Varroa mite not such a threat to Papua New Guinea coffee

A collaborative research between Australian and Papua New Guinea scientists has revealed that the potential economic impact of a new Varroa mite (pictured above feedling on a honeybee) on Papua New Guinea agriculture is likely to be much less significant than speculated earlier.
 This outcome was discussed at a research review workshop hosted by the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in Lae last month which gathered a number of key agencies working together on the issue.
 The new variant of the varroa mite (Varroa jacobsoni) was first found in PNG on European honeybees (Apis melifera) in the Eastern Highlands in May 2008.
 The mite is now thought to have been in PNG for about six years. 
There were concerns the mite, which can decimate colonies of European honeybees, could significantly reduce the yields of a number of pollinated crops. Earlier predictions were that coffee yields alone could be cut by as much as 50%.
However, the study, just completed by scientists from NARI and the Australian-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), predicts that in a worst-case scenario, the mite would lead to annual economic losses to the coffee industry of less than K14 million, a fraction of the earlier prediction of K200 million.
The results of the CSIRO/NARI study, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Australia’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), were discussed by a number of agencies at the workshop in Lae, including representatives of NARI, CSIRO, ACIAR, the National Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Authority, the Coffee Industry Corporation and Eastern Highlands provincial offices of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock.
“The study surveyed food and cash crops dependant on insect pollination and assessed their degree of dependence on insect pollination,” said CSIRO ecologist Dr Saul Cunningham. 
“It also surveyed pollinator insects that visit selected dependent crops both in the highlands and lowlands of the country.
“In PNG, the distribution of managed European honeybees (Apis mellifera) is restricted to the cooler highlands of PNG, whereas the feral Apis cerana are found throughout the country.
“Based on established knowledge from elsewhere, it is expected that Apis mellifera provide significant pollination services to highland crops like coffee, cucumber and orchard tree crops.  While pollinator dependent lowland crops like coconuts, oil palm and some vegetables are serviced by Apis cerana and other pollinator insects that do not appear to have been affected by the new strain of Varroa mite.”
In view of its relatively-high contribution to annual cash incomes of smallholder farmers in the densely-populated highlands of PNG, and its significance to the national economy, the scoping study focused on the likely economic impact that mite may have on the PNG highland (Arabica) coffee.
 The study developed an economic simulation model to estimate probable economic losses from coffee production over a period of years.
“The study showed that the earlier estimate of K200 million worth of annual drop in coffee production due to decline in pollination services is therefore considered a very unrealistic scenario in PNG,” Dr Cunningham said. 
“We predict that given the likelihood that other insects, such as the feral bee species Apis cerana and native bees, will continue to pollinate coffee, the impact could be even smaller than K14 million. 
“The workshop concluded that further targeted research would more accurately predict whether the impacts are closer to K14 million or K4 million annually.
“Further research is also needed on coffee pollination in PNG style coffee gardens, on which insects are involved, and how much they boost yield.  Such research would not only help understand the risks posed by Varroa mite, but would also help improve coffee production practices in the future.”
  Preliminary findings from a separate survey of Varroa mites in all PNG provinces indicate that the Varroa mite is widespread in the country, suggesting the need to initiate appropriate and sustainable parasite management interventions such as targeted application of chemicals, restriction of movements of bee colonies and hive equipment and other quarantine measures.
The coffee industry is already experiencing a gradual decline in supplies of coffee to the market, although the causes for this decline are still unknown. Further research work is needed to identify the possible causes and assess their relative importance.
Further information about results of this study can be obtained from Dr. Saul Cunningham of CSIRO in Canberra (Email: Saul.Cunningham@csiro.au )  or Dr Workneh Ayalew of NARI in Lae (Email: workneh.ayalew@nari.org.pg ).
The final report from the scoping study will be available from ACIAR later in 2009.

Forest carbon market already shows cracks

Source: Reuters

 

 * Papua New Guinea revises policy on forest carbon projects

 

* All projects suspended in meantime

 

* Carbon brokers made lucrative offer to assist govt agency

 

* Development groups warn forest deals could spark conflict

 

By Gerard Wynn and Sunanda Creagh

 

LONDON/NUSA DUA, Indonesia, June 4 (Reuters) - It could save the rainforests of Borneo, slow climate change and the international community backs it. But a plan to pay tropical countries not to chop down trees risks being discredited by opportunists even before it starts.

A forest carbon market is emerging in anticipation of a global, U.N. climate deal in December in Copenhagen, expected to allow rich countries to pay to protect rainforests as a cheap alternative to cutting their own greenhouse gases.

Officials in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have underlined how things may go awry.

Reuters has uncovered evidence of a multi-million-dollar offer of assistance from carbon brokers to a government agency, and confusion over whether offset sales were from valid projects.

There is growing interest from countries and companies in the developed world to buy the rights to the carbon stored in trees as they grow, to offset their own emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

But development and environment groups have long warned that suddenly placing a big value on rainforests could spur friction and even conflict in some developing nations, because of uncertain tenure rights, corruption and inadequate policing.

At a conference on the Indonesian island of Bali last week, Interpol environmental crime official Peter Younger told Reuters he expected fraudulent trading of carbon credits, as organised crime infiltrates the system of companies and countries in the developed world buying rights to the stored carbon.

Indonesia last month became the first country to set out some form of regulation for how its scheme will work, but stressed it has not yet developed a model for the most sensitive issue of revenue collection.

Papua New Guinea, which has some of the world's fastest-disappearing rainforest and has championed the forest carbon market, established its Office of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (OCCES) in 2008 to develop forest protection projects.

The agency suspended in January all plans to sell rights to the carbon stored in its rainforests after deals sparked land ownership disputes, a senior official told Reuters.

"All projects are suspended while we get some experience," said Theo Yasause, executive director of OCCES.

One such project included the department's own proposal to give exclusive rights to a large area of rainforest to two brokers which would in return donate A$10 million ($8 million) to fund the agency's creation.

Brokers develop projects for landowners to sell the carbon stored in their forests in return for a share of those rights.

ASSISTANCE

In government papers dated June 12 2008, seen by Reuters that Yasause signed and has authenticated, two brokers offered to help fund the OCCES agency. They were named in the memo as Earth Sky and Climate Assist PNG but could not be located for comment.

"That memo was in June, by January everything was stopped," said Yasause. "I said 'no, let's set a policy first.'"

In the memo Yasause asked PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare to counter-sign a certificate allowing the brokers to sell forest carbon offsets valued at $500 million.

"The (two brokers are) prepared to put in 10 million Australian Dollars to assist the establishment of the Office of Climate Change," Yasause wrote in the June 2008 memo. The OCCES would also earn 20 percent of any proceeds from carbon sales.

When the OCCES was created, Prime Minister Somare said it should be self-sufficient through funds generated from forest projects.

When asked why he thought his agency should receive such a large sum, Yasause said: "Initially we thought we should get some of that. It wasn't meant to set it as a policy. When I started I thought (it) could come as a tax to government.

"It was only a proposal. Nothing came through," he added.

MESS

PNG is now crafting an "open tendering" policy to sell rights to the carbon stored in its rainforests, Yasause said. That would apply to one project initially, called April Salome, when the policy was up and running.

"We suspended all communications and dealings with the brokers at this stage. I put a notice up saying 'there's no dealings as of January.'"

However, another broker and project consultant, Swiss-based South Pole Carbon Asset Management, said it had rights to sell carbon credits from a certain portion of the April Salome project and would continue to do so.

"We have all kinds of letters of (government) support, approval and so on, including letters after January," said Christian Dannecker, principal at South Pole, who also referred to written authorisation for the project from 160 landowner groups in the region.

South Pole is already selling the carbon rights before the project is approved by a third party, called validation, a common practice in carbon markets. The timing of approval was unsure given it was "in an early phase", said Dannecker.

The company estimates April Salome will generate 1 million tonnes of avoided carbon dioxide emissions per year, but that was not formally audited. "We're still putting together data," said Dannecker. "It's not done, just estimates."

One buyer of the credits from South Pole was a Spanish environment group promoting ecological projects, CeroCO2, which in turn has sold the offsets to individuals, small companies and an event in Zaragoza, for example to offset travel.

The company has sold 660 tonnes at about 10 euros each. The buyers paid up-front but the group would replace the credits if the project was never approved, a group spokeswoman said.

CeroCO2 had told their clients that the project was at an early stage and that the carbon offsets were still hypothetical, she added.

CeroCO2's Web site said the offsets met a standard devised by U.S.-based auditors called the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), but they did not.

"We have not received any documents about this project," said Joanna Durbin, a director at the CCBA.

"It was a mistake in our Web site," the CeroCO2 spokeswoman said. "We are human." CeroCO2 removed the project from its Web site after speaking to Reuters.

"It all goes to show what a horrible mess will ensue when there is neither a basic level of governance in the countries where the forestry credits are supposedly being generated, nor any regulation in the international markets where they are being traded," said Simon Counsell, director of the Rainforest Foundation UK.

Counsell urged much slower adoption of forest carbon rules, rather than rushing these in time for a December climate deal.

ELIGIBLE

Industrialised countries already pay developing nations to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, for example to build dams, wind farms or improve the efficiency of their factories, in a $6.5 billion trade in carbon offsets.

They view such offsets as a cut-price way to meet their carbon caps under the Kyoto Protocol, instead of taking more costly action at home, for example imposing carbon taxes on industry or households.

Payments to conserve trees are not eligible under Kyoto, but there is enormous pressure to widen the scheme to include rainforests under the successor climate pact to be thrashed out in Copenhagen.

Papua New Guinea helped found the 40-nation Coalition for Rainforest Nations which wants support for the system, Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD), under a new treaty.

Most PNG rainforest is owned by communities and indigenous groups, but the government still hands out concessions, said Andy White at Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative.

The head of the Office of Climate Change, Yasause, produced papers in a PNG court on Monday confirming that he had suspended a deal -- which he had originally approved -- involving another carbon fund, after complaints from landowners that they had not been consulted over sales of carbon rights in a forested area called Kamula Doso.

"I am not working with them until I get clarity in this landowner dispute, we cannot do REDD in those places if there is fighting between landowners, it will kill it," Yasause told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Daniel Fineren; Editing by Sara Ledwith

World Environment Day mangrove planting programme (please click to enlarge)

ENVIRONMENTAL and Conservation groups under the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum network are embarking on a massive tree planting drive with a target of 10,000  mangrove seedlings to be planted to commemorate World Environment Day on June 6.
The Motupore Islands Research Centre, mangrove expert Marine Biologist Thomas Manuawie is heading the re-vegetation exercise to take place in three coastal villages of Gabagaba, Tubuseria and Tahira on June  6.

Jamie Maxtone-Graham loses 65kg...and saves his life

The new-look Jamie Maxtone-Graham

Less than two years ago, after the 2007 national elections, Angalimp- South Wahgi MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham was a disaster waiting to happen.
Tipping at scales at 165kg, the big man was obese, unfit, depressed, and was basically about to die.
But one day, 18 months ago, Mr Maxtone-Graham decided that enough was enough and turned his back on the lifestyle that was killing him.
He also turned to the Christian faith for answers.
Since then, the big man has lost a whopping 65kg, and looks leaner and meaner than he has ever been in his life.
When I met him last Sunday, the first time I had done so in two years, he was no longer the same fat old Jamie Maxtone-Graham who was living on borrowed time.
Running shoes, sports short and shirt made him look like an athelete, a lot younger than his 50-odd years.
Mr Maxtone-Graham wants Papua New Guineans to give up their bad habits like drinking, smoking, poor diet (including lamb flaps), and drugs as well as exercise more and find peace and solace in the teachings of the Bible.
This is timely as Sunday May 31 was World No Tobacco Day.
He practices what he preaches and sugar, soft drinks, and all processed foods are now definite ‘no-nos’ for him and his family.
Mr Maxtone-Graham already talks on radio about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and wants to write about it in a weekly newspaper column, as well as a blog on the Internet.
“Why did I get interested in my health?” he poses to me.
“Bascially, I had a serious health problem.
“I was a walking disaster.
“I was extremely obese at 165kg.
“I had gout, I had shortness of breath, high blood sugar, and I was extremely tired, fatigued.
“I was a sick animal as a result of my overindulgence in a life of living in the city, being an MP, and all the trappings that go with it like dinners, cocktails, parties.
“That was the life that I was living.
“It forced me to become more depressed and I was eating more and more.
“One day, two years ago, I had serious chest pains.
“I was suffering from angina (chest pain or discomfort that occurs when your heart muscle does not get enough blood).
“The doctor checked me and said my blood pressure was extremely high, my cholesterol was extremely high, my blood sugar was extremely high, my triglycerides (chemical form in which most fat exists in food as well as in the body) was extremely high, my uric acid (chemical created when the body breaks down substances called purines) was extremely high.
“My tests showed that 80% of the blood vessels to the heart were blocked.
“I was clogged up by the fat that I had eaten over many years and I was about to die of heart attack.
“The doctor looked at me and said, ‘you’re in a very critical condition.You need to take stock of your health and do something’.
“The doctor shocked me and I let go of everything.
“I started changing my diet and my lifestyle, and did more exercise.”
Mr Maxtone-Graham, an avid reader, went through several books, the Internet, and watched health programmes on YouTube to get a good picture of health and nutrition.
Cathy and Robert Badui, a couple who preach the message of good health in PNG, were a great inspiration.
Mr Maxtone-Graham found hope in American Dr Thomas Jackson of M.E.E.T Ministry, who teaches God’s plan based on eight health messages in the bible.
M.E.E.T. Ministry - http://www.meetministry.org/ - teaches the body was designed by the Creator to heal itself.
People need to be educated as to how to cooperate with nature, learning accessible, practical life-style principles: Godly Trust; Open Air; Daily Exercise; Proper Rest; Lots of Water; Always Temperate; and Nutrition.
Stress – distress - is killing people, according to the ministry, so it teaches people how to manage stress through the eyes of God.
“My life was in peril until then,” Mr Maxtone-Graham recalls.
“I accepted God as my creator and Jesus as my saviour.
“I now eat home-grown garden food.
“I don’t eat anything that’s manufactured or processed.
“I don’t eat any meat and I’m a total vegetarian.
“I’ve never been sick for the last 18 months.
“I’ve got more energy now.
“I do exercises in the gym, do cardio exercises, boxing, I run on the treadmill, I swim, and I play rugby touch.
“I’ve discovered that health is more valuable than all the gold and money in the world
He encourages fellow Papua New Guineans: “People neglect their health in pursuit of wealth, only to lose all their wealth to regain their health in the final days of their lives.
“Money doesn’t give happiness.
‘Money gives more and more problems.
“As the people reach 50 or 60, they are already falling apart
“Let’s not end up like this.
“Let’s not leave our health too late.
“I’m a believer in preventative measures rather than curative medicine.
“It’s a lot cheaper and wiser to do this.
“I want to share my experiences with other Papua New Guineans as I don’t want to see them dropping dead at an early age.
“I feel that someone has to champion the cause of a healthy lifestyle in this country.
“My message to the people of Papua New Guinea is that we don’t need Western food and Western lifestyles.
“We must go back to our traditional food.
“It’s the healthiest food in the world.”
Mr Maxtone-Graham can be contacted on email jamiemaxtonegraham@gmail.com.

Microsoft's new search engine throws the gauntlet at Google

Captions: 1. Screenshot of the Bing homepage 2. Bing tour page with a banner image of Huli wigmen from the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Internet search engines seem to have been all the rage for the last couple of days, first with the nerdy Wolfram Alpha a fortnight ago, and just last weekend Bing – Microsoft’s (AKA Bill Gate’s) answer to the Google juggernaut.
What if there was a better search engine than Google?
Microsoft has released its latest iteration of its search engine platform, Bing, into the marketplace in an attempt to take on Google.
Microsoft quietly launched its new search engine without fanfare and sans parade.
Such is technology, and just when I was getting used to Wolfram Alpha, as well as people from all over Papua New Guinea and the world, including well-known journalist and columnist, Frank Senge-Kolma, who was also bitten by the bug.
“It’s so marvelous,” wrote Bethuel Kotty from the Divine Word University in Madang after trying out Wolfram Alpha.
“I have tried and every calculation in mathematics, money and finance has been done and all the answers are given.”
The emergence of Wolfram Alpha made people start questioning Google and the whole future of Internet search engines.
And just when they were starting to do so, along comes the new kid on the block, Bing.
Bing has a PNG flavour to it as on the top of its tour page is a picture of a group of Huli wigmen from the Southern Highlands province (I’m wondering if they’re going to send a bill to Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, for use of their picture).
But Bing’s entry has been very controversial, as throughout this week, bloggers and Internet safety experts quickly discovered that one of Bing's ‘features’ is that it takes only a few clicks for anyone — of any age — to view explicit pornographic videos without even leaving the search engine.
Today Show’s technology editor Charlie Brown, well known to Papua New Guineans as we watch the Nine Network breakfast show every day, believes that Bing can take a chunk of the Google cake.
“Some pundits are probably asking ‘why bother?’” he writes on his blog http://www.charliesblog.com.au/.
“Such is the strength of the Google brand.
“With between 70-90% of the market share in most western countries, to try and knock it off its perch seems almost impossible, and would be a very expensive exercise.
“Its current rival, Yahoo, only has about 15-20% share depending on the country, and that hasn't varied for a long time, and doesn't look like changing soon.
“Sure, others have tried to take a chunk off Google, but have failed.
“Wolfram, the most-recent example of a search engine device, is too narrowly-focused in its objectives to have any impact on Google.
“So is it a fait acompli? Is there no hope for any fledgling entrepreneur – or current player for that matter – to take on Google's seeming monopoly and win?
“Absolutely! I am of the belief that it is only a matter of time before Google is taken down a peg or two.
“What needs to happen is for one of the other companies to give their tool something that blows the company away.
“Think about it. If I was to say to you, ‘hey try this search engine, it's better than Google because of X, Y, Z’ and you tried it, and I was right, then like a virus the word would spread. That is all it will take.
“I'm not saying Bing will do this, because I haven't had the chance to have a good play with it yet, but what I am saying is to all those cynics out there – it can be done.
“And I believe it will only be a matter of time before some starts eating into Google's market share.”
In its bid to beat Google, Microsoft has unveiled a slate of convenient features for Bing, including an ‘auto play’ tool that lets users preview videos simply by hovering a mouse over them.
That asset may become a liability, because users can get a taste of porn videos on Bing instead of having to go to a smutty Web site — an innovation other search engines have yet to offer.
Technology blogger Loic Le Meur (http://loiclemeur.com/) noticed the issue early Monday after testing video search on Bing.
What he found was a cornucopia of pornography that he said transformed the search engine into its very own pornographic Web site.
"You are now on a porn site without leaving Bing. Amazing," Le Meur wrote on his blog.
Bing, like other major search engines, lets users set filtering preferences at one of three levels — strict, moderate or simply off.
Online safety advocates argue that search engines need to do much more to cut off underage access to pornography — because the filters can be circumvented easily with just one click.
Content-filtering companies have also been reviewing Bing — and have found the same gaping problems.
Microsoft said in a statement that it was up to users to turn off the filters, and provided instructions on how to toggle the settings on its blog.
"By default, Bing filters out explicit image and video results,” the statement read.
“Consumers must take action to turn off the Safe Search filter in their settings in order for explicit image or video content to appear in Bing's results," the statement read.
Other major search engines like Yahoo and Google come up with similar video and image results when electronic filters are turned off — but don't provide automatic playing of videos within the search-results page.”
The abundance of pornography is something child health experts say is simply a fact of life.
"Kids can access pornography on the Internet no matter what the search engine is," Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, told FOXNews.com.
Walsh said it's particularly important that kids be protected from the worst excesses of pornography during their formative years.
"Because they're at the very age when they are developing their whole attitudes about sex and sexuality," he said.
“It's bad for them to be visiting porn sites where sex is basically a commodity to be bought and sold and where women are treated like objects.
“The attitudes that they're going to pick up there are not the attitudes we want them to have for life."
Protecting kids from pornography or other potentially harmful materials must ultimately rest with parents, Walsh added.
"I don't know that search engines can be programmed to do the job that parents need to," he said.

Hubble telescope gallery

This is really worth looking at and bookmarking.

Even in the era of hourly declarations of  "its awesome, man!"- this really does fill one with awe.

And the knowledge of the apparently endless nature of this, "our" universe,let alone other universes which are believed to lie out there, unnumbered, this, "our" universe's internal dimensions expressed in tens of thousands of lightyears is the genesis of awe.

Even though one expects to be so struck by pix of this sort!

 

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

 

Gulf mourns

From The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper

 

Governor Kavo points finger at Government

 

GULF Governor Havila Kavo yesterday blamed the poor condition of the Hiritano Highway for the horrific accident that claimed 17 lives and injured several others at the weekend.

Mr Kavo said the National Government should be held responsible for the poor state the highway was in.

He said the highway, which he described as a national asset, was littered with potholes, making driving from Port Moresby to Malalaua and vice-versa very dangerous.

He said thick shrubs and bushes had grown tall and onto the road, often obstructing the views of drivers and making it difficult to negotiate corners and give way to oncoming vehicles.

The governor held a press conference yesterday to announce that the Gulf province was mourning the loss of lives in the tragedy. Two PMV trucks collided near Bereina on Saturday, killing 17 people and leaving many more injured.

Mr Kavo said the provincial government would assist with the funeral costs and urged relatives and people of Gulf to also contribute at this time of mourning.

He expressed his sorrow at the loss of lives and added he had travelled to the crash site on Sunday.

He blamed the National Government for turning a blind eye to a “national asset”.

“The Government is pumping money into roads in Lae and the Highlands Highway while we have more than 300 lives lost so far of people trying to seek services in Port Moresby,” Mr Kavo said.

He said because of the poor road condition, people often resort to long boat trip in dangerous conditions, and only last week four people were lost at sea and a search was still continuing.

Meanwhile, eight people injured in the accident continue to battle for their lives at the Port Moresby General Hospital (POMGH).

The two doctors on duty,

Dr Posing Posanau and Dr Gary Nou, said yesterday that the number of reported deceased victims remained at 17.

Those injured include eight people who are in a critical state and another 13 who sustained multiple injuries, bringing to 21 the number of people admitted to the hospital.

Dr Posanau said he had certified another two bodies which where taken to the funeral home directly from the accident site, and there was a possibility that other bodies were also taken directly back to their villages after the accident.

So the total death toll could be higher, according to the senior medical officer and coordinator of the emergency unit, Dr Sam Yockpua.

Dr Nou said that Saturday night was quite chaotic, with family and relatives flooding into the emergency room.

But he commended the efforts of the health workers of the Bereina health centre whom he said did a brilliant job in ensuring that the patients’ injuries were prioritised and well taken care of, which made his job much easier when the casualties were brought to the POMGH and, most importantly, saved lives.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Attempts to contact senior police officers in Port Moresby yesterday were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, POMGH also reported another road accident in Port Moresby that allegedly resulted from drunk driving during the early hours of Sunday morning.

A couple crashed their vehicle along Bava Street, but neither of them sustained any serious injuries.