US posts $1 mln reward targeting Laos poaching ring

Google – AFP, 14 November 2013

Ivory tusks are displayed by the Hong Kong Customs in Hong Kong on October 3,

2013 (AFP/File, Philippe Lopez)

Washington — US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday offered a $1 million reward to help smash a Laos-based poaching network slaughtering endangered elephants and rhinos for their precious horns and tusks.

The reward, the first of its kind by the State Department, targeted the Xaysavang network which operates from Laos as far afield as South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China.

"The involvement of sophisticated transnational criminal organizations in wildlife trafficking perpetuates corruption, threatens the rule of law and border security in fragile regions," Kerry said in a statement.

He estimated that annual profits from wildlife trafficking reached as much as $8 billion to $10 billion, and were then pumped into other "illicit activities such as narcotics, arms, and human trafficking."

Another effect of poaching was that it "destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism," he said.

Offering the department's first reward under the transnational organized crime rewards program, Kerry said the Xaysavang network "facilitates the killing of endangered elephants, rhinos, and other species for products such as ivory."

He revealed that several major seizures of illegal wildlife products had been traced back to the network.

The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn, used in traditional medicine, and ivory has driven a boom in poaching across Africa.

Police in the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar on Wednesday said they had seized a 40-foot (12-meter) container hiding an estimated several tonnes' worth of ivory.

The seizure comes as authorities in Tanzania crack down on poaching amid a surge of killings of elephant and rhino in the east African nation.

Related Article:

'Blood ivory' worth $10bn to be crushed by US officials

Japan condo ditches lawnmowers for grass-munching goats

Google – AFP, 14 November 2013

A goat eats weeds at the Urban Renaissance Agency condominium complex

in Machida, western Tokyo on November 14, 2013 (AFP, Toshifumi Kitamura)

Tokyo — A Japanese condominium complex has decided to ditch noisy lawnmowers and their paid pushers for a more natural option: goats.

The suburban Tokyo complex has obtained four grass-munching animals to help beautify the walled property and chomp on weeds in those hard-to-reach areas.

A spokesman for the state-owned site's developer claims the rental goats are cheap and don't need much instruction while their poop pellets pose little risk to residents' health.

"It's more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than paying for lawn mowing," he said.

"And goats are better than humans at mowing grass on steep slopes."

Residents have embraced the idea. The developer says that if the two-month trial, which started in September, works out it may hire more goats for its other properties.

Endangered 'Asian Unicorn' sighted in Vietnam

Google – AFP, Catherine Barton (AFP), 13 November 2013

This handout picture taken in 1996 and received from WWF on November 13, 2013

 shows a female saola at Lak Xao, in the Lao province of Bolikhamxay (WWF/AFP/File,

William Robichaud)

Hanoi — The critically endangered twin-horned saola has been sighted in Vietnam for the first time in over a decade, raising hopes of recovery for the mysterious animal, conservationists said Wednesday.

Known as the "Asian Unicorn" for its extreme elusiveness, the antelope-like creature was spotted in September using a camera trap set by WWF and the communist country's government in Vietnam's central Annamite mountains.

"When our team first looked at the photos we couldn't believe our eyes. Saola are the holy grail for South East Asian conservationists so there was a lot of excitement," said Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF Vietnam?s country director.

"This is a breathtaking discovery and renews hope for the recovery of the species," he said in a statement.

Handout picture taken in 1996 and received from

 WWF on November 13, 2013 shows a female

 saola at Lak Xao in the Lao province of 

Bolikhamxay (WWF/AFP/File, William

Robichaud)

Saola, which were only discovered in 1992, have two parallel horns with sharp ends that can reach 50 centimetres in length (20 inches).

One of the secretive creatures was seen in August 2010 -- the first sighting in a decade -- but it died a few days after it was captured by villagers in Laos, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

It was the first time a wild saola had been spotted since one was captured on camera in 1999 in Laos.

Dang Dinh Nguyen, Deputy Head of Quang Nam Forest Protection Department, said the last sighting of a saola in Vietnam was in 1998.

He said the latest appearance of the animal was "an historic moment" and showed that conservation efforts in the critical saola habitat were effective.

Southeast Asia is a global biodiversity hotspot -- 126 species were newly recorded last year in the Greater Mekong region, which consists of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.

Last year Vietnam was the site of discoveries such as the Beelzebub tube-nosed bat, the yin-yang frog and new species of fish with a penis on its head.

Phallostethus cuulong became the newest member of the Phallostethidae family -- small fish found in Southeast Asian waters that are distinguished primarily by the positioning of the male sexual organ.

Male phallostethids have a copulatory organ, termed the priapium, under the throat for holding or clasping onto females and fertilising their eggs internally, according to conservationists.

In January this year, an Australian researcher discovered a new species of flying frog near the country's southern Ho Chi Minh City and named it after her mother.

Helen's Flying Frog was first discovered by Jodi Rowley, an amphibian expert from Sydney's Australian Museum, in 2009 during a field trip to the forests fringing the city.

But Vietnam is struggling to preserve its wildlife and in 2012 WWF said the country one of the worst offenders in failing to tackle trade in endangered species -- an accusation which the country denies.

In 2011, conservationists said a critically endangered species of rhinoceros had been poached to extinction in Vietnam.

The country's last Javan rhino was found dead in April 2010 with a gunshot wound to its leg and its horn hacked off.

Conservationists believe there could be only a few dozen saola surviving in the wild, with best-case estimates ranging to several hundred.

In the area where the saola was sighted, the WWF runs a law enforcement programme which recruits forest guards from the local community to prevent illegal hunting.

Since 2011, the forest guards have removed 30,000 snares and destroyed more than 600 illegal hunters' camps.

"Confirmation of the presence of the saola in this area is a testament to the dedicated and tireless efforts of these forest guards," said Thinh.

When it was found two decades ago the saola was "the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years and one of the most spectacular species discoveries of the 20th century," WWF said.

More than 5,000 flee erupting Indonesian volcano

Google – AFP, 12 November 2013

This picture taken on November 11, 2013 shows villagers taking a military truck

 as they flee their homes to a shelter, at the Guru Kinayan village in Karo (AFP/File,

Kharisma Tarigan)

Jakarta — More than 5,000 people have fled their homes in western Indonesia in recent days following a series of violent volcanic eruptions, an official said Tuesday.

Mount Sinabung on the north of Sumatra island has been hurling out red-hot ash, rocks and torrents of glowing lava up to seven kilometres (four miles) into the air since the start of the month.

Villagers from nearby Karo district are being evacuated as the volcano, which erupted in September for the first time since 2010, continues to spew ash and rocks.

Sinabung volcano erupts and spews hot

 smoke in Karo on November 10, 2013 

(AFP/ File, Kharisma Tarigan)

"So far, 5,265 people have been evacuated from seven villages," local government spokesman Robert Peranginangin told AFP.

"They were all very scared as the volcano has not shown signs of slowing down."

Although the government has called for people living within three kilometres (1.9 miles) of the volcano to be evacuated, Peranginangin said those living beyond the danger zone were also fleeing their homes.

"They just don't feel safe and are panicking. They prefer to stay in shelters, like mosques and churches," he said, adding the number of evacuees was expected to go up.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the volcano erupted again early Tuesday, spewing clouds of hot gas, although the eruption was smaller than on previous days.

Indonesia has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the "Ring of Fire" between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

In August five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a tiny island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted.

The country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010.

Conservationists Work With Fishermen to Save the Reefs

In Malang, coral repopulation is key, Dyah Ayu Pitaloka writes

Jakarta Globe, Dyah Ayu Pitaloka, November 10, 2013

Sahabat Alam has teamed up with local fishing communities to help repopulate
coral reefs. (JG Photo/Dyah Ayu Pitaloka)

A group of volunteers, some still in their teens, walked up to the shoreline of Kondang Merak beach in Malang district, East Java.

Slowly they rolled up their jeans as small waves pounded their feet. They were each carrying pieces of coral that had been carefully attached to prefabricated wire mesh bearing the volunteers’ names.

The volunteers “donated between Rp 10,000 and Rp 50,000 ($0.88 to $4.40) each for this coral reef repopulation effort. Though there are also those who cannot afford to donate money but are able to give their time and power to plant coral reefs,” Andi Syaifudin said.

Andi is the chairman of Sahabat Alam (Nature’s Friend), which focuses on coral reef, mangrove and sea-turtle conservation around Kondang Merak beach.

The 5-square-kilometer area, located 62 kilometers south of Malang city, was once famous for being one of the most beautiful snorkeling and diving spots off the southern coast of Java.

“We fell in love with Kondang Merak because of its beautiful coral reefs and pristine white sands,” he said.

But since early 2000 the use of fish bombs and cyanide by local fishermen has contributed to the destruction of 80 percent of the local coral population.

With the reefs destroyed, residents in the area have lost their livelihoods, not only from dwindling fish populations but also from the declining number of divers visiting Kondang Merak’s five diving spots.

“Around five to 10 years ago we were able to get 50 kilograms of lobster each time we sailed out to sea,” local fisherman Edi said, adding that he could earn between Rp 400,000 to Rp 750,000 per kilogram.

“Now we consider ourselves lucky to get just 5 kilograms [of lobster],” he said.

Sahabat Alam has been teaching local fishing communities about the importance of coral reefs and how using fish bombs and cyanide in fishing poses a huge threat to their livelihoods.

“Lobsters like to hide in coral reefs and now the reefs have been destroyed,” said Edi, who joined Sahabat Alam’s coral repopulation drive. “Slowly we are realizing that we need to catch lobsters using techniques that will not harm the coral, by diving or using nets.”

The Malang district’s Maritime and Fisheries office noted that there are nine areas in Malang with critically damaged coral reef systems, including Kondang Merak. In these areas, coral reefs will disappear unless something is done.

Coral reefs not only provide a vital food source for the fish but also stop erosion and tidal waves.

At 10 more sites in Malang, coral reefs are considered fairly damaged, which means the reefs will be able to repopulate without human intervention if the damaging activities stop.

Wahyu Hidayat, local head of the Marine and Fisheries Agency, said the government has the necessary funding to repopulate the coral reefs but needs help from groups like Sahabat Alam for human resources and expertise.

“Any community willing to do real work will get our support,” he said.

Zainul Arifin, a Sahabat Alam member, said it is important to engage the local fishing community in conservation efforts.

Coral grows between 2 to 3 centimeters a month and needs to spend at least six months in nursery grounds before it can be planted in open water and survive on its own. During that period, they need constant care to keep sand and mold from getting into their pores and inhibiting their growth. That, Zainal said, is where the fishermen come in.

“A huge percentage of our donors’ money goes to the fishermen for this monitoring process. Without the involvement of the local fishing community it will be all for nothing,” he said.

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Forest Misuse Costs Indonesia $7 Billion in Revenue, Report Says

Jakarta Globe, Berni Moestafa, November 10, 2013

A picture made available on May 10, 2013 shows logs on a tugboat on Kampar
 River in Teluk Meranti, Riau province, Indonesia, on May 2013. (EPA Photo/
Bagus Indahono)

Illegal logging and mismanagement of Indonesia’s forestry industry may have prevented more than $7 billion flowing to state coffers from 2007 to 2011, costing the government more than its health budget, Human Rights Watch said.

In contrast, the Indonesian government’s 2011 revenue from timber royalties and reforestation fees was $300 million, said Emily Harwell, the lead author of a report released by Human Rights Watch.

“This is a very conservative estimate,” Harwell, a partner at Natural Capital Advisors, said at a briefing in Jakarta on Nov. 8 of lost revenue. “The calculation doesn’t include any wood that’s smuggled.”

The report indicates weak governance is chipping away at revenues in the world’s fourth-most populous nation, as budget and current-account deficits this year hurt the rupiah. In 2011, revenue missed from forestry totaled more than $2 billion, exceeding the government’s health spending for that year, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in the report.

The report calculated how much wood was used by industries such as pulp, furniture and saw mills, and compared it with the available legal supply of timber, Harwell said. The supply of legal timber was “considerably smaller than what you need to produce that amount of products,” Harwell said, adding that from the missing supply she was able to calculate the lost fees.

Indonesia ranked 118 among 176 countries on Transparency International’s 2012 corruption perceptions index, undermining the investment appeal of Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Facing slowing growth, the government is trying to narrow budget and trade gaps by curbing state spending and easing restrictions on investment in some industries.

Most corrupt

Out of 20 central government institutions, the Ministry of Forestry was the only one scoring below the minimum standard for integrity in providing public services, according to a 2012 survey by the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK. Johan Budi, a spokesman at the anti-graft agency, couldn’t be reached when called on his mobile phone, and two calls to his office weren’t answered.

“We do have an illegal logging problem,” Sumarto Suharno, a spokesman at the Ministry of Forestry, said by telephone on Nov. 8. “The case with the policeman in Papua is being investigated and we’re looking whether anyone in the forestry ministry is involved.”

A Papua-based policeman allegedly made almost $1 million in transfers to senior police officials to protect illegal logging and fuel smuggling businesses, an investigation by a Jakarta-based non-government organization Indonesia Police Watch found. The policeman has been named a suspect, according to a statement on the website of the Attorney General’s office. The police force is perceived as the most corrupt institution in Indonesia, according to Transparency International.

Plantation pressure

State losses from illegal logging have narrowed to less than 1 trillion rupiah ($87.6 million) a year, from about 30.7 trillion rupiah in 2002, because of certification requirements for timber sold, Suharno said. He declined to comment on the Human Rights Watch report, saying he has yet to see it.

Expansion of oil palm and pulp plantations to support economic growth is occurring in existing natural forests and on land claimed by local communities, Human Rights Watch said. Indonesia has become the world’s largest producer of palm oil, used to make cooking oil, biscuits and other processed foods.

Palm oil output may increase to 26.7 million tons to 27 million tons this year from 25.7 million tons in 2012, according to Indonesia’s Palm Oil Board. The paper industry plans to nearly double its current mill capacity by 2015, Human Rights Watch said, citing a report by the Center for International Forestry Research.

Forest dependence

“The impacts of this demand-led plantation expansion on communities and forests are profound and long lasting,” Human Rights Watch said, pointing to significant impact on local economies, subsistence patterns and forest biodiversity.

In 2010 more than 9,000 villages were located within state forests, with 71 percent depending on them for their livelihood, it said, citing government statistics. Twelve percent of people in Indonesia live in poverty, according to data compiled by the World Bank.

Human Rights Watch called for greater assessment of government and corporate compliance with laws protecting local land rights and compensation agreements. Forest and plantation businesses, including their supply chains, should engage with local non-government organizations to build transparent grievance procedures, it said in the report.

Bloomberg

Hero rescues pets from Fukushima nuclear wasteland

ITN, 5 nov 2013

A man who refused to leave when Japan's Fukushima nuclear plants melted down is now caring for hundreds of abandoned animals in a wasteland. As fears of radiation grew following the meltdowns of March 2011, tens of thousands of people fled their homes, and the area was put into lock-down. Even now, more than two-and-a-half years after the disaster, those who enter must leave again before nightfall. But one man never left.

Keigo Sakamoto, 58, started an animal sanctuary over a decade ago in Naraha, fewer than 12-and-a-half miles from the Fukushima plant. After the disaster, he was ordered to evacuate, which would have meant abandoning some 500 animals including chickens, dogs, rabbits, geese, goats and guinea pigs. Sakamoto refused to leave. The government blocked access roads with concrete blocks and he was trapped inside, cut off from supplies. For months he and his animals ate anything they could find, explaining here that he feeds cat food to his dogs.

Twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, Sakamoto makes the one-and-a-half-hour supply run to the nearby town of Iwaki. He receives some monetary support and bags of animal feed from his supporters, who send it to a pet shop in town. A supermarket provides him with discarded vegetables. Sakamoto says he is not scared, because he is protecting hundreds of lives, and plans to continue doing what he is doing. Report by Mark Morris.

Related Article:

'New generation': The UK bets on a nuclear future

Extinct 'Godzilla' platypus found in Australia

Google – AFP, 5 November 2013

(Peter Schouten / Rebecca Pian/AFP, Peter Schouten / Rebecca Pian)

Sydney — A giant extinct species of the platypus with powerful teeth has been discovered in Australia, with a scientist on Tuesday describing the duck-billed water animal as a "Godzilla" like monster.

The new species, named Obdurodon tharalkooschild, was identified by a single but highly distinctive tooth found in Riversleigh in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland -- a World Heritage site rich in fossil deposits.

"It pretty well blew our minds," University of New South Wales professor Mike Archer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. of the animal, which is estimated to be about twice the size of the modern platypus.

"And then bang out of the blue drops this monster. Platypus Godzilla."

Illustration: scientists discover a tooth of 

what they believe was a giant duck-billed

 platypus, which evolved alongside

 today's species, pictured (AFP/File,

Torsten Blackwood)

Scientists had thought that the platypus, which combines bird, mammal and reptile characteristics, had gradually lost its teeth and become smaller over millions of years, but the latest find contradicts that theory.

"We didn't expect this. It's a huge platypus at the wrong time. But there it was," said Archer of the one-metre (three foot) species.

The modern platypus, a timid and nocturnal animal which lives in deep waterside burrows and is found only in eastern Australia, lacks any teeth as an adult and the scientists do not believe the new extinct species was an immediate ancestor.

"Discovery of this new species was a shock to us because prior to this, the fossil record suggested that the evolutionary tree of platypuses was a relatively linear one," Archer explained in a statement.

"Now we realize that there were unanticipated side branches on this tree, some of which became gigantic."

Archer said he was confident that the single tooth, which was discovered by Rebecca Pian, a PhD candidate at Columbia University in the United States, was sufficient evidence of a new species.

"We know it's a platypus, we also know it's very different from any other toothed platypus we've seen before," he said.

Pian, the lead author of the research published in the US-based Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, said any new species, even though incomplete, was an important aid in understanding more about the fascinating mammals.

The extinct species is believed to have been a mostly aquatic animal like its modern descendant and would have lived in and around freshwater pools in the forests that covered the Riversleigh area millions of years ago.

It probably fed on crayfish and other freshwater crustaceans, as well as small vertebrates such as frogs and turtles, said Suzanne Hand of UNSW's School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Archer said scientists already had concerns about the long-term viability of the platypus and the discovery only added to these.

"It only says that there were more kinds of platypus that are now gone," he said.

Two of World’s Worst Polluted Places Are in Indonesia: Environmentalists

Jakarta Globe, Nina Larson, November 5, 2013

A coal mining concession area in the middle of tropical forest land in
Central Kalimantan province. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide risk exposure to toxic pollution, environmental groups warned Monday, publishing a list of the world’s worst areas, which included Indonesia’s Kalimantan and Citarum River Basin.

“We estimate that the health of more than 200 million people is at risk from pollution in the developing world,” said Richard Fuller, who heads the Blacksmith Institute, a US-based environment watchdog.

The institute and Green Cross Switzerland published a new top 10 list of the “World’s Worst Polluted Places” — their first since 2007 — based on more than 2,000 risk assessments at contaminated sites in 49 countries.

Newcomers to the 2013 list included Indonesia’s Citarum River Basin in West Java, an area that is home to around nine million people, but also some 2,000 factories.

The river, which is used among other things for human consumption and to irrigate rice farms, is contaminated by a wide range of toxins, including aluminium and manganese.

Drinking water tests have shown lead at levels more than 1,000 times above US standards, the report said.

Another area of Indonesian — Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo — was also added to the list due to the widespread artisanal small-scale gold mining there.

Most practitioners of this craft use mercury in the extraction process, and contribute to a large portion of global emissions of the hazardous metal each year.

This is West Africa’s second largest processing area for the world’s swelling piles of electronic waste, at Agbogbloshie in Ghana’s capital Accra was among new additions.

Each year, Ghana imports around 215,000 tonnes of secondhand consumer electronics, mainly from Western Europe — a number that is expected to double by 2020, according to the report.

The main health concern linked to e-waste processing in Ghana is the burning of sheathed cables to recover the copper inside, the report said, pointing out that the cables can contain a range of heavy metals, including lead.

Soil samples from around Agbogbloshie have shown concentrations of that toxic metal that are 45 times more than accepted levels, the report said.

“E-waste is really going to be a challenge. It’s growing exponentially. Everybody wants a computer, a laptop, the modern devices, so I think we’re seeing the tip of the iceberg,” Blacksmith research director Jack Caravanos told reporters in a conference call.

year’s list also includes Hazaribagh in Bangladesh, which is home to most the country’s 270 registered tanneries.Every day, they collectively dump around 22,000 cubic litres of toxic waste, including cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, into the Buriganga, Dhaka’s main river and key water supply.

The Niger River Delta in Nigeria and the Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin in Argentina were also added to the list.

Several toxic industrial areas in the former Soviet Union, including the site of the devastating 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, were carried over from the last list, as was Zambia’s lead-mining city Kabwe.

Unlike the list six years ago, which was dominated by Chinese and Indian sites, those two countries are missing from the list published Monday.

“There has been a reasonably strong movement towards clean-up in India and China,” Hanrahan explained.

Agence France-Presse

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Chinese officials 'set 1,000 cats loose in forest'

Google – AFP, 4 November 2013

Rescued cats are seen in a cage in Wuxi, in east China's Jiangsu province on

November 1, 2013 (AFP/File)

Beijing — Animal activists are combing a forest in eastern China for more than 1,000 kittens rescued from a meat supplier only to be let loose by local authorities, an organiser said Monday.

Animal protection volunteers and local police intercepted a truck "filled with cats" destined for dinner plates last week, said an activist surnamed Ni from the Wuxi Small Animal Protection Association in eastern Jiangsu province.

But local government officials released the felines -- some as young as four months old -- into a nearby mountain forest to fend for themselves, Ni said.

"They were being sent to Guangzhou to be eaten by people," he told AFP.

"We didn't want to release them, our volunteers had places to keep them. It's definitely irresponsible."

Volunteers are now scouring the hillsides with cages in an attempt to capture the cats, and hope to put those found up for adoption, Ni said, adding that more than 50 have been retrieved in the last week.

"Some of the cats are hungry, and haven't eaten, while others have been run over by cars," he said.

The state-run Beijing Youth Daily said Sunday that authorities seized the cats because the lorry owner did not have the correct documents, but decided to release the animals into the wild as there was no source of funds to have them put down.

China's small but growing ranks of animal activists have staged a number of rescues in recent years.

Cats are not commonly eaten in most parts of China but some restaurants, particularly in the south, continue to serve them as food.

Around 600 cats stuffed into wooden crates and on their way to such a fate were rescued after a truck crash in January.

A convoy of trucks carrying some 500 dogs to be sold as meat was stopped by volunteers on a highway in Beijing in 2011 and the animals retrieved.

China does not have any laws to protect non-endangered animals.

Meet the ‘Zonkey’: Rare Zebra-Donkey Hybrid Draws Crowds in Italy

Jakarta Globe – AFP, November 2, 2013

Ippo, a three month old “zonkey”, a crossing between a zebra and a donkey,
stands in its pen in a reserve in Florence, on October 11, 2013. (AFP Photo)

Florence. An act of love between Martin the zebra and Giada the donkey in the romantic Italian city of Florence has produced a rare “zonkey” baby that is drawing crowds to an exotic animal shelter.

Three-month-old Ippo is already a star and the owners of the farm say they have received requests for rights over his image, including one from a soft-toy company and another from Disney to make a cartoon.

“It is very rare that a zebra and a donkey mate and reproduce,” Serena Aglietti, the daughter of the shelter’s owner, said at the site in central Florence, near the city’s landmark monuments.

The family-run Aglietti farm takes in animals rescued from circuses or owners who treat them badly and houses a motley array of 170 animals including camels, lamas and Vietnamese pigs.

Aglietti explained that on one balmy night last year Martin — who was taken away years ago from a zoo where he was being abused — jumped over the fence of his enclosure.

The lusty Martin used his snout to lift the latch on a stable door where the donkeys were being kept.

There he consummated his love for Giada, a rare Italian Amiata donkey brought to the clinic to be bred.

No one realized what had happened until 12 months later — the length of a donkey pregnancy.

“We were there at the birth. First the black hooves came out, then the striped legs. We were amazed!” Aglietti said.

“He is doing well. He is naughty but is very sweet with children, he is still on milk but also eating carrots,” she said.

The unusual sight at the farm brings hundreds of visitors, who compete for Ippo’s attention and take pictures on smartphones.

“We were curious to see this very sweet animal. It’s very good for children,” said Patrizia, a 67-year-old visiting with her family.

Local resident Fabrizio could not hide his shock.

“This is the first time I see him. It’s not natural but nature made it possible,” he said.

Ippo still looks very much like a zebra-donkey mix — with the stripey legs of a zebra but a donkey’s face.

However, the previous handful of zonkeys around the world — including ones in China, Japan and the United States — show that he could grow up looking more like one than the other.

Ippo is officially a “zebroid” — the name for a cross between a zebra and any other equine.

“Zorse” is the name of a pairing with a horse, “zebrule” with a mule. The zebra-donkey mix is also sometimes known as a “zedonk.”

Aglietti said that by November it will also be clear whether Ippo can reproduce or not but no decision has been taken on breeding him with a donkey or a zebra — or indeed some other animal.

“If he is fertile, he will have the choice of who to mate with among all the animals we have here.”

Agence France-Presse

Demands to Scrutinize Forestry Crimes

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Novianti Setuningsih, October 28, 2013

As Indonesia’s economy rapidly, swaths of biodiverse forest across the archipelago
 have been cleared to make way for new business ventures. (AFP Photo)

An antigraft watchdog has urged Indonesian law enforcement institutions to strengthen their fight against crimes in the nation’s forestry sector.

The call came after Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) released a report that showed potential state losses from such crimes totaling Rp 691 trillion ($62 billion) between 2011 and 2012.

Lalola Estele, a researcher with ICW, said the total losses had been calculated from 124 cases of forest crimes recorded by the watchdog from 2011 to 2012.

“The crimes vary from forest conversion, for example the one million hectares of palm oil projects. The second is the illegal use of forest products. The third is tax evasion, for example in the case of Asian Agri,” Lalola said at the ICW headquarters in Jakarta on Sunday.

Lalola emphasized that the problem pointed to the weak law enforcement efforts in charging the corporations involved in the foul play.

According to the organization, of the 124 cases, police had only charged 37 field operators in 20 cases, and a small percentage of company directors and legislators from the House of Representatives in six of the cases.

As such, ICW called on Indonesia’s law enforcement institutions to implement the money laundering law and the anti-corruption law in charging companies, which would make the companies and not just their officials liable to criminal charges.

“The forestry and plantation law doesn’t recognize the act of charging a corporation. That’s why most of those who are charged are individual actors in the field and not the companies,” Lalola said.

ICW’s report reflects the grim reality of prevalent crime in the nation’s forestry industry over recent years.

In August, the University of Indonesia branch of the People For Indonesian Judicial System (MAPPI) organization claimed that potential state losses in a corruption case involving Burhanuddin Husin, the former head of Kampar district in Riau province and the former chief of Riau’s forestry office, could reach up to Rp 687 trillion.

Burhanuddin was found guilty in October 2012 and sentenced to two years and six months in prison, in addition to Rp 100 million worth of fines, for practices of corruption in approving annual working plans for 14 companies in Pelalawan and Siak subdistricts during his time in office between 2005 and 2006.

The court had deemed the licenses invalid as they failed to comply with Forestry Ministry policies because they included swaths of natural forest.

According to Muslim Rasyid, coordinator of the Riau Forest-Saving Network (Jikalahari), the approval of the companies’ permits had subsequently resulted in the deforestation of 38,357 hectares of land, which, with thorough calculations, could see up to Rp 687 trillion of wasted state losses. That amounts to more than the Rp 519 billion calculated by prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Burhanuddin’s case.

Meanwhile, in June, the names of several high-profile public officials surfaced in a forestry corruption case in West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and South Sumatra, which allegedly cost Rp 1.92 trillion worth of potential state losses.

“Three ministers [are said to be involved], as well as five other regional chiefs or former regional chiefs, one ministerial adviser, one regional government adviser and six company directors,” Tama S. Langkun from the Anti-Judicial Mafia Coalition, who is also director of investigation with the ICW, said in June.

However, Tama refused to disclose the names of the 16 individuals involved in the case, but promised to submit the list of names to the KPK.

“We will guarantee that these names will be submitted to the KPK,” he said, as quoted by Waspada.co.id.

The 16 individuals are alleged to be involved in five different cases of corruption, including an alleged corruption case at a state-run sugar cane plantation in South Sumatra with Rp 4.8 billion worth of potential state losses, as well as alleged corruption in the conversion of forest areas into oil palm plantation in Kapuas Hulu district in West Kalimantan, with potential state losses of up to Rp 108.9 billion.

Separately, a case of illegal logging activities also surfaced earlier this year, involving low-ranking police officer First Insp. Labora Sitorus from West Papua’s Sorong district, which further damaged the police’s efforts against forest crimes.

Labora was arrested in May after police revealed that the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the government’s anti-money-laundering watchdog, had traced transactions worth Rp 1.5 trillion ($134.8 million) passing through his bank accounts between 2007 and 2012.

The money was believed to be linked to his alleged fuel smuggling and illegal logging activities, for which evidence included 115 shipping containers bound for China — traced to one of Labora’s companies, Rotua — holding a total of 2,264 cubic meters of merbau wood, a rare hardwood prohibited for commercial logging and for export as rough-sawn timber.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) earlier in May released video footage of illegal loggers harvesting merbau and other species for Rotua from forests on Batanta Island in the Raja Ampat district of West Papua, an ecologically important area with high levels of plant and animal biodiversity.

Rotua has also been reported for receiving timber from the forests of Sorong, Bintuni and other regions of West Papua, the EIA said.

According to the EIA, Labora’s network transferred approximately $100,000 to the National Police headquarters in Jakarta and a similar sum to the Papua province police chief.

The use of the money laundering law in fighting crime in the nation’s forestry sector is considered important as such practices are often used to clean up the trail of dirty money, according to ICW.

“Many of the business licenses issued in the forestry sector involve corruption, and the results from such practices would get cleaned up through money laundering,” Lalola said.

She highlighted that in the case of Burhanuddin, the court’s failure to charge the companies involved had resulted in an inadequate seizure of assets.

“Institutional crime policies have existed in Indonesia since the 1950s and are regulated in the anti-corruption law, money laundering law and others, but law enforcement officers remain reluctant in using them,” she said.

'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia

Google –AFP, 28 October 2013

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University Queensland on October 28,

 2013 shows the Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko discovered in Australia's Cape York

Peninsula (James Cook University Queensland/AFP, Conrad Hoskin)

Sydney — An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world".

Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed at what they found.

It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a gold-coloured skink -- a type of lizard -- and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before.

"The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime -- I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin, a tropical biologist from the Queensland-based university.

"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well."

Graphic on three new vertebrate species discovered in a remote part of northern

Australia (AFP)

The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago.

While surveys had previously been conducted in the boulder-fields around the base of Cape Melville, a plateau of boulder-strewn rainforest on top, identified by satellite imagery, had remained largely unexplored, fortressed by massive boulder walls.

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James

 Cook University Queensland on October 28,

 2013 shows the Cape Melville boulder-

dwelling frog discovered in Australia's Cape

York Peninsula (James Cook University

 Queensland/AFP, Conrad Hoskin)

Within days of arriving, the team had discovered the three new species as well as a host of other interesting finds that Hoskins said may also be new to science.

The highlight was the leaf-tailed gecko, a "primitive-looking" 20 centimetre-long (7.9 inches) creature that is an ancient relic from a time when rainforest was more widespread in Australia.

The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, which has huge eyes and a long, slender body, is highly distinct from its relatives and has been named Saltuarius eximius, Hoskin said, with the findings detailed in the latest edition of the international journal Zootaxa.

"The second I saw the gecko I knew it was a new species. Everything about it was obviously distinct," he said.

Highly camouflaged, the geckos sit motionless, head-down, waiting to ambush passing insects and spiders.

The Cape Melville Shade Skink is also restricted to moist rocky rainforest on the plateau, and is highly distinct from its relatives, which are found in rainforests to the south.

Also discovered was a small boulder-dwelling frog, the Blotched Boulder-frog, which during the dry season lives deep in the labyrinth of the boulder-field where conditions are cool and moist, allowing female frogs to lay their eggs in wet cracks in the rocks.

In the absence of water, the tadpole develops within the egg and a fully formed frog hatches out.

Once the summer wet season begins the frogs emerge on the surface of the rocks to feed and breed in the rain.

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James

 Cook University Queensland on October 28, 

2013 shows the Cape Melville Shade Skink

discovered in Australia's Cape York Peninsula

(James Cook University Queensland/AFP,

Conrad Hoskin)

Tim Laman, a National Geographic photographer and Harvard University researcher who joined Hoskin on the expedition, said he was stunned to know such undiscovered places remained.

"What's really exciting about this expedition is that in a place like Australia, which people think is fairly well explored, there are still places like Cape Melville where there are all these species to discover," he said.

"There's still a big world out there to explore."

According to National Geographic, the team plans to return to Cape Melville within months to search for more new species, including snails, spiders, and perhaps even small mammals.

"All the animals from Cape Melville are incredible just for their ability to persist for millions of years in the same area and not go extinct. It's just mind-blowing," Hoskin said.