Large Cache of Smuggled Exotic Animals, Some From Indonesia, Seized in Philippines

Jakarta Globe – AFP, February 19, 2014

A female Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) feeding, showing the species’ unusual
 preference for browsing compared to most other macropods that tend to graze, in Victoria,
Australia, in January, 2008. A load of smuggled animals, including wallabies, was
discovered in the Philippines on Wednesday. (Wikimedia Commons)

Manila. Wildlife officers said Wednesday they had seized almost 100 exotic animals and birds, including cockatoos, echidnas and wallabies, that had been smuggled into the Philippines for sale to wealthy collectors.

The cache, hidden in small containers in a van, was made up of wildlife from Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, said Eric Gallego, spokesman for the local office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

They included yellow-crested cockatoos and long-beaked echidnas, two species listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

They also included four wallabies from Australia and about 90 exotic parrots from Indonesia, said Gallego.

Several of the birds or animals had died, possibly from the stress of long travel in harsh conditions, he told AFP.

Law enforcers acting on a tip stopped a van with the wildlife and two attendants in the southern city of Surigao on Mindanao island on Saturday, just as the vehicle was about to board a ship heading north.

The birds and animals are believed to have been shipped from Indonesia to Malaysia and then across the maritime border to the southern Philippines where they would be taken to Manila, said Gallego.

“There must have been an order from a rich person in Manila for the animals as collector’s items. It must be someone who is into rare animals,” he told AFP.

The head of the government’s wildlife division Josefina de Leon said a crime syndicate with members from different countries was known to be smuggling rare animals from Malaysia into the southern Philippines.

Two men caught with the van will be charged with illegally transporting wildlife, a crime punishable up to six months in jail and a 50,000 peso ($1,120) fine depending on the rarity of the animals involved.

Agence France-Presse

African Wildlife Reserve Hurt in Philippines Typhoon

Jakarta Globe – AFP,  December 12, 2013

This file photo taken on September 18, 2011 shows giraffes being fed leaves
 at Calauit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in Calauit island, Busuanga
province, western Philippines. (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Manila. Giraffes and zebras were badly injured and left with almost no food when a deadly typhoon struck a Philippine island reserve for African wildlife, an international animal welfare group said Wednesday.

Super Typhoon Haiyan felled many trees at the reserve when it raked across the central islands nearly five weeks ago, injuring some of its animals, said Birgit Leber of Vienna-based Four Paws International.

“Eight or nine giraffes out of 21 need medical treatment,” Leber, a member of a Four Paws team who had gone on a relief mission to Calauit earlier this month told AFP by telephone.

“Two or three zebras have not been eating very well, and one was seen walking strangely,” she said.

The isolated 3,760-hectare island on the South China Sea was turned into a wildlife reserve by the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1976.

The current government has continued to promote the island to tourists as offering a glimpse of Africa in a remarkable tropical setting.

Two of the reserve’s giraffes had open wounds above their front legs that were probably caused by falling trees, said Leber, an assistant to Four Paws’ director of project development.

Four Paws learnt the injured animals had not gotten any medical attention at all, and it plans to send a second mission to Calauit in the next few days to treat them, Leber told AFP by telephone.

“The [Calauit] animal hospital, sad to say, is broken and there is no medical equipment to treat the animals,” said Leber.

The first Four Paws team did not see the other animals, but observed that much of the food source of the giraffes had been destroyed.

“Most of the trees fell down. Giraffes eat from trees, they do not eat from the ground, so there is nothing left for them to eat,” Leber said.

Four Paws brought six tons of emergency food rations to the island, good for three months, so its giraffes would not starve, she added.

The reserve’s director, Froilan Sariego, could not be reached by telephone by AFP on Wednesday.

Calauit was originally stocked with 104 heads of giraffe, zebra, impala, waterbuck, gazelle, eland, topi and bushbuck acquired from Kenya, along with native wild mammals, according to its official website.

When AFP visited the reserve, located about 300 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of Manila, two years ago, it had just over 100 African animals, about the same as the original stock.

Agence France-Presse

Coconut farmers face ruin after Philippine typhoon

Google – AFP, Martin Abbugao (AFP), 22 November 2013

In this photo taken on November 19, 2013 shows the barge which was washed

 ashore amongst coconut tress at the height of super Typhoon Haiyan in Quinapundan

town, Eastern Samar province, central Philippines (AFP/File, Ted Aljibe)

Burawin — The super typhoon that slammed through the central Philippines laid waste to a vast region of coconut farmland, eradicating in one fell swoop the livelihoods of tens of thousands of smallholders.

"It's all gone," Glen Mendoza said, gesturing towards the collection of snapped and toppled trees that used to be the small but reliable grove that fed and supported his family.

"My daughter might have to stop going to college," he said. "These coconut trees are our only hope and now they're gone."

Mendoza's plight is shared, not just by the farmers in his coconut-growing town of Burawin, but by tens of thousands of others across the island of Leyte.

A major coconut-growing province, Leyte accounts for one third of all the fruit produced in the fertile centre of the country, according to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

The particular problem facing farmers like Mendoza is that there is no short-term solution to the loss of their groves.

Replanting can begin very soon but, depending on the variety, coconut trees take between five and ten years to reach maturity and bear fruit.

More than 208,000 hectares (515,000 acres) are planted with over 22 million trees in Leyte, providing a living for 122,000 families, or around 600,000 people, said Joel Pilapil, a senior PCA official in the province.

There are no firm estimates yet on the full extent of the damage, but ground reports and aerial views of Leyte and nearby Samar island tell the same story -- coconut trees either toppled, snapped or sheared when Typhoon Haiyan scythed across the region on November 8, packing winds of up to 315 kilometres (195 miles) per hour.

"I've spent 21 years in the industry and this is the first time that the damage has been this heavy," Pilapil told AFP in an interview at the PCA's typhoon-damaged building in the town of Palo.

"It hurts... Coconut farming families are going to go hungry," he said

Cipriano Alibay, 73, a farmer in Dagami town near Burawin, used to harvest 3,000 coconuts every three months from his now destroyed two-hectare smallholding.

"My investment is gone. I don't know what to do," he said.

According to Pilapil, the government is ready to provide free seedlings, but the ground must first be cleared of thousands of toppled trees, ruined buildings and other debris.

Trees that are still standing but have no hope of bearing fruit need to be cut down, he said, adding that the clearing operations could take months.

Pilapil said some of the felled trees could provide timber for rebuilding houses destroyed by the typhoon.

As well as the farmers, many others relied on the coconut industry, including Rodolfo Ortega, 54, who buys dried coconut meat -- called copra -- from farmers and sells it to millers.

Copra extracts can be used in a variety of products, including soap and shampoo.

"It will probably take 10 years before coconut farmers can get on their feet," Ortega told AFP as he and a few of his workers stood idly outside his warehouse in the town of Dagami.

He warned that with so many people dependent on the industry, the government must act fast to prevent social consequences.

"If people have no jobs, that can create social problems," Ortega said, adding that the government should teach farmers to plant alternative crops while they wait for the seedlings to grow.

For coconut farmer Alibay, there is no choice but to keep going.

"We need to be strong in order to go on living," he said.

Related Article:

Manila rethinks local crisis response policy

Philippines boosts animal protection amid 'crush video' fury

Google – AFP, 7 October 2013

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign manager Rochelle Regodon

 holds a poster with photos of a woman charged with making "crush" videos, in which

 teenage girls are coerced into torturing and killing animals, in Manila on July 26, 2011

(AFP, Noel Celis)

Manila — The Philippines has approved a law increasing penalties for cruelty to animals, the presidential palace said Monday amid a social media outcry over a video showing three girls crushing a puppy to death.

President Benigno Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail Valte confirmed he had signed the bill into law before departing for Indonesia on Sunday for an Asian summit.

It raises the penalties to a maximum of three years in jail and/or a 250,000-peso ($580) fine. Previously, the maximum penalty was two years in jail and/or a 5,000-peso fine.

Aquino signed the bill on October 3, just when Philippine social media exploded in fury over a fetish video of three girls who appear to be teenagers abusing and then stepping on a wailing puppy, crushing it to death.

The video has been circulating on various websites in the past week, resulting in numerous angry remarks on the Internet.

"These people should be forced to lie on the ground and run over by a steamroller," said one comment on a message board.

However the Asian campaigner for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Rochelle Regodon, said the video was actually two to four years old and the perpetrators behind it were already in jail.

PETA had played a crucial role in the investigation of a Filipino couple who had been producing videos for sale, showing small animals being crushed to death, she said.

The couple had been in jail since August 2012 for the videos with some of the girls in the video even testifying against them, Regodon said.

PETA and other animal welfare groups said they were encouraged by the outrage since it showed Filipinos did not tolerate animal abuse.

The executive director of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society Anna Cabrera said she was happy with the stronger penalties.

"It will discourage and give a warning to those who make a business out of animal cruelty," she said.

Philippines first in Asia to destroy ivory tusks

Google – AFP, Karl Malakunas (AFP), 21 June 2013

Personnel of Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau use a vice to support a

confiscated elephant tusk, on June 20, 2013 (AFP, Noel Celis)

MANILA — The Philippines began destroying five tonnes of elephant tusks on Friday in a landmark event aimed at shedding its image as one of the world's worst hotspots for illegal African ivory trading.

The backhoe of a bulldozer began crushing hundreds of tusks in a wildlife bureau carpark, as the nation became the first in Asia to eliminate its multi-million-dollar stockpile.

"This act is a strong statement to the rest of the world that the Philippines will not tolerate the illegal wildlife trade," Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said.

The five tonnes of ivory came from a total of about 13 tonnes seized by customs officers since the mid 1990s, with the two biggest hauls at Manila's seaport and international airport in 2005 and 2009.

The rest of the ivory, worth many millions of dollars on the black market, was stolen over the years.

Most of it went missing while being kept by the customs bureau, a notoriously corrupt organisation in the Philippines, and a wildlife bureau officer is on the run after being charged with stealing about 700 kilograms.

The Philippines was in March named by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as one of eight nations that was failing to do enough to tackle the illegal trade in elephant ivory.

The others were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Thailand, and they were warned they could face international sanctions on wildlife trading if they failed to take action.

Keeping track of the underground trade in raw ivory (AFP Graphic)

The United Nations and conservations groups have warned the demand for ivory is leading to the slaughter of thousands of African elephants each year, and could eventually lead to their extinction.

The Philippines was named because of its role as a transport hub for African ivory being smuggled into countries such as China, Vietnam and Thailand, where demand has skyrocketed in recent years.

The ivory is highly sought after for statues, trinkets and other items to showcase wealth.

Demand is also high in the Catholic Philippines, with the ivory used for religious icons.

Paje said the destruction of the ivory was one part of the government's action plan submitted to CITES since March to show it was trying to curb the trade.

Another was the launch on Friday of a multi-government-agency taskforce focused solely on the ivory trade.

"The Philippines will not be a party to this massacre (of African elephants) and a conduit for the cycle of killing," Paje said.

The executive director of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, Mary Rice, praised the Philippines for taking the lead in destroying its stockpiles.

"This is a really significant event. It is the first time a consuming country and an Asian country has decided to dispose of its seized stockpiles," Rice, who was in Manila to witness the event, told AFP.

Rice said thousands of kilograms of seized ivory were sitting in storehouses in other cities around Asia and other parts of the world.

Some African nations have previously burnt ivory stockpiles, most recently Gabon last year.

Confiscated elephant tusks are seen in

Manila, on June 20, 2013 (AFP, Noel Celis)

The UN and conservation groups warned in a major report in March that African elephants faced the worst crisis since global trade in ivory was banned almost a quarter-century ago.

Illicit trade in ivory has doubled since 2007 and more than tripled over the past 15 years, according to the report, which estimated that only about 420,000 to 650,000 elephants remain in Africa.

About 25,000 African elephants were estimated to have been killed for their ivory in 2011, the report said, and conservationists believe last year was even worse.

The Philippine efforts to destroy the tusks were complicated as the government backtracked on an initial plan to burn the tusks due to protests from environment groups about open-air fires.

A second plan to crush them with a roller was also cancelled after it emerged the tusks were too tough.

The third plan of crushing them with a backhoe, one-by-one, was expected to last at least a day. The government said the remnants of the tusks would then be burnt at an animal crematorium.

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.

Philippine Hybrid Rice Gains Int’l Acceptance; Indonesia Plants Big Area

MB.com, by Melody Aguiba, June 3, 2012

The locally developed SL-8 hybrid rice has become a popular international rice variety with 32,000 hectares now planted in Indonesia and is expanding rapidly in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa.

Hybrid Rice

A total of 105,000 hectares is aimed to be planted with SL AGritech Corp.’s (SLAC) hybrid rice varieties in Indonesia.

The company’s agreement with the Indonesian government has led to a plan to expand the hybrid area which consists of 40,000 hectares in East Kalimantan, 21,000 hectares in South Kalimantan, 34,000 hectares in South Sulawesi, and 10,000 hectares in Southeast Sulawesi.

SLAC is also shipping this year 1,000 metric tons (MT) of seeds to Bangladesh in an agreement with the government and another 1,000 MT to Vietnam.

"The Philippines is now famous among Bangladesh farmers because Bangladesh traditionally uses Chinese hybrid. But it’s only SL that has become a government-supported hybrid, so they’re always talking about SL-8 as a government hybrid," SLAC President Henry Lim Bon Liong said in a press briefing.

It will beef up seed shipment volume to Myanmar, Brunei, India, and Nigeria.

But the aim of the company is to partner with foreign governments so that the hybrid rice seeds may be grown abroad rather than exported from the Philippines.

"We want to do seed production in their land because we have limited land," said Lim.

In Myanmar, SLAC initially shipped 10 to 11 MT of parental seeds worth $35,000 which has since been showing favorable results.

"During the harvest of the seeds, even the president of Myanmar was there because it their highest yield (so far) in Myanmar," he said.

A yield of up to 17 MT per hectare has already been achieved in the country from these hybrid rice seeds since the government adopted a hybrid rice program 10 years ago.

Among the highest yielders were Severino Payumo, 17.28 MT per hectare in Nueva Ecija; Aida Badong, 17.2 MT, Camarines Sur; Fernando Gabuyo, 16.75 MT, Nueva Ecija; and Eduardo Policarpio, 15.8 MT, Nueva Ecija.

Yield in Bangladesh has been reaching to 12 MT per hectare.

While India is also a hybrid rice seed producing country, SLAC has an opportunity to expand in India, said Lim, while it is likewise expanding in Nigeria.

"Nigeria is a top importer of rice. Before they were the largest importer until we overtook them as the largest rice importer. They’re very sincere in expanding hybrid rice area. That’s why we’ll send technicians over to them, he said.

"Before they used to eat just corn and sorghum. But rice is easy to prepare, is tender, and has the aroma which they got to like so consumption went up. A lot of African countries will eat more rice in the future. The market is going to be bigger and bigger."

Lim said that while the Department of Agriculture aims to export rice, the government may do better by targeting to export high yielding hybrid rice which can make exporting more globally competitive.

"We can never be competitive at the $400 price of rice in the market. The production cost of Vietnam is only P8 per kilo. Maybe our cost of production is P11 cost per kilo."

Harvesting only three to four MT per hectare will not make the country export-competitive, but hybrid rice’s higher yield that can reach 11 to 12 MT per hectare will bring costs down, he said.

Giant lizard species discovered in the Philippines

BBC, by Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News

A close look at the giant Varanus bitatawa

A new species of giant lizard has been discovered in the Philippines.

The 2m-long reptile is a monitor lizard, the group to which the world's longest and largest lizards belong.

The monitor, described as spectacular by the scientists who found it, lives in forests covering the Sierra Madre mountains in the north of the country.

The striking reptile has bright yellow, blue and green skin, and survives on a diet of just fruit, yet until now it has escaped the eyes of biologists.

"It is an incredible animal," says Dr Rafe Brown, one of the scientists who describe the new lizard in the journal Biology Letters.

In the journal, the researchers describe how rare it is to find such a large terrestrial animal new to science.

The discovery of the lizard, they say, is of a similar importance to two other large species of so-called "mega-fauna" discovered in recent years: the kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji), a new genus of monkey found in Africa, and the saola, a Vietnamese forest bovid (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis).

The giant lizard is actually well known to resident Agta and Ilongot tribespeople living in the forests of northern Luzon Island.

The tribespeople regularly hunt the lizard for its meat, a vital source of protein.

Yet scientists were unaware of its existence.

That was until Dr Brown and an international team of colleagues from the US, Philippines and The Netherlands surveyed a series of lizard specimens preserved in museums both within the US and Philippines.

Within these specimens they identified the new species on the basis of its body size, scales, colouration and DNA.

With a main body length approaching 1m, with an additional 1m-long tail, the lizard has dark skin covered by golden yellow spots and flecks.

The new species is strikingly yellow

Its legs are mainly yellow, and its tail striped black and yellow.

In some pictures, the animal also looks to have green or blue scales.

The new species, which is called Varanus bitatawa, is thought to survive on a diet of fruit, making it one of just three species of fruit-eating monitor lizards in the world.

Monitor lizards include the world's most massive lizard, the Komodo dragon (V. komodoensis), which can reach up to 3m-long and weigh up to 90kg.

While not as massive, other species of monitor, such as the Crocodile monitor or Salvadori's monitor (Varanus salvadorii) of New Guinea, can also reach similar lengths.

Secretive creature

Why the new massive lizard has remained undiscovered by scientists until now is a mystery, especially as many biologists work in the northern Philippines.

The researchers say it may be because the lizard is naturally reclusive, being a highly secretive animal that never leaves the forest or crosses open country.

It could also be because few scientific expeditions have characterised the reptiles living in the Sierra Madre forests.

The new species of monitor lives at least 150km away from its nearest relative, another lizard called V. olivaceus, which also lives in trees and eats fruit.

WILD GIANTS

• Last year, a giant new species of meat-eating plant was discovered
• A previously unknown giant rat species was also uncovered by a BBC expedition filming in the Philippines
• This year, extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant 17m-long deep sea fish was captured by scientists off Mexico's coast
• Watch videos of giant monitor lizards, including the Komodo dragon, here

The beauty of eruption

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press | Tue, 12/29/2009 1:25 PM

The beauty of eruption: In this photo taken Monday, lava flows down the slopes of Mayon volcano during its mild eruption as viewed from Daraga township, Albay province about 500 kilometers southeast of Manila, Philippines. More than 47,000 people living within a 8-kilometer danger zone around the volcano have fled to evacuation centers since it began spewing ash and spilling lava over two weeks ago. AP/Bullit Marquez

Looming danger

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press | Thu, 12/17/2009 1:57 PM

Mayon volcano in Legazpi city, Albay province, continues to spew ash for the fourth straight day Thursday as viewed from a passenger plane about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Manila, Philippines. The country's most active volcano remains on "alert level 3" and residents are still prohibited from venturing into the 6-kilometer (3.75-mile) permanent danger zone. In December 2006, ash deposits from previous eruption rolled down its slopes at the onslaught of a typhoon, killing more than a thousand residents living around the cone-shaped volcano. AP/Bullit Marquez

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Philippine volcano gets louder, could blow up soon

Philippines volcano eruption likely soon

RP among most at risk from climate change

Businessmirror.com.ph, Imelda V. Abaño / Correspondent, SUNDAY, 08 MARCH 2009 22:05  
 

International Development Research Centre’s Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA)

THE picture of how global warming affects our country has become increasingly clear. In the new climate- change vulnerability map released on Friday by the International Development Research Centre’s Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), the Philippines was pinpointed as one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change in Southeast Asia. 

The study revealed that the Philippines, unlike other countries in Southeast Asia, is not only exposed to tropical cyclones, especially in the northern and eastern parts of the country, but also to many other climate-related hazards—especially floods such as in Central Luzon and Southern Mindanao, landslides due to the terrain of the country, and drought. 

Of the 530 cities and provinces assessed, Metro Manila was ranked seventh. Other climate hotspots identified in the Philippines which are susceptible to multiple climate hazards are Northern Samar, Benguet, Masbate, Batanes, Zamboanga del Norte, Ilocos Sur, Western Samar, Albay, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Rizal, Batangas and Mountain Province. 

“Climate change is the most significant challenge facing public policy-makers today,” said Dr. Herminia Francisco, director of EEPSEA. “The map highlights areas in the region that have recently experienced climate-related risks such as tropical cyclones, floods, landslides, droughts and sea-level rise. The map could be useful for climate-change policy.” 

Jakarta in Indonesia came out as the most vulnerable region in Southeast Asia. Other countries identified are Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. 

“The challenge for us is on how policymakers find ways to boost the resilience of populations in these climate-change hotspots. By helping people to understand what climate change means and on how to adapt, we can avoid the worst effects by taking a swift action,” said Richard Fuchs, IDRC regional director for Southeast and East Asia. 

Moment of truth for state officials 

Former senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, who was at the launching of the vulnerability map, said today’s leaders have “a moral responsibility to future generations to take meaningful action.” 

“This is a moment of truth for us and for the government officials. Climate-change action is a local demand for our survival. We are good in planning and research, but when it comes to implementation we are very weak,” Shahani lamented. 

Shahani said the bigger problem is likely to be the decreasing capacity of vulnerable people to cope with disasters, coupled with the inaction of their governments. 

“Climate change is a test for all of us. It’s not the elite but it’s the poor people who will be affected. Let us avoid internationalizing this issue too much, we have to be patriotic and local actions are urgently needed.” 

Sen. Loren Legarda said in her speech that policymakers should devise ways to prepare vulnerable people for the impact of climate change by mainstreaming the issue in various phases of policy formulation, development plans, poverty- reduction strategies and other development tools and techniques by all state agencies and instrumentalities. 

Legarda, who batted for the creation of the Climate Change Commission, said this body will help the country focus on reversing climate change and undertake climate-change adaptation and mitigating work. 

“Looking at the map with the Philippines in a red alert color, it is sad and difficult because it means there’s so much work to be done. With the creation of the climate-change commission, we can expect leadership from the government to tackle climate change and reduce disaster,” Legarda said. 

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes emphasized the importance of preparedness in the face of extreme weather changes. He said mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation is the government’s priority.

Related Articles:

Jakarta ‘most at risk’ of climate change

Jakarta Predicted to be Underwater By 2012

CLIMATE MATTERS: VULNERABILITY MAP OF SOUTHEAST ASIA (EEPSEA)

International Development Research Centre’s Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA)

RI to host 2nd ASEAN wildlife law enforcement network conference

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (Antara): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold its 2nd Wildlife Law Enforcement Network (WEN) conference at the Safari Park in Bogor, West Java, on May 21-24, the Forestry Ministry said.

Officials from ASEAN's 10 member countries as well as 100 participants outside the group will attend the forum, the Indonesian Forestry Ministry said in a release issued Wednesday.

ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The observers would come from Australia, China, Japan, Nepal, and the United States among others as well as international agencies including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

ASEAN WEN was set up in Bangkok in 2005 to uphold laws on endangered flora and fauna. Police, customs and excise offices, attorney general's offices, forestry offices and conservation agencies in the 10 ASEAN member countries are members of the network.

ASEAN agrees to Indonesian haze action plan

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to adopt Indonesia's plan to fight haze during its environmental ministerial meeting in Brunei Darussalam last week, an Indonesian minister said.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said that ASEAN had agreed that Indonesia's proposed action plan would be applied to the region's efforts to fight haze.

"ASEAN has accepted our plan of action, and each ASEAN country will assess what it can do to help us fight and prevent the haze," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

ASEAN environment ministers gathered in Brunei last Friday last week to formulate an action plan to combat the annual choking haze largely blamed on forest fires set in Indonesia to clear land for crops and palm oil plantations.

Deputy Minister for Natural Resource Conservation and Environmental Control Masnellyarti Hilman said that using Indonesia's action plan as an example, each ASEAN country would draft its own proposal that would be absorbed into a regional action plan.

"It is because most ASEAN countries have their own forest fires that contribute to the haze," she said.

Masnellyarti added that several ASEAN members had individually chosen a province in Indonesia to help directly, and what kind of assistance they would provide.

"For instance, Singapore has already committed itself to help fighting haze in Jambi. It could be in the form of financial aid, equipment or technical assistance. Malaysia has said that it would help after learning from Singapore's experience," she said.

Indonesia recently presented its detailed plan of action to fight haze to ASEAN. Driven by forecasts that this year's dry season will be longer because of the El Ni¤o weather pattern, the central government and local administration have come up with a massive program, and allocated some Rp 602 billion to prevent haze.

Rachmat said that the money will be spent on an education campaign to get people to abandon slash-and-burn cultivation, enhancing law enforcement and managing peatland areas.

"We have to change the way people at the local level open up land. They have to stop the slash-and-burn method. We will give (people) equipment to cut down trees and bushes as well as chemicals to create natural fertilizer out of the waste," Rachmat said.

He added that the funds were raised from state budgets through several ministries and local governments, as well donor countries, including from within the ASEAN.

As part of the effort, the Forestry Ministry has also organized groups of farmers into fire-fighting teams and provided them with equipment to prevent and extinguish fires.

At the industrial level, Rachmat said that the government would not hesitate to punish plantation companies that used slash-and-burn methods.

Central and local governments will conduct checks on companies to see if they have the required equipment and facilities to prevent and put out fires.

To help with enforcing the law, people from local universities will be trained to recognize when a company is violating the law.

Local governments and several ministries are expected to monitor remote areas.

On peatland management, Rachmat said the government was preparing special regulations to deal with 1.3 million hectares of peatland in Kalimantan.

RI plans to launch intensive anti-haze campaign

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Driven by forecasts that this year's dry season will be longer because of the El Ni¤o weather pattern, the central government has allocated some Rp 602 billion to prevent haze.

The huge amount will be spent on an education campaign to get people to abandon slash and burn cultivation, enhancing law enforcement and managing peatland areas.

State Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the funds were raised from state budgets through several ministries and local governments, as well donor countries, including from within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We have to launch a concerted effort to tackle the problem," he said Thursday to an international conference on the implementation of Indonesia's action plan to tackle haze.

The conference was aimed at attracting international donors to contribute to solving the country's haze problem and coming up with input for an ASEAN environment ministers' meeting next week in Brunei Darussalam. The ASEAN meeting will be attended by representatives from Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei as well as international agencies and other countries such as Australia.

ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong, who attended the conference, welcomed Indonesia's plan of action and supported cooperation between the local and central governments and ASEAN countries to tackle the problem.

"It's not a question of a lack of resources, it is a question of how you use the resources. People will put in more money if you have a good plan, leadership and commitment to solve the problem. ASEAN countries are prepared to commit resources, they just want to know how it is used," he said.

Besides the Indonesian government, several regional governments also experiencing haze problems presented their plans of action.

"We have to change the way people at the local level open up the land. They have to stop the slash and burn method. We will give (people) equipment to be able to cut down trees and bushes as well as chemicals to create natural fertilizer out of it," Rachmat said.

The Deputy Minister for Natural Resource Conservation and Environmental Control Masnellyarti Hilman said that anti-haze activities had already begun.

"We have conducted campaign programs and distributed equipment directly to farmers while the Agriculture Ministry is giving incentives in the form of free fertilizer to farmers who do not adopt slash and burn," she said.

The Forestry Ministry, Masnellyarty added, had formed groups of farmers and given them equipment to prevent and extinguish fires.

At the industrial level, Rachmat said that the government would not hesitate to punish plantation companies that use slash and burn methods.

"I warn the companies not to burn forest because this time we will be much tougher. We will arrest them and bring them to trial," he said.

Masnellyarti added that her office and local governments would conduct checks on companies to see if they have the required equipment and facilities to prevent and put down fires.

Last year, she said, there were 28 companies being investigated and prosecuted over forest burning.

"It is not easy to determine whether a particular company committed a crime. That's why we will train people at the local universities to be able to identify violations," Masnellyarti said.

Local governments and several ministries were expected to monitor remote areas, she added.

On peatland management, Rachmat said the government was preparing special regulations to deal with 1.3 million hectares of peatland in Kalimantan.

"Peatland is very easy to burn, contributing to forest fires and haze, if it is dried. So we must re-water it and keep the water level high. We will build dams to control the watering process. Also, only 93,000 hectares of the 1.3 million hectares can be cultivated, the rest will be turned into conservation areas," he said.