US-China Sustainable Buildings Launches Partnership with Pujiang Property Management Company, Shanghai.  On December 11, 2009, the US-China Sustainable Buildings Partnership (SBP) launched a collaboration with Pujiang Property Management Company, one of the largest property management companies in Shanghai, managing more than 4,000,000 square meters of commercial space, including train and subway stations.  To initiate collaboration, SBP conducted a site assessment for their Shanghai South Train Station, one of the most important buildings in Shanghai, featuring a modern circular design.  SBP estimates annual portfolio-wide energy reductions of 10% could avoid annual emissions of more than 89,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the carbon sequestered annually by 19,000 acres of pine fir forests. 

ASEAN-WEN Tapped by Asian Ministers and World Bank to Help Save the Wild Tiger.  The USAID-supported ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) was highlighted at the 1st Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation held in Hua Hin, Thailand, January 28-29, 2010. Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called (via video message) for the increased capacity of rangers and law enforcement officials and strengthening of ASEAN-WEN as Thailand's contribution to the international efforts to save wild tigers. Only 3,200 wild tigers are known to exist today.  Thailand’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suwit Khunkitti also stressed the importance of sustaining ASEAN-WEN and proposed the creation of an Asia-wide enforcement group to replicate the successes of ASEAN-WEN across the continent. Seven ministers and senior delegations from all 13 tiger range countries, with the support of wildlife conservation experts and representatives, declared their commitment to reverse the declining trend in tiger numbers and double the wild tiger population by 2022. They also called for strengthening national tiger conservation action plans ahead of a Global 'Heads of State' Tiger Summit scheduled for Vladivostok, Russia, in September 2010.

Forest Conservation Yields $4.1million in Benefits for the Rural Poor in Vietnam. The Vietnam Forest Protection and Development Fund reported that under its pilot Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) Policy, companies paid US$4.1 million to thousands of rural households to protect 1.7 million hectares in 2009. The USAID-funded Asia Regional Biodiversity Conservation Program (ARBCP) is supporting national and regional replication of this model PFES activity. ARBCP is working with the Ministry of Rural Development and Agriculture of Vietnam to develop a full decree to expand PFES to 15 highly forested provinces. The program is also working to support similar PFES policy experiments in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

WaterLinks: Philippine Water Operators Support Indonesia in Expanding Water Services to the Urban Poor.   From February 1-4, 2010, the two water concessionaires serving Manila assisted the water operators serving Surabaya and Medan, Indonesia's second and third largest cities, to improve their capacity to provide water services to the urban poor.  Two staff representing Maynilad Water Services and its NGO partner provided training to Medan on community partnerships and assessed the progress of Medan's program to expand piped water to 17,500 low-income households.  The Manila Water Company hosted a delegation from Surabaya at its headquarters and field sites to share experience on procedures for applying community management systems to serve water to the poor, as well as on enabling field staff to work directly with low-income communities.   Manila Water is helping Surabaya achieve its 2010 goal of providing water services to over 15,000 low-income residents under a World Bank output-based aid grant. USAID supports these WaterLinks partnerships through its Environmental Cooperation-Asia (ECO-Asia) program.