3-Meter Croc Catches Rays With Shocked Beachgoers

Jakarta Globe, Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, May 22, 2013

An Estuarine Crocodile opens its jaws wide at the National Zoological Gardens
at Dehiwala outside the city limits of Colombo, Sri Lanka. (EPA Photo)

Balikpapan. Authorities in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, are investigating whether a large crocodile that spooked visitors at the popular Manggar Beach over the weekend was a wild animal or had escaped from a nearby breeding center.

Arif, the head of the municipal management body for the beach, confirmed on Monday that the three-meter-long saltwater crocodile was spotted in the area on Saturday morning, sending hundreds of beachgoers scattering.

“The crocodile even went up and sunbathed next to the lifeguard post. Most of the visitors were scared, but some of them hung around to look,” he said.

The animal disappeared into a nearby estuary soon after, and efforts by Ari’s office and local wildlife conservation officials to track it down were fruitless.

Arif added that officials from the local search and rescue agency, working with local fishermen, were still scouring the coast for any signs of the animal so that they could determine where it came from before capturing and releasing it away from areas of human activity.

He added that it is highly likely that the crocodile came from the nearby Teritip crocodile breeding center. However, Bayu, an official at the breeding center, denied the possibility.

“None of our crocodiles have gone loose. They’re all securely in their cages,” he said, adding that there were around 1,500 crocodiles at the facility.

He suggested that the one that appeared at the beach was a wild crocodile that had strayed far downstream because of damage to its habitat in the upstream forest area.

Crocodile sighting are increasingly becoming common in East Kalimantan, with conservation officials attributing this to the loss of the animals’ natural habitat.

In April, a 16-year-old girl was killed by a crocodile in the Perdau Dalam River in West Kutai district. This was the fifth incident in the area in the past two years.

Erli Sukrismanto, the head of the Kutai National Park, said at the time that forest clearing within the park was compelling animals to travel further downstream.

“Crocodiles are considered quite adaptable to high levels of water pollution, so if they’re forced to seek cleaner waters, that paints a very worrying picture,” he said.

Indonesia Court Ruling Boosts Indigenous Land Rights

Jakarta Globe – AFP, May 17, 2013

This file aerial photograph taken on June 7, 2012 shows lush tropical forest
in Central Kalimantan (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

An Indonesian court has ruled indigenous people have the right to manage forests where they live, a move which supporters said prevents the government from handing over community-run land to businesses.

Disputes between indigenous groups and companies have become increasingly tense in recent years, as soaring global demand for commodities like palm oil has seen plantations encroach on forests.

In Thursday’s ruling, Constitutional Court judges said that a 1999 law should be changed so it no longer defines forest that has been inhabited by indigenous groups for generations as “state forest,” according to court documents.

“Indigenous Indonesians have the right to log their forests and cultivate the land for their personal needs, and the needs of their families,” judge Muhammad Alim said as he handed down the ruling, state news agency Antara reported.

While environmentalists welcomed the ruling, they warned it could unintentionally lead to an upsurge in disputes between authorities and communities over the classification of indigenous land.

In March, seven villagers were shot and at least 15 police officers were injured in North Sumatra, where a dispute over a forest claimed by both the community and government has been simmering since 1998.

The National People’s Indigenous Organization filed the challenge to the 1999 law, which they say has let officials sell permits allowing palm oil, paper, mining and timber companies to exploit their land.

The group said Friday’s ruling affected 40 million hectare of forest — slightly larger than Japan, and 30 percent of Indonesia’s forest coverage.

They said this area was legally classified as “customary forest,” the term that describes forests that have been inhabited by indigenous people for a long time.

“About 40 million indigenous people are now the rightful owners of our customary forests,” said the group’s chief Abdon Nababan.

However, a senior forestry minister official said he believed the total amount of “customary forest” was far lower, and stressed it could take time to implement the changes as local governments would all need to issue a decree.

Stepi Hakim, Indonesia director of the Clinton Climate Initiative, said the ruling would give legal grounds for indigenous communities to challenge businesses operating in their forests, but this could lead to a string of new disputes.

“As soon as this policy is delivered, local governments have to be ready to mitigate conflicts,” he said.

Indigenous groups are commonly defined as those that retain economic, social and cultural characteristics that are different from those of the wider societies in which they live.

Agence France-Presse

Related Article:

Editorial: Court Ruling Will Help Preserve Indonesia’s Forests

More Than a Million Support Petition to Stop Aceh Deforestation

More Than a Million Support Petition to Stop Aceh Deforestation

Jakarta Globe, May 18, 2013

An aerial view of burning peatland in Rawa Tripa in Aceh is seen in this
handout photo taken March 27, 2012. (Reuters Photo)

More than a million people across the globe have signed an online petition demanding the Indonesian government to cancel the plan to open the protected virgin rainforest in Aceh to commercial exploitation.

Arief Aziz, the communications director for the online petition website Change.org, said in a statement on Saturday that the “#SaveAceh” campaign has been signed by more than 20,000 Indonesians since its launch in March.

Following the massive reaction, Rudi Putra, an environmental activist, started another petition for the same cause on Avaaz.org, which has garnered more than 1.2 million signatures in its first 11 days.

“Aceh rainforests, home to endangered animals like orangutan and Sumatran rhino, have been destroyed by illegal hunters and loggers, but this new exploration will be an ultimate disaster,” he said.

Rights groups say the plan will allow around 1.2 million hectares that were previously protected to be cleared.

Approval of the plan would open up the forest on the northern tip of Sumatra to mining, paper and palm oil plantations.

The Aceh government banned the granting of new logging permits six years ago to protect the forest, but a new administration that came in last year is in favor of allowing logging again.

“Yudhoyono has the options: to leave an important legacy to protect the rich natural resources or to trash his own track record by allowing this disaster,” Avaaz’ campaign director Ian Baasin said.

Jakarta has signaled it will sign off on Aceh’s plan in the coming weeks, even as it is expected to extend the moratorium on new logging permits which expires on Monday and has been in force for two years.

There is also strong support in the Aceh parliament which has the final say, and officials say they hope it will pass soon.

Although it seems to fly in the face of the national moratorium, the project is possible because it hinges on Aceh’s decision to overturn its own deforestation ban which was introduced at the local level six years ago.

The ban, stronger than the national measure, was brought in by the previous local administration — but it will be scrapped under the plan.

JG & AFP

Rubber Boom Fueling Land Grabs in SE Asia: Report

Jakarta Globe, Agence France-Presse, May 13, 2013

A picture made available on May 10, 2013 shows an Indonesian farmer
 planting rubber seeds on a cleared forest near Teluk Meranti, Riau province,
Indonesia. (EPA Photo/Bagus Indahono)

Vietnamese rubber firms bankrolled by an arm of the World Bank and Germany’s Deutsche Bank are driving a land-grabbing crisis in Southeast Asia, activists said Monday.

Indigenous ethnic minorities are bearing the brunt of the seizures, which have affected tens of thousands of villagers and led to the clearance of swathes of protected forests, according to campaign group Global Witness.

Vietnam, the world’s third-largest rubber producer, is keen to tap surging demand for the commodity in particular from China, which is hungry for car tyres and other rubber goods as its economy booms.

Global Witness accused two firm, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), of driving forced evictions via subsidiaries linked to government cronies in impoverished — and notoriously corrupt — Cambodia and Laos.

According to the report, Deutsche Bank has multi-million dollar holdings in both companies, while the International Finance Corp. (IFC) — the World Bank’s private lending arm — invests in HAGL through financial intermediaries.

More than 1.2 million hectares (2.96 million acres) of land in Cambodia alone have been leased for rubber plantations, Global Witness said, with some 400,000 people affected by land grabs for rubber and other uses since 2003.

“The governments in Cambodia and Laos are allocating large areas of land and ignoring laws designed to protect human rights and the environment,” according to the report.

“Often the first people know about either company being given their land is when the bulldozers arrive,” it said.

Global Witness urged Cambodia and Laos to suspend all dealings with the two firms and their subsidiaries.

It called on Deutsche Bank and the IFC to withdraw their multi-million dollar funding if the two companies fail to take steps to comply with human rights and environmental standards within the next six months.

In response, Deutsche Bank said an “intensive due diligence process” was conducted before the shares were bought on behalf of its investors.

The IFC declined to comment ahead of the report’s release, saying Global Witness had not shared its full findings in advance.

The two Vietnamese companies denied any illegal activities.

“We contribute to the development of the local economy by paying necessary taxes… creating jobs for tens of thousands of local residents, and contributing to local communities,” HAGL said in a statement.

Agence France-Presse

Related Article:

UN Agency Adopts Global Guidelines Against 'Land Grabbing’

Teens on a Mission to SAVE the Animals

Jakarta Globe, Bishka Zareen Chand, May 12, 2013

Animal rights group Students for Animal Voices and Ethics volunteers with
 the Jakarta Animal Aid Network to help socialize rescued dogs. (Photo
courtesy of SAVE)

Many people think that kids and teens are not able to make a difference to the world. But our group, Students for Animal Voices and Ethics, proves them wrong.

SAVE is a group of middle-school and high-school students who are serious about animal rights. It was started in 2009 and has since continued to grow, gaining momentum and new members each year.

SAVE was the very first service project at Sinarmas World Academy in Tangerang focused on spreading awareness on animal rights issues.

Our goal is to help people understand animal rights and how animals deserve to be treated. We believe that you can make a difference at any age, as long as you have the passion and dedication to do so.

“SAVE was started as a response to the horrors of animal cruelty I’ve witnessed in Indonesia,” says SAVE president and group founder Adellea Greenbury.

“I hated the idea of all of this going on while I couldn’t do anything about it. Abandoned pets, enslaved monkeys, tortured animals. All these pushed down on my conscience until I simply had to do something.

“As I am still young, I decided to start small with an in-school community. My hope is that SAVE can continue to grow and develop, and that one day we will make a real difference in the larger community of Indonesia.”

Each month, SAVE joins the Jakarta Animal Aid Network to help maintain a garden we co-created, while volunteering to take care of the rescued dogs under their care.

We are currently also organizing a cat sterilization drive at Sinarmas World Academy, to help control the number of stray cats strolling around campus.

Starting and maintaining our different projects requires a lot of time and effort, but SAVE is an enjoyable group to be in is because working with the animals at JAAN and organizing events with the other SAVE members is just so much fun!

Our partnership with JAAN is really growing and we continue to be involved with their projects and work collaboratively as much as we can.

At JAAN, the people are very easy to work with and are serious about working together on different projects with us, even though we are just a bunch of teenagers.

“JAAN welcomes volunteers at our new center in Cijantung, East Jakarta, to help with yard work, poop scooping, dog socialization [finding new homes], cage cleaning, fund-raising, event organization, campaigning and promoting awareness,” says JAAN cofounder Natalie Stewart.

“The dogs at our center aren’t confined and they’re allowed to roam around freely to interact with each other and with the staff and volunteers. Volunteers are advised to wear old clothes as the dogs sometimes jump up and can be muddy.”

JAAN headquarters in Kemang, South Jakarta, is also filled with a lot of friendly rescued dogs running around the yard.

If you are serious about getting a new pet, JAAN is definitely the right place to go.

This year, SAVE is planning to create more projects, and make a bigger difference for animal rights in Jakarta.

However, the students cannot do this alone. SAVE welcomes volunteers of all ages in Jakarta who are dedicated and also interested in working with animals.

Together, we can create a network of people who are passionate about animal rights, striving to make a change.

Bishka Zareen Chand, a ninth-grader in Sinarmas World Academy, is the public relations officer for SAVE. She joined SAVE in 2012 and plans to attend Columbia University and major in psychology. This is her first published article.

Going Green Empowers ‘Shining Mothers’

A new program is encouraging women to care for nature

Jakarta Globe, Sylviana Hamdani, May 7, 2013

Participants at a recent meeting. (Photo courtesy of Unilever)

Large companies are often seen as enemies of the environment. With their large production capacities, many generate lots of pollution and waste.

But not all corporations are the same. Some have business plans focusing on continuity through the sustainable use of natural resources and the wellbeing of their customers. Unilever Indonesia is one example.

This large consumer goods producer, which has been in Indonesia since 1933, aims to grow its businesses while preserving the natural environment at the same time.

“We intend to keep growing our business in this country,” said Unilever Indonesia corporate communications head Maria Dewantini Dwianto. “And the only way to do so, is to ensure people and resources touched by our business are sustained.”

Unilever plans to double the size of its businesses globally, while at the same time decreasing its environmental impact and improving local communities.

“Our sustainability plan is to help 1 billion people [globally] to lead better and healthier lives,” Maria said.

In Indonesia, Unilever recently established the Komunitas Ibu Bercahaya (Community of Shining Mothers).

“Bercahaya” is also an acronym of bersih (clean), cermat (carefully considered, smart), ramah lingkungan (environmentally friendly) and diberdayakan (empowered).

Through this group, Unilever hopes to inspire Indonesian women, their families and local communities to lead cleaner, smarter and more eco-friendly lifestyles.

Recently, 60 Indonesian women from various backgrounds were welcomed as its first members in Jakarta.

“Women are our main customers,” Maria said. “The life and death of our businesses depend a lot on them.”

Women also have a central role in their families.

“By educating the women, we’ll also [indirectly] educate their husbands and children,” Maria said.

Unilever, in collaboration with educational institutes and universities, will provide regular training and workshops to teach the women easy and practical ways to conserve the environment.

Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar.
(Photo courtesy of Unilever)

The first members of the community were selected from a list of active participants in the environmental programs of Yayasan Unilever Indonesia (Unilever Indonesia Foundation).

“Most of them are homemakers,” Maria said. “But they’re also leaders in their neighborhoods. By participating in our previous activities [with Yayasan Unilever Indonesia], we know they have a strong passion to create a change.”

In this new community, these agents of change will learn new ways to manage garbage and water, as well as cultivate more trees in their surroundings.

They will then introduce these new methods to their neighborhoods. Each member is also be expected to bring in 10 new members from their local communities.

“As a person and educator, I’m touched,” said Firdaus Ali, the chairman of the Indonesian Water Institute. “This is what we’ve been waiting for for a long time: a large corporation that collaborates with local communities to share its knowledge and expertise in natural conservation.”

According to Firdaus, such a movement is necessary as Indonesia, especially Jakarta, is facing a huge water crisis.

“There are 13 rivers and 76 sub-rivers in Jakarta,” he said. “Yet, we always lack water during the dry season. While on the other hand, the city always floods during the rainy season.”

In the first training session, Firdaus taught the women how to create biopore infiltration holes and save water.

Biopores are created by making holes 50-100 centimeter deep in the soil. We can put organic waste into these holes.

The waste will attract worms, which create more bioporic tunnels into these holes.

When it rains, these biopores will also absorb rainwater and thus help to prevent floods in the city. The organic waste inside the holes will turn into compost that fertilize plants.

During this training session, Unilever also promoted one of its products — Molto Ultra Sekali Bilas (One-Rinse Molto Ultra).

According to the company’s research, people usually rinse their laundry three times and thus consume around 40 liters of water. With Molto Ultra Sekali Bilas, one can save around 20 liters of water.

The community plans to create 1 million biopores and conserve 1 billion liters of water within a year.

“Just imagine,” Firdaus said, “if we have saved 1 billion liters of water within one year, approximately 30,000 other families will be able to get clean water.”

According to him, there are presently about 29,000 families without access to clean water in North Jakarta alone.

During the training, Firdaus also encouraged community members to grow more trees in their neighborhoods.

“I’m so inspired,” said Ratih, a woman from East Jakarta. “We don’t have a large yard at home, but I can plant in pots. With more plants, the earth will be greener and cooler.”

The 60-year-old housewife also plans to introduce these eco-living techniques to her five children, who all have families of their own.

“I think we should start within our own families,” she said. “The change should come from within. And then the people will see and do as we do.”

Sri Endang, a kindergarten teacher and mother of two from West Jakarta, was also inspired by the training.

“Water is so crucial to our lives, yet we rarely respect it,” she said. “We only realize how precious it is during the dry season, when we lack it. But we never do anything to save it.”

Sri plans to replace her traditional bak mandi (bathtub) and gayung (water dipper), which use lots of water, with a modern shower kit.

“Change doesn’t have to be expensive,” the 42-year-old said. “I can buy a second-hand shower kit at the market, clean it and install it at home. It’ll save a lot of water.”

Sri also plans to ask her local community heads to mobilize people in her neighborhood to create biopores in their yards.

“To be effective, men and women should work together in these programs,” Sri said.

M0inister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar, who attended the inauguration of the community’s first members, was impressed with the corporation’s initiative.

“I truly appreciate what Unilever Indonesia is doing,” she said. “With this program, they show that they care about people and support the government’s efforts to develop the country.”

According to the minister, the community programs will not only preserve Indonesia’s natural environment, but also empower women.

“Women and children suffer most in natural disasters,” she said. “But women have large potential. They should be empowered to become the solution, instead of victims of their circumstances.”

According to the Central Statistics Bureau (BPS), women made up 49.6 percent of Indonesia’s 240 million total population in 2011.

The activities of Komunitas Ibu Bercahaya will be evaluated by an independent jury and a winner will be selected every three months. The winner will appear in a special program on national television.

All women in Indonesia can join this community free of charge by registering online, or by calling directly.

www.ibubercahaya.com

Outrage Over China Tiger Abuse

Jakarta Globe, Agence France-Presse, May 7, 2013

The white tiger cub ‘Rico’ is presented at the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen,
 Germany, 21 April 2010. ‘Rico’ and his brother ‘Kico’ were born on 08 March 2010
 and were not accepted by their mother ‘Bianca’. A female keeper raises the
 cubs by hand. There are only some 250 white tigers left around the world. (EPA
Photo/ Holger Holleman)

Beijing. A Chinese tiger park has sought to quell public anger after images of holiday-makers sitting astride a strapped–down cub prompted outrage online, state media said Tuesday.

Pictures taken at a Siberian tiger park in northwest China’s Jilin province showed visitors posing for photos while sitting on top of a tiger cub tied to a wooden table, the state-run Global Times reported.

Video footage has also emerged from another animal park in Zhejiang province in the east, showing a tiger strapped to a bench while a man sat on top of it, bouncing up and down and slapping the tiger’s head.

The incidents provoked outrage on China’s popular social networking site Sina Weibo. “Humans gradually evolve into beasts,” one user said, while another added: “Humans have reached a new level of insanity.”

Authorities at the Jilin park said the abused cub was not among the animals it cares for, according to the Global Times, insisting that it belonged instead to an animal troupe that the park hired to stage performances for visitors.

The park said it had terminated its contract with the troupe and penalized its director 5,000 yuan ($800) over the incident, the report said.

China says it has thousands of tigers in captivity, and its cold northeast is home to the rare Siberian tiger, of which only 450 remain in the wild, according to the WWF.

The WWF warned in 2010 that the tiger faced extinction in the wild in China after having been devastated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.

China has no laws specifically against cruelty to animals and zoo visitors and staff are sometimes able to abuse captive creatures without sanction.

Endangered species are sometimes kept as trophy pets and the country is widely considered a key destination for the global illegal wildlife trade.

Agence France-Presse

Sumatran Orangutans’ Rainforest Home Faces New Threat

Jakarta Globe, Angela Dewan, May 5, 2013

A rescued male Sumatran orangutan, named “Gokong Puntung” after the
 Chinese monkey God, whose mother was beaten up by poachers, learns
 to climb tree branches at the quarantine centre of Sumatran Orangutan
 Conservation Program in Sibolangit district, Sumatra, on April 8. (AFP
Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Sibolangit. A baby Sumatran orangutan swings playfully on a branch at an Indonesian rescue center, a far cry from the terror he endured when his pristine rainforest home was razed to the ground.

Now alarm is growing at a plan activists say will open up new swathes of virgin forest on Sumatra island for commercial exploitation and lay roads through a vital ecosystem, increasing the risk to many endangered species.

The plan, which Aceh authorities say aims to open up a small amount of forest for communities to develop, is set to be approved by Jakarta despite its moves towards extending a national moratorium on new logging permits.

Green groups say such policies illustrate how the ban can be circumvented  to open up new areas for deforestation, threatening to boost Indonesia’s already high emissions of carbon dioxide.

“This plan is a huge threat to species living in the forest, especially orangutans, tigers and elephants that live in the lowland forests that will  likely be cleared first,” Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program told AFP.

Environmentalists warn that some one million hectares — around the size of Cyprus — could be opened up in Aceh province for exploitation by mining, palm oil and paper companies. Officials dispute that figure.

There are particular fears about part of the project which would lay roads through the Leuser ecosystem, an area of stunning beauty where peat swamp and dense forest surround waterfalls and mountains poking through clouds.

The area, mostly in Aceh, is home to around 5,800 of the remaining 6,600 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans as well as elephants, bears and snakes including King Cobras.

Singleton warns that cases like that of the baby ape, rescued from Leuser, would rise dramatically if the road project goes ahead, as orangutan populations need long, uninterrupted stretches of forest to survive.

Named Gokong Puntung after the Chinese monkey god, the young ape had been living in an area where several companies cleared the land despite the tough protection it was supposed to have been afforded.

The primate was left stranded and clinging to his mother in a lone tree with no others to swing to. His mother was beaten by a group of passing men, and the baby was sold to a plantation worker for $10.

He was rescued in February and taken to the center run by Singleton’s group across the Aceh border in Sibolangit district, North Sumatra province.

“Genetic experts say you need 250 to 500 orangutans minimum to have a population that’s viable in the long term without too many bad inbreeding effects,” said Singleton.

“We’ve only got about six of those populations left, and every time you put a road through the middle of one, you effectively cut it in half.”

Aceh forestry department planning chief Saminuddin B. Tou insists the roads  will help link remote communities to the outside world — although activists say there are few buildings in the area and the network mainly helps big companies with access.

Smoke envelopes a peatland forest hit by fire in western Aceh province’s
 Tripa in Sumatra as peatland forests are converted for palm oil plantation
in this June 27, 2012 file photo. (AFP Photo)

A murky web

Jakarta has signaled it will sign off on Aceh’s plan in the coming weeks, even as it is expected to extend the moratorium on new logging permits which expires on May 20 and has been in force for two years.

There is also strong support in the Aceh parliament which has the final say, and officials say they hope it will pass soon.

Although it seems to fly in the face of the national moratorium, the  project is possible because it hinges on Aceh’s decision to overturn its own deforestation ban which was introduced at the local level six years ago.

The ban, stronger than the national measure, was brought in by the previous local administration — but it will be scrapped under the plan.

Environmentalists say it is one of the more glaring examples of how officials are using a murky web of local laws and technical explanation to push through new deforestation in defiance of the national moratorium.

“Companies and local governments have found all sorts of ways to get around the ban,” Friends of the Earth forest campaigner Zenzi Suhadi said.

However, the head of the Aceh forestry department, Husaini Syamaun, said in a statement that the plan “was not aimed at the development of mines and plantations” and did not break any laws.

The administration insists it will only free up around 200,000 hectares of new forest for exploitation.

But in reality a much larger area will be opened up, activists say.

Prior to the local ban, many mining and palm oil companies were granted  concessions to chop down virgin rainforest in Aceh, but they had to freeze their activities when the province’s moratorium came in.

Officials argue that the plan will simply “reactivate” these areas of  forest that had been open for logging in the past, so do not include them in  their calculations.

Tou also insisted most of the project was an “administrative change” as a lot of forest had in reality been cleared by local communities already. “It’s not still virgin forest, it’s already been converted by the people,” he said.

Agence France-Presse

Australia Halts Cattle Exports to Egypt

Jakarta Globe – AFP, May 4, 2013

A file picture shows Brahman cattle bound for Indonesia held at Cedar Park,
 a pre-export feed lot some 100 km south of Darwin, Australia, on 14 July 2011.
 Indonesian Agriculture officials announced on 16 Dec. 2011 that it plans to reduce
\ imports of Australian cattle by almost half to 280,000 head next year as it
wants to move to a more self-sufficient beef industry. (EPA Photo/Dave Hunt)

Sydney. Australian cattle exporters said they had suspended live shipments to Egypt Saturday after abattoir footage shot by animal rights activists showed “horrific” mistreatment of cows.

The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council, the industry’s representative body, said it had urgently halted shipments to Egypt after Animals Australia presented it with footage showing “vicious, cruel and clumsy” practices.

“These acts are horrific. The outrageous cruelty has left me and my industry colleagues disgusted and horrified,” said ALEC chief Alison Penfold, who said she was “distraught”.

“No one in our industry, and no Australian, accepts such treatment of animals, and I believe the Egyptian authorities will not tolerate this.”

Australia’s agriculture department said it had also received a copy of the footage, which has not yet been made public, and had requested that the Egyptian authorities investigate.

It is not the first time such a suspension has occurred, all live cattle shipments to Egypt were halted between 2006 and 2010 after footage showing acts of cruelty and were only allowed to resume under strict new conditions.

Animals Australia said the latest video showed “brutal” treatment meted out at the only two abattoirs accredited under the tougher regime.

Deputy agriculture department secretary Phillip Glyde said it was “quite shocking” to see a recurrence of the issue.

“I was horrified. I don’t think anyone could condone the mistreatment of animals, let alone the cruelty that appears to have occurred in this footage,” Glyde told ABC Radio.

Activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called on Australia to ban exports to Egypt late last year after a government-tasked committee recommended cows from the country have their ears chopped off.

The practice is aimed at ridding Australian livestock of hormone implants placed in their ears, despite assurances from the US Food and Drug Administration that eating meat from such cattle is safe.

Australia’s live export trade is worth about US$1 billion a year and employs thousands of people.

But it has been a sensitive issue in recent years due to cruelty scandals, the worst of which resulted in the suspension of shipments to major market Indonesia for a month in 2011 and the launch of a strict new licensing system.

Agence France-Presse

Endangered Sumatran Elephant Born at Taman Safari Zoo

Jakarta Globe, Agence France-Presse, April 17, 2013

Five-day-old female baby Sumatran elephant, Kartini, stands next to her
40-year-old mother Nina, at the animal hospital of Taman Safari Zoo in Cisarua,
 West Java, on Tuesday. Kartini, named after the country's most celebrated feminist,
Raden Ajeng Kartini, was born on Friday under a captive breeding program and is
in good health. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo) 

  

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• Three Sumatran Elephants Found Dead on Riau Plantation

A baby Sumatran elephant peeps out timidly from between the legs of its mother at an Indonesian zoo, where its birth has given a boost to the critically endangered animal.

Kartini, named after the country’s most celebrated feminist, Raden Ajeng Kartini, was born on Friday under a captive breeding program and is in good health.

“Her birth is the result of conservation efforts at the zoo, and we’re all happy to welcome her,” Taman Safari zoo spokesman Yulius Suprihardo told AFP.

The zoo said that she seemed happy, and was feeding from her mother every 30 minutes.

The 105 kilogram elephant was born just south of the capital Jakarta in Cisarua, Bogor, but the animal is native to Sumatra island, where its population has halved in one generation, according to environmental group WWF.

There are fewer than 3,000 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Rampant expansion of palm oil, paper plantations, and mines, has destroyed nearly 70 percent of the Sumatran elephant’s forest habitat over 25 years, the WWF says, and the animals remain a target of poaching.

Three of the elephants were found dead in Riau province in November last year, with officials saying they were probably poisoned in a revenge attack by palm oil plantation workers who suspected the animals had destroyed their huts.

Agence France-Presse

Indian woman ditches corporate world for dirt-poor village

Yahoo – AFP, Penny MacRae, 16 april 2013

A villager collects water from a well beside a drinking water reservoir in Soda,
 India on November 20, 2012. Soda is a byword for backwardness in this remote
 corner of Rajasthan where the houses are made of mud, electricity supplies
are erratic, literacy levels are below 50%

Chhavi Rajawat, an MBA graduate and one-woman whirlwind, is seeking to drag her impoverished ancestral village in the desert state of Rajasthan into the 21st Century.

Rajawat, who spent her family holidays in sun-scorched Soda, became its sarpanch or elected village head three years ago after villagers implored her to take charge with dozens turning up at her home in state capital Jaipur to persuade her.

Chhavi Rajawat talks to villagers in

Soda, a remote village in India's

Rajasthan on November 19, 2012.

"The villagers broke all caste, gender and religious barriers to elect me," said Rajawat, a glamorous 33-year-old whose 10,000 constituents are mostly farmers and labourers largely untouched by India's economic boom.

She ditched her corporate career with one of India's biggest telecom firms to become sarpanch and has been working ever since to bring better water, solar power, paved roads, toilets and a bank to her ancestral village.

Soda is a byword for backwardness in this remote corner of Rajasthan where the houses are made of mud, electricity supplies are erratic, literacy levels are below 50 percent and the fear of drought is never far away.

The villagers said there had been no progress since Rajawat's brigadier grandfather, now in his 90s, had served as sarpanch two decades ago and they wanted someone else in the family to take on the role.

"I didn't have a choice," said a smiling Rajawat, who represented India at a recent UN poverty summit.

Her story reveals the potential of good grassroots leadership in making a difference in a country plagued by corruption and inefficiency. It also shows the limitations.

Chhavi Rajawat (2nd L, back) is pictured

 during a village meeting in Soda, India

on November 20, 2012.

Swarmed by villagers as she walks down the road, Rajawat greets them by name as they share family news and pepper her with questions about progress on various projects.

"Nobody has been able to do what she has done -- no other sarpanch has done as much," said 30-year-old farmer Jai Singh.

Rajawat was visiting a computer centre in a no-frills stone structure that she set up with the help of a corporate sponsor. The spartan interior doesn't bother the youngsters who tap away eagerly on keyboards on long trestle tables.

"It's a huge opportunity for them to get some skills -- there was nothing before," said teacher Mohammed Sadeek, 25.

But Rajawat, who now divides her time between Soda and Jaipur, chafes impatiently at the sluggish pace of change.

"India can't keep advancing at the same slow rate -- it must go faster. Otherwise we won't be able to give people the schools, the electricity, the water and the jobs they need," she said.

She was also checking on the progress of a scheme equipping primitive homes with toilets, which have made a big difference to locals who earlier had to relieve themselves outside -- and the women only after darkness set in.

There are many women sarpanchs in India because a number of these posts are reserved for them. But what sets Rajawat apart -- aside from her iPhone, big-rimmed sunglasses, blue jeans and youth -- is her education.

She holds a master's degree in business administration from the Indian Institute of Modern Management in Pune, rated one of the nation's top 10 business schools, which she says helps her draft funding plans and proposals.

"She's unique. We need her kind of people, they are a breath of fresh air, they have vision," said government district collector Muktanand Agarwal.

Among the achievements is her arrangement for medical checks of villagers by doctors from the state capital Jaipur, a bone-jolting two-hour drive away.

Chhavi Rajawat interacts with villagers in Soda, a remote village in India's 

Rajasthan state on November 19, 2012.

She also organised the opening of the first bank in Soda -- a branch of the state-run State Bank of India -- a significant success as 90 percent of India's 600,000 villages have no banks.

But all that change doesn't come without raising some local hackles.

When she constructed a drinking water reservoir that has created a shimmering blue lake in the middle of the village, she got her first taste of the bureaucratic hurdles that have repeatedly thwarted her.

"I was told we could not use government machinery to clean up reservoirs. Finally, they (the government) told me to do it on my own," she said.

And that's what she did -- raising money from friends, family and companies to fund many of her projects.

Baskar Petshali, secretary of a local welfare charitable trust, say her problems stem from the fact "she's a clean politician" who refuses to give bribes to get jobs done.

A senior state government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called Rajawat's initiatives "praiseworthy" but added she "wants do things very quickly -- she treads on toes and upsets vested interests".

Rajawat is hopeful better leadership will come with the Indian government's new drive to make lists of services and funds available on the Internet.

"If everything is online, people will start demanding accountability from their politicians," she said.

She has not decided whether she will continue in development work once her five-year terms ends, but she is hoping her example will inspire other educated young people to take time out to serve their communities.

"Your roots are your foundation. You have to start at the bottom to make a difference -- and there is so much left to do."

Salt-tolerant rice bred at Philippines institute

Google – AFP, 16 April 2013 

A farmer plows his rice paddy in Tayabas in Quezon Province south of

Manila on November 15, 2012 (AFP/File, Jay Directo)

MANILA — Scientists have successfully bred a rice variety that is salt-tolerant, which could enable farmers to reclaim coastal areas rendered useless by sea water, a Philippine-based institute said Tuesday.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) near Manila said its researchers are in the process of perfecting the variety of rice that would be the most salt-tolerant ever developed before field testing it widely.

"They hope to have the new variety available to farmers to grow within four to five years," the institute said in a statement.

IRRI's media office said the new variety would offer twice the salt-tolerance as previous attempts to breed such a variety.

India and Bangladesh could potentially be the biggest beneficiaries, the IRRI said, remarking that about 20 million hectares (49 million acres) of rice farms worldwide have been affected by salinity.

The new variety was bred by crossing an exotic wild rice species found in brackish water with one cultivated at the institute.

The result is a "new rice line that can expel salt it takes from the soil into the air through salt glands it has on its leaves", the statement said.

"This will make saline stricken rice farms in coastal areas usable to farmers," said lead scientist Kshirod Jena.

"These farmlands are usually abandoned by coastal farmers because the encroaching seawater has rendered the soil useless."

Incidents such as the 2011 tsunami in Japan which flooded thousands of hectares of rice farms with sea water have spurred the development around the world of new varieties of rice that can grow in such areas.

Rice is considered one of three major domesticated crops that feed the world, along with wheat and corn, and scientists have been continuously looking to develop new varieties to increase production.