1. Your full name.
2. Handphone number.
3. The number of friends accompanying you.
4. Date you are attending.
5. Time you are attending.
   

1. Name
2. Email address
3. Contact number (preferably handphone)
4. Cycling ability (wobbly, steady, WOW!)
5. Emergency contact number

1. Your full name.
2. Handphone number.
3. The number of friends accompanying you.
4. Date you are attending.
5. Time you are attending.
   

1. Public Forum on GM Food – Sat 5th February 2005: 10am, Biopolis.
2. NMP Geh Min raises green issues in Parliament: focus on marine issues.
3. More coverage of marine topics – radio, articles.
4. More and better protection for trees and Heritage Roads.
5. Delightful biodiversity news from Singapore.
6. More resources for biodiversity in Singapore
7. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology online
   

1. Indian Ocean Earthquake/Tsunami disaster – how to help
2. Raptors over St John’s,  otters at Sungei Buloh, Devilfish on Pulau Hantu
3. How to get to the Tree Top Walk
4. RSS feeds for natural history blogs
   

Habitatnews 2004-15: Thursday 9th December 2004
The Habitat Group's Nature Information List
To subscribe, email: habitatnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
--------------------------------------------------
Nature-related news for the busy Singaporean.
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php
--------------------------------------------------
1. Screening of "Living with Animals" film tomorrow
2. Free shuttle to Reflections At Bukit Chandu
3. President NSS, Geh Min is an NMP
4. The Jane Goodall orchid

--------------------------------------------------
[1] Screening of "Living with Animals" film
at Geylang East Library.
Friday 10th December 2004: 7pm
--------------------------------------------------
Geylang East Library is near ALunied MRT. See the roadmap at:
http://tinyurl.com/5tds3

The film will be introduced by Nirmal Ghosh.

"Nirmal is a Trustee of The Corbett Foundation, a member of the
Steering Committee of Project Elephant chaired by India's Minister of
Environment and Forests, and a member of the managing committee of
Friends of the Doon. He spends much of his time in the field working
on wildlife issues."

Thanks to Andrew Tay for the SMS alert.

--------------------------------------------------
[2] Free shuttle service to Reflections at Bukit Chandu
on Saturdays 11 & 18 Dec and 1st Jan.
--------------------------------------------------
Pick-up timings each day
HarbourFront MRT: 9.30am, 11.30am & 2.30pm.
RBC Carpark C: 11.00am, 2.00pm & 4.45pm.

Dates:
Saturday, 11th December 2004,
Saturday, 18th December 2004,
Saturday, 1st January 2005.

See: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php

--------------------------------------------------
[3] NSS President Geh Min appointed NMP
--------------------------------------------------
What are some specific environmental issues you will raise?

"Protection of our marine areas. We don't have as much as Indonesia or
the Philippines but what we have in terms of diversity of corals is
five times that of the Caribbean and 25 times the Mediterranean."

"But this is not being protected in any systematic way. None of our
marine areas is a designated nature reserve. Instead the priorities
are shipping, the port, land reclamation and now using the sea as a
landfill. All this is important but it should not be done at the
expense of our marine biodiversity."

Read the interview at: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php

--------------------------------------------------
[4] The Jane Goodall orchid
--------------------------------------------------
A new orchid has been named Spathoglottis Jane Goodall after the
reknown ethologist and consrvationist.

A ceremony was held in Burkill Hall at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
on Monday 6th December 2004. She is the first biologist after whom
an orchid has been named at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

She was in Singapore for the Biology in Asia conference.
See photos and full story at:
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php

--------------------------------------------------
Fight world hunger with a click: http://www.hungersite.com
--------------------------------------------------
News at Ecology Asia: http://www.ecologyasia.com
Wild Singapore Weekly Events: http://www.wildsingapore.com
--------------------------------------------------

1. Sun 5th Dec 2004: 2.00pm – Mangrove discovery walk
2. Launch of Focus Ubin webpag
3. Getting weekly updates about nature activities
4. Pulau Hantu blog and Coastal Cleanup Singapore
5. Webpage news highlights
   

1. Your name,
2. The number of people in your group.
   

1. Mon 1st Nov 2004: 4.00pm – Priorities for biodiversity conservation
2. Never tried guiding? Now’s your chance!
3. Circle of Life – Join us for Nature Society’s 50th anniversary
4. Southern Islands brochure to be launched at Green Market
5. Recent webpage entries!
   

• Zone captains oversee a zone consisting of several sites,
• Liase with leaders of the volunteer groups/schools allocated to your zone,
• Attend a main committee meeting on the Wed 14 Jul 2004: 6pm – 9pm
• Attend a coordinators workshop to understand the ops procedure
• Conduct a recce of field sites in early September
• Work with volunters on at 18 Sep 2004: 8am – 12pm
  

• Assist the Data Manager in collating national data on Sat 18 Sep 2004
• Assist in maintaining the ICCS webpage.
• Good knowledge in Microsoft Excel program and webpage creating skills required.
  

• Assist the Manpower officer in confirmation of participants, confirmation site allocation.
• Liason with Zone Captains, Site Buddies, leaders of volunteer groups.
  

• Assist the Administrative Officer in admin and coordination.
• Knowledge in handling mailing lists, Microsoft Excel and Word useful or keen to learn.
  

• Your role is to supervise and educate students at the cleanup site, and to explain to them the significance and far-reaching impact of this cleanup.
• A knowledge of the marine ecosystems would be useful but can be learnt.
• Read and understand “Why cleanup?” at http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/iccs/whycleanup.html
• Attend a coordinators workshop / recce in early September (on a Saturday afternoon) to understand the operations procedure for the actual cleanup and the site at which you would be working at.      
  

• Loading Captains, Weighing Captains, Manpower Officer,  
• Able to work as a team, get dirty and wet, enjoy mannual labour, respond to sudden and frequent changes in plans.
• Participate in both Dry Ops (9am – 12pm) and Wet Ops (11am – 5pm)
  

1. Name
2. Preferred role
3. Email address
4. Handphone/Tel No
   

1. Priscilla of Chek Jawa is no more
2. Flying snake documentary to air on Monday, 11pm
3. Joseph Lai & Angie Ng discover new record of fern at Labrador
4. Vesak Day’s traditional animal release slowed
5. Raffles Museum news
6. Pulau Ubin stories
7. Pulau Hantu – A celebration of marine life
8. Chek Jawa’s is no more
9. Asian snakeheads in USA
10. Brood X Cicadas in the USA
11. The Green Chef of China!
    

• Derek Yap, National Parks Board,
• Wang Ruobing, Sculpture Society Singapore),
• Vilma D'Rozario, Nature Society (Singapore)
• N. Sivasothi, NUS Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research
  

• Books on cheap sale including Living Reefs of the Indo-Pacific for $9.90.
• Software for getting moon, tide and weather information onto your desktop.
• The illegal Indonesian timber trade.
• Extremely bad news for the Sumatran Tiger.
  

1. Six dolphins spotted off St. John’s, Fri 12 Mar 2004
2. Singapore Science Centre lanches Echinoderms and Spices
3. CNA: Spiritual Gardens , Arts Central: Five Days
4. For details and photos, see: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php
   

1. Raffles Museum Public Gallery open this Saturday 13 Mar
2. Pedal-Ubin this Sunday 14 Mar: 8.30am
3. Nature related television shows this weekend
   

1. Your full name,   
2. Handphone number   
3. Email  address
   

1. Mountain bikers doing trail maintenance
2. Pasir Ris Park mangrove boardwalk closed until mid-2005
3. Yes, the blog it has been easier
4. Greetings a reader in South America
   

1. Full name,
2. No of people in group.
   

1. You can invite your friends and family.
2. You will receive an acknowledgement by email confirming your registration and time.
3. Be prepared for rain as usual in December!
4. To get to the park: Take TIBS No. 925 from Kranji MRT. It will stop right at the park.
5. Meet your Group Guides at the Visitor Centre at 9am.
6. The usual entry charges for Sungei Buloh apply - $1/adults, $0.50/children and students.
   

1. “Last captive rhino in Peninsular Malaysia dies", 17 Nov 2003
2. “Divided over breeding plan”, 18 Nov 2003
   

• a brief history and description of coral reefs in Singapore,
• photos and videos of the local marine life. Yes! Life exists in our murky waters, and quite a lot too! View it to believe it,
• list of publications regarding local reefs - with some downloadable articles,
• history of marine conservation efforts in Singapore (think you can do better?),
  

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Habitatnews 2003-28: Friday, 19th September 2003
The Habitat Group's Nature Information List
To subscribe, email: habitatnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nature-related news for the busy Singaporean.
More information and archives at: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents

1. Successful prosecution of plant poachers
2. Talk on Clownfish and marine conservation on Sat, 20th Sep 2003
3. International Coastal Cleanup Singapore 2003
4. Launch of Kranji Nature Trail
----------------------------------------------------------------------

---> [1] Prosecution of plant poachers in Central Catchment
On 24th August 2003, during a nature guiding session with students
from NUS, three people parked their van at Rifle Range Road, walked
to the catchment to help themelves to some ferns.

While I was explaining some issues to the group, they casually walked
through our group with the contraband, entered their van and drove
off. They were gone in seconds. Unbeknowst to me, two other guides
had ben trying to get my attention and interrupt the briefing to
adress the poachers but failed. However, they took digital photos.

The guides later emailed NParks and were susequently invited to a
meeting, which turned out to be a prosecution session. One guide was
able to come forward provide testimony as an eyewitness. At that, any
attempt at denying the incident was dropped.

A slap on the wrist was proferred to and eagerly accepted by these
first-time (as far as ecords go) and cooperative offenders. A $500
fine was paid up wih the understanding they were being let off easy.

I received the news by SMS in Indonesia where I am writing from. As
nature guides and nature reserve users who frequent the reserve, we
are alarmed by the number of incidents which flout the law to the
detriment of the reserve. There are still poachers, illegal dumping,
harassment of animals, fishing ouside boundaries, animnal release,
etc. going on in our reserve, though not at epidemic proportions.

Nature guides invest in the strategy of education. But a carrot and
stick approach is obviously required. And the public can
participate.  This was a rare instance in which an eyewitness not
working for NParks stepped forward to assist in the prosectuion. And
NParks obvously took it seriously.

To report incidents in the Central Catchment, you can call: 6462-9203


--> [2] Talk on Clownfish and marine conservation this Saturday, 20th
September 2003.

Zeehan Jaafar (Marine Biology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences,
National University of Singapore) will be giving a talk on "Finding
Nemo" this Saturday at Woodlands Library (Amazon Room) at 3.30pm

Details at http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/bejc/zeehan.html


--> [3] International Coastal Cleanup Singapore 2003
More than 1,000 volunteers will take to the beaches of Singapore to
collect, categorise and clear marine trash. Last week, at thre
mangroves sites, volunteers cleared about 4.5 tones of mangroves
trash from three sites in Kranji, Pasir Ris and Chek Jawa.

See data and photos at htp://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/iccs


---> [4] Launch of Kranji Nature Trail
A very special new trail will be launched tomorrow. It will allow
access to Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve from Kranji Reservoir (where
the bus drops you on weendays). The big danger however is crossing
Kranji Way with its attendant heavy vehicular traffic.

I have written to Land Transport Authority to see what they can do
about this. They might have replied already but I have poor access to
my emails now. Will update you when they reply.

The public can access the trail from Saturday afternoon. This is
where we did most of our mangrove cleanupo jut last Saturday, and its
looking good. Enjoy!

See http://www.sbwr.org.sg
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This issue comes to you from Medan, Indonesia :-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fight world hunger with a click: http://www.hungersite.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News at Ecology Asia
http://www.ecologyasia.com/Top-Level/eco-news.htm
Wild Singapore Weekly Events
http://www.wildsingapore.com/events/latest.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------

• 10 am to 12pm: Sculpture workshops (above 8 years old)  
• NSS poster exhibition on trees and merchandise booth
  
  • to help raise funds for Sculpture Society
    
• 2.00pm to 4.30 pm:  Sculpture workshops (above 8 years old)
• 3.30pm - Old Trees & Heritage by Shawn Lum
• 4.00pm - Kids' Fun With Trees featuring
  
  • See How Far It Can Go!,
  • How Tall Was It?,
  • My Say and
  • A Closer look.
    

"Indonesia's illegal logging - the Singapore connection."
"Zoo and NParks use legal timber for their projects."
"Loggers work in appalling conditions, Timber brokers struggle for power."

Interactive Map of smuggling routes
“Illegal logging in Indonesia”