow residents and businesses to enjoy cheaper, cleaner and more reliable electricity supply, as opposed to relying on diesel generators.

The micro-grid incorporates biodiesel and solar photovoltaic technology.

It is part of a test-bed by the Energy Market Authority to assess the impact of intermittent energy sources, such as solar, on grid operations.

Unlike conventional power generators which can provide a steady supply of electricity, solar energy is intermittent in nature and dependent on weather conditions.

Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran, who witnessed the launch, said the learning points from the test-bed will help to enhance Singapore's ability to manage intermittent energy sources.

He added this will also enable Singapore to maximize the amount of solar and other forms of renewable energy that can be deployed when such technologies become commercially viable.

Mr Iswaran also pointed out that this will in turn contribute to the long term goal of diversifying Singapore's energy mix and moving towards a sustainable energy future for Singapore.

Work on the micro-grid began two years ago, by a local consortium, comprising Daily Life Renewable Energy and OKH Holdings.

- CNA/fa

Read more!

Malaysia, Johor: Well prepared to face floods

New Straits Times 11 Oct 13;

ALL READY: Fire and Rescue Department conducts basic boat and jet-ski handling course for firemen and volunteer firemen

MUAR: JOHOR Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) is fully prepared to face the flood season which is expected to occur anytime from now until March next year.

Its director Datuk Ab Ghani Daud said there was a National Security Council (MKN) state-level meeting recently to discuss the issue.

"The department was informed that although the state receives low rainfall, there is a risk that there could still be floods due the current weather change," he said during the closing ceremony of basic boat and jet-ski handling course here recently.

He said the rainfall is expected to be scattered evenly in the state during the rainy season but a prolonged downpour would result in floods.

Also present were JBPM state operation division deputy director Mohd Rizal Buang and firemen training division deputy director Raja Saiful Iswandy Raja Hassan.

Ghani said although the weather is fine, the department hopes that there will be no big floods like in 2006.

He also said that the training course would be held regularly to prepare firemen in handling the flood situation.

"The training is aimed at equipping firemen as well as volunteer firemen in rescuing flood victims. The course would also test all the communication gadgets.

"This is also aimed at updating the Emergency Action Plan for all agencies," he said.

Ghani said the training would include simulations of rescue operations.

In the tail-end of 2006, Johor was hit by one of the worst flooding in history with the water level reaching 29cm on Dec 19.

Kota Tinggi and Segamat were the worst-hit areas with both towns totally inaccessible by land.

The flood waters inundated homes and damaged most electrical items. Many victims were evacuated.

A second wave of flood came unexpectedly on the third week of January 2007, flooding eight districts of the state. This time around, the worst-hit towns were Kluang and Batu Pahat.

Both calamities caused the government a loss of some RM1.5 billion and were considered the costliest floods in Malaysian history.

Read more: Well prepared to face floods - Johor - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/streets/johor/well-prepared-to-face-floods-1.373070#ixzz2hPL3sbYj

Read more!

Japan via Singapore said bringing misery to rural Indonesia with mercury exports

Nao Hidaka Asahi Shimbun 8 Oct 13;

MINAMATA, Kumamoto Prefecture--In this city that is synonymous with the nation's worst case of industrial pollution, a symposium heard that Japan is causing untold misery with its exports of mercury.

The head of an Indonesian environmental NGO called Oct. 6 on Japan to halt its exports of mercury, saying that portions of shipments to Singapore, in particular, were often smuggled to Indonesia for use in small-scale gold mining operations there.

Yuyun Ismawati, 49, head of Balifokus, noted that mercury contamination in Indonesia is becoming a cause for concern.

According to Ismawati, Japan exported between 100 tons and 150 tons of mercury, mainly to Singapore and Hong Kong, over the past five years. However, she said there is, in fact, little demand for the liquid metal in those destinations.

Ismawati said Singapore is a known intermediary port for smuggling to Indonesia.

In 2010, about 280 tons of mercury were exported from Singapore to Indonesia. However, official Indonesian records show that only 2 tons of mercury were imported from Singapore to Indonesia that year.

Ismawati quoted smugglers as saying that they traded mercury through the black market.

“Mercury is illegally imported to Indonesia from developed countries, such as Japan, through a third country and is used there,” she said.

Small-scale gold miners are active in Asia as well as Africa.

Mercury is used during the refining process. The toxic fumes that result pose a serious health risk to workers. The use of mercury also contaminates the soil and water supply. One of the problems with mercury is that it does not break down in the environment.

According to the global NGO network IPEN and other sources, hair samples of residents in an Indonesian community had three times the mercury concentration as the U.S. environmental standard.

The symposium preceded the Oct. 9 opening of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the “Minamata Convention on Mercury.” The conference, which aims to regulate the use of mercury and exports of the substance, is expected to adopt the convention on Oct. 10. However, the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining operations is not prohibited in the convention.

Minamata disease, caused by mercury poisoning, was discovered in the city of the same name in the 1950s. Thousands of people were affected.

The neurological disease was caused by industrial waste from a Chisso Corp. chemical factory, which accumulated in shellfish and fish caught in Minamata Bay.

Read more!

Malaysia: First ever responsible standards give hope to beleaguered farmed seafood in the Coral Triangle

WWF Malaysia 10 Oct 13;

Penang: Fish farmers and fish feed producers from the Coral Triangle region today released a draft of the inaugural fish farming Standards for grouper, snapper, and sea bass also known as barramundi—popular farmed seafood species in dire need of better management.

The draft Standards is the product of a two-day Aquaculture Dialogue, which marked the first of what is deemed to be a series of regional dialogues designed to enable a range of stakeholders to actively participate in the development of best-practice Standards for these farmed species. The goal is to have the Standards in place and utilized by 2015.

“The need for more responsible farming of grouper, snapper, and barramundi has been identified in recent years by government and non-government agencies and more recently, by a more vocal industry, in response to both environmental and market access issues,” said Carol Phua, WWF-Malaysia’s Marine Programme Head.

While best aquaculture practices for grouper have been previously developed by other regional bodies and have been used to work with farmers to notionally improve farm operations, measurable standards for this suite of species have not previously been discussed and drafted.

“The emphasis of previous programs has been on the management of small-scale farmers and on livelihoods, but the rapid growth in commercial-scale farming and the impacts of these farmed fish species in particular, on the marine environment has necessitated us to look more deeply at measures that can help us address this industry’s poor sustainability record,” added Phua.

High demand, high footprint species

Grouper is one of highest-valued species of economic importance in the world. In the past decade, the global production and output of grouper aquaculture has developed rapidly, especially in China and Southeast Asian countries. At face value, figures suggest an increase in overall production between 2000 and 2010 of more than 700 percent.

“Grouper, snapper, and barramundi farming have significant environmental impacts, and yet no collective efforts have been made to reduce such impacts,” said Dr. Geoffrey Muldoon, WWF Coral Triangle Strategy Leader.

Adverse modifications to natural habitats, harmful impacts of pollution and waste discharge, drug and chemical use leading to poor water quality and fish health, removal of juvenile fish from the wild before being able to replenish fish populations, and heavy dependence on fish feed are just some of the numerous problems plaguing the farming of these species.

“Such unsustainable practices are not only threatening the biodiversity of the Coral Triangle but also the livelihoods dependent on these resources. Implementing measurable and performance-based Standards for responsibly-farmed seafood is of critical importance, not only for Malaysians but for the wellbeing of all in the Coral Triangle,” said Phua.
“The countries of this region see the export of grouper, snapper, and barramundi as continuing to contribute significantly to their respective economies, however the markets into which these products are being sold are increasingly demanding better performance. We see these Standards helping the sector to expand in a responsible way that minimizes environmental and social impacts,” said Dr. Muldoon.

The participants of the dialogue collectively agreed for the standards to address the following issues: natural habitat and local biodiversity conservation; socially-responsible farm operations; sustainability and traceability of feed ingredients; and fish health maintenance, among others.

The long-term goal is to evolve these Standards to the extent that they will be recognized by global certification bodies such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)—the most credible certification and eco-labelling organization for farmed seafood, and international Standards setting bodies such as ISEAL.

The dialogue was officiated by Dr. Afif Bahardin, Penang Agriculture, Agro-based Industry, Rural Development and Health Committee Chairman.

-ENDS-

Notes to the Editor:
The Coral Triangle—the nursery of the seas—is the world’s center of marine life, encompassing around 6 million sq km of ocean across six countries in Asia-Pacific – Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.
The initial draft of the Standards for grouper, snapper, and barramundi is the first of many steps, which will involve conducting public consultations, applying revisions, enlisting the participation of more industry players and consumer markets, and eventually establishing an advisory group to oversee the implementation and monitoring of the Standards.

Coral triangle fish farmers agree on grouper, snapper & sea bass farming standards
New Straits Times 11 Oct 13;

KUALA LUMPUR: Fish farmers and fish feed producers from the Coral Triangle region today released a draft of the inaugural fish farming standards for grouper, snapper, and sea bass, also known as barramundi, said WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Malaysia.

The species are popular farmed fishes for seafood but in dire need of better management, it said in a statement.

The Coral Triangle encompasses around six million sq km of ocean across six countries in the Asia-Pacific – Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

WWF-Malaysia said the draft standards were a result of a two-day aquaculture dialogue in Penang, which marked the first of a series of regional dialogues designed to enable a range of stakeholders to actively participate in the development of best-practice standards for these farmed species.

The goal is to have the standards in place for use by 2015, said Carol Phua, WWF-Malaysia’s Marine Programme Head.

Adverse modifications to natural habitats, harmful impacts of pollution and waste discharge, drug and chemical use leading to poor water quality and fish health, removal of juvenile fish from the wild before being able to replenish fish populations, and heavy dependence on fish feed are just some of the numerous problems plaguing the farming of these species.

"Such unsustainable practices are not only threatening the biodiversity of the Coral Triangle but also the livelihoods dependent on these resources.

"Implementing measurable and performance-based Standards for responsibly-farmed seafood is of critical importance, not only for Malaysians but for the wellbeing of all in the Coral Triangle," said Phua.

Grouper is one of highest-valued species of economic importance in the world.

In the past decade, the global production and output of grouper aquaculture has developed rapidly, especially in China and South East Asian countries.

At face value, figures suggest an increase in overall production between 2000 and 2010 of more than 700 per cent, added WWF-Malaysia. -- BERNAMA

Read more!

Building a Better Reef Fish Trap: Reducing Fish Bycatch With Escape Gaps in Africa

Science Daily 7 Oct 13;

Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Kenyan Marine and Fisheries Research Institute have achieved a milestone in Africa: they've helped build a better fish trap, one that keeps valuable fish in while letting undersized juvenile fish and non-target species out.

By modifying conventional African basket traps with escape gaps, the marine researchers have shown that the new traps catch larger fish, allow more undersized and non-target fish to escape, increase profits, and -- most importantly -- minimize the impact of fishing on coastal reef systems. The findings, say researchers, will help fishing communities boost profits while protecting their vital marine resources.

A paper on the experimental study appears in the current edition of Fisheries Research. The authors include E.K. Mbaru of the Coral Reef Conservation Project and the Kenyan Marine and Fisheries Research Institute; and Tim McClanahan of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

"One of the great challenges in coastal fisheries is how to reduce the levels of bycatch for reef systems where these species play important ecological roles," said Dr. Tim McClanahan, co-author of the study and head of WCS's coral reef research and conservation program. "Our modified traps have made a statistically measurable difference in minimizing bycatch for African basket traps. Such innovations can make a big difference in maintaining the ecology of vital coastal resources."

The experimental study was conducted in the fished reef systems near a marine park on the coast of Mombasa, Kenya. Importing the escape gap idea to African waters for the first time, the researchers worked with an experienced trap fisher who built six basket traps -- iron-framed structures with netting and a single, tube-shaped opening leading into the middle of the trap. Half of the traps were constructed with escape gaps measuring 12 inches by an inch and a half. The escape gaps were designed to allow undersized and non-target fish to exit while retaining commercially valuable adult fish.

Once baited, the traps were deployed some 30 meters apart and between 5 and 10 meters in depth and checked once a day between October 2010 and October 2011. After 41 weeks, the researchers captured more than 1,200 fish from 64 species. The fish captured in the experimental traps were on average 31 percent longer and 55 percent heavier than fish in the regular traps without gaps (used for control data). By contrast, the regular traps had smaller fish, including the juvenile and ornamental fish important for maintaining reef ecology. The researchers also reported a 25 percent increase in economic value in the fish captured in the escape-gap traps, mostly valuable rabbitfishes.

The escape-gap traps also allowed smaller non-target fish to escape. Of the fish caught in the escape-gap traps, only 34 individual fish belonging to "bycatch" species (or 2 percent) remained in the traps, as opposed to 110 individuals (or 6 percent of the catch) from non-commercial species in the regular traps.

"These new escape gaps are a game changer for Kenya's coastal fisheries," said Dr. Caleb McClennen, Director for WCS's Marine Programs. "By reducing bycatch, the new basket traps increase fish size, economic return, while limiting the bycatch that can harm entire reef systems. These innovations can also be exported to other coastal fisheries for the benefit of entire regions."

The escape gap design for African basket traps -- created by McClanahan and his WCS colleague Ayana Elizabeth Johnson -- received top prize and $20,000 in support for conservation in the 2012 Solution Search: Turning the Tide for Coastal Fisheries, an award created to bring recognition to innovative community-based conservation projects.

Journal Reference:
E.K. Mbaru, T.R. McClanahan. Escape gaps in African basket traps reduce bycatch while increasing body sizes and incomes in a heavily fished reef lagoon. Fisheries Research, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.fishres.2013.08.011

Read more!

Indonesia: Reforesting Program Bears Fruit, Wins Hearts

A look at villages in Central Sulawesi shows how a program to stop illegal logging has been embraced by the locals
Dessy Sagita Jakarta Globe 8 Oct 13;

Sigi, Central Sulawesi. Until a few years ago, Kalvin P. Boso was still known as the king of slash-and-burn in his village of Lonca, tucked away in Central Sulawesi’s Sigi district.

Lonca is located just eight kilometers from the district capital, Kulawi, but the road connecting the town to the village is narrow, muddy, with a deep ravine on one side and a rocky mountain on the other, all surrounded by protected forest.

Like most villagers in Lonca, Kalvin learned to cut trees and burn them down to clear the land as a child, unaware of the risks his actions created.

When trees are present, their roots help to prevent erosion by holding the soil together and absorbing water. With the roots gone, soil can slide around a lot more and water is able to build up on the surface, causing flooding and other natural disasters such as mudslides.

The practice also threatens the local water supply by damaging the soil’s ability to retain water.

“My parents were also farmers, and from when I was a student I was taught how to clear the land without understanding the consequences to the environment,” Kalvin, now 44, tells the Jakarta Globe.

Every year, Kalvin said, he cleared at least two square kilometers of forest to grow rice, corn or cassavas.

“Our villagers have been blamed for causing the floods in Palu every year,” says Amos Sumutju, the Lonca village chief referring, to the provincial capital.

Most villagers make it a habit to clear land and move on again the next year because they believed the soil is no longer fertile after a single season. This has placed their own lives in danger of disaster because of the growing expanse of critically degraded land.

Plan of action

The Forestry Ministry says more than 27 million hectares of Indonesia’s forests are now in critical condition due to illegal deforestation.

But land clearing by fire was stopped in Lonca village when the government introduced a program called Strengthening Community-Based Forest and Watershed Management to raise public awareness about illegal logging.

The program was established with the help of the United Nations Development Program, which, along with the Global Environment Facility, donated $7.5 million for the period 2009-2014 to revitalize watershed management in six locations in Indonesia by involving and empowering local inhabitants.

The six locations chosen for the project are in the provinces of North Sumatra, Lampung, Central Java, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara and Central Sulawesi.

“We first started out by approaching the locals,” says Erus Rusyadirus, the regional facilitator for the program in Central Sulawesi.

“I stayed for at least three days in every village, talked and spent time with the villagers, trying to convince them that slashing and burning trees was bad for their present and future.”

Hearts and minds

“It was very hard at first. A farmer once told me ‘I don’t care if you or the government tell me to stop cutting trees, I will not stop. Who can guarantee my livelihood or if my family can still eat the next day?’” Erus said.

After intensive guidance, many of the farmers, including Kalvin, began to understand that their village was in danger.

“Kalvin, who used to be known as the king of slashing and burning, is now the head of the community-based organization,” Amos said, referring to a group set up under the program.

The CBO receives a small grant for the program, which it can use to fund its activities. Every CBO has different programs, but focuses mainly on empowering the locals to find a new source of livelihood so that the farmers do not have to go back to slashing and burning trees.

Kalvin, for one, says the program has changed his life for the better.

“After listening to Pak Erus’s explanation about how clearing the land with the old method has put many people’s lives in danger, I started to realize how much I loved the environment, and as the leader of the group I feel a deep sense of responsibility to conserve the forest,” he says.

Along with the other CBO members, Kalvin works to raise awareness in his village and urges locals to farm on a permanent plot of land rather than clear new land each year. Most people in Lonca now grow cocoa and vegetables.

The group, with 16 other CBOs in Sigi, has also planted 240,000 tree seedlings.

“If you came to our village a few years ago, you’d see the whole area was brown. But now as you can see, it’s all turning green,” Amos says proudly.

Community empowerment

Residents in Simoro, in Sigi’s Gumbasa subdistrict, have proudly embraced their new livelihood and work enthusiastically to develop various activities improve the economic status of their village.

“Everything started to change in 2004 when our village was flooded and we saw giant logs floating everywhere,” says Herry, the head of the Gumbasa CBO.

Gumbasa was severely affected by flash flooding that year, which swept away several homes.

“At that time, slash-and-burn clearing was still very common. People would clear the land and started farming anywhere they wanted to,” Herry says.

“We even cleared land inside the Lore Lindu National Park.”

Lore Lindu, east of Lonca, is a protected forest area that was designated as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves. It spans 2,180 square kilometers and is home to numerous rare species, including 77 birds endemic to Sulawesi.

CBO groups around it were taught to make the best of their environment by cultivating honeybees, cows and chicken. They also grow vegetables and fruit, as well as producing snacks from the produce to sell in Kulawi.

To be able to join their local CBO, each person has to plant at least 15 trees in a watershed area.

The village has planted nearly 70,000 seedlings along the riverbanks since 2011, and an evaluation shows that more than 60 percent are growing well.

Simoro village has also issued a regulation that farmers can still farm in Lore Lindu as long as they are committed to preserving the environment.

“If they want to use the land inside the national park, they have to plant at least 50 trees and they have to promise they will not cut a single tree inside the protected forest,” Herry says.

The CBO there has done so well that it was named the best CBO in Indonesia during an award ceremony in Bali recently.

Localization

Saeful Rachman, the national program manager of the SCBWFM, says the project was created after a report was published about critically degraded watershed areas in Indonesia.

“Some changes happened because of natural disasters like floods, climate change and landslides, but most were due to illegal logging,” he says.

Saeful says the Forestry Ministry has started replanting trees, but its program is not very successful due to rapid population growth and declining vegetation area.

“Most of the time the watershed areas are degraded because of land conversion,” he explains.

Therefore, he says, the UNDP and the Forestry Ministry proposed the program to increase awareness and empower communities so they can find another source of livelihood that is sustainable.

“Most farmers were very skeptical at first when we introduced the program, but when we asked them to be the main actors and the agents of change instead of the subjects, we saw significant progress,” Saeful says.

“Not only did they stop cutting down trees, but the villagers actively started working on regulations to punish illegal loggers. We are so proud of them.

“The locations were chosen because of their biophysical conditions and the local government’s readiness to implement the program,” he adds.

Persuading the locals to stop slashing and burning was a tall order.

In Omu village, also in Gumbasa, the program had to deal with an indigenous tribe that had been living inside a protected forest for generations.

Aris Pasasa, the leader of the local CBO, says that when the project first started there were 13 families from the indigenous tribe living inside the forest.

“They had been living inside the protected forest since the 1960s, and every year they moved to a new location and cleared land,” Aris says.

“Approaching them was a difficult thing to do, not only because they did not speak Indonesian, but also because they would hide every time they saw someone who was not from their tribe.”

With much effort and the help of a translator, the CBO finally managed to persuade the families to move out of the forest. Aris even lent his land to the families to build huts and got other residents to hire them to work on their land.

“Now we worry less about flash floods or polluted and damaged water sources,” Aris says.

Additional goals

Saeful says the main objective of the program is not only to improve the condition of the watershed area, but also to push for the government to give its support and encourage local officials to come up with regulations that help the environment.

Aside from community empowerment to stop people from cutting down trees, the program also asks the communities to restore the critically degraded areas to pristine condition.

“Every year we plant 450,000 to 600,000 seedlings provided by the government, but the really special thing is that sometimes the villagers themselves are even willing to spend their own money to buy the seedlings and plant them, and that’s a very good sign,” he says.

Read more!

Asian officials look at valuing nature in economic decision making

Thin Lei Win Thomson Reuters Foundation 9 Oct 13;

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Over 80 statisticians, economists, ecologists and senior policy makers across Asia began a three-day workshop at the United Nations in Bangkok on Tuesday to look at ways of valuing natural resources so they can be better protected.

Current national accounting systems, used since 1950, produce numbers such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure the value of goods and services produced in a national economy. But such measures rarely value assets such as mangroves, wetlands, coral reefs or clean air and water, leading to decisions that degrade them and undermine poverty alleviation goals.

“The development process is very rapacious in its demand for natural capital because it's out there for the taking,” Sir Partha Dasgupta, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Cambridge, told Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday.

“When mangroves are destroyed in order to create fish farms, the national accounts don’t look at the loss. It only looks at the increase in income coming out of the fish,” said the environmental economist, who has long pointed to links between sustainability and economics.

A good accounting system should include the costs as well as the benefits of replacing mangroves with aquaculture, he added.

But how does one value mangroves? By looking at the services they provide, such as a place for the spawning of fish, protection against storm surges and provision of wood, Dasgupta said.

VALUE OF MANGROVES

A 2012 report by World Bank calculated just that. Coastal mangrove forests in Thailand are currently worth about $955 a hectare, the value of their wood and non-wood products, it found. That is a paltry sum compared to the potential $10,949 per hectare that can be earned from the same land from farming shrimp.

But if the value of mangrove forests in protecting vulnerable communities from coastal flooding is taken into account, a hectare’s worth of standing mangroves in Thailand has a value of $18,641, the report found.

“If the mangroves’ ability to store carbon as well as their role as a nursery and breeding habitat for offshore fisheries are considered, the value further increases to as much as $21,456 per hectare,” it said.

RETHINKING NUMBERS

Effectively valuing natural capital requires a new mindset too, of focusing on broader ranges of benefits rather than exact numbers.

Gupta said he hopes one of the outcomes of this week’s workshop will be for national accounts to begin incorporating ranges instead of a specific numbers – something they should already be doing anyway, he said.

For instance, national statistics might report that exports for a given year amounted to 10 percent of GDP. But such exact numbers fail to take into account black markets and other hidden effects on the formal economy, and as such do not reflect the true output of the economy.

Working instead with broader range of outcomes would be more honest, and make Natural Capital Accounting easier to incorporate.

Right now, “I think we're so used to point estimates that the moment you have something difficult to measure, you say, ‘You can't do that,’” he said.

Dasgupta is aware that getting decision-makers in finance ministries and economic planning agencies – let alone the general public and media – to start accepting ambiguity in economic figures would be a tall order, but insists it needs to happen.

“We don't like ranges so we ignore them. We know the value is positive but since we can't pin it down, we're going to assume it's zero. Now, does that look rational? It doesn't look rational at all,” he argued.

"We're used to ambiguity in our lives. Why on earth do we feel that in the public domain we have to give a number?” he asked.

LINK TO POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Pushpam Kumar from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a co-organiser of the workshop, said the time is now right to move beyond just GDP as the measure of an economy.

Countries in Asia such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines have started to incorporate Natural Capital Accounting into their process, he said, adding that Vietnam, Laos, Bhutan and Bangladesh also have green growth strategies with similar goals.

Kumar also pointed to the Rio+20 sustainability conference last year, where governments expressed support for the valuation of natural capital.

“In the past it would have been economists and statisticians talking, but this time the interest is coming from politicians,” partly because protecting natural resources is key to poverty alleviation, which remains a key goal for policymakers, he said.

When UNEP looked at the value of ecosystems and biodiversity in three countries – Indonesia, Brazil and India – it found that 10 to 21 percent of the country’s value, in terms of natural systems, was missing in existing national accounts, Kumar said.

Because so many rural people in Indonesia, in particular, rely on natural systems for their income, “that (missing) 10 percent constitutes 90 percent of the poor people’s income,” Kumar said.

As a result, any policy based “on wrong microeconomic indicators like the current GDP is bound to be a failure in the goal of alleviation of poverty,” he added.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 10 Oct 13

Love MacRitchie Walks for NUS – three 2-hour Saturday morning walks from 19 Oct 2013
from Otterman speaks

More than 1,500kg of trash cleared at Kranji East mangrove – data, blog posts and photo albums from ICCS 2013
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Red Junglefowl Roundup Part IV (1)
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Butterflies Galore! : Malay Baron
from Butterflies of Singapore

Making the Past Present
from Raffles Museum News

Some of my research students blog
from Otterman speaks

Read more!