Fishes dying at Pasir Ris?
from wild shores of singapore
Glorious at St. John's Island
from wild shores of singapore
Shrimp day at Little Sisters' Island
from Peiyan.Photography
Pangolin Party
from BES Drongos
Birds at the Botanics
from My Nature Experiences
Animals attracted to the Banana inflorescence
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Favourite Nectaring Plants #6
from Butterflies of Singapore
The Star 22 Feb 15;
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is expected to experience hot and dry weather with low amount of rain until early April, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department.
MetMalaysia spokesman Dr Hisham Mohd Anip said the country was in the final stages of the Northeast Monsoon season before entering the hot season between March and April mainly due to the equinox phenomenon, when the sun crosses directly over the equator.
“In the final stages, we will usually experience low amount of rainfall and on top of that the temperature will keep increasing towards next month until early April.
“This is due to the transition of the sun from the southern to the northern hemisphere.
“By end of March, the position of the sun will be exactly on top of our country,” he said yesterday.
The equinox occurs due to the passage of the earth around the sun with the plane of the earth’s tilting at an angle of 23.5 degrees.
Asked if the hot weather will be worse than last year, Dr Hisham said that it was just a normal occurrence and the weather was expected to get cooler when the rainy season starts immediately after that period.
“We experienced extremely dry weather.
“We do not expect it to be so dry this year,” he said.
A check on MetMalaysia Facebook showed that Malaysia recorded the maximum temperature of 38.9°C last year on May 18 at Chuping, Perlis.
International forecast website Accuweather.com predicts that major cities in Malaysia will see high temperatures next week, including Alor Setar, Kedah, which is expected to climb to as high as 36°C.
For the latest weather updates, the public can access MetMalaysia website www.met.gov.my or its hotline 1-300-22-1638, as well as MetMalaysia official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/malaysiamet or its twitter account https://twitter.com/malaysiamet.
RUBEN SARIO The Star 22 Feb 15;
KOTA KINABALU: The move by the Environment Protection Department (EPD) in Sabah to unilaterally approve a massive aquaculture project is worrying seven non-governmental organisations here.
The NGOs want greater transparency and public participation in the evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports as all projects ultimately affect the people.
They were responding to the EPD director’s recent statement that he was not obliged to refer any matters back to the EIA Review Panel before a final decision is made in approving an EIA.
Datuk Yabi Yangkat had cited Section 12D(1) of the Environment Protection Enactment 2002, which stipulates that the EPD director was empowered to approve an EIA report even if no Review Panel meeting was held.
The NGOs – Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa), Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP), Indigenous Peoples Network of Malaysia (Joas), Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bora), Sabah Environmental Trust (SET), Save Open Spaces Kota Kinabalu (SOS KK) and Himpunan Hijau – believe EPD is moving backwards by interpreting the law so narrowly.
Sepa president Lanash Thanda said the role of the Review Panel could be considered obsolete, and the concept of public participation undermined.
“The recent statement means that NGO participation in the process is nothing more than a rubber stamping exercise.
“This is a breakdown of social and environmental safeguards as it allows for one authority to approve future EIAs without consultation,” Lanash said.
On Dec 19, EPD approved the EIA for a RM1.23bil shrimp aquaculture project in Pitas, despite an earlier rejection by the Review Panel that included SEPA and WWF-Malaysia.
The department also did not notify the panel members of its decision.
SET Chief Executive Officer Dr Rahimatsah Amat said the EPD’s Handbook on Environmental Impact Assessment in Sabah (2nd Edition) clearly mentions a public hearing and a review panel.
Rahimatsah, who claimed several activities had commenced in the last few years even while the Terms of Reference (TOR) were being discussed, added that this was a breach of section 7(1) of the Environmental Protection (Prescribed Activities) (EIA) Order 2005.
The seven are now seeking an appointment with the State Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry, under which EPD falls, to discuss procedures and issues related to the EIA process.
The group is also contemplating a public forum to create awareness on environmental issues and the EIA process.
“We are here to ensure that public interest is respected and protected.
“We do not have any other agenda,” Rahimatsah said.
CNY Day 2: Little Sister's Island
from wonderful creation and wild shores of singapore
Celebrating the year of the sheep at Cyrene Reef
from Peiyan.Photography
Tampines Eco Green Park Again
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
Pellets from Tuas: 1. The pellets
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Is Singapore losing its heritage through redevelopment of buildings and loss of its coastline? It is time to develop a more robust way to assess heritage and ecosystems, to prevent their destruction.
Daniel Friess for the Straits Times 21 Feb 15;
The way ecosystems benefit people through "cultural services" is perhaps the most abstract, but may be the most important in Singapore's context. Tens of thousands of people visit the mangroves at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve every year.
The coastline generally associated with Singapore is one of harbours, ships, artificial beaches and concrete seawalls, all contributing to - and a product of - economic activity. But hidden among the cranes and refineries is a different coastal Singapore, a coast teeming with life.
This is a coastline fringed by intertidal mangrove forests and subtidal seagrass meadows, a coast that is home to crocodiles, dolphins, otters, and some of the most biodiverse coral reefs in the world.
However, Singapore's coastal ecosystems have declined rapidly with urbanisation. While data varies, the country may have lost almost 90 per cent of its mangroves since the 1950s due to land reclamation in the north and south-west. Other coastal ecosystems continue to decline, with recent research suggesting that over 40 per cent of intertidal coral reefs and almost 38 per cent of mudflats and sandflats have been lost in only the last 20 years.
If threatened ecosystems are to be conserved, it may become necessary to show their value to society, in comparison to other alternative land uses. It is simple to show the economic value of a reclaimed shoreline or a harbour terminal, but how much is the country's hidden natural coastline worth, and how do we, and should we, put a value on nature?
Increasingly, conservationists, and some businesses and policymakers are pitching their tent on the paradigm of "ecosystem services" as a way of increasing awareness of the importance of ecosystems, and potentially as a way of quantifying their value - economic, or otherwise.
"Ecosystem services" refer to the roles and benefits that ecosystems provide to humans. This is potentially an attractive concept as it can allow ecosystem value to become part of the decision-making process, and widens the scope of conservation to appeal to people and donors who may not otherwise consider themselves environmentalists.
This new approach is controversial, as valuing ecosystems for their benefits to humans puts people front and centre in our view and perception of the environment. It represents a paradigm shift away from traditional protectionist conservation approaches, where ecosystems are protected for their inherent intrinsic or existence value.
Ecosystem services come in all shapes and sizes. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - a ground-breaking international report released in 2005 - was commissioned by the United Nations to understand the impact of environmental change on human well-being. This report was one of the most high-profile attempts to describe the wide range of ecosystem services that human populations rely on.
One way in which ecosystems benefit people is through "provisioning services", where people can physically extract products from an ecosystem, such as fish and other foods, building materials, minerals and medicinal resources. These are direct, tangible and physical ecosystem services, which can be easily understood and monetised.
Other ecosystem services "regulate" or "support" the environment, and can include processes by which ecosystems purify water, trap pollutants, produce nutrients and regulate local climates.
For example, carbon sequestration (the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) is an ecosystem service that is currently high on the international agenda in international climate negotiations.
In Singapore, seagrass meadows and mangrove forests use up atmospheric carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, so can offset a proportion of the country's carbon dioxide emissions and thus offset our contribution to global climate change. However, these ecosystem services are largely invisible and less tangible.
The way ecosystems benefit people through "cultural services" is perhaps the most abstract, but may be the most important in Singapore's context. Cultural services include the use of ecosystems for recreation and education. Tens of thousands of people visit the mangroves at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve every year, which has recently expanded in area and has constructed new visitor facilities.
Other cultural services are much more abstract and intangible, and include spiritual, aesthetic, and "sense of place" services.
Current research shows that the types of cultural services valued in Singapore are changing; in the 1950s, communities valued mangroves for intrapersonal reasons such as spiritual and religious value, especially for kampung communities that had a strong personal link to the coast. However, today people in Singapore have become more dislocated from their coastline, and place more value in interpersonal services such as recreation and education.
Despite their importance, Singapore's remaining fragments of hidden coastline face an uncertain future. The Urban Redevelopment Authority's 2013 Land Use Plan and the 2014 Master Plan suggest further land reclamation - expansion that is needed to maintain economic production and house a growing population in a land-challenged Singapore.
This begs the question of how ecosystem services can be used to balance socioeconomic demands with environmental concerns. Yet, we already implicitly use the ecosystem-service approach in land use planning, with Singapore's Garden City concept driven by an acknowledgement of the importance of natural and managed green spaces in improving livability in a densely populated nation, through recreation and aesthetic value.
Exploring the potential of ecosystem services such as climate regulation, coastal protection and carbon sequestration may provide decision-makers with the evidence to make informed management decisions that incorporate and utilise the varied benefits of the country's hidden coastline, to ensure a sustainable Singapore in the future.
The writer is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. He has been researching Singapore's coastline at NUS for the past six years.
Carolyn Khew The Straits Times AsiaOne 21 Feb 15;
WATER-SPORT enthusiasts visiting Bedok Reservoir have been warned to be wary of being bitten by fish and turtles.
The unusual reminder by national water agency PUB comes after water activities there were suspended for a month recently, after three people complained of minor leg injuries.
The PUB suspended kayaking, dragon-boating and canoeing from Dec 17 to Jan 16 on suspicions that the injuries could have been caused by bites from freshwater turtles or fish such as the toman. The agency has not received reports of similar injuries at other reservoirs.
A PUB spokesman told The Straits Times that it has advised water-activity operators to tell participants to exercise caution and to put on proper footwear. The public is also reminded not to release animals into reservoirs, she added.
Schools have been urged to tell their students to be careful when in the water and to avoid submerging their feet where possible.
Two of the cases involved a pair of students from the nearby Temasek Polytechnic. They suffered cuts to their feet after kayak training there last year.The school said its coaches will focus more on land training for now.
During the suspension, trapping led to fish, including a tarpon, African walking catfish, armour sucker catfish and peacock bass, being caught, said the PUB.
Wildlife consultant Subaraj Rajathurai said Bedok Reservoir, being a man-made water body, will not have any native fish species. The fish caught by the PUB were most likely released into the waters, he added. The toman fish, which can grow up to 1m long, may bite or become defensive when disturbed, he said.
"When you do water sports and are constantly disturbing the waters, there is no way to guarantee that you won't get bitten. It is, after all, not a swimming pool," said Mr Subaraj.
The PUB, which will continue to monitor the situation at Bedok closely, said it has not received reports of animals being released into reservoirs here.
The release of animals or fish into reservoirs is prohibited as it may affect their ecology. Those caught doing so will be issued a fine of $50 on their first offence and $200 on their second offence.
Offenders will be prosecuted for subsequent offences and may be fined up to $3,000.
ST tracked down the Porsche involved in the test-bed programme to a private landed residential estate off Braddell Road.
Christopher Tan, The Straits Times AsiaOne 21 Feb 15;
The Government stands to forgo $100 million or so in tax revenue in an electric car-sharing scheme it hopes to launch from next year, according to calculations based on the approximate cost of such cars.
A Request for Information (RFI) by the Land Transport Authority and Economic Development Board that closes at the end of the month
seeks proposals for such a scheme, which was first announced last November.
RFI papers show the Government could exempt up to 1,000 electric cars from vehicular taxes (including certificate of entitlement premiums) for a car-sharing scheme that lasts up to 10 years.
Assuming the average open market value of an electric car in the fleet is $30,000 (many cost a lot more), the Government stands to forgo $100 million in upfront taxes, comprising additional registration fee, excise duty and an assumed COE premium of $60,000.
No road tax will be levied, but there will be an annual special tax of $1,600 on each car. That would work out to $16 million for 1,000 cars over 10 years.
According to the RFI, the operator will have to build a network of charging stations, but can apply for grants of up to half the capital expenditure.
If two charging stations are proposed per car, it would work out to 2,000 stations. That is deemed the minimum by industry players for an A-to-B system, where users need not return the vehicle to its pick-up point.
Based on conservative estimates, such a network would cost $14 million to $20 million, or $7,000 to $10,000 per charger. Fast chargers, which can charge a car up in less than 30 minutes instead of around eight hours, can cost 10 times as much.
The network has to be handed over to the Government at the end of the scheme, the RFI states.
A briefing last month for interested parties drew about 50 potential proposers from the automotive, infrastructure and car-sharing industries. There was mixed response from those who attended.
A European carmaker's top executive who declined to be named said: "A car-sharing scheme where users need not return the vehicle to its origin is already a difficult concept to implement.
"Making it 100 per cent electric adds to the complexity because (such vehicles) require charging stations."
If chargers were not part of the equation, the location of parking spaces can be changed to suit usage patterns over time, he explained. But with chargers already installed, the operator has to get it spot on the first time.
An executive from a local listed group noted the operator would have to pay for parking spaces, which can be hefty. Based on the Housing Board's season parking charge of $90 per month, the total cost for 2,000 spaces over 10 years works out to $21.6 million.
Among those who are more optimistic is Mr Christophe Di-Perna, Renault's Asia-Pacific head (electric and light commercial vehicles), who said the cost of the charging infrastructure could be lowered if one station with multiple charging cables could be set up. But even so, "there are still a lot of questions to be answered".
He said Renault is in talks with Autolib' - an electric car-sharing firm set up in Paris in 2011 - as well as other parties to participate in the RFI.
Car-sharing Association of Singapore president Lai Meng said the Urban Redevelopment Authority, JTC and HDB were setting aside several hundred parking spaces for the scheme.
"It's a good start," he said, adding that having around 3,000 spaces would be sufficient.
But it has to be a business case at the end of the day, he noted.
National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der Horng said usage charges must be reasonable if the scheme is to be run as a government-subsidised commercial operation.
The Land Transport Authority said the amount of cost exemptions will only be finalised when a tender is called for the project.
Two test-bed vehicles yet to be scrapped
Two electric cars granted tax exemption for a test-bed programme (2001 to 2010) have not been scrapped as required.
The two - a Porsche 911 sports car and a Toyota RAV4 sports utility vehicle - were converted to run on battery power alone. They were among 100 vehicles used in the Transport Technology Innovation and Development Scheme. The other vehicles were scrapped at the end of the test-bed programme.
In response to press queries, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said owners of the vehicles "have yet to submit their disposal documents to us".
That means the vehicles have not been returned for around four years now, given that the test-bed programme pended in 2010.
For privacy reasons, the LTA would not name the owners. But The Straits Times tracked down the Porsche, a left-hand-drive model, to a private landed residential estate off Braddell Road. The LTA confirmed that there was only one left-hand-drive Porsche 911 in the test-bed programme.
According to past press reports, the car was converted to run on electricity for Mr David Chou, managing director of electric car start- up EV Hub.
Mr Chou could not be reached for comment.
It is not known immediately who owns the electric RAV4, but a local technopreneur who dreamt of making electric cars with a range of 900km had brought one in six years ago to garner interest in his venture.
An LTA spokesman said it is investigating the two cases.
Meanwhile, another test-bed scheme started in 2011 involves an additional 100 tax-exempt cars.
RUBEN SARIO The Star 21 Feb 15;
KOTA KINABALU: An increase in the population of Sabah's Bornean pygmy elephants coupled with a decline in their habitat is resulting in more frequent incidents involving the pachyderms.
A 57-year-old woman was slightly injured when she and a husband stumbled across an adult bull elephant on Thursday in Telupid district along the state’s east coast, in the latest human-elephant conflict.
Sabah Wildlife Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said the 2.3m tall elephant injured the woman, Justina Ompang, while she was walking to work with her husband.
The incident occurred in Kampung Gambaron, about two kilometres from Telupid town, around 6.20am when heavy mist enveloped the area.
Justina and her husband, Khunyan bin Basimah, 40, were walking out of their home when they came across the elephant standing by the side of the road.
The couple were used to seeing elephants that would often retreat into the nearby jungle upon seeing them.
However, on that morning, the elephant charged at them and used its trunk to hit Justina.
Khunyan started shouting to distract the elephant and this worked, as the elephant immediately stopped attacking the woman and ran back into the forested area.
Villagers then rushed Justina to to the Telupid hospital where she was treated for bruises on her upper body.
“More than 30 elephants in four different groups have been causing severe damage to the villagers’ crops as well as damaging vehicles and motorcycles,” Dr Sen said.
The affected areas that have borne the brunt of these human-elephant conflicts were Kampung Bouto, Kampung Lubang Batu, Kampung Maliau and Kampung Gambaron.
Dr Sen said the department’s rangers, along with Wildlife Rescue Unit personnel have been working around the clock conducting Elephant Control Operations, trying to chase the elephants back into the forest and protecting the villages.
“Now with this new development, we have escalated our Elephant Control Operation to a full blown Capture and Translocation Program. It is going to be a very expensive operation, costing as much as RM 20,000-30,000 per elephant.
“We have to do it for the safety of the villager,” he said.
Department director William Baya human-elephant conflicts had been on the increase in recent years at elephant habitat areas in the central and south eastern parts of Sabah, including Sandakan, Kinabatangan, Beluran, Lahad Datu, Tawau and Nabawan and Pensiangan.
“We believe that the reason for this is the further increase in fragmentation and net loss of suitable elephant habitats, coupled by a probable net increase in elephant population state-wide,” he said, adding that a 2008 survey showed that Sabah elephant population stood at 2,000 heads.
“We need to find a solution for this problem by better managing our present elephant population as well as habitat,” William said.
He said relocating the elephants was not a permanent solution as there was documented proof that the same elephants made their way back to their original habitat and caused more conflict.
Woman hurt in elephant encounter
The Star 21 Feb 15;
KOTA KINABALU: A 57-year-old woman was slightly injured when she and a husband encountered an adult bull elephant on Thursday in the east coast Telupid district in the latest human-elephant conflict.
Sabah Wildlife Department assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said the 2.3m-tall elephant injured Justina Ompang as she was walking to work with her husband in Kampung Gambaron, about 2km from Telupid town, around 6.20am.
Justina and her husband Khunyan Basimah, 40, were walking out of their home when they came across a bull elephant standing by the side of the road.
Elephants often retreat into the nearby jungle upon seeing people but in this instance, the elephant charged and hit Justina with its trunk.
Khunyan started shouting to distract the elephant and it worked, as it immediately stopped attacking the wife and ran into the forested area.
Villagers then rushed Justina to the Telupid hospital where she was treated for bruises on her upper body.
Dr Sen said more than 30 elephants in four different groups have been causing severe damage to the villagers’ crops as well as damaging vehicles in several villages.
He said the department’s rangers and the Wildlife Rescue Unit personnel have been working round the clock conducting Elephant Control Operations, to chase the jumbos back into the forest.
“Now with this new development, we have boosted our operation to a full blown Capture and Translocation Programme. It is going to be a very expensive operation, costing as much as RM20,000 to RM30,000 per elephant but for the safety of the villagers we have to do it,” he said.
Department director William Baya said human-elephant conflicts had been on the increase in recent years at elephant habitat areas in the central and south eastern parts of Sabah.
“We believe the reason for this is the increase in fragmentation and loss of suitable elephant habitat, coupled with an increase in elephant population statewide,” he said, adding that a 2008 survey showed that Sabah’s elephant population stood at 2,000 heads.
Rogue elephant captured
ROY GOH New Straits Times 23 Feb 15;
TELUPID: A rogue elephant that attacked a man and his wife last week has been captured.
The male elephant was tracked down and subdued with tranquilizer by a team from the Sabah Wildlife department at about 6.20pm yesterday.
Wildlife director William Baya said the elephant estimated to be about 20 years old and measured nearly 2.3 metres in height will be sent to the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary in Sandakan for further observation on its behaviour.
"We will not translocate this elephant anywhere yet as we are worried that it might pose a similar danger somewhere else," he said.
The elephant attacked a man and his wife as they were walking to work in Kampung Gambaron Telupid at about 6.20am on Feb 19.
The woman sustained minor injuries in the attack and was given medical treatment at the district hospital before being discharged the same day.
Sabah rangers capture elephant that attacked woman
RUBEN SARIO The Star 23 Feb 15;
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Wildlife rangers have caught a bull elephant that injured a villager in the east coast Telupid district on Thursday.
Sabah Wildlife Department director William Baya said a team from the Wildlife Rescue Unit captured the elephant late Sunday after tracking the animal for three days.
“I am glad that our rangers have managed to capture this rogue elephant,” he said Monday.
Baya said the department’s veterinarian Dr Laura Benedict darted the 2.3m tall elephant at about 6.20pm after rangers tracked it down to an oil palm plantation, some two kilometres from Kampung Gambaron where the woman was attacked.
Wildlife officials were ascertaining if the elephant was in musth, a periodic condition characterised by highly aggressive behaviour accompanied by a rise in reproductive hormones.
There were no physical signs of musth normally seen in bull elephants such as oil discharge from the temporal lobe or dribbling urine.
“We will not trans-locate this elephant anywhere yet as we are worried that it might pose a similar danger somewhere else,” he said.
“The plan now is to bring it to our newly built Borneo Elephant Sanctuary (BES) where it can be further observed for its behaviour before we decide on the next course of action,” Baya added.
The bull elephant used its trunk to strike 57-year-old Justina Ompang when she and her husband, Khunyun Basimah, 40, encountered the animal on the roadside near their village.
The couple were used to seeing elephants that would often retreat into the nearby jungle upon seeing them.
On that morning, however, the bull elephant charged at them and used its trunk to hit Justina. Khunyan started shouting to distract the elephant and this worked, as the elephant immediately stopped attacking the wife and ran back into the forested area.
Villagers then rushed Justina to the Telupid hospital where she was treated for bruises on her upper body.
Villagers not afraid of elephants despite recent attacks
ROY GOH New Straits Times 10 Mar 15;
TELUPID: The presence of wild elephants in several villages near here has attracted people who are eager to get a closer look - instead of scaring them away.
Despite a recent attack on a couple at Kampung Gambaron about 2 kilometres from the town here, many residents in the surrounding areas would not let up any opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Bornean Pygmy elephants.
Among them was civil servant Jackson Watis who held his nerve by getting close to a herd not far from his home to capture a near 3-minute video of the elephants sometime in mid-February.
"It was scary but at the same time I was curious," said the 23-year-old Kampung Gambaron resident who admitted the only thing he could think of, if the elephants turned on him, would be to run as fast as he could.
"We were about 20m to 30m away and one of my friends lit fire-crackers to scare the herd away. It worked but the damage was quite extensive," Jackson said adding that he would do it again with caution.
On Feb 19, a male elephant estimated to be about 20-years-old and measuring about 2.3m in height attacked a man and his wife as they were walking to work at about 6.20am at Kampung Gambaron.
A team from the state Wildlife department subsequently captured the elephant not far from the village, located about 2km from the town here. It was later sent to the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary in Kinabatangan for further observation.
The department's Wildlife Rescue Unit have been deployed to the area to conduct control operations to chase away the elephants back into the forest and protect Kampung Gambaron as well as other nearby villages.
State Wildlife director William Baya had said such human-elephant conflicts have occurred more frequently in recent years in central and south-eastern part of Sabah such as Sandakan, Kinabatangan, Beluran, Lahad Datu, Tawau, Nabawan and Pensiangan.
FAO Director-General speaks at International Forum on Agriculture and Climate Change
FAO 20 Feb 15;
Paris - The model of agricultural production that predominates today is not suitable for the new food security challenges of the 21st century, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today.
While the numbers of the chronically hungry have been reduced by 100 million over the past decade, 805 million still go without enough to eat on a regular basis, he noted in remarks to ministers, scientists, farmers, and representatives of civil society gathered in the French capital for a government-organized International Forum on Agriculture and Climate Change.
Increasing production has long seen as the natural pathway to ending hunger - but today, even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone, hunger remains a problem, he pointed out.
"Since food production is not a sufficient condition for food security, it means that the way we are producing is no longer acceptable," said Graziano da Silva.
"What we are still mostly seeing is a model of production that cannot prevent the degradation of soils and the loss of biodiversity - both of which are essential goods, especially for future generations. This model must be reviewed. We need a paradigm shift. Food systems need to be more sustainable, inclusive and resilient," he added.
Climate change a clear and present danger
Agriculture has a potentially large role to play not only in guaranteeing food security but also in building resilience to the affects of climate change and in reducing humankind's emissions of global warming gases, according to the FAO Director-General.
"The impacts of climate change are no longer an anticipated threat. They are now a crystal-clear reality right before our eyes," he warned, adding: "Climate change will not only affect food production but also the availability of food and the stability of supplies. And in a global, interdependent economy, climate change makes the global market for agricultural products less predictable and more volatile."
In his remarks, the FAO Director-General underscored the important role played by healthy soils. "Soils host at least one quarter of the world's biodiversity and are key in the carbon cycle. They help us to mitigate and adapt to climate change," he said.
2015 has been designated by the UN General Assembly as the International Year of Soils, and FAO is the lead agency for coordinating the year's activities.
New approaches
One promising new approach, said Graziano da Silva, is what is known as "climate-smart agriculture" - adjusting farming practices to make them more adaptive and resilient to environmental pressures, while at the same time decreasing farming's own impacts on the environment.
FAO is home to the Global Alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture, a broad coalition of stakeholders, including governments; farmers and food producers, processors and sellers; scientific and educational organizations; civil society actors; multilateral and international agencies and the private sector established last September by the UN General Assembly.
The alliance is working to promote sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes; build greater resilience of food systems and farming livelihoods; and achieve reductions or removals of greenhouse gas emissions by agriculture.
The FAO Director-General also highlighted "agro-ecology" as a promising way to move food production onto a more sustainable path. The approach uses ecological theory to study and manage agricultural systems in order to make them both more productive and better at conserving natural resources.
Today's forum was the first in a series of events leading up the December 2015 climate summit.
During his visit to France, Graziano da Silva also met President François Hollande and held bilateral meetings with Laurent Fabius, France's Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development and Stéphane Le Foll, the country's Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
Tomorrow he is slated to participate at the opening of the Paris International Agricultural Show.
CNY Day 1: Cyrene Reef
from wonderful creation and wild shores of singapore
Afternoon Walk At Venus Drive (18 Feb 2015)
from Beetles@SG BLOG
Gardens by the Bay (14022015 & 18022015)
from Psychedelic Nature
Jayalakshmi K International Business Times 19 Feb 15;
Sea levels are rising more than twice as fast as the global average in the Sunderbans, a low-lying delta region comprising 200 small islands in the Bay of Bengal and inhabited by around 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis.
Scientists predict much of the region could be underwater in 15 to 25 years, forcing the largest ever human migration in history.
With a total 13 million inhabitants, the Sunderbans region is more populated than any island nation, reports AP.
"This big-time climate migration is looming on the horizon,'' said Tapas Paul, a New Delhi-based environmental specialist with the World Bank, which is assessing and preparing a plan for the Sunderbans region.
Already four islands have gone underwater and many others abandoned due to sea rise and erosion.
"The chance of a mass migration, to my mind, is actually pretty high. India is not recognizing it for whatever reason,'' said Anurag Danda, who leads the World Wildlife Fund's climate change adaptation programme in the Sunderbans.
"It's a crisis waiting to happen. We are just one event away from seeing large-scale displacement and turning a large number of people into destitutes.''
Thousands have already been left homeless.
Each year, the inhabitants build mud embankments to protect their crops from saltwater and animals. But each year the flooded rivers and monsoon wash away their efforts.
Dams and irrigation systems add to the problem as they block the sediments that build up river deltas.
Saltwater long ago claimed the five acres where Bokul Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds. His tiny hut sits at the edge of the water now.
This is the fifth mud hut he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.
A 2013 study by the Zoological Society of London found the Sundarbans coastline retreating at about 200 metres (650 feet) a year.
The Geological Survey of India says at least 210sq km (81 square miles) of coastline on the Indian side has been lost in the last few decades.
With no national plan to relocate residents of the Sunderbans, the West Bengal administration is seeking international help in addressing the imminent problem of relocation and protection of the region.
Bangladesh too is yet to do anything about the problem, besides building some dykes and barriers on some of the islands.
The Sundarbans (meaning beautiful forests) region is home to rare wildlife, including the world's only population of mangrove forest tigers.
A Unesco World Heritage Site, the Sunderbans spans over 20,000sq km in total, across India and Bangladesh. The Indian Sunderbans forms the largest tiger reserve and national park in India and is home to rare bird species like the Masked Finfoot, Mangrove Pitta and the Mangrove Whistler.
Part of the world's largest delta formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, Sunderbans is also the world's largest estuarine forest.
The mangrove forests act as a natural buffer protecting India's West Bengal state and Bangladesh from cyclones.
Most scientists believe that the long-term solution is to encourage people to leave, so that the region naturally rejuvenates and the mangroves help capture sediments over time.
"We have 15 years ... that's the rough time frame I give for sea level rise to become very difficult and population pressure to become almost unmanageable,'' said Jayanta Bandopadhyay, an engineer and science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
However, most of the residents who have been living on the land since the early 1800s are reluctant to leave. This is despite the rising water levels and tiger numbers. The region has around 200 tigers and tiger attacks have been on the rise.
Science Daily 19 Feb 15;
Nearly 700 species of marine animal have been recorded as having encountered humanmade debris such as plastic and glass according to the most comprehensive impact study in more than a decade.
Researchers at Plymouth University found evidence of 44,000 animals and organisms becoming entangled in, or swallowing debris, from reports recorded from across the globe.
Plastic accounted for nearly 92 per cent of cases, and 17 per cent of all species involved were found to be threatened or near threatened on the IUCN Red List, including the Hawaiian monk seal, the loggerhead turtle and sooty shearwater.
In a paper, The impact of debris on marine life, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, authors Sarah Gall and Professor Richard Thompson present evidence collated from a wide variety of sources on instances of entanglement, ingestion, physical damage to ecosystems, and rafting -- where species are transported by debris.
Sarah Gall said: "The impact of debris on marine life is of particular concern, and effects can be wide reaching, with the consequence of ingestion and entanglement considered to be harmful. Reports in the literature began in the 1960s with fatalities being well documented for birds, turtles, fish and marine mammals."
In total, they found that 693 species had been documented as having encountered debris, with nearly 400 involving entanglement and ingestion. These incidents had occurred around the world, but were most commonly reported off the east and west coasts of North America, as well as Australia and Europe.
Plastic rope and netting were responsible for the majority of entanglements, with a high number of incidents affecting northern right whales, green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles, and the northern fulmar.
Plastic fragments were the highest recorded substance for ingestion, with the green sea turtle and northern fulmar again, the Laysan albatross, the Californian seal lion, the Atlantic puffin, and the greater shearwater among the worst affected species.
"We found that all known species of sea turtle, and more than half of all species of marine mammal and seabird had been affected by marine debris -- and that number has risen since the last major study," said Sarah. "And in nearly 80 per cent of entanglement cases this had resulted in direct harm or death."
The authors say that while only four per cent of cases involving ingestion were known to have caused harm, further study of sub-lethal impacts are needed, with areas of concern around the impact upon metabolism and reproduction.
Professor Richard Thompson, who is acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts on microplastics in the marine environment, said: "Encounters with marine debris are of particular concern for species that are recognised to be threatened, and with 17 per cent of all species reported in the paper as near threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, it is evident that marine debris may be contributing to the potential for species extinction."
Journal Reference: S.C. Gall, R.C. Thompson. The impact of debris on marine life. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.12.041
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