Events: “Challenges and Solutions to Plastic Recycling in Hong Kong” organized by FoE (HK) on 25 Jul 2013

活動名稱:	塑膠回收討論會
開始日期:	2013/07/25	開始時間:	18:30
結束日期:	2013/07/25	結束時間:	20:00
地點:	Friends of the Earth (HK) Office

近日，有關廢物棄罝之問題在社會引起激烈討論，有見及此，地球之友將

於2013年7月25日下午6時30分於本會會址就有關塑膠回收及廢物議題進行討論。

當日討論議程如下：

6:30 pm    背景簡介

6:45 pm    塑膠回收所面對的挑戰 (講者：楠豐國際有限公司林贇睿小姐)

7:30 pm    討論/問答環節

8:00 pm    討論會結束

(**討論會將以英語進行)

地址：香港北角屈臣道2號海景大廈A座13樓1301-02室

有與趣參加的朋友請電郵至foehk@foe.org.hk留位；名額有限，先到先得。

是次活動主要是提供一個平台予地球之友的會員、員工及其他有興趣人仕進行討論，並了解更多有關廢物管理相關的議題；活動講者所提供的資料並不代表香港地球之友的立場。請自備水杯或水瓶以享用我們提供的熱茶或熱水。

香港地球之友

*有關討論會及講者的詳細資料，請參閱電郵下半部份 (只有英文)

Come and hear Ms Stephanie Lam share her personal thoughts on the topic of “Challenges and Solutions to Plastic Recycling in Hong Kong”. 

One of the most controversial topics in Hong Kong today is WASTE DISPOSAL.  Spending $HK35m on a study by people that have not found a solution in the past 20 years is not a solution.  Throwing money at a problem does not achieve anything other than creating another report, which will join the dusty archives of previous reports.  This problem cannot be resolved by people with limited experience in this industry.  Do you know how other major countries deal with the problem of waste disposal and in particular the scrap plastic waste disposal?  A major part of the solution is recycling, via technology, marketing, logistics, management and common sense.  Can it be done?,  100% Yes!  Can we come up with a solution for HK? 

Stephanie Lam, BBA, HKU (Accounting & Finance) is the Managing Director of the global broking trading house for plastic recyclables, UNM International Ltd.  To ensure success Stephanie inspects all suppliers and customer operations personally, prior to entering into business transactions and has inspected more than 100 of these operations around the world.  It often includes walking among piles of smelly plastic scrap, but knowing that the product can be recycled and made into a renewable product and not discarded into landfill or incinerated to add more carbon into the atmosphere, Stephanie finds it rewarding and fulfilling.  She has thus dedicated her business career to achieve waste reduction..

For more information: http://www.foe.org.hk/c/event/event_page.asp?event_id=141#.Uev0H9KbdiI

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South Korean Updates: Seoul to raise minimum fuel efficiency standard for cars from 2020 (15 Jul 2013)

Seoul to raise minimum fuel efficiency standard for cars from 2020

July 15, 2013
Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- The government is moving to further toughen minimum fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, officials said Monday, in an effort to cut down the country's energy consumption and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the government is moving to raise the minimum fuel efficiency requirement of passenger cars to 20 kilometers per liter (km/l) from 2020.

Currently, the country has no minimum requirements, though it is set to begin enforcing a 17 km/l requirement from 2015. Automakers that fail to meet the minimum requirement can be subject to a fine, the ministry has said.

The move to further toughen the country's minimum fuel efficiency standards follows similar plans by most advanced nations.

The United States is moving to only allow sales of vehicles that meet the minimum fuel efficiency of 56.2 miles per gallon, or 23.9 km/l, from 2025, with Japan also set to introduce a 20.3 km/l requirement from 2020, according to ministry officials, who requested anonymity.

"The proposed minimum requirement was set after considering the global trend and the country's development capacity," the officials said.

The government apparently believes tougher minimum fuel efficiency standards will lead to the development of hybrid or clean-energy cars, such as electric and fuel cell vehicles.

South Korea is currently working to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from its business-as-usual level in 2020.

(END)

Source: 
http://www.keei.re.kr/main.nsf/index_en.html?open&p=%2Fweb_keei%2Fen_news.nsf%2Fxmlmain%2F9D91FB09658C410A49257BA9002B0E5F&s=%3FOpenDocument%26menucode%3DES90

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South Korean Updates: Seoul to ban production, imports of incandescent lighting from next year (16 Jul 2013)

Seoul to ban production, imports of incandescent lighting from next year

July 16, 2013
Yonhap News Agency

SEJONG, July 16 (Yonhap) -- Thomas Edison's greatest invention, incandescent lighting, will begin to die out, at least in South Korea, following a production ban set to be implemented next year, the government said Tuesday.

Starting from Jan. 1, 2014, imports of incandescent light bulbs, which have been labeled low-efficient, will also be banned permanently, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The move is part of a decision made in 2008 to phase out incandescent light bulbs, which consume as much as six times more energy than highly efficient light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs.

Using an incandescent light bulb may cost up to 15,863 won (US$14.14) per year in electricity bills and purchase costs. The amount drops by up to 82.3 percent to 2,813 won a year when using an LED light bulb instead, the ministry said in a press release.

There are currently about 30 million incandescent light bulbs still in use in the country. Replacing all of them with more energy-efficient light bulbs will help save more than 1,800 gigawatts of electricity in a year, enough for use by up to 650,000 households for the same period, according to the ministry.

The government has already replaced 99 percent of all incandescent light bulbs in some 8,000 public buildings.

Currently, there is only one local manufacturer of incandescent light bulbs with most of its supplies imported from overseas, principally from China, the ministry said.

"The government will continue to expand the supply of high efficiency light bulbs, such as LED lamps, to minimize public inconvenience and its impact on the market," it said.

bdk@yna.co.kr 

(END)

Source: 

http://www.keei.re.kr/main.nsf/index_en.html?open&p=%2Fweb_keei%2Fen_news.nsf%2Fxmlmain%2FBE05FA3883EFCDBF49257BAA002A8AD3&s=%3FOpenDocument%26menucode%3DES90

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Vietnamese Updates: National Assessment Report on Coastal Erosion completes (18 Jul 2013)

National Assessment Report on Coastal Erosion completes Thứ năm, ngày 18 tháng 07 năm 2013 cập nhật lúc 23:37

Vietnam is one of the frequent disaster- affectedcountries. Coastal erosion is a constant threat toVietnam and is getting more serious as a consequence of storms and rising sea levels caused by climate change.  A series of projects and programs have been implemented to deal with coastal erosion. On July 17,at a consultation workshop on National Assessment Report on Coastal Erosion in Vietnam, Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) said that the building and completion of the Report will helpCOBSEA get information to build a regional project to cope with the challenges of climate change andcoastal erosion.

Coastal erosion

At the workshop, Dr. Vu Tuan , Deputy Director of the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands and Mr. Le Van Cong, senior consultant on coastal erosion said that , coastal erosion in Vietnam are increasingly complicated and serious and occurs throughout the coastal areas. Specifically, in the North, from Quang Ninh to Ninh Binh there are five places which have been eroded continuously since 1930 to now in Cat Hai, Bang La (Hai Phong), Thuy Xuan (Thai Binh), Xuan Thuy and Hai Hau (Nam Dinh). In particular, Cat Hai and Hai Hau are severely eroded.

In the central region (from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan), coastal erosion occurs in almost all types of shore structure such as sand, gravel,mud, etc. However, the most serious one is sand shore structure (accounting for 94% of the coastal erosion). Especially, there are 121 areas of coastline having dams, embankments, trees but the erosion still occurs.

In the South (from Ba Ria - Vung Tau to Kien Giang), since 1960, coastal erosion have taken place popularly and gradually. It can be easily seen in Can Gio (Ho Chi Minh City), Dong Hai (Tra Vinh) and some districts of Ca Mau province. Coastal erosion has threatened thepeople’s life, broken dykes, caused flooding and saltwater intrusion and seriously affected to food security and socio-economic development.

Coastal erosion management policies

Not only did it occur in Vietnam, coastal erosion is a common phenomenon in most East Asian countries. The workshop "Evaluation ofcoastal erosion in Vietnam" has figured out solutions for Vietnam and other countries to adapt and minimize damages caused by coastal erosion and natural. In addition, we need enhance people’s awareness about the consequences of coastal erosion and natural disastersso that people are aware of conducting Dyke Law, Law on Environmental Protection, Law on Forest Protection and Development and Law on Water Resources. Besides, it is necessary to establish monitoring networks to control erosion on the basis of coordination amongcentral scientific agencies and the local technical ones. Moreover, legal framework, planning of coastal protection against exploitation ofcoastal resources should be strengthened.

Mr. Reynaldo Molina, Secretariat Board of Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) said, COBSEA is building projects to strengthen the capacity of member states of Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand to restore and manage coastal erosion and protect coastal ecosystems. The workshop provided information for COBSEA to build a joint project ofsustainable development, social security and ecological security in Vietnam in particular and the South China Sea in general.

K.Linh

Source: http://www.monre.gov.vn/v35/default.aspx?tabid=675&CateID=80&ID=128383&Code=DVAR128383

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Vietnamese Updates: VAST NANO Technology - solution for treatment of arsenic in water (10 Jul 2013)

VAST NANO Technology - solution for treatment of arsenic in water 
Thứ tư, ngày 10 tháng 07 năm 2013 cập nhật lúc 04:02


Arsenic contamination in ground water is increasing; recently, scientists in the Inorganic Chemistry Department- Institute forChemistry Studies have studied and applied Nano VAST technology for treatment of arsenic and mental in water. This is considered to be an effective economic and secured solution.

Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Vietnam is dangerous problem. According to the WHO, approximately 15 million people in Vietnam(nearly one fifth of the population) may face the potential risk of arsenic poisoning because of using polluted water which is not thoroughly treated. The level of pollution in Ha Nam, Hanoi, Hung Yen, Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang is particularly high. Therefore, the removal of arsenic and heavy metals in water became urgent needs. It requires an effective and suitable technologysolution consistent with Vietnam's practice.

In Vietnam, the study of arsenic removal for water has been carried out for long, however, in general there is no technology or material whichproved its dominance in treating arsenic in water in both family scale and industry scale. Oxidization and treatment of manganese and iron in groundwater is the main technology. This classic technology removes a small amount of arsenic in water.

Layouts of the Nano VAST technology

To find a solution for arsenic treatment, recently, scientists in Department of Inorganic Chemistry - Institute for Chemistry Studies hassuccessfully built a water treatment system for arsenic and heavy metal contamination using Nano VAST technology. This technology uses twotypes of advanced arsenic adsorbents of  NC- F20 and NC- MF which are produce in Vietnam. NC- F20 and NC- MF’s dominantadvantage is that adsorption is at a fast pace with very high capacity.  

Nano Vast system has been deployed in a clinic in Nhan Khang commune, Ly Nhan, Ha Nam district. The system is able to remove arsenic from200 ppb to less than 5 ppb (standard is 10 ppb) with a capacity of 1.5 m3 per hour. The system is designed in two modes and easy to adjust automatically or manually. Up to now, Nano Vast system has been developed and replicated in many localities with a capacity of 0.8 m3/h,1.2 m3 / h and 1.5 m3 / h.

(a) Nano VAST system with a capacity of 1.5 m3 / h was installed in a clinic in Nhan Khang commune, Ly Nhan, Ha Nam province (b) Nano VAST system with a capacity of 1.2 m3 / h treating arsenic contaminated water has been installed in Trung Yen - Ha Noi

 Mr. Pham Van Lam - Department of Inorganic Chemistry Institute for Chemistry Studies, manager of research project said that the disadvantage of the Nano VAST which is connected with common pretreatment system (oxidation, sedimentation, filtration) system is that the system stillgenerates solid residue (in the tank) contain high concentrations of arsenic.  The costs will be increased because of expensive equipments.Currently, with the desire to limit these disadvantages, scientists connect Nano VAST technology with SAR technology (Subterranean ArsenicRemoval).  If this experiment successes, it will pave the way for a promising new direction in the field of water treatment to ensure safetyfor the community. It also creates a foundation for a flexible, high efficient, save and environmentally friendly technology.

T.Minh

Source: 

http://www.monre.gov.vn/v35/default.aspx?tabid=675&CateID=56&ID=128236&Code=UGX1128236

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Chinese Updates: Recycling the answer to China's junk dilemma (20 Jul 2013)

Recycling the answer to China's junk dilemma

Xinhua, July 20, 2013

Experts on Friday called on the government and public to reduce, reuse and recycle as much waste as possible as official data showed more than one-third of the country's cities are besieged by garbage.

Official data show more than one-third of the country's cities are besieged by garbage. [File photo]

Only about 5 percent of about 1 billion tonnes of construction waste generated each year in the country is recycled or reused, said Wang Jiwei, Secretary General of the China Association of Resource Comprehensive Utilization, at an ecological forum held in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

"The public still need to enhance their awareness of the importance of reusing garbage," he said. "They should realize waste is just misplaced resources."

Also at the forum, Zheng Kangbin, senior economist at Asian Development Bank, said, "People should take into consideration cost, cash flow, security and technical suitability in ecologically friendly projects, and attract more investment."

China could also learn from advanced foreign experiences in risk control and policy stipulation, according to Zheng.

Eugene Chien, chairman of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, said drawing from the island's experience, it is important to introduce multiple policies and measures to reduce garbage from the source.

Citizens should be educated and trained on green consumption and garbage treatment, he said.

Household garbage classification for collection has long been a headache for recycling. Many big cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, pioneered garbage classification in 2000. Thirteen years later, though, the initiative has yet to get off the ground.

"With no precondition-garbage classification, following disposal methods -- landfill, burning and bio-degeneration -- will only be empty words," said Huang Xiaoshan, a grassroots garbage disposal campaigner who built a mini-trash treatment facility dubbed "Green House" in his suburban home community in Beijing.

"We should set up a low-cost garbage classification system, which clarifies the responsibilities of the government, the public and companies," Huang said.

A China Youth Daily report on Friday cited a government survey showing more than one-third of the country's cities are besieged by garbage, with dumped rubbish taking up 50,000 hectares of land.

Insufficient recycling has been blamed as a major reason behind the mounting garbage surrounding cities in a rapidly urbanizing China, according to the report.

The World Bank said in a report last year global cities face surging costs for garbage treatment as it predicted a sharp rise in the amount of rubbish generated by urban residents.

The report estimated the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) will rise from the current 1.3 billion tonnes per year to 2.2 billion tonnes annually in 2025, with much of the increase coming in fast growing cities in developing countries.

The report revealed that the amount of MSW is growing fastest in China, other parts of East Asia, parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Growth rates for MSW in these areas are similar to their rates for urbanization and increases in gross domestic product (GDP).

Wang Yi, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the forum that China will experience the hardest transitional period for environmental protection in the next ten years with accelerating urbanization and the country's continuing industrial development.

The interests of all parties -- companies, NGOs, individuals -- should be taken into consideration to recycle resources, and transitional strategies should be worked out, Wang said.

The Chinese government is intensifying its efforts on city garbage treatment as capacity falls short of demand amid fast urbanization, realizing the surging amount of garbage produced in cities affects the urban environment and social stability.

The country aims to offer non-hazardous treatment on more than 80 percent of household garbage nationwide by 2015.

Source: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2013-07/20/content_29480272_2.htm

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Malaysian Updates: 80% of rainforests in Malaysian Borneo logged (17 Jul 2013)

80% of rainforests in Malaysian Borneo logged

Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
July 17, 2013


Bulldozer at a conventional logging site in Borneo

80 percent of the rainforests in Malaysian Borneo have been heavily impacted by logging, finds a comprehensive study that offers the first assessment of the spread of industrial logging and logging roads across areas that were considered some of Earth's wildest lands less than 30 years ago.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists from the University of Tasmania, University of Papua New Guinea, and the Carnegie Institution for Science, is based on analysis of satellite data using Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-lite (CLASlite), a freely available platform for measuring deforestation and forest degradation. It estimated the state of the region's forests as of 2009.
The study uncovered some 226,000 miles (364,000 km) of roads across Sabah and Sarawak, and found that roughly 80 percent of the two states have been impacted by logging or clearing. At best, only 45,400 square kilometers of forest ecosystems in the region remain intact.

"The extent of logging in Sabah and Sarawak documented in our work is breathtaking," said study co-author Phil Shearman of the University of Papua New Guinea. "The logging industry has penetrated right into the heart of Borneo and very little rainforest remains untouched by logging or clearfell in Malaysian Borneo."

"There is a crisis in tropical forest ecosystems worldwide, and our work documents the extent of the crisis on Malaysian Borneo," added lead author Jane Bryan of the University of Tasmania. "Only small areas of intact forest remain in Malaysian Borneo, because so much has been heavily logged or cleared for timber or oil palm production.

"Rainforests that previously contained lots of big old trees, which store carbon and support a diverse ecosystem, are being replaced with oil palm or timber plantations, or hollowed out by logging."




The state of forests in Malaysian Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) in 2009. Note that the authors call their estimates of degraded forest "conservative". While the study didn't assess forest cover in Indonesian Borneo, the authors indicate the situation is similar.


Malaysian Borneo's rainforests are home to a number of charismatic species, including Bornean orangutans, pygmy elephants, clouded leopards, proboscis monkeys, and Sumatran rhinos, which are on the edge of extinction. Its ecosystems also store vast amounts of carbon, which is released through forest degradation and clearance, land-clearing fires, and peatlands drainage and conversion to plantations.

The new analysis shows that logging and conversion have taken a heavy toll in the two states. One reasonthe impact of logging has been greater in Borneothan regions like Latin America and Central Africa is the nature of the island's forests, which have a high density of commercially exploitable dipterocarp trees. Therefore loggers in Malaysian Borneo extract a much higher volume of trees per hectare, causing considerable damage and requiring longer harvest cycles. Low returns between harvests increase pressure to convert logged-over forests for timber and oil palm plantations.


Logging road in Malaysian Borneo in 2012. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.


"Under this logging regime, the majority of commercial Dipterocarps (> 60 cm diameter at breast height) are felled and harvested in the first cycle (> 45 cm in Sarawak for non-Dipterocarp species), generally yielding 50-150 m3ha-1 of timber in the first harvest, with the aim of securing sufficient regeneration of commercial trees to allow a second harvest 25-30 years later," the authors write. "Substantial damage to soil, waterways and forest structure and residual trees is caused by this form of logging, with progressive degradation of biomass over repeated harvest cycles. Bulldozers impact approximately 30-40% of the logged area and damage is caused to 40-70% of residual trees. For these reasons initial timber yields cannot be maintained over multiple harvest cycles, with 25-30 years between harvests too short a period to allow regeneration of timber stocks."

The result is severe damage to forests: 44 percent of the region's forests were classified as "degraded" or "severely degraded," while another 28 percent had been converted to plantations or was in the process of recovering from logging.

"There are very few areas of rainforest in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak that haven’t already been logged or cleared - and a lot of this has happened since 1990," Bryan told mongabay.com.



Time series showing roads and degraded forest metastasizing across an area in Sarawak.


The study also assessed forest cover in protected areas. It found that in 2009 only 8 percent of Sabah was covered by intact forest under designated protected areas. That represented 31 percent of Sabah's remaining intact forest cover. In Sarawak, the situation in 2009 was even bleaker: only 3 percent of land cover consisted of legally protected intact forest. The results indicate that 85 percent of Sarawak's intact forest cover is unprotected.






But the situation in Sabah is changing. Since 2009, the Forestry Department has moved to set aside several blocks of high conservation value within the Yayasan Sabah concession, an area of roughly a million hectares. These forests have been re-zoned as "Class I" forest reserves, making them off-limits to logging or conversion. In other areas, the Sabah Forestry Department is mandating certification when concessions in logged-over forests come up for renewal. The idea is to boost long-term productivity by making selective logging in secondary forests more sustainable, according to the agency's director, Sam Mannan.

"There is very little primary forests left in Sabah, but where they exist, we are working to ensure they are protected," Mannan told mongabay.com. "Recently added Class I areas consist of logged-over forests. The future of rainforests in Sabah lies with the logged over forests."

"All long term licensees, meaning 99 percent of Sabah, will need to be certified under any internationally recognized forest certification scheme, including the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), by 2014."

Mannan added that more up-to-date satellite imagery would help countries like Malaysia better manage forest resources, including identifying areas that should be set aside for protection.

"Satellite companies should give rainforest nations images for free and in real time," he said.



Conventional logging operation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

The study is based on freely-available satellite imagery from NASA's Landsat, which captures images of every point on the planet every 16 days. The satellite data was analyzed using CLASlite, software that was developed by a team led by Greg Asner at the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Other researchers have mapped Malaysian Borneo's forest cover before, but the new study marks the first time that degradation and logging roads have been comprehensively documented across the region, according to the authors.

"The sheer extent of logging, that logging roads penetrate almost the entire area of remaining forests in Sabah and Sarawak may be a surprise to many – that’s because most previous studies have used low resolution imagery to map forests, and you simply can’t ‘see’ logging unless you use high resolution imagery like we did," the authors told mongabay.com via email, adding that separating logged and unlogged forests was a "major challenge."

RESPONSES: AUTHORS BRYAN & SHEARMAN What are the most important findings? There were two important findings. The first is that there are very few areas of rainforest in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak that haven’t already been logged or cleared - and a lot of this has happened since 1990. We estimate that only about 22% of the land area of Malaysian Borneo is still covered by forests that have not been logged, and that’s being conservative. The sheer extent of logging, that logging roads penetrate almost the entire area of remaining forests in Sabah and Sarawak may be a surprise to many – that’s because most previous studies have used low resolution imagery to map forests, and you simply can’t ‘see’ logging unless you use high resolution imagery like we did. The second finding was that in contrast to Malaysian Borneo, the nation of Brunei which shares a border with Malaysian Borneo, has managed to keep the majority of its forests unlogged. The difference between the two countries is quite startling. On the Malaysian side of the border, we found that there was a really dense pattern of logging roads and logging skid trails built through the forest, which stops right at the border. On the other side in Brunei, the forests were largely unbroken by any roads or skid trails. On one side of the border, there was heavy logging since 1990, and on the other side virtually none. It’s quite a contrast. Over the past decades, Brunei built its wealth on oil and gas extraction and excluded logging, which has been vastly more successful in forest protection. It has meant that today Brunei still has more than half of its land area covered by intact forest ecosystems, while Malaysian Borneo has at most 22%. But that said, Brunei is much smaller – only about 3% of the area of Malaysian Borneo. Do you have any conservation policy recommendations? Comparing what has happened in Brunei where more than half of the land area is still covered by unlogged forests, with Sabah and Sarawak, where at most 22% remains is instructive. We think Brunei shows that excluding logging entirely is an effective way to protect forests in the long term, but it does mean that a nation would need an alternative income stream. For Brunei, that came from oil and gas. If you look at the United Nations Human Development Index, which includes life expectancy, education and national income, Brunei is ahead of Malaysia. This is good news for other mineral rich tropical nations with large areas of unlogged forests remaining - it shows that there is no need to rely on industrial scale, widespread logging to build national wealth and well being. Excluding the logging industry entirely to protect forests is a feasible option without necessarily harming national development and economic goals. The comparison of Brunei with Malaysian Borneo also shows that excluding logging entirely is likely to be much more successful at forest protection in the long term than relying on a small network of protected areas. For Sabah and Sabah and Sarawak, where almost all forests have already been heavily logged, something different is needed. On the one hand, because there are so few unlogged forests remaining, strengthening protection of these areas in protected areas makes sense. But because so few forests remain unlogged in Sabah and Sarawak, the lion’s share of forest protection efforts need to focus on already logged forests. Logged forests in the tropics tend to be forests in transition. Logged forests are far more likely to be cleared than unlogged forests, with roads opening up the place to serial logging events. In Sabah and Sarawak in many places we found multiple roads being built through the same forests over a period of 20 years. Repeated logging within a short period of time means that forests are getting progressively hollowed out, with the end point being their conversion – either deliberately for oil palm, or ‘accidentally’ via fire. This is where the extensively logged forests we documented in Sabah and Sarawak are likely to go unless their regeneration is ensured by protection efforts. This is where we think the REDD program could still have an important role to play. The original intent of REDD was to provide tropical forested nations with an alternative source of income to industrial logging or agriculture of the kind that involves deforestation. The Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak have a huge opportunity to wind back the logging industry, prevent further logging of large areas of already logged forest, allow their full regeneration, and replace the income with carbon payments. At the moment the alternative scenario is to pin forest conservation hopes solely on the protected area network, in which case we can expect about 8% of Sabah’s and 3% of Sarawak’s formerly vast forest ecosystems to remain undamaged in the future.

"You can only really tell remotely whether tropical rainforest has been logged or not using high resolution imagery (imagery with a pixel size of 30 meters or less), and the higher the resolution of the imagery, the more time and computer processing power is required. Luckily Greg Asner’s lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science has spent the past decade working on that problem. Their CLASlite program is excellent at resolving this issue. When you combine the output of CLASlite with a map of logging roads which we digitized as part of our study, we were able to construct a very detailed map of forest cover and the extent of logging activities."

Asner called the results of the study "sobering."

"The problem with previous monitoring reports is that they have been based on satellite mapping methods that have missed most of the forest degradation in Malaysian Borneo, and elsewhere throughout the tropics," he said in a press release. "I’m talking about heavy logging that leaves a wake of forest degradation, even though the area may still look like forest in conventional satellite imagery. With the CLASlite system, we can see the effects of logging on the inner canopy of the forest. The system revealed extremely widespread degradation in this case.”

As a point of comparison, the researchers used Brunei, the tiny oil-rich sultanate that separates Sabah and Sarawak. Brunei relies on offshore oil and gas — and associated services — to fuel its economy. Unlike Sabah and Sarawak, it has largely left its forests for the birds. The difference in policy offers a stark contrast when it comes to forest cover: nearly two-thirds of its forest cover is "intact" and only 15 percent is classified as "degraded" or "severely degraded."

"The difference between the two countries is quite startling," the authors said. "On the Malaysian side of the border, we found that there was a really dense pattern of logging roads and logging skid trails built through the forest, which stops right at the border. On the other side in Brunei, the forests were largely unbroken by any roads or skid trails."

The authors argue that Brunei's example shows that excluding logging from primary forests is a far more effective conservation strategy than trying to manage old-growth forests through reduced-impact logging.

"The history of forestry in Sarawak and Sabah indicates that attempting to reform the logging industry does not result in meaningful forest conservation," they write. "A far better approach, as shown in Brunei, is to prevent logging of natural forests in the first instance, or in places where logging has occurred, to exclude further logging from what remains."

"In Sarawak and Sabah in particular, and globally across the tropics, the crisis in tropical forests is now so severe that any further sacrifice of primary ecosystems to the industrial logging industry ought to be out of the question for all who seriously seek to maintain biodiversity and forest ecosystems."

The challenge for Sabah and Sarawak however will be making the transition away from forestry and plantation agriculture. At present there is intense political pressure to turn over non-productive logged-over forests for conversion to plantations rather than wait for them to recover or turn them over for protected areas. While both states have considerable offshore energy reserves, revenue flows from those resources accrue to the central government. So neither Sabah nor Sarawak can currently rely on Brunei's economic model.

Some, including the authors, have suggested that the Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD+) program could provide sufficient economic incentive for keeping forests standing in Malaysian Borneo. But as currently designed, only limited areas of the region's forests would quality for carbon payments. Furthermore, the current state of the carbon market means those carbon payments are unlikely to be competitive with the alternative: clearing forests for timber and palm oil. So in the near term, the fate of unlogged forests in Malaysian Borneo will likely be determined by the will of Malaysians to keep them standing.



Deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia between 2000 and 2010. Note that Borneo as a wholelost 12 percent of its forest cover(and 25 percent of its peatlands) during that time period, according to a paper published by Jukka Miettinen and colleagues in Global Change Biology in 2011.


CITATION: Jane E. Bryan, Philip L. Shearman, Gregory P. Asner, David E. Knapp, Geraldine Aoro, Barbara Lokes (2013).Extreme Differences in Forest Degradation in Borneo: Comparing Practices in Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei. PLoS ONE 8(7): e69679. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069679

Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0717-borneo-rainforest-logging.html

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Call for papers: 2013 International Conference on Environment Pollution and Prevention (ICEPP 2013) (Deadline: 1 Aug 2013)

ICEPP 2013 : 2013 International Conference on Environment Pollution and Prevention

Link: http://www.icepp.org/

When Oct 7, 2013 - Oct 8, 2013 Where Melaka, Malaysia Submission Deadline Aug 1, 2013 Notification Due Aug 15, 2013 Final Version Due Aug 31, 2013 Categories    environment   health   industry applications   sustainability

Call For Papers

The 2013 International Conference on Environment Pollution and Prevention (ICEPP 2013) is the premier forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of Environment Pollution and Prevention. ICEPP 2013 will bring together leading engineers and scientists in Environment Pollution and Prevention from around the world. Topics of interest for submission include, but are not limited to: International Conference on Environment Pollution and Prevention Air pollution and treatment Biofuels Desalination Energy Management Environmental Education Programs Environmental Protection Environmental Risk Assessments Environmental Safety Regulations Environmental Sustainability and Development Green Manufacturing and Technologies, Pollution Prevention Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change Groundwater Issues Impact of Industrialization on the Environment Nanotechnology Impacts on Environment Oil Spills Pollution and Health Issues Renewable and Non-Renewable Energies Soil Pollution and Treatment Wastewater Management and Treatment Water Pollution and Treatment All ICEPP 2013 papers will be published in the International Journal of Environmental Science and Development (IJESD, ISSN:2010-0264), and all papers will be included in the Engineering & Technology Digital Library, and indexed by EBSCO, CABI, DOAJ, WorldCat, Google Scholar, Cross ref, ProQuest and sent to be reviewed by Ei Compendex and ISI Proceedings. Submission Methods  1. https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=icepp2013; ( .pdf) If you can't login the submission system, please try to submit through method 2. 2. Email: icepp@cbees.net. ( .pdf and .doc)

For more information: 
http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=30756&copyownerid=13881

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Publications: Investment Incentives for Renewable Energy in Southeast Asia: Case study of Viet Nam » Nam Pham Khanh, Quan Nguyen Anh, Binh Quan Minh Quoc, IISD, 2012. (Jul 2013)

IISD Publications Centre

Investment Incentives for Renewable Energy in Southeast Asia: Case study of Viet Nam

» Nam Pham Khanh, Quan Nguyen Anh, Binh Quan Minh Quoc, IISD, 2012.Paper, 33 pages, copyright: IISD

Energy markets around the world face many challenges. Conventional supplies of fossil fuel reserves are becoming increasingly scarce, leading to rising prices. At the same time, concerns over climate change are growing, increasing the urgency for countries to decouple greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth. All of these pressures have greatly raised the profile of renewable energy technologies (RETs), with governments now commonly providing a range of support frameworks and incentives to attract investment.

This report assesses investment incentives for renewable energy in Viet Nam. It focuses on small hydro, wind, solar, biogas, and biomass resources. Through an analysis of the incentives available for these technologies, and drawing on insights from representatives from governments and industry, it suggests some initial findings on the extent to which Viet Nam’s investment incentives for renewable energy are effective and affordable, and identifies further research that could usefully be conducted in this area.

The analysis is part of a series of reports that aim to conduct an exploratory assessment of such incentives in developing countries around the world.

Paper

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• Related publications:
  Trade Knowledge Network,Energy, Subsidies

For more information: http://www.iisd.org/publications/pub.aspx?pno=2821

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New Books: Water Governance for Sustainable Development Approaches and Lessons from Developing and Transitional Countries By Stefano Farolfi (1 Jun 2013)

Water Governance for Sustainable Development

Approaches and Lessons from Developing and Transitional Countries

By Stefano Farolfi

Edited by Sylvain Perret, Rashid Hassan

Published 1st June 2013 by Routledge – 320 pages

Descriptions:

Good management of water resources - universally identified as a key aspect of poverty reduction, agriculture and food security - has proven, in practice, as difficult to achieve as it is eagerly sought. This book, edited and authored by leading authorities on water resource management, examines the recent changes in governance, institutions, economics and policies of water, covering developing, transitional and developed countries, with special emphasis on southern African case studies. The book examines how water policies, institutions and governance have shifted in recent years from supply-driven, quantitative, centrally controlled management to more demand-sensitive, decentralized, participatory approaches. Such a move often also implies cost recovery principles, resource allocation among competing sectors, and privatization. The case studies demonstrate that the new policies and legal frameworks have been difficult to implement and often fall short of initial expectations. Using an accessible multidisciplinary approach that integrates economics, sociology, geography and policy analysis, the book untangles the issues and presents best practices for policy- and decision-makers, governments and regulators, NGOs and user groups, service providers, and researchers. The overall aim is to show how good water governance structures can be developed and implemented for the benefit of all.

Contents:

Introduction 

* Part I
* Understanding Water Institutions: Structure, Environment and Change Process
* Public�Private Partnership in Irrigation and Drainage: The Need for a Professional Third Party Between Farmers and Government 

* Part II
* The Possibility of Trade in Water Use Entitlements in South Africa under the National Water Act of 1998
* Redressing Inequities through Domestic Water Supply: A 'Poor' Example from Sekhukhune, South Africa
* Local Governance Issues after Irrigation Management Transfer: A Case Study from Limpopo Province, South Africa
* Water Management on a Smallholder Canal Irrigation Scheme in South Africa
* Emerging Rules after Irrigation Management Transfer to Farmers
* Crafting Water Institutions for People and Their Businesses: Exploring the Possibilities in Limpopo 

* Part III
* Conflict Analysis and Value-focused Thinking to Aid Resolution of Water Conflicts in the Mkoji Sub-catchment, Tanzania
* Determinants of Quality and Quantity Values of Water for Domestic Uses in the Steelpoort Sub-basin: A Contingent Valuation Approach
* Water Resources and Food Security: Simulations for Policy Dialogue in Tanzania
* How More Regulated Dam Release Can Improve the Supply from Groundwater and Surface Water in the Tadla Irrigation Scheme in Morocco
* Impact of Institutional Changes within Small-scale Groundwater Irrigated Systems: A Case Study in Mexico
* Local Empowerment in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes: A Methodology for Participatory Diagnosis and Prospective Analysis
* Role-playing Game Development in Irrigation Management: A Social Learning Approach
* Support to Stakeholder Involvement in Water Management Circumventing Some Participation Pitfalls

For more information: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415852029/

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