Marco Rubio: I’m not going to be the vice president

In an interview with CNN today, Marco Rubio said in no uncertain terms that he’s not going to be the vice president.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, widely speculated to be a top pick for the Republican presidential running mate, once again firmly denied he would join the GOP ticket.

“I’m not going to be the vice president,” Rubio said Friday in an interview with CNN en Español’s Ismael Cala. “I’m not.”

We have two options. We can assume that Rubio meant to imply he wouldn’t join the 2012 GOP ticket under any circumstances — OR — we can parse his words. He didn’t say he wouldn’t join the 2012 GOP ticket, after all. He said he’s not going to be the vice president. Maybe that means he’s still open to run with Mitt Romney — but he doesn’t think they would win.

Please, for sanity’s sake, let’s go with the first one. Rubio’s a rational guy. He wouldn’t voluntarily join what he thinks will be a losing ticket. So, Rubio must be saying he won’t join the GOP ticket. That, though, might stem from the fact that he thinks Mitt Romney won’t win. As the conventional speculation goes, perhaps he has his eyes on 2016.

He said something else in the CNN interview, though, that was even more interesting than his repeated assertion that he won’t be vice president. He suggested that he thinks the idea that a politician can “deliver” the Hispanic vote is an overrated one.

“I’ll tell you, the Hispanic vote has to be earned,” he said. “You can’t just put somebody on there and say, ‘This is gonna deliver it.’ You’ve got to earn it, and primarily I think you earn it through economic policies.”

This is some of the most refreshing political wisdom I’ve read in some time. Voters aren’t necessarily looking for themselves in a presidential or vice presidential candidate; they’re looking for someone who can lead all Americans.

Republicans and Democrats alike fall into the trap of thinking that voters are reducible to a single characteristic — their gender, their race, their income. How long will it take pols to adopt the personalistic norm — to begin to see people not as a means to an end (i.e. a means to their own election) and instead as people, to whom the proper response is love in its fullest sense of wanting what is right and best?

Kennedy: Sure, the Obama WH has a quid pro quo system for donors

The New York Times runs an exposé of sorts on the Obama White House and its empty promises of changing “business as usual” in Washington DC that is remarkable in a number of respects.  As Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard writes, though, the most remarkable might be the remarkable honesty of former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), who offers us a Madge-Palmolive moment by not only admitting that the administration has a quid pro quo system, but also that he’s soaking in it:

Patrick J. Kennedy, the former representative from Rhode Island, who donated $35,800 to an Obama re-election fund last fall while seeking administration support for a nonprofit venture, said contributions were simply a part of “how this business works.”

“If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure I do my part.”

Mr. Kennedy visited the White House several times to win support for One Mind for Research, his initiative to help develop new treatments for brain disorders. While his family name and connections are clearly influential, he said, he knows White House officials are busy. And as a former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he said he was keenly aware of the political realities they face.

The NYT’s Mike McIntyre and Michael Luo report that the Obama White House insists that they don’t take lobbyist money and don’t grant access to lobbyists — at least not directly.  However, McIntyre and Luo describe how lobbyists do get into the White House.  Call it the Lobbyist Buddy System, as they partner with big-time donors to become plus-ones to the West Wing:

Although Mr. Obama has made a point of not accepting contributions from registered lobbyists, a review of campaign donations and White House visitor logs shows that special interests have had little trouble making themselves heard. Many of the president’s biggest donors, while not lobbyists, took lobbyists with them to the White House, while others performed essentially the same function on their visits.

More broadly, the review showed that those who donated the most to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party since he started running for president were far more likely to visit the White House than others. Among donors who gave $30,000 or less, about 20 percent visited the White House, according to a New York Times analysis that matched names in the visitor logs with donor records. But among those who donated $100,000 or more, the figure rises to about 75 percent. Approximately two-thirds of the president’s top fund-raisers in the 2008 campaign visited the White House at least once, some of them numerous times.

The reasons someone might have gained access to the White House and made a donation are wide-ranging, and it is clear that in some cases the administration came down against the policies being sought by the visitors. But the regular appearance of big donors inside the White House underscores how political contributions continue to lubricate many of the interactions between officials and their guests, if for no other reason than that donors view the money as useful for getting a foot in the door.

One can argue that this isn’t all that much different than other Republican and Democratic administrations.  The article recalls the infamous Lincoln Bedroom “rentals” of the Clinton administration, for instance.  However, Clinton didn’t run for the office by demonizing lobbyists and wealthy donors and insisting that he would provide a New Purity to the Beltway, either.  In 2008, that was almost the entire message from Obama, who had no executive, military, or foreign-relations experience before running for the one position that requires expertise in all three areas.

I’m not certain that the Obama White House has been any less transparent about influence peddling, but it has certainly not been more transparent.  All we got was an inexperienced executive and a boatload of sanctimony and hypocrisy.

Video: “Culture of corner-cutting” led to “biggest scandal in Secret Service history”; Update: Five armed service members confined to quarters, too

Did the Secret Service scandal in Colombia leave the President less secure on his trip to the Summit of the Americas? The Secret Service says no, but reporter/author Ronald Kessler disputes that — and wonders why heads haven’t rolled yet at the agency, and not just for this incident. Kessler, who recently wrote a book on the Secret Service and its role in protecting the President, spoke with CBS News this morning to emphasize that this is not an unexpected and inexplicable aberration, but the result of bureaucratic complacency and poor morale at the Secret Service. Heads should have rolled in 2009, Kessler says, when the Salahis infamously crashed a state dinner at the White House:

Two of the Secret Service personnel sent home were supervisors, Plante said; the rest were part of a detail assigned to logistics. None of those relieved of duty was a member of the president’s protective detail.

On “CBS This Morning: Saturday,” Kessler said the Secret Service has a culture of corner-cutting.

“They don’t have enough agents, they don’t even put people through metal detectors sometimes because there’s pressure to let everybody in,” Kessler said. “It’s like letting passengers in an airplane without putting them through metal detectors. They don’t keep up-to-date with the latest firearms. They don’t even do physical tests. So, it’s a culture that leads to this kind of problem.”

Kessler pointed to a couple crashing a White House state dinner without an invitation as an example of a potential security threat.

He said that Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, should have been fired after the fiasco involving gate-crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi, but has continued in the same position because of President Barack Obama’s confidence in the agency.

None of those relieved were part of the President’s protective detail, but that’s because the protective detail always remains with the President.  That protective detail relies on the advance team to focus on setting up security and to identify potential threats.  The core detail can’t do their jobs effectively unless the advance teams do theirs.  As Kessler points out, the departure of the team that did that advance work necessarily makes the protective detail’s job more difficult as the new supplemental team has to get up to speed on what the original advance team was supposed to be doing.

Presumably, Congress will want to take a very close look at the Secret Service when the legislature returns from recess next week, and this should be one investigation that has bipartisan support in both chambers.  We disagree on policy, but everyone wants the Secret Service to do an effective job protecting the President.  If Kessler’s right, that may mean making some changes.

Update: Wait — it gets worse:

The U.S. military says five service members supporting the Secret Service in advance of President Barack Obama’s visit may have been involved in inappropriate conduct and have been confined to quarters. Obama is in Colombia for a Summit of the Americas.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the incident with the military personnel stems from the same episode involving about a dozen members of the Secret Service who were called back to the U.S. for an investigation into possible misconduct.

Cambodia is making progress with how it runs elections, but the country has a long way to go before ballots gain widespread approval, a European Union representative said yesterday.

PA NGOUN TEANG (LEFT), DIRECTOR OF THE CAMBODIAN CENTRE OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA, CONFREL SENIOR PROGRAM CO-ORDINATOR KIM CHHORN (CENTRE), AND THE PHNOM PENH POST MANAGING EDITOR SAM RITH PARTICIPATE IN AN EU- SPONSORED PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSING CAMBODIA’S ELECTORAL PROCESS YESTERDAY IN PHNOM PENH. PHOTO HONG MENEA

Speaking at an EU-sponsored workshop on human rights and democracy yesterday, Jean-Francois Cautain, head of the European Union delegation to Cambodia, said the Kingdom’s elections in 2008 were an example of progress being made.

“But they still fall short of key international standards,” he said.

NGO representatives involved in the Adhoc-organised event in the capital said independent monitoring of elections was lacking in Cambodia. 

An independent body overseeing elections would be an important step to change, Kim Chhorn, senior programme coordinator for Comfrel, the Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, said.

Comfrel is ready to deploy investigators to monitor June’s commune elections, he said, but more needs to be done.

“We suggest creating more independent institutions that [examine] the election process,” he said, adding that the National Election Committee had not yet become independent. “We urge the NEC to improve its process and to correct mistakes to improve elections . . . there are so many things wrong.”

Incomplete electoral rolls and a huge difference in funding for ruling party and non-ruling party advertising were examples, he said.

Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, said the government was still the only body that oversaw the intricacies of each election.

According to Keo Phally, head of the legal department at NEC, this is something that may not change soon.

“We don’t have any law in place allowing for the creation of a separate independent body,” he said. “We still have flaws in our process, but we are proud of the processes we have established since 1993.”

Guest speaker Sam Rith, managing editor of the Post, said the media played an important role in progress and democracy.

“Sometimes it is very difficult to get comment from officials of ruling parties to get an article balanced,” he said. “And sometimes it is hard to contact representatives of other parties, especially in rural areas.

“The NEC is  . . . available most of the time when journalists contact them.”

Couple’s arrest ‘no mistake’

No mistake was made when former Anco Brothers executive Heng Chheang and his wife, Tep Kolap, were arrested last year, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

HENG CHHEANG, FORMER TREASURER OF ANCO BROTHERS, LEAVES THE SUPREME COURT YESTERDAY. PHOTO BY HENG CHIVOAN

Pin Vannak, a defence lawyer for the couple, had argued they had been arrested illegally because the Phnom Penh municipal court had not summonsed them before issuing warrants.

Heng Chheang and Tep Kolap, former rector of Phnom Penh International University, were jailed last month for a breach of trust over the disappearance of more than $58 million from the bank accounts of Anco Brothers, a company owned by Sok Im, the wife of senator Kok An.

Supreme Court judge Khim Pon said the Phnom Penh municipal court had done nothing wrong by arresting the couple on June 18.

“The Supreme Court understands there was not any mistake made in the [court’s] arresting procedure for Heng Chheang and Tep Kolap,” he said.

The couple also appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the Appeal Court not to release them while they appealed.

“The suspects have already been convicted by the lower courts, and their case is still in court. Therefore, the Supreme Court refuses their bid for bail,” Khim Pon said. 

The Appeal Court upheld the couple’s sentences last month and ordered them to repay Kok An, the chairman of Anco Brothers, more than US$58 million. 

They have appealed that verdict to the Supreme Court.

New Year’s price hikes kick in

As many flock to their hometowns today to celebrate Khmer New Year, complaints of price hikes and border bribes have started pouring in like clockwork.

PEOPLE PREPARE TO BOARD A BUS AT A TERMINAL IN PHNOM PENH’S TUOL KORK DISTRICT YESTERDAY. PHOTO BY HONG MENEA

PREV1 of 2 NEXT Passengers arranging transport to the provinces told the Post yesterday that bus companies and taxies had raised their prices despite a directive issued by Phnom Penh governor Kep Chuktema last week to keep prices constant. 

U Mao, 41, who bought a ticket to Siem Reap province, said prices had increased from the usual 25,000 riel (US$6.25) to 35,000 riel ($8.75).

“I, however, forced myself to buy it [ticket] to visit my parents, uncle, aunt and other relatives,” he said.

“I think that the increased price is disobedient to the prohibition of the city hall’s governor Kep Chuktema … His prohibition is ineffective,” he added.

Sok San, a Neak Krorhorm Travel and Tourism staffer, said ticket prices had increased to compensate for a recent fuel price hike, a lack of passengers returning to the capital after trips to the provinces and bonuses for staff to work over the new year period.  

Taxi driver Bun Theoun, who usually takes passengers from Phnom Penh to Battambang, similarly said he was unable to comply with the governor’s orders as he needed to cover the costs of parking, bribes at fake police checkpoints, which are rampant during the period, and fuel prices.  

Kep Chuktema declined to comment yesterday, saying he was busy. 

Meanwhile, Cambodian workers returning from Thailand for the holiday alleged yesterday that border officials were demanding bribes.

One worker said he had been asked to pay 10,000 riel ($2.50) at the Poipet border checkpoint when he returned for his yearly trip home on Tuesday. 

“When I come back, I need to spend money for the ‘tip’ at the border. It is so bad,” he said.  

Ouk Keo Ratanak, Banteay Meanchey provincial hall spokesman, however denied the practice was taking place, saying that payment was not required if workers returned via legal checkpoints.

A migrant state of mind

A lone Cambodian woman was found sitting outside Phnom Penh International Airport late on Tuesday night by patrolling police. 

Smiling to herself, with a vacant expression, she was unable to explain where she came from or what she was doing, but a Malaysian stamp was found in her passport.

DOMESTIC MIGRANT WORKERS WHO SUFFERED ABUSE IN MALAYSIA COVER THEIR FACES AFTER RETURNING TO CAMBODIA IN FEBRUARY. PHOTO BY PHA LINA

Duong Lorn, her younger brother, said Poung Savong, 30, had been beautiful and happy before she left to work as a maid in Malaysia, but the sight of her now only filled him with pity. 

The little that police were able to cobble together about her told the latest of an all-too-familiar tale – Poung Savong had left two years ago to work as a maid in Malaysia, where she had been beaten and tortured by her employers until she had cracked.

Tackling trauma 

Tens of thousands of Cambodians are repatriated from frequently exploitative migrant work every year, and while many hope to leave their ordeal behind them, mental health analysts are warning their troubles are far from over. 

The Psychosocial Support For Victims of Human Trafficking and Labour Exploitation programme that Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation project coordinator Pich Panha heads has recorded an increase in patients in the past few months. 

From January to March, the programme had reached out to 26 victims, more than double the 12 patients seen over the same period last year and almost half of last year’s total of 59.

The Ministry of Interior said 118,791 migrant workers had been repatriated from Thailand and Vietnam  in 2011, while a rash of abuses of Cambodian maids in Malaysia led to a temporary ban being imposed in October. 

That ban has yet to be lifted. 

Psychological plight

Deputy head of Adhoc’s women’s section Lim Mony said about 80 to 90 per cent of female migrant workers that the organisation had assisted developed mental problems. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was common among female victims, which included symptoms like nightmares, withdrawal from people and hyper-arousal, said Pich Panha. 

One patient – another maid – was the alleged victim of rape and attempted murder by her employers in Malaysia, who then trapped her in a large plastic bag and left her in a dustbin. 

When interviewed afterward, the 21-year-old from Kampong Thom showed classic symptoms of a depressive disorder, said Pich Panha, including defensiveness and an inability to focus during her daily routine. 

Distorted perception

Male victims often exhibit stress and anxiety, he said. 

One fisherman who developed PTSD and depression had been forced to work 24 hours a day on a Thai fishing boat and was beaten by the boat’s captain, said Pich Panha. 

He eventually escaped by jumping from the boat and swimming to a nearby island where he was repatriated by local authorities, he added.  

Trafficking and exploitation experiences affected victims’ self-perceptions as human beings, he said.

“In some cases, they are treated as animals, sometimes lower than animals. This kind of experience impacts the feelings, thoughts and spirit of the people. This damages their mental well-being,” he said. 

Short on support

Lim Tith, national project coordinator at the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, which is supporting the TPO program, said the UN agency had responded to a need.

“There is a shortage of psychosocial support for victims outside of shelters, specifically male victims of trafficking,” he said. 

“They often cannot fully recover from their traumatic experiences and reintegrate with their families and communities if they do not receive such psychosocial support,” he added. 

Legal Support for Children and Women advocacy officer Natalie Drolet said about 60 per cent of the trafficking and labour exploitation cases handled by her organisation were referred to NGOs such as TPO for their psycho-social services. 

“In about 20 per cent of our domestic worker cases, the victims have been so traumatised that they have stopped speaking altogether,” she said.   

In addition to emotional trauma, this also created complications in prosecuting victims’ cases in court, as they may not have been able or willing to talk about the abuses, she said. 

Red tape

Lim Mony said victims were usually referred to TPO or commune hospitals, however, according to Drolet, provincial health facilities did not always have qualified staff to make proper assessments and issue certificates which were needed as evidence in court. 

Chak Thida, director of the psychiatric department at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital – the only hospital in Phnom Penh specialising in mental health services – said her psychiatric unit had received victims mostly after the National Program on Mental Health was set up in 2001 due to an increase in awareness of such services. 

However, due to a lack of resources, there was no treatment specifically tailored to helping such victims, she said. 

There were also often difficulties in completing the recommended three-month follow-up period with male victims, said Pich Panha. 

“A lot of NGOs try to help them [male victims], but when they return to their homeland, I observe their needs could not be fulfilled.

“NGOs have administration, paperwork that takes a long time and they have to wait, so they say, ‘I am free now, what can I do? I have no job.’ If our intervention cannot be in time, they have to move again.” 

Cambodia brings up rear in well-being poll [-Misery reigns in the Banana Kongdom]

Only 2 per cent of Cambodians believe their lives are thriving – the lowest of 146 countries surveyed – according to research by US company Gallup.

In a well-being survey, compiled during 2011 and released by the company this week, Cambodia languishes at the bottom, below neighbour Laos, Togo and Comoros (3 per cent).

Thailand (46 per cent) and Vietnam (30 per cent) recorded much higher percentages of residents who consider their lives to be thriving, while North Korea and Myanmar did not appear on the list.

According to the results, which shows one in four around the world think their lives are thriving, 72 per cent of Cambodians believe they are struggling, while 26 per cent say they are suffering.

Although Cambodia is among the poorest nations in Asia, Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak said poverty alone could not explain Cambodians’ low sense of well-being and happiness.

“Security is one of the most important things,” he said. “People feel a lack of security when it comes to the rule of law in Cambodia . . . [the] government and the banking system,” he said.

With land grabs and a “failure of the justice system”, people felt unsure about their future, leading to a culture of greed, Ou Virak said. “When you have way more than you need, if you end up having something taken away, then you still have enough to keep your lifestyle.”

Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit spokesman Ek Tha, however, said the government had “done its utmost” to rebuild Cambodia.

“This country has started from scratch after 30 years of war,” he said. “The government has been doing its best.

“In 1979, 100 per cent of people were under the poverty line, now it’s 27 per cent. You can see people now have access to healthcare, education, arts, jobs. They have vehicles, clean water, electricity.

“Our legal and economic situation has improved . . . the government is working for the people.”

The Gallup poll surveyed about 1,000 people aged 15 and older per country.

About 74 per cent of Denmark’s population believe they are thriving, the highest of any country.

Use of Common Pesticide, Imidacloprid, Linked to Bee Colony Collapse

ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2012) — The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

The authors, led by Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health, write that the new research provides "convincing evidence" of the link between imidacloprid and the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which adult bees abandon their hives.

The study will appear in the June issue of the Bulletin of Insectology.

"The significance of bees to agriculture cannot be underestimated," says Lu. "And it apparently doesn't take much of the pesticide to affect the bees. Our experiment included pesticide amounts below what is normally present in the environment."

Pinpointing the cause of the problem is crucial because bees -- beyond producing honey -- are prime pollinators of roughly one-third of the crop species in the U.S., including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and livestock feed such as alfalfa and clover. Massive loss of honeybees could result in billions of dollars in agricultural losses, experts estimate.

Lu and his co-authors hypothesized that the uptick in CCD resulted from the presence of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid introduced in the early 1990s. Bees can be exposed in two ways: through nectar from plants or through high-fructose corn syrup beekeepers use to feed their bees. (Since most U.S.-grown corn has been treated with imidacloprid, it's also found in corn syrup.)

In the summer of 2010, the researchers conducted an in situ study in Worcester County, Mass. aimed at replicating how imidacloprid may have caused the CCD outbreak. Over a 23-week period, they monitored bees in four different bee yards; each yard had four hives treated with different levels of imidacloprid and one control hive. After 12 weeks of imidacloprid dosing, all the bees were alive. But after 23 weeks, 15 out of 16 of the imidacloprid-treated hives -- 94% -- had died. Those exposed to the highest levels of the pesticide died first.

The characteristics of the dead hives were consistent with CCD, said Lu; the hives were empty except for food stores, some pollen, and young bees, with few dead bees nearby. When other conditions cause hive collapse -- such as disease or pests -- many dead bees are typically found inside and outside the affected hives.

Strikingly, said Lu, it took only low levels of imidacloprid to cause hive collapse -- less than what is typically used in crops or in areas where bees forage.

Scientists, policymakers, farmers, and beekeepers, alarmed at the sudden losses of between 30% and 90% of honeybee colonies since 2006, have posed numerous theories as to the cause of the collapse, such as pests, disease, pesticides, migratory beekeeping, or some combination of these factors.

"In Situ Replication of Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder," Chensheng Lu, Kenneth M. Warchol, Richard A. Callahan, Bulletin of Insectology, June 2012

Farmers of 800-Years-Ago Could Teach Us How to Protect the Amazon -- With Raised Farming Beds

ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2012) — In the face of mass deforestation of the Amazon, recent findings indicate that we could learn from its earliest inhabitants who managed their farmland sustainably. An international team of archaeologists and paleoecologists, including Dr. Mitchell Power, curator of the Garrett Herbarium at the Natural History Museum of Utah and assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Utah, report for the first time that indigenous people, living in the savannas around the Amazonian forest, farmed without using fire.

These findings are published April 9, 2012, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research could provide insights into the sustainable use and conservation of these globally-important ecosystems, which are being rapidly destroyed. Pressure on the Amazonian savannas today is intense, with the land being rapidly transformed for industrial agriculture and cattle ranching.

By analyzing records of pollen, charcoal and other plant remains like phytoliths spanning more than 2,000 years, the team has created the first detailed picture of land use in the Amazonian savannas in French Guiana. This gives a unique perspective on the land before and after the first Europeans arrived in 1492.

The research shows that the early inhabitants of these Amazonian savannas practiced 'raised-field' farming, which involved constructing small agricultural mounds with wooden tools. These raised fields provided better drainage, soil aeration and moisture retention: ideal for an environment that experiences both drought and flooding. The fields also benefited from increased fertility from the muck continually scraped from the flooded basin and deposited on the mounds. The raised-field farmers limited fires, and this helped them conserve soil nutrients and organic matter and preserve soil structure.

"We used radiocarbon dating to establish the age of the raised beds," said Dr. Mitchell Power. We came to the conclusion that corn pollen we found dated to 800 years ago by dating charcoal deposits from above and below the sediment where the pollen was found."

It has long been assumed that indigenous people used fire as a way of clearing the savannas and managing their land. However, this new research shows that this was not the case here. Instead, it reveals a sharp increase in fires with the arrival of the first Europeans, an event known as the 'Columbian Encounter'. The study shows that this labor-intensive approach to farming in the Amazonian savannas was lost when as much as 95 percent of the indigenous population was wiped out as a result of Old World diseases, brought by European settlers.

The results of this study are in sharp contrast with what is known about the Columbian Encounter's impact on tropical forest, where the collapse of indigenous populations after 1492 led to decreased forest clearance for agriculture, which in turn, caused a decline in burning. This study shows that high fire incidence in these Amazonian savannas is a post-1492, rather than pre-1492, phenomenon.

"Our results force reconsideration of the long-held view that fires were a pervasive feature of Amazonian savannas, said Power"

Dr José Iriarte of the University of Exeter, lead author on the paper, said: "This ancient, time-tested, fire-free land use could pave the way for the modern implementation of raised-field agriculture in rural areas of Amazonia. Intensive raised-field agriculture can become an alternative to burning down tropical forest for slash and burn agriculture by reclaiming otherwise abandoned and new savannah ecosystems created by deforestation. It has the capability of helping curb carbon emissions and at the same time provide food security for the more vulnerable and poorest rural populations."

Professor Doyle McKey of the University of Montpellier said: "Amazonian savannas are among the most important ecosystems on Earth, supporting a rich variety of plants and animals. They are also essential to managing climate. Whereas savannas today are often associated with frequent fire and high carbon emissions, our results show that this was not always so. With global warming, it is more important than ever before that we find a sustainable way to manage savannas. The clues to how to achieve this could be in the 2,000 years of history that we have unlocked."

Dr Francis Mayle of the University of Edinburgh said: "We've got an unprecedented record of these Amazonian savannas that completely overturns previous assumptions about the way in which ancient cultures utilized these globally-important ecosystems."

Dr Stephen Rostain of CNRS said "These raised-field systems can be as productive as the man-made black soils of the Amazon, but with the added benefit of low carbon emissions."

The study was carried out by a team from the University of Exeter (UK), Natural History Museum of Utah (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), University of Edinburgh (UK), Université Montpellier II and Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (France). It was funded by two CNRS Programmes ('Amazonie' and 'Ingénierie Ecologique'), the Arts and Humanities Research Council and The Leverhulme Trust.

The research featured in the PNAS article highlights two areas of active research at the Natural History Museum.

Agricultural industrialization

In recent years, investment in excess of three billion yuan has been devoted to furthering agricultural industrialization, an important part of the national program for enhancing the international competitiveness of Chinese agriculture. In 2004 alone the government set up 35 agricultural programs, supported by 30 million yuan from the Central Government, over 50 million yuan from local governments, some 100 million yuan of bank loans and more than 600 million yuan raised by enterprises and farmers.

Now a pattern has been formed, with 582 key national enterprises and over 2,000 key provincial enterprises as spearhead, and agencies of various forms connecting farmers with the production base. Leading enterprises in certain sectors, e.g., corn processing, dairy industry and chicken production, have taken major market share and play an increasingly important role in the development and pricing of their respective industries.

Since 2003, the state has set up six types of demonstration projects for the industrialization of modern agro-technology, so as to promote the use of advanced technology for agricultural production, and enhance foreign earnings from exports of farm products.

These projects include industrialization of breeding and cultivation of excellent new varieties and fine strains; high-efficiency, eco-friendly planting and aquatic breeding technology; water-saving and precision technologies; downstream processing of agricultural and ancillary products; pollution-free inputs (e.g., fertilizer and fodder) and the establishment of an agricultural information platform. The "downstream processing of main agricultural products project" was listed as an important sci-tech project during the 2000-2005 Five-Year Plan period. It aims at developing key technologies and equipment for downstream processing of staple agricultural products, research into integrated quality control systems and the quick testing of agro-product technology and equipment. Once completed, some of China's technological aspects will meet the advanced international standard. Meanwhile, the "dairy industry development" and "water-saving agriculture" projects have been listed among important sci-tech application programs initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology.