ForestExplorers

Using Google to save Earth

2012-01-31T09:47:00.000+08:00

January 31, 2012
By ISABELLE LAI
Star

PETALING JAYA: Google Earth, the virtual globe, map and geographical information program, is proving to be a favoured tool by environmental groups and the authorities to check on illegal forest clearing and land occupation.

Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said had said last week that the state government was using it to detect illegal occupation of government-owned land in the state, adding that stern action would be taken from this year against the culprits, which included civil servants.

Commenting on this, Malaysian Nature Society Selangor branch vice-chairman Lim Teck Wyn said Google Earth was effective in getting a general overview of any area.

“There’s a useful function which allows us to do a time lapse observation by comparing older satellite images with recent ones,” he told The Star yesterday.

Lim, a forestry consultant, said this helped to detect recent logging activities as the change in forest mass would be obvious.

However, he stressed that there was no substitute for ground checks as Google Earth images are not always recent or detailed.

WWF-Malaysia chief executive officer and executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said Google Earth was helpful in calculating an overview of forest loss or land changes.

“It helps us to see whether the Government is keeping its pledge to maintain 50% of the country’s land mass under forest cover,” he said.

Dr Sharma added, however, that the organisation mostly derived its information regarding illegal logging or animal smuggling from its on-site staff.

He said WWF-Malaysia employs some 185 people, spread around the country on its projects of interest.

“That is the fastest way we pick up information. The problem with using satellite tools is that by the time we detect changes, it’s probably a foregone conclusion,” he said.

Originally called EarthViewer 3D, Google Earth was created by Keyhole Inc, a company funded by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency and acquired by Google in 2004.

It maps the Earth from satellite imagery, aerial photography and geographic information systems (GIS) 3D globe.

It is available as a free version with limited functions and a paid version, with additional features, for commercial use.

As at October last year, Google Earth had been downloaded more than a billion times.

Botanic Gardens draft up for viewing

2012-01-20T17:49:00.006+08:00

Remember this ugly arch?

Remember the ugly arch in Botanic Gardens? How they built and then destroyed? Remember how they wasted taxpayers’ money? Its because we were silent then. So, not to repeat the same mistake again, I hope you Penang lang “Speak Now Or Forever Lose Your Peace”. You can goto Komtar 3rd floor or the Botanic Gardens to see the exhibited draft plan. Yes, less than a month to do so. Let me run you through the draft plan open for comments and objections until 16 February 2012.

Key Proposals (My comments in bracket)

1. Visitors Centre – located at the entrance of the PBG (OK for me).

2. Conservation and Propagation Centre – located beside bambusetum, opposite Moon Gate (OK for me).

3. Herbarium – the old admin office (OK for me).

4. Kampung Garden – the squatter with the PAS flags (OK for me).

5. Secret Gardens – now the Japanese Garden (OK for me).

6. Malaysian Boulevard and Garden – the shooting club that will be demolished for this new building (NO. If you are going to chase the shooting club out, then why the waste to demolish. The building can use for the proposed “fine-dining” as in Key Proposal No 9 - Natural Amphitheatre).

7. Floral Garden – the quarry garden (Already a garden. Just put more floral. I don’t see anything worth mentioning).
8. Tree Top Walk – between Mt Olivia and a high point west (NO. Wrong site for this Tree Top Walk – Reasons - 1. Steep slope to reach Mt Olivia which will demand new path to the top. A new path to reach the top which will damage the fragile flora & fauna. Erosion, safety problem, ecosystem damages are some of the problem i can visualized now. 2. If revenue is what you have stated in your objective, then this is the wrong site as it is too far and deep inside the garden. This type of activity will only attract adventurous tourists if it is too difficult to access. A white elephant in the making? 3. You should compare the Treewalk with the one in Sidim. The one is Sidim is OKU friendly. Why is this one unOKU friendly? 4. Suggest to place it near Moon Gate to get the maximum benefit).

9. Natural Amphitheatre – behind Quarry Park, a new building to accomodate fine-dining restaurants and facilities (NO. Why waste money building a large facility which the garden don’t have enough man power to cope. The aim of Botanic Gardens is to promote natural heritage and not fine dining. Beside there will not be enough parking space if there is too a big crowd. Is the carrying capacity adequate?)

10. Nature Trails – four main trails be developed (Trails already there, what is there to develop if people are not going to use it. The curtis trail was developed once but eventually neglected. Why waste money on something which adventurous people don’t mind trekking in overgrowth trail?)

11. Access and Circulation – shall be turned into a “traffic-free” garden (Traffic-free? Then the big open space car park should be planted with trees. Unless there is no access road to Penang Hill, then i think this “traffic-free” will be difficult to implement).

There is no online objection at the moment. It is a disgrace to Penang. At the opening ceremony, I approached CM and asked about this online submission. His usher quickly said there is an online submission and that I should ask the reception at the desk. But I told this usher I have already asked. Then he tried to give stupid reason. Finally, CM said by right there should be an online submission. And CM thanked me for telling him. He shook my hand (first time he put up his hand to shake hand hehehe). I suspect the usher is trying to push to implement the project without caring about people objections. So guys, make sure you make some objections.

This draft plan is to be submitted to Tourism Ministry. That means it will be a federal project. And as you know, somebody up there will be making alot of commission while we Penangites will be taken for another ride. I think our state government is too greedy for the free funding until they forget about our natural heritage. State govt already spent RM688k for this stupid draft. They are going to turn Botanic Gardens into a theme park and whatnot. All Penangites should go and make some objections to the gardens or FOREVER HOLD YOUR TONGUE!

If you are not around before 16 Feb 2012, then try to goto this website HERE to view the draft. Then email your objections or comments to all of them:- chandra@penang.gov.my, fakhrurazi@penang.gov.my and nazrina@penang.gov.my

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January 20, 2012
Star

A TREE-TOP walk and a new visitors centre are among the proposals in the Penang Botanic Gardens Special Area Plan (SAP) draft which is now available for public viewing.

The public can view the draft at Komtar’s Level Three and also at the Penang Botanic Gardens Department at the gardens from 9am to 4.30pm daily until Feb 15.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng urged stakeholders and the public to provide feedback on the draft which, among others, also proposed a conservation and propagation centre and the expansion of the existing herbarium.

Among the other key proposals are a Kampung Garden with a typical Malay village theme, a secret garden, a Malaysiana boulevard and garden, a floral garden, a natural amphitheatre and nature trails.

“This draft was prepared by experienced, local experts in six months and studies were completed at the end of last year,” Lim said in his speech during the launch of the publicity and public participation of the draft on Wednesday.

He said the state government had allocated RM688,878 last year for the preparation of the SAPs for the gardens and Penang Hill.

“The state wants to ensure that a comprehensive proposal is presented to important quarters, including non-governmental bodies, to obtain the best blueprint for the proposed development of the gardens before any construction work,” he said.

It has also been proposed under the SAP draft that the Penang Rifle Club be relocated for the development of an eco-friendly garden convention and activity building.

Lim said there had been plans for the club’s relocation but consultation would be carried out with the club authorities and its patron, Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas.

“Other projects that were identified include a bambusetum and the upgrading of the existing buildings,” he added.

In his speech, Penang Town and Country Planning director Zainuddin Ahamad said that following the public viewing of the draft, there would be inquiries to take into consideration the views from the public. For more information, call 04-2260713.

I just tak faham why MPPP cut those trees

2012-01-15T14:25:00.004+08:00

The BOTAK Ficus benjamina along Jalan Masjid Negeri, Penang (15 Jan 2012)

Healthy ficus trees (Ficus benjamina) along Jalan Masjid Negeri were not spare too. I just don't understand why the authority has to hack until BOTAK! Couldn't they just prune those branches that obstruct? These ficus trees will not pose any hazard during stormy weather as they are very sturdy and durable trees....beside they are hardly huge enough to endanger anyone. So what is the reason for the wide spread hacking of trees in Penang? I can only think of one answer. There are many road tarring and now the hacking of trees. It can only means that election is near and cronies must be given works to fill their pockets. Isn't it time to have a Green political party to voice our dissatisfaction? So much for the Pakatan's slogan, "Cleaner Greener Penang". Bullshit!

January 10, 2012
‘Tree killers’ at work in Penang
Star

GEORGE TOWN: The local authorities have come under fire over the pruning of the island's trees.

A reader called up The Star on Sunday to complain about how badly the trees along Jalan Tanjong Bungah, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Jalan Udini and Sungai Ara had been pruned.

“The trees have all been hacked and pruned until they are bald.

“Even the shrubs along Jalan Mesjid Negri and Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah have not been spared,” B.S. Yeng said.

He added that the roots of the trees lining Jalan Gottlieb were exposed due to a road widening project.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) president S.M. Mohamed Idris said SAM highlighted the problem in the media in 2003.

“In the last few years, they've been more careful but lately the tree murderers' are back in action.

“What they are doing now is simply hacking away until there's nothing left,” he said.

Mohamed Idris called on the relevant authorities to engage experts to advise them on tree care and maintenance.

Tree maintenance on the island is under the purview of the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) and Public Works Department (JKR).

State Public Works, Utilities, Transport Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng said the roads highlighted by Yeng were mostly federal roads monitored by the JKR.

“I immediately looked into the complaint and was told that the tree maintenance work was done by a private contractor.

“JKR will be monitoring the contractor more closely” he said.

‘Green courts’ to protect the environment

2012-01-14T18:27:00.000+08:00

Saturday January 14, 2012 MYT 5:34:00 PM
Star

PUTRAJAYA: A man who stole 11 cans of Tiger beer and Guinness stout was jailed for five years. And another man who had illegal possession of a dead tiger got away with a RM7,000 fine.

“Clearly our values are misplaced. Surely, our tigers are worth more than the 11 cans of Tiger beer,” Chief Justice Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria said when opening the 2012 Legal Year and Conference of Judges here Saturday.

To end this problem, specialised “environmental courts” may soon be introduced in the country to handle cases involving environmental crime.

Arifin said there should be an end to the lack of sensitivity to such crimes.

He said the judiciary would provide more training to its judges and officers on environmental law.

He also issued a stern reminder to members of the judiciary not to abuse their position and to avoid exposure to corrupt practices.

Judges and officers, he said, should continue to maintain the dignity and integrity of their office.

“We should at all times conduct ourselves in a manner befitting our position in society.

“Always bear in mind that your conduct, be it in private or in your official capacity, is subject to public scrutiny.

“In conducting a trial, do it with decorum,” he said.

Arifin also urged lawyers to stop making wild and baseless accusations against judges.

“This is because your words are taken seriously by the public. Such allegations may undermine the integrity of the judiciary,” he said.

He also announced that from this month, all criminal and civil appeals in the Federal Court would be heard by a five-man quorum, aimed at improving the quality of judgments and decisions.

At the same function, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said the Peaceful Assembly Act was meant to encourage freedom of expression.

He said there had been consultation with the various stakeholders including the Bar Council before the Act was passed.

“However, in consulting with the stakeholders, we are still governed by the Official Secrets Act. The bottom line is that there can never be a perfect' legislation.

“It can only ever hope to be a right' legislation to meet the exigencies of the relevant time.”

‘Perhilitan officers wanted bribe’

2011-12-29T11:34:00.000+08:00

December 29, 2011
‘Perhilitan officers wanted bribe’
By ONG HAN SEAN
Star

KUANTAN: A pet shop owner is accusing a Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) officer of trying to solicit a bribe because he had in his possession a species of turtle protected under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

Hui Woon Chian, 51, claimed that three officers from Perhilitan visited his premises in Jalan Darat Makbar here on Dec 7 to carry out an inspection.

“But they did not show any identification nor did they have a warrant,” he said.

“One of them said he was a high-ranking officer and need not show me identification,” said Hui.

“They searched my shop. Then, they found three turtles on the front counter.

“The officer said the red-eared slider turtles were protected species and that I could be fined RM200,000 for each of them.

“He then said I should pay him so that I would not be fined,” he said after lodging a police report.

Hui said he was shocked by the “offer” and asked his sons to take photographs of him and the officer with the turtles.

“The officer was surprised by my action and tried to avoid having his picture taken.

“We had an argument when the other officers tried to intervene.

“They left after taking down our particulars,” he said.

To Hui’s surprise, he and his sons were summoned to the Kuantan police headquarters the next day to provide statements for allegedly injuring a Perhilitan officer.

“We were arrested and had to be bailed out. We did not hurt anyone.”

Hui’s wife Choi Yuet Hoe said after the incident, several Perhilitan officers returned to their shop and intimidated her.

“This time, they carried rifles and wore belts with bullets,” she said.

“They searched our shop again and asked about the turtles. I told them they had been taken to the police station. Then they left,” said Choi, who also lodged a separate police report.

Pahang Perhilitan director Khairiah Mohd Shariff said she has not received any report on the matter and could not comment.

Dr M, in India we have bad roads but true democracy

2011-12-21T22:24:00.003+08:00

An interesting comment by an Indian national to Mamakkuty. There is a few paragraphs on the unsustainable development of our natural environment destroyed by Mamakkuty. Read on....

December 21, 2011http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
freemalaysiatoday.com

Last week, Dr Mahathir gave a speech in India which stirred one Indian activist to retort in an open letter to the doctor.

By Siddharthya Swapan Roy

Dear Dr Mahathir,

A couple of days back I woke up to newspaper reports which quoted you as saying that India’s democracy is a hindrance to its development and, if we did away with the nuisance of democracy, we will become developed.

Well, sir, it is heartening to see your concern about India’s future, especially now that our own elected government has orphaned us. To read that someone from the outside cares about our development sounds so very nice.

But you see, sir, your (apparently) good intentions notwithstanding, your advice to Indians is, well how should I put it… ill-advised.

I’m not really sure if you know much about the history of our nation. Don’t get me wrong.

Going by facts like the general absence of news from Malaysian newspapers; the absence of anything but song and dance in your electronic media; the absence of bookstores that sell knowledgeable books (for example, ones from which you can learn about history and not how to get rich in six steps); the abundance of malls and the stark absence of libraries; the abundance of coaching centres that can make masseurs, air hostesses and a host of quick-fix technicians and the relative absence of centres of higher learning especially in the social sciences; and, above all, the fact that this insanely consumerist and hedonist Malaysia was made under your tutelage, makes me doubt your knowledge of the history of India or any nation for that matter.

So allow me to apprise you of the story of our independence.

We won independence from colonial rulers waging a long and tortuous battle. A battle that sought to replace a discriminatory, unjust and violent regime that had enslaved huge populations with one which was based on the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.

India was home then, as is now and as will always be, to an immense diversity of people who spoke different tongues, prayed to different Gods, wore different clothes and had different political beliefs. These diverse people said to each other that – we, despite our differences, will strive to live and flourish together and make a sovereign nation which will be democratic, socialist and secular.

We did not anywhere say that we want to be Malaysia or for that matter China or the US.

In India, no one is above the law

We want to become a nation with a system that treats all its citizens as equal unlike your country that officially accords special rights to Malay Muslims calling them first-class citizens while relegating thousands of people of Tamil, Chinese and other ethnic origins.

Despite the fact that they have known no other land than Malaysia as their own, you denigrate them with the tag of being second-class citizens.

We try to work towards having a system wherein a person will grow according to his merit and hard work earning what she or he has rightfully earned.

You may be surprised to know that here in India making cartels based on identity, even if under the name of a holy cow called “Bumiputra” or son of the soil is looked down upon by most of us.

Here, promoting the selective interests of one’s self or that of his kin is called corruption and nepotism and not, as you call it, development.

We are in fact fighting tooth and nail to arrest the scourge of corruption and (you’ll be shocked to know) get the guilty punished.

Here in India no one is above the law and many a times powerful public figures go to jail for being corrupt or subverting the law.

Now that we are at it, sir, I’m sure it would be interesting to know what the minorities of your country have to say – especially the jailed and beaten ones – about the development-democracy debate.

In fact, sir, your idea of development is largely at odds with many of us here.

Development is no substitute for values

What you did to the tropical forests and water bodies of Malaysia (that is, raze vast acres of them into oblivion to make way for big-buck oil palm plantations and piggeries and so on) would cause huge outrage among many of us who are looking for sustainable development.

We are yet to be unanimously convinced that making cemented roads – however broad, lining them with buildings, even if glass-covered and glossy, and putting cars on them, however fast – is a substitute for our valued bio-diversity.

Many of us are very convinced that displacing huge populations of native people for useless things like racing tracks is a blot on the word “development”.

There are many of us who find it a shameful and cruel hypocrisy that while your country has abundant and openly advertised sex tourism, it still whips women for being licentious!

Thanks to the culture of reading here, many of us know of your penchant for cruelty in your personal career.

A career during which you enacted despotic and violent acts at times in the name (your contorted version of) Islam and at times in the name of security and national interest.

We could recount how you rose to power annihilating huge numbers of your opponents and stayed there for over two decades, continuing your devious rule using tactics and schemes which are far beyond Machiavelli.

Many of us know about your vile Internal Security Act, which you used to crush political opposition – jailing them and putting in place a frail and near-sham democracy and placing the entire nation under a one-man rule of Umno for over two decades.

You will note that I have used words like “most of us”, “many of us” and have tried to stay away from absolute claims.

Misconstrued understanding of ‘development’

Besides the age-old Indian practice of accommodating different opinions, it is meant to recognise that there are people in this country, too, who think like you and will have applauded you for saying what you did.

They, too, think that roads are all that important and not the humans who walk on them or the ones who sleep beside them.

They have misconstrued the word development as development of personal wealth and that this “development” is a holy cow and everything including the rights and lives of fellow humans is of lesser priority.

Their money power helps them buy a lot of print space and electronic bandwidth so they may appear like the majority, but thankfully the truth is they aren’t.

The majority of us recognise and are willing to admit – and even discuss at length – that there are problems in our nation – including bad roads.

But they’ll quickly add that we intend to solve those not by lessening democracy but by ncreasing it.

The author is a freelance writer and activist based in Maharashtra.

Malaysia a heaven for transit of Ivory

2011-12-13T19:46:00.002+08:00

Actually it is quite easy to detect this type of smuggling. Any shipment from Africa continent that has elephant population should be inspected thoroughly. The frequency of successful seizures indicate there could be more undetected shipments. Is our customs so incompetent that they need public tip-off?

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Tuesday December 13, 2011

S’gor customs seize elephant tusks, ivory handicraft worth RM4mil

PORT KLANG: The Selangor Customs Department busted an attempt by an international ivory syndicate to smuggle 15 tonnes of elephant tusks and suspected ivory-made handicraft worth RM4mil at Westport near here on Tuesday.

Department director Datuk Azis Yacub said the tusks originated from Kenya and the handicraft were found in a 20-foot container that was detained in Westport on Thursday and inspected thoroughly Monday.

"The seizure followed a public tip-off. Upon full inspection, the enforcement officers discovered the elephant tusks in brown boxes tucked behind the container, together with several other boxes containing handicraft," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said initial investigations showed that the tusks, declared as "soapstone-made handicraft," were heading for transshipment to Tanjong Pelepas port from the port of Mombasa, Kenya, before reaching their final destination at Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

"We managed to intercept the goods at Westport," he said.

Azis said Customs would send some of the handicraft, believed to be made from ivory, to the Chemistry Department soon to ascertain their true material.

He also said that no arrests had been made so far, and the case is being investigated under Section 133 (1) (a) of the Customs Act 1967 for wrongful declaration of goods.

If convicted, the parties involved can be fined up to RM500,000 or imprisoned for up to five years, or both. This was the fourth attempt to smuggle elephant tusks into the country this year.

In September, the Customs Department foiled an attempt to smuggle two tonnes of elephant tusks worth RM3mil into Westport.

It was also reported that more than 1,000 elephant tusks were seized by local authorities when they smashed two attempts to smuggle them through the Pasir Gudang and Butterworth ports over the past two months. - Bernama

Composting plants to be set up in each residential area

2011-12-08T21:53:00.001+08:00

December 8, 2011
Star

PENANG plans to take another step forward in its green campaign next year. A composting plant will be set up in each residential area to process food waste into liquid fertilisers.

State Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the facility would be paid for by the respective assemblyman’s allocation.

“The project which is based on 3As — availability, accessibility and affordability — will be available in residential areas as the state intends to expand its effort from hawker centres to households.

“By placing the composting plants within the community, we hope to make it more convenient for the people to bring their waste to be processed into fertilisers.

“The composting plant is meant to educate the people on the benefits of recycling,” he told a press conference after launching the Penang Eco-Town workshop at a hotel yesterday.

Benefits of recycling: (left) Makoto Fujita from Global Environment Centre delivering his speech at the Penang Eco-Town workshop

Phee added that the approach would be executed through four approaches — educate, create awareness, implement and enforce.

“However, we do not intend to impose strict regulations on the people because the commitment to go green should come from within ourselves.”

There are currently three composting plants which are at the Bagan Ajam market in Butterworth, Bayan Baru market in Penang and the Desa Damai resource centre in Bukit Mertajam.

On May 3, The Star reported that the pilot project at the Bagan Ajam market could process organic wastes into fertilisers within 24 hours.

Pahang govt ‘killing’ Tasik Chini’s ecosystem

2011-12-01T10:00:00.001+08:00

Aneesa Alphonsus
November 30, 2011
freemalaysiatoday.com

The legendary Tasik Chini’s more modern saga concerns ecological mismanagement and the near collapse of a delicate ecosystem.

FEATURE

Mystical Tasik Chini, which once spawned a legendary tale of a behemoth dragon or sea serpent called Naga Seri Gumum and the presence of the Sacred Lotus Nelumbo Nucifera is deeply polluted and the Pahang government is to be blamed.

Chini which is made up by a series of 12 lakes is not so much a lake but more of a naturally dammed tributary of the Pahang River.

Until recently the lake’s waters rose and fell with the seasons. During the rainy season the waters were unable to flow down the narrow Sungai Chini and so became backed up in a series of lakes.

This resulted in a unique ecosystem, dominated by the presence of the Sacred Lotus Nelumbo Nucifera which once covered the entire surface of the lake system.

During low waters the lotus seeds would germinate, their roots would take hold in the soft mud and the stunning blooms would appear on the water’s surface.

During the monsoonal floods, from October to January, the lotus would die but their fertilized new seeds would litter the lake bottom waiting the dry season to bloom again.

This exquisite cycle is however damned.

In 1995, the state government, in a bid to commercialize the area and make the lakes more appealing to visitors in the dry season, built a dam at the point where Sungai Chini entered the Pahang River. The structure stopped the free flow of water which was never able to recede again.

It wasn’t long before the Tasik Chini natural ecosystem started showing signs of stress.

Species going extinct

According to Azimudin Bahari, who is with the natural resources and environment ministry, studies have shown that the lake is polluted.

“The scientific studies by the Tasik Chini Research Centre in University Kebangsaan Malaysia clearly show several indicators of a more polluted freshwater lake. Lotus is increasingly extinct and tourist arrivals to Tasik Chini are declining.

“With the rapid decline of this lake, many species of freshwater fish have become extinct.

“The loss of fish not only deprives the communities of an important source of protein, but also has resulted in the loss of traditional fishing methods.”

Azimudin was speaking on the matter at the Care To Action: Multi-Pronged Strategy Needed To Reverse The Decline of Tasik Chini Workshop organised by Transparency International Malaysia (TMI) recently.

He said the suggested multi-pronged strategies however should be based on the principles of sustainability, good governance and recognition of the community particularly the Jakun Orang Asli tribe as the guardians of the locality.

He said the aspiration and cultural practices of the local community must be respected in the economic development of the Tasik Chini area.

There is hope

Despite the less than heartening prognosis, there might still hope for Tasik Chini.

But much of this hope hinges on whether the Pahang government will take the necessary measures to stop the sources of pollution and restore the free flow of water into the lake from Sungai Chini and Sungai Pahang.

Many are of the view that a collective effort between the authorities and the locals is needed to rehabilitate the lake.

The Orang Asli and other conscientious residents around the area have already made it their business to remove weeds called Ekor Kucing (Cat’s Tail) which are choking and absorbing the oxygen in the water.

Ailee Jane, a frequent visitor to Chini, opined that the authorities should remove the dam to allow the lake to heal itself naturally.

“The lake is dying a natural death because of the weir. It is polluted and there is so much of sedimentation.”

Urgent need to resuscitate lake

TMI secretary general Josie Fernandez said that the catchment area around Tasik Chini is being destroyed because of certain kinds of fertilizers which go into the water.

Residents, mostly the Orang Asli, use this water for cooking, bathing and drinking, thereby resulting in skin afflictions.

“Tin ore mining is yet another culprit,” she said, adding that “water from the waste flows into the lake which results in the loss of the fish which is a cheap source of protein.

“There is a story of an Orang Asli who went out early in the morning to catch some fish and only came back with one. He asked how was he going to share that one fish with the other seven families in his village.

“The thing about the Orang Asli at Chini is that they observe sustainable use of the natural resources.

“It’s never about huge profits where they are concerned, and definitely not about enterprise. They don’t do it to destroy the area.

“There really should be more accountability and Chini should be protected as an eco-tourism area. There is an urgent need to resuscitate what has been lost,” said Fernandez

Buy land back from Felda

Fernandez firmly believes that that all development in the catchment area should be stopped and if necessary, land should be bought back from Felda.

“In any development, there should be equity for all, for people and nature and a balance of the two must exist.

“This has been overlooked in previous policies pertaining to development and conservation of Chini.

“It’s our collective responsibly to resolve and go to the very source of the problem which lie in the way the catchment areas have been developed.

“This is not just an environmental issue but more of one concerning governance,” she said.

Sustainable Development - a bullshit

2011-11-20T12:30:00.005+08:00

The world celebrated the 7 billion population on Oct 31, 2011. The 7th billion child is a Filipino. The UN's sustainable development in all the UN's treaties are just a waste of resources and time. Rio+20, to be held next year will be another passing event. We have come around 20 years since the Rio treaty and we are still talking the same bull stories on sustainability. We are not solving the source of our environment, our natural resources and our needs. In fact, our main concern is to develop everything in a sustainable order. But how can? We have a limited earth. We just can't balloon our earth. We are facing human population explosion. Many more mouths to feed with limited resources. You can keep talking about providing energy efficiency, good environment quality, sustainable management or water efficiency but there will not be enough as population keep increasing. You can keep talking about quality living in landed property rather than pigeon hole apartment. But it won't solve the problem as population mushroomed. No matter how good the sustainable development in papers or in practice, it will come a time when it will be saturated again.

So how? We should be solving the root cause of our problem. And the root of all our problems - human created as well as natural disasters (such as ethnic wars, climate change, human conflicts, wildlife extinction, immigrants, floods, etc) is POPULATION. Lessen the population and we won't have so much problem. Sustainable Population is the mother of all sustainable development. Control the population and we will have less people needing to stay in pigeon holes. Less rubbish in our waterways. Less pollution. And so on.....you get that?

But can we? With all the greed to improve companies' balance sheets and development to sustain the economy of the world, there is no way we are going to sustain our earth. We need fuels, mineral resources and raw materials to run our factories. We just could not supply enough if our demand keep growing. We are destined to doom. December 2012 might be a fiction but rest assure that it will be a reality in the near future. Perhaps as soon as next year!

Go watch the movie 2012. Happy New Year 2012.

Tokay gecko under threat due to heavy demand, says group

2011-11-20T12:02:00.001+08:00

November 20, 2011
Star

PETALING JAYA: Wildlife trade watchdog TRAFFIC has called for the protection of the to'keh (or tokay) gecko, following a sharp boom in illegal smuggling of the lizard in South-East Asia for medicinal purposes.

TRAFFIC Southeast Asia said the demand for the geckos skyrocketed recently, following unfounded claims on Asian websites and blogs that consuming tokay gecko tongue and internal organs could cure HIV and cancer.

“We are alarmed by the massive increase in trade of these geckos,” said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia deputy director Chris R. Shepherd in a statement here.

“If the trade continues to mushroom, it could take years to repair the damage currently being inflicted on the gecko population,” he said, adding that it was urgent to protect these reptiles under CITES the international convention on endangered species.

The tokay gecko is a nocturnal Asian lizard growing up to 40cm in length and easily identified by its orange-spotted, blue-grey skin and the loud sound it makes.

TRAFFIC said the geckos are being sourced from South-East Asian countries, like the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, to meet demand in China.

It said Indonesia exports an estimated 1.2 million dried tokay geckos from Java each year, exceeding the official export quota of 45,000 live animals for the pet trade.

Act now to lessen impact of climate change, Govt urged

2011-10-28T20:50:00.002+08:00

Stories by RAHIMY RAHIM, EMBUN MAJID, LEE YEN MUN and JOSEPH KAOS
Oct 28, 2011
Star

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PETALING JAYA: An environmentalist wants the Government to take steps to lessen the impact of unusual rainfall due to climate change.

Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) chairman Gurmit Singh said it should prohibit development in flood-prone areas.

He said some developers build their infrastructure in low-lying deltas and coastal areas where floods occur.

“They must realise that a change in climate is already taking place and policies must be implemented so Malaysia will not end up like Thailand.”

Thailand is facing its worst floods and people and businesses are forced to build water barriers around their homes and workplaces.

Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) national hydrology and water resources division director Datuk Lim Chow Hock said Malaysia was receiving higher-than-average rainfall even when it wasn’t the monsoon season.

“In terms of national average, we received some 2,400mm per year in the peninsula alone,” he said.

“We estimate that the figures will be much higher this year.

“Given the current outlook, the level will spiral to at least 2,700mm while Sabah and Sarawak can go up to 3,000mm of rain this year,” he told The Star.

He said this year’s rainfall was exceptionally higher.

“Prolonged light rain in a few days followed by at least twice heavy rain in a month from November until March could lead to flooding.”

Belum-Temenggor can become a world-class attraction?

2011-10-21T10:15:00.003+08:00

This is the same MB that said that logging will continue (read 2nd article below). So which is correct? Politicians seem to have forked tongues. Probably has another motive to follow Kenyir Lake's duty free island!

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October 21, 2011
Zambry: Belum-Temenggor can become a world-class attraction
Star

IPOH: The Belum-Temenggor tropical rainforest has the potential to become a world-class attraction, said Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

He said this when revealing that an integrated master plan (IMP) for the 300,000ha land is expected to be ready within the next few months.

“The master plan should be ready by the end of the year or at the latest in early 2012,” he told reporters after chairing the weekly state exco meeting here yesterday.

The rainforest, which is over 130 million years old, covers the Royal Belum State Park (117,500ha), Gerik Forest Reserve (34,995ha) and Temenggor Forest Reserve (147,505ha).

“With the vast tropical rainforest in the area and a few other places at the Tasik Banding site, it has the potential to become a world attraction,” said Dr Zambry.

The proposed master plan comprises aspects that include conservation efforts, tourism development and recommended action against poaching and logging activities and problems affecting the timber industry.

The mentri besar said to date the state government and the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) had completed about 60% of the proposed IMP.

“The state is being briefed on the progress of the proposed IMP by consultants from the NCIA from time to time,” he said, adding that input was also received from related non-governmental organisations.

“In other words, the proposal has been analysed from various aspects and perspectives, be it in terms of conservation or the income to be derived by the state in the future,” he said.

Dr Zambry said several other nature-centric development projects had been identified in the area.

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September 20, 2011
Be reasonable with demands to gazette forests, says MB
Star

IPOH: Environmental and wildlife groups should be more objective when demanding that forested areas in the state be gazetted as non-logging areas, said Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

He said despite the state government having gazetted an area about five times the size of Singapore in Royal Belum as a state park, such groups were demanding more.

“Are they asking for the whole of Perak to be gazetted? After the Royal Belum, they now want us to gazette the whole of Temengor Forest Reserve.

“Later, they may also request forested areas in Pangkor to be gazetted.

“Let us be objective. Logging cannot be stopped completely because timber is one of the major industries which generate revenue for the state,” he told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from Japanese ambassador to Malaysia Shigeru Nakamura at his office here yesterday.

Dr Zambry was commenting on calls by such groups for forests along the Gerik-Jeli highway to be gazetted as part of the Royal Belum or a forest reserve to ensure the long-term survival of wildlife.

He said economic progress would be hindered if the state government were to fulfil all their demands.

Dr Zambry said Perak was among the few states that had a sustainable forest management concept.

“While allowing logging activities, we are also serious about protecting the state’s rainforests,” he stressed.

On the forest clearing activities in the Belum-Temengor wildlife corridor, Dr Zambry said he would wait for an in-depth probe to be completed first.

”We also want to know the actual situation and if the report is accurate,” he said.

Insane for another bird park in Malacca

2011-10-20T10:35:00.000+08:00

Wednesday, 19 October 2011
By SM Mohd Idris,
Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is unequivocally opposed to the plan for the largest bird park in Southeast Asia sited at the Botanical Gardens in Ayer Keroh Malacca. It would be insanity on the part of the Malacca Chief Minister if he harbours such an ill-conceived plan when zoos and animal establishments in Malaysia are widely known and reported to be in appalling states.

State Governments, Councils and individuals may be rich in ambition to have the largest, biggest or grandest zoos and aviaries but do they know or care about the basic care and welfare of animal and their requirements? Judging from the past, the lack of ability to run zoos or bird parks may cause many of the birds to be reduced to a spectacle of abuse or neglect and many may die eventually.

The question everyone or every animal welfare group should ask is from where and how the birds are sourced. Sourcing for 6000 birds from 300 species to fill the largest aviary will fuel the trade in live birds that not only enriches the pockets of traders and poachers, it may cause more than half of those caught to die as a result of the birds being packed into crates and transported over long distances. There will be little concern for wastage of bird life as these profiteers in the bird trade can literally get away with murder.

The other question we ask is why undertake to house such a huge collection of birds knowing that space would be shockingly inadequate. If the Malacca State Government is serious about best practices for the aviary then the project would not have started with demand for 6000 birds due to the inadequacy of space. The Malacca Government fails to recognize that animals and birds have a basic need for the appropriate amount of space. No amount of behavioural enrichment can compensate for the spatial needs of the birds.

SAM fails to see the need for an aviary in the middle of a botanic garden. The botanic garden itself is good enough to be a major tourist attraction with its wide varieties of plant species considering the immense beauty and variety that the plant kingdom offers. The garden is also a place which attracts native birds. It could be an idyllic oasis for the free-roaming birds in the centre of the city.

Constructing an aviary within the gardens is a cruel attempt to bring nature to people where we can see birds in flight and chirping away when in reality the birds are living under captive conditions only to be displayed for man’s amusement. Life in captivity can never be adequate for the fulfillment of any species or individual, since the best habitat for animals is in their natural environment. All species are born free, and detention or isolation, whether of birds or humans, is an expression of cruelty and inhumanity.

This brings to mind the question of staffing and a host of other issues: 1) Whether staff are experienced and qualified to care for the different exotic birds that have special needs?

2) Any ability or expertise to manage and train inexperienced staff?

3) The level of veterinary care and hygiene standards?

4) Resources available to upgrade exhibits?

5) The ability to keep up with a variety of environmental enrichment? and

6) The expertise for managing such a large and diverse aviary?

From the above-stated reasons SAM calls on the Malacca Government to abandon its plan for the establishment of the largest bird park in Southeast Asia.

In view of the many zoos that were closed by the authorities due to the appalling conditions of confinement of the animals and the atrocious abuse and neglect of these animals, SAM once again reiterate its stand for closure of bad zoos and limit the number of zoos to a few good ones.

SAM would also urge the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Department of Wildlife to completely stop the issuing of new licences for upcoming zoos and to continue monitoring all existing zoos in order to reform the wild animal industry.

S M Mohd Idris
President
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)

Would you allow your pregnant wife to work in the premises with those drums of radioactive waste?

2011-10-10T14:40:00.004+08:00

Lynas and the Malaysian Green movement — Kua Kia Soong
October 10, 2011

OCT 10 — The Green Assembly (Himpunan Hijau 109) at dawn at the Kuantan beach yesterday was the harbinger of the Malaysian Green movement that has been a long time coming. Kudos to the organisers of this inspirational event that managed to draw together other green campaigns as well as environmentally conscious Malaysians throughout the country. It was especially heart-warming to see the Orang Asli from nearby Chini taking an active part in the event. There, we pledged our commitment to the Earth Charter and sustainable development and our opposition to projects that are socially disruptive and health-threatening.

Green consciousness in Malaysia has been growing with every toxic project in the country, most noxious has been the processing and storage of radioactive waste. The BN government has always tried to justify their production by saying that “impartial experts” have testified to their safety. In the latest case of the Lynas rare earth plant at Gebeng, near Kuantan, they have invited the IAEA as an afterthought and they say that subject to certain recommendations, the plant should be safe. But the people are not convinced and will continue to oppose this toxic project.

The myth of impartial experts

In 1984, during the controversy over the nuclear dumps of Asian Rare Earth (ARE) at Papan in Perak, I wrote an article in The Star (September 2, 1984) entitled “The Myth of the Impartial Scientist”. The government was trying to convince the public that the dumps for the radioactive waste were constructed to the required specifications and scientific experts were carted out to back up their case. But the people of Papan were not impressed and they continued to organise a protracted resistance to the dumps until they won.

The ARE factory had started operating in Bukit Merah New Village in 1982. In February 1985, the Bukit Merah residents filed an application in the Ipoh High Court to stop ARE from operating in the vicinity of their village. The residents turned out in force at the court and their organisation and commitment to the cause of environmental safety was an inspiration for the rest of the country. On April 12, 1987, some 10,000 people marched through Bukit Merah to protest the resumption of operations by ARE after the company had disregarded an injunction to stop operations. They finally won through their sustained campaign and ARE had to pack up and pay them compensation. The people of Papan and Bukit Merah were more concerned about their health and the health of their future generations than they were about the short-term gain of employment that ARE provided.

Today, the people in Kuantan who are opposing the Lynas rare earth plant are displaying the same admirable organisation, commitment to protecting their environment and concern for their health and the health of their future generations and we salute their efforts.

Far from being impartial, the IAEA is deeply involved in promoting nuclear energy. It failed to correctly assess the dangers caused by nuclear disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently at Fukushima. For all its “impartiality”, it also failed to prevent the Iraq war, when Bush and Blair had insisted that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It turned out to be an elaborate lie to justify western invasion of Iraq.

Since the key question to allay the fears of the people is that of safety and the effects of the plant on the people’s health, one would have expected the government to bring in independent members outside the IAEA with expertise in nuclear safety, public health, environmental protection and other social concerns. Besides the danger of radiation, the Lynas plant also produces large quantities of industrial acids and chemicals which will adversely affect the environment.

The lesson of Bukit Merah should be instructive for the Lynas controversy. The ARE expert there had insisted that their facilities were safe. I remember visiting their premises and the Japanese manager had assured me of the same. When I asked the manager if he would allow his pregnant wife to work in the premises with those drums of radioactive waste around her, he was completely stumped and couldn’t answer me. During the Bukit Merah court case, other international experts testified that the adverse health effects on the residents — cancer, congenital deformities, cardiovascular disease, etc — were the direct result of the radioactivity from the waste produced by ARE.

Whatever IAEA may recommend for the Lynas plant, they have no power to regulate or enforce compliance on Lynas. We also know that the Malaysian government’s record on monitoring and implementing such environmental safety standards and its maintenance culture are legendary! If not, how did the DOE and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board fail the residents of Bukit Merah?

Neutrality of science is a myth

The lesson from all these controversies is that there is no such thing as a “neutral expert”. Science and technology have never been neutral — the neutrality of science is a myth. You can as soon find an expert who will say the project is safe and another who will warn you of its dangers.

Through the ages, science has been carried out in a manner reflecting the norms and ideology of the social order. Thus, whether it is environmental pollution, genetic engineering, climate change, psychological control technologies, computer invasion of privacy, biological and chemical warfare, scientific research is not independent and unrelated to scientists’ activity.

The history of science reveals that scientific discoveries emerged as a consequence of a specific technological requirement of a particular social order. For example, Newtonian mechanics developed during the development of industrial capitalism. The atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki exploded the myth of the autonomy of science once and for all.

The Vietnam War in the mid-Sixties saw the greatest proportion of university science in the US done on federal contract, especially for the Department of Defence. Today, scientists permeate every branch of government, advising and devising the most effective types of weapons of war.

Fortunately, there has been resistance to this development among socially conscious scientists on the side of the people. Thus, during the Vietnam War, the Bertrand Russell Tribunal sent scientists and doctors to collect evidence of the experimental nature of the war and the use of new technologies of destruction. Moral and political issues were brought out to the fore and it was no longer adequate to pose the problem in terms of the “uses/abuses of science”. The response produced such movements as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Society for Social Responsibility in Science and Science for People.

Poisoning Pahang

While we are in the midst of a controversy regarding the Emergency, it is worth pointing out that when the 30-year secrecy rule was lifted in Britain, it was discovered that the authorities had used Agent Orange to spray at least 20 sites in Pahang. Pahang happened to be the state in which the Tenth Regiment of the Communist Party of Malaya was particularly active and it was the regiment that was made up of Malays.

I raised this in an article in The Star entitled “Emergency Secrets” on March 30, 1984. Malaysian government officials were quoted in The Star (January 29, 1984) as saying it was not their responsibility to conduct studies since the spraying happened before independence. Well, if according to our professors, Malaya was never colonised, then shouldn’t the Malaysian government do something about finding out how much of our country was sprayed with Agent Orange during the Emergency? How good are our medical records to show if congenital deformities in recent years have been caused by the spraying of defoliants during the Emergency?

At a medical conference in France in 1970, attention was drawn to the possible cancer-producing effects of dioxin, the deadly component of these poisonous herbicides. Questions were also raised of aberrations in the chromosomes of those affected which may affect their reproductive ability. These findings on the long-term effects of Agent Orange — which was used by the Americans to spray rebel areas during the Vietnam War — were presented at an international symposium of 140 scientists in January 1983. Their conclusion was that there is good reason to suppose that the defoliants used not only have noxious effects on the present generation but also for future generations!

Socially useful production please!

In Malaysia, the proliferation of the domestic military-industrial complex has been in the vicinity of Kuantan, namely in Pekan, the prime minister’s constituency. The prime minister almost lost the seat in 2004 but he has now ensured that the military automotive industry is there to provide contractors, sub-contractors, servicemen and other workers with a vested interest. Defence companies enjoy “feather bedding” in which contracts are awarded without competition. But is arms production in the interest of the people even if they may chalk up our GDP figures?

Not in my backyard mate!

The reason given by Lynas for why this rare earth processing plant has to be in Malaysia rather than in West Australia where it is mined surely takes the biscuit! Their spokesperson has said that Malaysia has the infrastructure lacking in Australia! It seems clear to most that the Aussies do not want this radioactive industry in their backyard.

It reminds me of that other energy-guzzling highly toxic aluminium smelting industry from Australia that the Sarawak/federal government has been trying to attract into Sarawak in order to use the abundant electricity from the Bakun dam. Once again, one wonders why Alcoa does not smelt aluminium in their own backyard.

Either Malaysians are the most gullible people on this earth or the Malaysian government merely wants to attract the big projects regardless of their sustainability or toxicity. Big projects mean big commissions seem to be the motivating factor in Malaysian development logic!

People before profits

Thus the experts we call upon to evaluate Lynas’ rare earth processing project will give us different conclusions depending on whether their prime concern is people or profits. As in all capitalist enterprises, there will be cost cutting. Whether they use welded steel drums or plastic bags to store the processed rare earth will affect the cost drastically. So will other measures to ensure there is no environmental damage or emissions to affect the residents.

The people of Kuantan are rightly angry that their lives are being reckoned on a weighted scale and they do not want this toxic industry in their backyard. All Malaysians who care for people before profits fully support them and we must do all we can to ensure that Lynas processes the rare earth in their own backyard and not in ours.

The people of Kuantan have asserted their rights as a community. It underpins the inseparable connection between the environmental movement and the people’s movement for democracy, justice and human rights. They have initiated an assembly which, hopefully, will be the start of a green movement whose time has come.

It is time to establish a national coalition of support and solidarity for all communities under threat from such irresponsible and dubious projects and strive for an alternative path of development in which the interests of the people come before profits. The success of campaigns such as Papan and Bukit Merah demonstrates the truism that the people united will never be defeated!

* Dr Kua Kia Soong is a director of human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram).

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

An environmental performance index next year

2011-10-09T17:42:00.001+08:00

October 14, 2011
Green light for EPI to gauge states
Star

GEORGE TOWN: Malaysia’s own Environmental Performance Index (EPI) which is designed to gauge the performance of each state in managing environmental issues is scheduled to be implemented by next year.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Unggah Embas said the Cabinet had given the green light for the EPI to be carried out comprehensively.

The project is a joint effort between the ministry and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

“We need a yardstick to gauge the performance of each state,” said Douglas.

“At the moment, everything is based on verbal commitments. For example, we cannot compare Selangor with Penang (on which state has done better in managing environmental issues). We need something concrete for this purpose,” he said after visiting the Penang Land and Mines Office in Komtar yesterday.

Douglas said the EPI would be developed in line with the Global Environmental Perfor-mance Index.

He said some of the parameters for the measurement include socio-economic sustainability, resources efficiency, environmental governance and awareness as well as behaviour of the people.

“We are trying to make it as simple as possible so that it can be understood by everyone,” he said.

Douglas also said that Penang’s “e-Tanah” system, an integrated online system for land management and administration, has seen 250,000 transactions being processed between Jan 1 and Sept 30 of this year.

He said the number of transactions had doubled compared to the corresponding period last year.

When visiting Sungai Petani, Douglas said the Sungai Muda flood mitigation project was 5% ahead of schedule and it is likely to be completed on time.

The RM420mil project started in 2007 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

Douglas said that more than 850 families living along Sungai Muda would benefit when it is completed.

The project will alleviate flooding in the area where the river banks will be raised to avert the overflow of water from the river, especially during heavy rain.

“Look at Thailand, which is affected by the worst floods in its history. We do not want a similar situation here. The Federal Government is planning ahead for the people, he said.

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Sunday October 9, 2011

KUCHING: The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is to develop an environmental performance index as a yardstick to gauge the environmental management performance of every state next year.

Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said the Malaysia Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2012 would be developed in collaboration with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015).

He said the cabinet has agreed to the ministry's proposal, which also had the support of the various federal agencies.

"At the moment, we do not have an indicator on the public response to environmental issues, like climate change, being discussed by a lot of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at dialogues and conferences, or the performances of local bodies like the Kuching City South Hall in managing solid and sewage waste disposal and number of acreages on trees planted," he said.

Speaking to reporters after officiating at the Kuching Division Journalists Association (KDJA) Car Boot Sale and Sports Day at the Kuching Integrated Sports Complex here, he said it would also help the ministry in terms of resource allocation and manpower needs.

Generally, Malaysia's standing is at 54th position among 163 countries worldwide under the Global EPI 2010 based on quantitative data obtained from the World Health Oganisation, United Nations Global Environmental Monitoring System, government agencies, NGOs and academia, he said.

The Malaysia EPI 2012 will also address issues pertaining to socio-economic sustainability as one of the data to include three categories of policy on resources efficiency, environmental governance as well as environmental awareness and behaviour. - Bernama

State sanctioned animal mistreatment in Zambry's Perak

2011-10-06T18:20:00.001+08:00

06 October 2011
Written by Mariam Mokhtar,
Malaysia Chronicle

It is outrageous that animals are being neglected by the MBI (Ipoh City Council or Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh).

Despite the public condemnation which it received last year, MBI continues the callous, indiscriminate shooting of dogs including pets, and has still not learned its lesson.

In October 2010, the MBI made headline news for shooting a therapy dog and long term companion of a 75 year old lady. This lady was about to exercise her dog, when she popped into her house to retrieve something she had forgotten.

When she returned after being away for a few minutes, her dog Spunk, was nowhere to be found; after much searching, she found his body. Spunk had been shot by dog shooters who did not even bother to check if the animal had a license on its collar.

The aftermath of this killing was that an immediate ban was placed on the shooting of dogs.

This was rescinded in March 2011 when the Ipoh Mayor, Roshidi Hashim admitted that his enforcement team had shot at dogs in Ipoh, because nurses coming off-duty at one of the private hospitals had complained about dogs barking.

Roshidi approved the shooting because the MBI had an ‘option to shoot’ dogs, in its local by-laws.

Filthy and neglected

However, during my visit to the Gunung Lang recreational park just off the Kuala Kangsar Road in Ipoh, on 24 September 2011, I discovered that dogs are not the only animals to suffer cruelty at the hands of the MBI.

The park at Gunung Lang is only accessible by boat. The place looks idyllic but on closer inspection, it has an air of disarray and neglect. At one time, this Gunung Lang park must have been a gem and a welcome green lung for Ipoh.

The park keeps animals in cages or fenced off enclosures. Many of these animals looked diseased and unhealthy. Their fur had no shine and the animals were filthy, and looked neglected.

One rabbit in the cage close to the jetty, looked as though its nose was about to drop off. Bits of its skin were bare of fur and the cage was littered with rabbit pellets and looked like it was rarely cleaned.

In the far-side of the park, several caged enclosures looked like they needed repair and there was no information about any of the animals or birds which they housed. Many of the cages were empty or had broken fencing. Equipment which needed repair and metal containers with sharp projections, were dumped in these cages.

The ostriches at Gunung Lang, did not look at all happy, nor healthy. Their feathers were sparse and unhealthy, their eyes dull. They were severely dehydrated and there was no water supply. One trough, which should have had water in it, had been removed from its frame, whilst another had only a small amount of brackish water.

Some deer were housed with the ostriches. They also looked unhealthy. They were lethargic and didn’t come to investigate us, as normal healthy animals would. They appeared to be dehydrated and were lying or standing on waterlogged ground. It looked like some of the deer were eating their faeces. Isn’t this a sign of boredom, stress, a lack of minerals in their diet or perhaps, malnutrition?

Other cages housed guinea fowl and turkeys. These birds also looked unhealthy.

Why has the mayor allowed such terrible practices to continue? Is he not ashamed that with Visit Perak Year (VPY) 2012 just around the corner, Malaysia’s reputation as a nation which ill-treats its animals will be highlighted by the foreigner?

As a local, many of us find that our complaints fall on deaf ears and that action is only taken by the authorities, when a foreign tourist makes a big issue of it.

If the MBI cannot properly manage these bird and animals, and if MBI cannot pay for the regular services of a vet, then these animals and birds should be put down to end their suffering.

Jokers in charge

Those in charge of tourism in Perak are excited about VPY 2012. However, these people have their priorities confused. They must realise that tourism is not just about an increase in the number of hotel rooms, or of places to eat.

Tourism is also about health, hygiene and human considerations towards animal welfare.

What good is an eatery if we have no clue about keeping out streets, toilets, kitchens and drains clean? Several people complain of irregular rubbish collections, drains which remain clogged and restaurants where the rodents are as large as domestic cats.

What is the point of a recreational park, which is covered in litter and broken amenities? Why should we have caged animals if we won’t care for them? Tourists will not be impressed by a park in which animals are suffering a slow and lingering death.

The MBI, the Ipoh mayor, the tourism department of Perak and the state executive councilor for Perak tourism, Hamidah Othman, must realise that VPY 2012 should be more than just restaurants, hotel rooms and a fancy launch for the VPY 2012 logo. A successful VPY must also include animal welfare.

Both Roshidi and Hamidah should investigate why animals kept in cages and enclosures in the Gunung Lang recreational park are kept in terrible conditions and they must do something about it. It should not be up to members of the public to continually catch the MBI with its pants down.

Malaysia Chronicle

The Belum Sandiwara

2011-09-20T18:43:00.005+08:00

Sandiwara means play acting. In Malaysia politicians are expert in sandiwara. Corruption and greed are two of the menace killing the environment and nature. When will they stop? Temenggor Forest Reserve is home to thousand of Plain pouched Hornbills....and this idiot just don't seem to understand the reason to gazette the forests! Tamby hoi, this PPHs need big trees to nest. Logging will make them homeless! Ada faham?

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Be reasonable with demands to gazette forests, says MB
September 20, 2011
Star

IPOH: Environmental and wildlife groups should be more objective when demanding that forested areas in the state be gazetted as non-logging areas, said Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

He said despite the state government having gazetted an area about five times the size of Singapore in Royal Belum as a state park, such groups were demanding more.

“Are they asking for the whole of Perak to be gazetted? After the Royal Belum, they now want us to gazette the whole of Temengor Forest Reserve.

“Later, they may also request forested areas in Pangkor to be gazetted.

“Let us be objective. Logging cannot be stopped completely because timber is one of the major industries which generate revenue for the state,” he told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from Japanese ambassador to Malaysia Shigeru Nakamura at his office here yesterday.

Dr Zambry was commenting on calls by such groups for forests along the Gerik-Jeli highway to be gazetted as part of the Royal Belum or a forest reserve to ensure the long-term survival of wildlife.

He said economic progress would be hindered if the state government were to fulfil all their demands.

Dr Zambry said Perak was among the few states that had a sustainable forest management concept.

“While allowing logging activities, we are also serious about protecting the state’s rainforests,” he stressed.

On the forest clearing activities in the Belum-Temengor wildlife corridor, Dr Zambry said he would wait for an in-depth probe to be completed first.

”We also want to know the actual situation and if the report is accurate,” he said

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September 20, 2011
‘Step up Belum enforcement’
By ISABELLE LAI
Star

PETALING JAYA: Intensified enforcement is needed to prevent poachers from encroaching into the Royal Belum State Park, said wildlife protection groups.

This is necessary following the clearing of a logging road in the major wildlife corridor.

The groups called for coordinated patrols to be heightened.

WWF-Malaysia executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said the logging road in the Sungai Mendelum area was easily accessible from the Gerik-Jeli highway.

He said the organisation had previously raised the alarm on poaching snares discovered in state land forests in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex (BTFC) a month ago.

“The wire snares were camouflaged so well that a team assistant’s foot got caught,” he said in a statement yesterday, adding that a camera-trap placed in the area had captured a photo of possible poachers.

Another camera-trap had captured a photo of a Malayan sun bear, which was missing one foot.

The injury was consistent with an animal who lost a limb while trying to free itself from a snare, he said.

The field team also heard three gunshots from a distance while they were in the area.

Malaysian Nature Society president Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed said illegal hunting and poaching were rampant in the area.

He said gazetting the entire BTFC was the only way to “truly protect” the area from illegal clearing and wildlife poaching.

“We should protect our natural heritage,” said Prof Maketab.

Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir earlier ordered a stop to all alleged land clearing activities in the Sungai Mendelum area pending a probe into the matter.

Environmentalists have called for a permanent halt to development plans as the area is frequently used by wildlife to cross from Royal Belum to the Temengor Forest Reserve.

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September 21, 2011
Strong case for Lower Belum and Temengor conservation
The Star Says

PERAK is extremely proud of the fact that it had in 2003 set aside 117,500ha of forest north of the East-West Highway as the Royal Belum State Park.

However, to the dismay of conservationists, the park excluded forests south of the highway, the Lower Belum and Temengor Forest Reserves, which both remain as “production forest reserve” destined for logging.

Also left out is the 1,820m width of state land on either side of the East-West Highway.

Plans to develop this state land are many.

They range from commercial crops and vegetable agriculture to orang asli farming schemes and construction of university campuses and research centres.

Scientists say leaving the forest reserves and state land unprotected is a mistake for they are important wild habitats too.

Royal Belum is just over a quarter of the 4,343sq km that make up Taman Negara and, on its own, is not sufficient for the survival of large mammals such as the elephant, rhinoceros and tiger.

It needs to be backed up by Lower Belum and Temengor.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) even wants the adjacent Gerik and Lepang Nenering Forest Reserves to be added to the state park.

Collectively, these will create a sprawling, contiguous wild sanctuary.

Without the adjoining forests, Royal Belum is all but an island of wilderness in a sea of logged and farmed areas.

The East-West Highway has already sliced the wild area into two and obstructed animal movements. Wildlife migrating between Belum and Temengor have ended up as road kill.

And with increased human activity comes the opening of new roads which will give poachers easy access to wild areas. More and more snares and poachers' camps are being discovered in Belum-Temengor.

In the National Physical Plan, the whole of Hulu Perak is marked as a Rank 1 Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA), a ranking that disallows development, agriculture or logging.

This last large tract of forest in Perak is a final stronghold for wildlife.

It shelters 14 threatened mammals and an array of unique plants and animals. Internationally, Belum-Temengor is identified as a Tiger Conservation Landscape it is crucial for the long-term survival of the big cat.

The site has one of the world's greatest concentrations of hornbills 10 species are found here and the rare phenomenon of plain-pouched hornbills gathering by the thousands.

Temengor must not be seen only for its timber and land worth.

This is a mistake: the Malaysian Nature Society had a few years ago estimated that timber yields amount to only between RM58mil and RM250mil annually, whereas the other products and ecological services which the forest provides such as water supply, tourism, non-timber forest products, carbon sink, pharmaceuticals, flood control, fisheries and electricity generation are worth some RM1bil to RM1.2bil.

Keeping Belum-Temengor intact, therefore, seems to make sense.

Malaysia identified as a major transit point for elephant tusk smugglers

2011-09-03T13:10:00.000+08:00

Saturday September 3, 2011
By ISABELLE LAI
Star

PETALING JAYA: More than 20 tonnes of illegal ivory have passed through at least two Malaysian ports since 2003, earning the country an unsavoury reputation as a transhipment hub for the multi-million ringgit trade and the figure involves only those seized.

Wildlife monitoring trade network Traffic regional director Dr William Schaedla said Malaysia had become a major hub for illegal ivory trade in the last few years.

This could have been caused by stricter enforcement measures in neighbouring countries, leading smugglers to venture through Malaysian ports, he said.

“Smugglers tend to move to an easier' place. If enforcement in other countries heats up, then they will find a soft spot elsewhere,” he said.

It was reported that 794 African ivory tusks were confiscated by Hong Kong authorities on Monday after they arrived by sea from Malaysia. The tusks, weighing 1.9 tonnes and estimated to be worth around HK$13mil (RM4.97mil), was concealed in a consignment declared as non-ferrous products for factory use.

The seizure came after last week's report that more than 1,000 elephant tusks were seized by Tanzanian authorities. The tusks were hidden in a strong-smelling container of anchovies destined for Malaysia.

The huge amount of ivory being shipped accounts for thousands of elephants killed in the past few decades. Some tusks come from freshly-killed animals while others are from stockpiles.

Dr Schaedla said it was vital that Malaysia increased its regional cooperation and exchange of information with Asean countries via the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network.

He also suggested that customs officers improve their communication mechanisms by using the Ecomessage system set up by Interpol. (Ecomessage is a database to coordinate international efforts to combat environmental crime, including illegal trafficking of wildlife.)

Local enforcement agencies should gather intelligence or information and bring it to the National Central Bureau (NCB) located at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.

Dr Schaedla said Malaysian customs officers should also work with the World Customs Organisation's regional intelligence liaison offices to exchange information and intelligence effectively.

However, Dr Schaedla commended the Customs Department for heightening its enforcement measures of late, saying: “Malaysia is now quite serious about wildlife crime but still has a long way to go.”

Traffic has identified Malaysia as “a country of concern” in its latest Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) report.

Records of confiscated ivory shipments showed several seizures in other countries had transited through Penang and Pasir Gudang, which were considered “high-volume” ports.

Among the countries that seized ivory shipments after transiting through Malaysian ports were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The latter two are themselves known transit hubs for the illegal ivory trade, according to Traffic reports.

A general manager of a shipping company said there were around 50,000 to 100,000 containers which entered ports for transit in a month, adding that the containers were allowed to be stored free in the container yard for 28 days.

He claimed that Customs officers would only conduct an X-ray inspection on containers if they had a tip-off.

According to the World Wildlife Fund Global website, there could have been as many as three to five million African elephants in the 1930s and 1940s.

However, today, only some 300,000 elephants roam southern Africa and considerably fewer in West Africa.

Malaysia Truly Boleh

2011-08-26T09:43:00.000+08:00

August 26, 2011
Country exposed as major transit point after seizure of 1,000 elephant tusks
Star

PETALING JAYA: A container of anchovies headed for Malaysia from Africa turned out to be no small fry. Hidden within the strong smelling anchovies were more than 1,000 elephant tusks.

The killing of more than 500 elephants for the tusks has now turned the spotlight on Malaysia as a significant transit point for the illegal elephant ivory trade.

Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (Traffic) South-East Asia senior programme officer Kanitha Krishnasamy said Malaysia had been named in the latest Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) report as “a country of concern”.

“Malaysia has progressively gained prominence in successive ETIS analyses as a transit point for African ivory because of a growing number of illegal shipments passing through its ports,” she said in a statement.

Foreign wires reported yesterday that more than 1,000 elephant tusks destined for Malaysia were seized by Tanzanian authorities on Tuesday.

AFP reported that 1,041 elephant tusks were hidden in a container of anchovies, in the hope that the smell would discourage closer inspection by the authorities.

Krishnasamy said the latest seizure “represented the death of at least 500 elephants”.

She said it was doubtful Malaysia was the end destination of these illegal shipments based on previous seizures in Thailand and Vietnam.

She urged the Wildlife and National Parks Department, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and the Customs Department to document all ivory stockpiles seized and report the matter to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Krishnasamy urged the Government to work with African nations to put a stop to the trade.

“If we do not act now, we will be contributing to the demise of the wild elephant population,” she added.

Can you respect the royal that don't respect environment?

2011-08-23T22:39:00.005+08:00

Royal link in iron ore plant

Teoh El Sen
August 22, 2011

Ex-MB Nizar says this has everything to do with the sacrifice of public interest

MANJUNG (Perak): There is a royal link in the controversial project to build an iron ore plant in Teluk Rubiah, Manjung, and one prominent critic alleges that this, coupled with the Perak palace’s cosy relationship with the Barisan Nasional state government, has everything to do with why public interest has been sacrificed to profit a select few.

“BN would always go ahead with something when there’s something in it for them,” said former menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

“Despite the hue and cry from the community, they don’t give a damn.”

Documents made available to FMT show that the Sultan of Perak owns one of the companies that sold off the piece of land that Brazilian mining giant Vale International is now developing for the multi-billion-ringgit project.

In 2009, KYM Holdings Bhd, through Harta Makmur Sdn Bhd, sold 488 hectares (1,205 acres) of leasehold land in Teluk Rubiah to Vale International and Vale Malaysia Manfuacturing Sdn Bhd for RM196 million.

Vale will use only 450 acres for the plant. The rest of the land, mostly forested, will be a buffer zone.

Checks with the Companies Commission of Malaysia showed that Harta Makmur is 60% owned by Tegas Consolidated Sdn Bhd and 40% owned by RAS Sdn Bhd.

The majority shareholder for RAS is Sultan Azlan Shah. His consort, Tuanku Bainun Mohd Ali, and his son, Raja Ashman Shah, are minority shareholders. Raja Ashman and his siblings are all directors of the company.

Vale’s project has many opponents, including environmental groups and Teluk Rubiah residents and businesses. They fear that it would damage the environment, ruin the local tourism industry and impair the livelihood and health of local residents.

Not a viable option

Nizar said Vale representatives met with him twice in 2008 over proposals for the project.

“I told them that the area should be preserved as a sanctuary. We had virgin jungles, with one of the best species of logs there. I could not afford to lose those.”
He said he proposed another state land in the swampy area of Tanjung Hantu, offering it almost free of charge.

“I was thinking we’re giving you a place with virtually no inhabitants. But before Vale could complete their analysis of the pros and cons of Tanjung Hantu, the government was grabbed, and the deal at Teluk Rubiah went through.”

Nizar headed the Pakatan Rakyat-led government until early 2009, when four defectors helped BN to take over, allowing Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir to replace him.

Nizar alleged that KYM had owed the state government RM20 million in accumulated unpaid charges over the piece of land.

“In order to settle debts to the bank and to the state government, they dumped everything on the Brazilians,” Nizar said. “Somebody’s interest is being taken care of.

“Obviously, Vale was given additional incentives when it decided to choose Teluk Rubiah.

“But I want to put on record that we did not condone using Teluk Rubiah as there were strong objections and it was not a viable option.

“Zambry decided to allow Teluk Rubiah because, one, he gets a good name in the eyes of the palace, and two, KYM gets to settle its debts.”

Nizar questioned whether the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the project was tailored to allow the project to go ahead.

“Were there amendments to the EIA? We don’t know, but it could be manipulated.”

Nizar, who is the Pasir Panjang state assemblyman, said he hoped Vale would honour its promise not to pollute the area.

He admitted that it was “a bit too late” to ask for Vale to stop building the factory.

“They’ve already signed all the documents and they will go ahead as they’ve made all the commitments to the Brazilian company.
“There’s nothing much we can do now, however much the environment might suffer.”

Zambry: State has no equity

Perak Consumer Association president Rahman Said Alli said pollution was a major concern.

“We respect royalty, but we are concerned that some people may be misusing the Sultan’s name,” he said. “They should not bandy his name around to obtain certain approvals from government authorities.”

Last January, Zambry said he was aware of objections to the project but added that his government was allowing it to go ahead.

He said the Perak government had no equity participation in the plant itself, but would participate in the port and logistics operations.

Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, started construction on the factory in July. It is expected to start operations by June 2014. The plant will have a dedicated jetty that will be the destination point for Vale ships of 400,000-deadweight tonnes carrying iron ore from Brazil.

Blended iron ore and pellets will be distributed to customers in Malaysia, China, Japan, Australia and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

Teluk Rubiah was once a traditional Malay fishing village and was a Malay reserve land.

The exploitation of the village and a portion of the Teluk Muroh forest reserve started in 1983, when the state government proposed that the area be developed for tourism.

The government de-gazetted a 478-hectare portion of Teluk Muroh forest reserve in September 1988, and 247 hectares were alienated to the Perak Development Corporation while 213 hectares remained state land.

A 350-hectare area was turned into the Teluk Rubiah golf course and beach resort.

The original size of Teluk Muroh forest reserve was 917.93 hectares. At one point, it was classified as a virgin jungle reserve.

In July 1989, the government de-gazetted another 163 hectares of Malay reserve land, displacing the villagers. About 10,000 of them had no choice but to move out, but they received some compensation.

In 2001, several environmental groups protested against logging in the de-gazetted parts of Teluk Muroh, pointing out that the area remained under the Sensitive Environment Area classification.

The government responded by re-gazetting a mere 89.83 hectares as forest reserve. However, without any public announcement, it again de-gazetted 121.16 hectares in January 2010.

Action on Cruelty to Animals - Is it for Real?

2011-08-11T09:31:00.003+08:00

Two news today that are worth pondering.

1st. We need more foreign non-governmental organisation (NGO) to speak up before our local enforcement agencies can work. This is how pathetic our custodians for wildlife are. Locals making complaints will not likely be heard unless there are some monetary interest involved. After reading the first article below, I am surprised that the private zoo keepers were playing God! Yes, they are cross-breeding wildlife. Are they trying to follow the hybrid culture from the botanists? Its BOLEHLAND!

2nd. New regulations to keep wildlife. Thumbs up. But in BOLEHLAND, it means more monetary side income for the agencies....because law breakers were seldom punished heavily. A small fine and they carry on with their business....its a truly BOLEHLAND!

Don't you think its time to change this rotten government?
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August 11, 2011
Dept warns zoos to shape up
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) is aware of allegations raised by a foreign non-governmental organisation on the cruel treatment of animals under the care of Johor Zoo and Danga World Petting Zoo in Johor.

Its director-general Datuk Abdul Rasid Samsudin said Johor Zoo had been advised to ensure that its animals were better treated and amend its husbandry practices to follow guidelines under the soon-to-be-enforced Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

He warned that if the two premises failed to change their ways, action would be taken.

Abdul Rasid said the Johor Zoo administrators, namely the state government, had admitted that they lacked the funds to operate the zoo.

British conservation and animal rights NGO Nature Alert director Sean Whyte, in an e-mailed statement to both Perhilitan and the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry, had alleged that a baby elephant named Paloh had been ill-treated at Johor Zoo.

The alleged cruelty received wide publicity in several tabloids in Britain while the zoo management claimed that it had chained up Paloh as training and to make sure that she did not harm the keepers.

Following the furore, however, the management has released Paloh from her shackles.

Whyte made a similar complaint against Danga World Petting Zoo, claiming that a 22-year-old elephant named Aidil was shackled for long periods and kept at a construction site with barely enough shade.

Aidil’s fate had also been highlighted in an earlier Starprobe report.

Whyte claimed that the elephant was also forced to perform tricks, including hitting footballs with a cricket bat, blowing a trumpet and harmonica despite Perhilitan imposing a ban against shows using protected animals like elephants, tigers and sun bears.

“I’m surprised to hear that Danga World is still employing the elephant in its shows.

“We have been monitoring them and our inspectors have not seen this happen,” said Abdul Rasid.

He admitted, however, that since the Perhilitan inspectors were not there every day, they could have missed such shows.

On animals seized from the Saleng Zoo following the Starprobe report, Perhilitan deputy director-general Dr Zaaba Zainol Abidin, who is tasked with overseeing the enforcement division, said it had identified 35 cross-bred tigers among the list of animals.

Cross-breeding of species is against the law, with Dr Zaaba noting that these animals were of no use to the gene pool and not advocated by science or conservationists.

As a result, he said no zoos in the world would want these animals, adding that DNA samples would be taken to confirm cross-breeding.

Abdul Rasid said the department might carry out an exercise to take DNA sampling of other cross-bred suspected animals from Saleng Zoo.

Perhilitan had to spend about RM1mil for the raid and upkeep of the animals.

On June 20, its officers raided the privately-run zoo in Pulai, Johor, shutting down its operations and seizing the animals.

Another private zoo highlighted, Lye Huat Garden in Kedah, voluntarily surrendered the animals under its care on July 9 after admitting that it could not fulfil the new Perhilitan regulations .

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August 11, 2011
Licences a must soon for all who keep exotic animals
By S.S. YOGA
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: All premises housing wildlife, including pet shops, will now have to apply for permits to continue operating under the new Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) director-general Datuk Abd Rasid Samsudin said even individuals keeping wildlife would be required to apply for permits.

“Pet shops have to do so. Currently, all they need is a licence from the local council,” he told The Star.

He said this was one way of monitoring premises such as zoos and pet shops to ensure that they did not deal in illegal trade of wildlife as many, especially shops, had previously been found to sell illegally-obtained wild animals.

The ruling also covers common household pets which are on the endangered species list, including animals such as the star and radiated tortoises and other exotic pets such as imported snakes and reptiles.

Abdul Rasid said the regulations for keeping animals in such premises were expected to be ready by the end of next month.

It was up to the minister to decide how much time should be given for zoos and other establishments to comply with the new regulations, he added.

“We have informed all of them about the new conditions. So far, we have audited 17 zoos and establishments and some have failed to meet the requirements.

“We have advised them of the changes they need to make to comply,” said Abdul Rasid who declined to reveal which zoos and establishments had failed the first audit.

He added that Perhilitan had proposed for a bond to be imposed for the issuance of permits for animals individually and if these were later seized, the bond money would go towards their upkeep.

Abdul Rasid said the department always welcomed help from the public and non-government organisations in monitoring the situati- on.

“To help with this effort, once each premises gets its licence, we will post details of each animal and the permit issued on our website to make it easier for them to be monitored and no question of impropriety may arise,” said Abdul Rasid.

He added that a zoo committee, comprising officials from the ministry and other stakeholders like NGOs, would be formed once the regulations were in place.

However, Sahabat Alam Malaysia president S.M. Mohd Idris said the new ruling would have little effect on smuggling of wildlife in the country.

“There is no assurance that Perhilitan will be able to curb animal smuggling even after imposing the Act.

“It is impossible for them to keep track on all individual owners or premises,” he said.

Mengkuang Dam Expansion Project - 1st Aug 2011

2011-07-31T22:55:00.002+08:00

Beginning 1 Aug 2011, the dam will be closed for the expansion of the dam for 5 years. It will be a white elephant when completed as there are not enough rivers (infact only streams) to feed the dam. A federal govt project that make no sense...except perhaps to enrich some cronies. Refer to this website that done a research on the dam years ago...under CM Dr Koh then. Today under the new CM Lim, its just the same cock story. Click here

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July 30, 2011
Residents don’t want park to be closed during work on Mengkuang Dam
Star

Residents living near the Mengkuang Dam in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, are appealing that the adjoining recreational park be closed in stages once the dam extension project starts.

Their representative Datuk Seri Teh Aik Lum said that the recreational park had long been a venue for exercise for those staying nearby.

“We understand that the dam extension project is necessary as it is important for the state’s water supply.

“However, we hope the recreational park can be closed in stages so nearby residents will be able to use sections of it as construction goes on,” Teh said during a press conference at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s office in Komtar.

Lim, who chaired the press conference, said the dam would be handed over to the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water on August 1 for the commencement of the RM1.2bil project.

“Through Penang Water Supply Corporation Sdn Bhd (PBAPP), the state has forwarded the residents’ appeal to the relevant ministry in a letter dated July 27.

“We want to say that we support this request but this is a Federal Government project and they are completely in control of it,” Lim said, adding that residents had collected 30,000 signatures in a petition to close the park in stages.

He added that the issue would also be brought up during a project meeting with the ministry and other relevant parties today.

PBAPP general manager Jaseni Maidinsa, who was also present, said the residents’ proposal involved building by-laws that the project constructor would need to take into account.

“The park is located directly in the construction area and it is mandatory for the construction site to be fenced up to protect both the public and the equipment at the site,” he said.

He added that the expansion project, which would take five years to complete, would increase the dam capacity by almost four times, bringing the maximum storage volume to 78mil cubic metres.

“This will safeguard the state’s water supply until 2020,” he said.

Human destroyers caught 2 of our friends

2011-07-29T12:39:00.004+08:00

By an elephant reporter.
Jungle News

BESUT: Two tame elephants turned traitors were used to lure our two friends in Lata Tembakah.

The proud State Wildlife Department officers captured our two friends at 9am yesterday by using two decoys (Cek Mek and Kala) from the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Pahang.

The human lured our two friends and were subsequently fired on with tranquiliser darts to make our friends sleepy.

Terengganu Wildlife Department director Yusof Shariff seemed to know that our two friends were 7 years old. They were transported to the state Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungai Ketiar.

They also knew that it was almost impossible to capture our two friends without the help of two traitors - Cek Mek and Kala. Cek Mek and Kala led our two friends to enter the huge transport vehicle.

The human spokeman by the name of Yusof even said that our two friends are wild and had done considerable damage to villagers' crops and had caused distress to the people. They didn't even mention that they were raping our jungle and our food sources. Don't you think human speaks with forked tongue? They blame us for being wild when they themselves steal and kill our other animal friends in the jungle. They caused so much distress to us. We are starving. Human raped our jungle foods and destroyed our living space. Please help us.

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Friday July 29, 2011
Crop-damaging wild jumbos captured
By FARIK ZOLKEPLI
Star

BESUT: Two wild elephants which had damaged crops in Lata Tembakah here since Monday have been captured.

State Wildlife Department officers managed to capture them at 9am yesterday by using two tame elephants (Cek Mek and Kala) from the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Pahang.

The officers managed to lure the wild elephants and fired tranquiliser darts to calm them.

Terengganu Wildlife Department director Yusof Shariff said the wild elephants, which were about seven years old, were transported to the state Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungai Ketiar.

“We knew it would be almost impossible to capture the wild elephants without the help of Cek Mek and Kala.

“They managed to persuade the wild elephants to enter the department's transport vehicles,” he said.

Yusof said the wild elephants had done considerable damage to villagers' crops and had caused distress to the people.

How Corrupt Can Malaysia Be?

2011-07-07T09:37:00.004+08:00

No action on international wildlife trafficking syndicate
Posted on 6 July 2011 - 06:14pm
Alyaa Alhadjri
thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR (July 6, 2011): PKR vice president N. Surendran today claimed that no action has been taken by the authorities to investigate "crucial evidence" which may lead to the crippling of an international wildlife trafficking syndicate allegedly operating in Malaysia.

Surendran, who is also the Malaysian Animal Rights Society (Roar) president, said the information could be obtained from Emilienne Justine Sarah – a Madagascar native who was arrested at KLIA in July last year for attempting to smuggle tortoises out of her country.

Emilliene was subsequently charged and detained for eight months at Kajang prison, where she gave birth to a baby boy and was transferred to Lenggeng detention camp before being deported to Madagascar last month.

At a press conference at PKR's headquarters, Surendran said Emilienne, while under detention in Lenggeng, had with the help of an animal rights activist lodged a police report which shed light on the "kingpins" involved in illegal wildlife trafficking.

"She was already under detention but the police did not make any effort to obtain the information from her, so she had to lodge an official report," he said.

In Emilienne's police report which Surendran distributed to the media, she named the notorious "Lizard King" Anson Wong who is now also behind bars as the person who had allegedly paid her US$600 (RM1,801) to smuggle in the tortoises from Madagascar.

Emilienne, who formerly worked as a waitress, said she needed the extra money to help support her family and was reassured that it would be a foolproof operation as custom officers in Madagascar and KLIA had allegedly been paid off.

"I first went to Penang in April last year and was told to contact a man named Vijay who owned a shop that sold tortoises, chameleons and snakes.

"When I met him (Vijay), he ordered me to transport various species of animals from Madagascar to Penang in July last year," she wrote in her police report which was lodged on June 23 at the Lenggeng station.

She said that two days prior to her departure for Malaysia from Madagascar, she was introduced to a man named Ong and his girlfriend who were responsible for packing the tortoises to be trafficked.

"While I was detained at Kajang prison, I found out that Ong's real name was Anson Wong. I was shown his picture and I can confirm that he was the man who hired me," said Emilienne.

Surendran, together with Lawyers for Liberty campaign director Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, called on the relevant authorities to investigate all claims made by Emillienne in her report and identify the man named "Vijay" who is purportedly operating in Penang.

"Wong is now behind bars, but his 'tentacles' are still spreading to as far as Madagascar. The authorities should take measures to use all information provided by Emilienne and crack down on these notorius characters," said Fadiah Nadwa.

Transforming Kuala Lumpur's Dirty Rivers

2011-07-01T23:14:00.004+08:00

The River of Life project to tranform KL's dirty rivers into an attractive waterfront suitable for tourism is indeed a noble task. But wait, this project only involved (1) River Cleaning (2) River Beautification and (3) Corridor development.
NOTHING mentioned about educating the public on the trash floating in the river. A large part of the budget will be collecting rubbish, manning rubbish traps and dumping rubbish (i.e. river cleaning). It will be a big waste of our tax money. Educating the public and households along the rivers would help in cutting the unnecessary budget on river cleaning. Control on development along rivers should also be enforced. Until then I see no benefit to the ecology. Riparian wildlife along rivers will lost their living space when concrete corridor development replaced the natural corridor. Amsterdam, London, Melbourne and Paris have already lost their riparian corridors. Why should we make the same mistake in the name of development? Lets wait and see how successful is the project or is it part of the scheme to siphon funds for the coming GE 13?

Friday July 1, 2011 MYT 9:22:07 PM
KL's River of Life project takes off
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The much-anticipated River of Life project, which aims to revitalise and transform Kuala Lumpur's dirty rivers, has taken off.

“I believe there will be a drastic change to Kuala Lumpur's image," said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

"This is what Kuala Lumpur folks have been waiting for.

“The Klang river has all the elements to become an attractive waterfront bustling with daily activities,” he said at the launch of the project to transform the Klang and Gombak rivers into iconic waterfronts on par with big cities such as Amsterdam, London, Melbourne and Paris by 2020 on Friday.

The Greater KL-Klang Valley project is an Entry Point Project under the Government's Economic Transformation Programme.

Najib said the project would contribute RM11.3bil to the country's Gross Domestic Product until 2020.

The RM4bil project is divided into three parts, namely river cleaning which would involve a 110km stretch along the Klang river basin; river beautification along a 10.7km stretch by the Klang and Gombak river corridor which will include pedestrian walkways; and corridor development.

Its all about Corruption when encroachments go undetected

2011-06-14T12:24:00.007+08:00

The forestry knows about it but no action taken. Enviction was carried out at another peat swamp called Raja Muda Forest Reserve (north Selangor). How come Kuala Langat South Peat Swamp was the exception? MY PERCEPTION - ITS ALL ABOUT CORRUPTION! IN BOLEHLAND CORRUPTION REIGN AND LAWS ARE ONLY FOR THE POOR!!

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June 14, 2011
2,000ha of swamp forest encroached by illegal farmers
By STUART MICHAEL
Star

MORE than 200 farmers have encroached 2,000ha into the Kuala Langat South Peat Swamp Forest and only a major operation can force out the culprits.

Selangor Forestry Department assistant director (operations and enforcement) Mohd Yussainy Md Yusop said 30% of the 6,908ha of the forest reserve had been encroached.

“Each farmer plant crops at least on 10ha in the forest reserve and employ workers to take care and harvest the crops.

On June 6, the department arrested five Indonesian workers for encroaching into the reserve and planting cash crops.

There are now remanded at the Telok Panglima Garang police station.

Yussainy said the department took statements from three employers and they would be charged with trespassing.

Under the Forestry Act 1984, Yussainy said those found encroaching into forest reserves could be fined up to RM10,000 or jailed up to three years or both if found guilty.

“The profits raked in by the farmers amount to thousands of ringgit and they are willing to take the risk of being jailed or fined.

“The money that they rake from the crops like banana, soursop, papaya, sweet corn, tapioca, sweet potato, turmeric, lengkuas (galangal), ginger, serai (lemongrass) and chilli is just too good. Some of these farmers are millionaires,’’ he claimed.

He said on Oct 25 last year, the department had given notice to the farmers to move out.

“Then, the department had planted 100,000 trees of different species to let the forest regrow but it is having a tough time doing so.

“These illegal farmers sprayed poison on the young trees and planted their crops instead. This shows how bold they are and have no respect for the law.

“Some may think that having cash crops at forest reserves is not as bad as chopping down the trees. But they fail to realise that pesticides can be harmful to the surrounding forest,’’ he said.

Rampant Food Wastages in Malaysia

2011-06-10T10:07:00.002+08:00

June 10, 2011
930 tonnes of food being thrown away every day
By P. ARUNA
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians can afford to eat less because they are either overeating or wasting food, throwing away up to 930 tonnes of unconsumed food daily, say experts.

This is equivalent to us throwing away 93,000 10kg bags of rice each day.

The experts warn that people must change or adapt their eating habits in the light of rising prices and a looming food shortage, adding that the country was already experiencing a food crisis.

Universiti Malaya Prof Dr P. Agamuthu said wastage was a growing trend, adding that almost 50% of the 31,000 tonnes of waste produced daily by Malaysians comprised organic kitchen waste such as leftover food.

“Malaysians discard about 930 tonnes of unconsumed food daily. Wastage of unconsumed food alone in Malaysia has doubled over the past three years. This does not even include leftover food,” he said, adding that the unconsumed waste mostly consisted of expired bread, eggs and old or rotten fruit.

Dr Agamuthu, who specialises in solid and hazardous waste management, said Malaysia was close to developed country status in terms of waste generated compared to developing nations like India and Bangladesh, which had almost zero unconsumed food.

He said food wastage was higher in urban areas due to the difference in income levels over rural areas.

Nutrition Society of Malaysia president Dr Tee Ee Siong said many Malaysians tended to overeat, usually taking more food than they should.

He said it was a common sight to see Malaysians pile too much food on their plates, especially during meals at restaurants and buffets.

“It could be because they don't want the hassle of going back for a second helping or they are worried that the food will finish before they can return.

“When we have too much food on our plates, we tend to overeat,” he said, adding that overeating was also the main reason for obesity among Malaysians.

According to Health Ministry statistics, 30% of Malaysians are obese while another 30% are overweight.

Dr Tee said those preparing food in households should be more accurate in their estimations on how much they needed to cook to avoid wastage.

“Parents need to be more sensitive about the wastage of food and teach their children by example,” he said.

Marditech Corporation Sdn Bhd group CEO Anas Ahmad Nasarudin said non-alcoholic foodstuff had registered an average of 4.7% increase in prices from last year.

He said an investigation by the body showed that the price of meat had increased by 7.6%, milk and eggs by 7.9%, vegetables by 11.4%, jam and sweetened products by 10.9%, fruits by 6.8% and fish by 3.8%.

Marditech consultant Ahmad Zamzam Mohamed said the country was already in a food crisis and Malaysians would have to change their eating habits to lessen its impact.

“The Government has been shielding Malaysians from the real impact of the crisis with various subsidies,” he said, adding that they would soon face reality as subsidies were slowly removed.

“We should learn to eat accordingly and not over-indulge,” he said during a press conference on the 7th Malaysia International Agro-Bio Business Conference here yesterday.

The two-day conference, which will gather experts to discuss the challenges of the emerging global food crisis, begins on July 13.

Dummy Award Goes To Penang Botanic Gardens

2011-05-26T18:05:00.006+08:00

And the Grand Prize for the Dummy Award goes to Penang Botanic Gardens.

Rational for the award:-

The first picture is of a bridge being built across the Sungai Air Terjun. There is so much space to build the bridge but it has to be built right infront of a tree. Ultimately, the second picture shows the missing tree.

Penang leads again!!

Animal testing lab in Penang shrouded in secrecy

2011-05-14T09:38:00.001+08:00

By SM Mohd Idris

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) part of the coalition group comprising the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE) and the Society for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) KL recalls an animal testing laboratory in Bukit Mertajam which has been in operation for sometime.

When and how did this research laboratory come into existence in our midst is clearly mind-boggling. The coalition group only became aware of its operations when it was mentioned in a media article last year, following public outcry over a proposed animal testing center coming up in Alor Gajah, Malacca.

However till today not much is known about this laboratory in Penang, and the kind of animal research carried out within the four walls of their fenced premises.

It is important to know why the laboratory is allowed to operate despite the non-existent laws concerning the use of animals in laboratories. Both the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and the Animal Act 2006 are inadequate to address and regulate the treatment and use of animals in labs.

The group would definitely like to know the species of animals being used in the toxicology tests, and the countries they are imported from. In the case of primates there has to be greater awareness to their capture from the wild and the adverse impact of supply and demand on primate population. The use of primates who are so genetically similar to humans should not be permitted and the use of these animals should be phased out entirely.

SAM and the coalition groups are opposed to the use of animals in research and believe all procedures that entail animal use should be scrutinised carefully and authorisation for such use should take into grave consideration the harm it will do to the animals and the likely benefit to human health. It would be interesting to note who are the monitoring bodies in overseeing the tests conducted and the frequency of inspection visits to the research laboratory.

Animal research is highly controversial, for both ethical and scientific reasons. The value of it is being increasingly questioned.

This endless and absolutely senseless repetition of animal experiments over a period of years, leads neither to the reduction nor the replacement, but rather to the perpetuation of animal experiments which only bring immense and needless suffering to the unfortunate animals.

The key question asked is not whether something can be done, but should it be done. Why are animals used? How much can they suffer?

SAM and its coalition once again call for an end to animal experimentation due to the extent to which use of animals for research causes pain and suffering, and the capacity of animals to experience and comprehend them.

The writer is president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Another species to doom

2011-05-09T18:24:00.003+08:00

May 9, 2011
Queen termites can make men king in bed, says man
Star

A MAN involved in the pest control business has claimed eating queen termites can boost the sexual prowess for men.

Metro Ahad reported Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar as saying queen termites had special properties similar to that of viagra.

He said the bug must be swallowed alive 15 minutes before the start of sexual activity for it to be effective.

“The effect is as if we are running in a marathon non-stop,” claimed the 45-year-old man, who said he started eating queen termites seven years ago.

Abdul Rahim claimed the price of a queen termite can be as high as between RM2,500 and RM5,000, depending on its size and colour.

He said that he once pocketed RM7,000 by selling three queen termites.

Well-known gynaecologist Datuk Dr Ismail Thamby, however, brushed off Abdul Rahim's claim as just a myth.

“If there is any effect, it is only psychological in nature because the person who eats it believes it works,” he said.

Panda Diplomacy - a stupid idea!

2011-05-01T09:39:00.001+08:00

Sunday May 1, 2011
Bring back panda diplomacy, China urged
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: A community leader hopes that China will loan its most famous icon – the panda bear – as a recognition of the long-standing relationship between the two countries.

Malaysia was among the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with China and both countries have enjoyed a long history of diplomatic relations as well as trade exchanges, said president of the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah.

“It will be of great significance if China can loan a pair of pandas to Malaysia as a symbolic gesture of the strong relationship between the two countries.

“Many countries have enjoyed this ‘panda diplomacy’,” he said in an interview.

Panda diplomacy, a practice which existed as far back as the Tang Dynasty, was revived in the 1950s and had been wildly popular.

Between 1958 to 1982, China gave 23 pandas to nine different countries.

One highlight of panda diplomacy was the Chinese government’s gift of two of the animals – named Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing – to the United States in 1972 after President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China.

Nixon reciprocated by sending a pair of musk oxen.

By 1984, however, pandas were no longer used as agents of diplomacy, as China began to offer the animals to other nations on 10-year loans, with standard loan terms including a fee of up to US$1mil (RM3mil) per year and a provision that any cub born during the loan would be the property of China.

Previously, there was an attempt to bring pandas to Malaysia but it did not materialise because it involved high maintenance costs as well as the need for an agreement between leaders of both countries. — Bernama

Penan’s human rights are being ignored

2011-04-19T19:23:00.001+08:00

US human rights report shines spotlight on Penan tribe
19 April

A new US government human rights report has highlighted the Penan tribe’s battle to protect their rainforests in Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo, from logging.

The US State Department document cites claims by indigenous rights groups that Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s government has leased the Penan’s land ‘to logging companies and land developers in exchange for political favors and money’.

Taib Mahmud has been in power for 30 years, and won state elections last week. Thousands of Penan tribespeople were unable to vote because they have not been issued with identity cards.

The US report describes accounts that ‘logging companies harassed and sometimes threatened vocal Penan leaders’ and that ‘workers from two logging companies… regularly sexually abused Penan women and girls’. A government minister has confirmed the rapes, but no action has been taken against the perpetrators.

The hunter-gatherer Penan are fighting to keep their last remaining rainforest safe from the logging companies. One Penan woman told Survival, ‘Our land and our river have been destroyed by the logging company, by the oil palm plantation. It brings hardship and suffering to our land.’

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The State Department report adds weight to growing worldwide condemnation of the Sarawak government’s treatment of the Penan. The Penan’s human rights are being ignored, their forests destroyed, and their survival threatened.’

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7228

Army Personnel Suspended

2011-04-03T20:24:00.005+08:00

Why would a hunter left a dead hornbill after shooting it? Do you think a poacher dare to shoot near army camp? If it was a poacher why didn't the army track down the poacher? There are too many unanswered questions. I just don't believe it. But can you spot the spin?

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Sunday April 3, 2011 MYT 4:50:38 PM Five army personnel suspended for slaughtering hornbill

SHAH ALAM: Five army personnel, including an officer, who slaughtered a great pied hornbill and posed with the dead animal, have been suspended from duties, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

He said the personnel would also be charged under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

The picture of them posing with the slaughtered bird, allegedly taken at the Royal Belum State Park in Perak was published in the local media recently and made its way online, drawing criticisms from environmentalists.

Ahmad Zahid said investigations showed that the bird, a protected species in Malaysia, had been shot by a hunter.

"The bird fell to the ground and upon seeing the dying bird, they slaughtered it," he told reporters after attending a family day at a theme park, here Sunday.

Ahmad Zahid said although the army personnel were not the ones who shot the hornbill, they should have tried to save it. - Bernama

Shame of our Army

2011-03-28T21:55:00.006+08:00

Soldiers accused of poaching protected wildlife in Royal Belum, and elsewhere

March 20, 2011 By Bella

Perak’s Royal Belum rainforest in the northern part of Malaysia is an area that is supposed to be totally protected as lying in the frontier areas bordering Thailand; smuggling and poaching activities would be rampant if there was no security. Tourist cannot go there without a permit and the Malaysian Army, especially its soldiers from the Territorial Army, Ranger, and Malay regiments in Perak, has been entrusted to patrol and protect the verdant forest area where rare and endangered animals are said to thrive under the soldier’s guard. Or so it seems.

As it has always been a well-known fact to the general public who have family, relatives, or close friends in the Army, that many of these soldiers are no forest guardian angels, but are actually involved in a great deal of poaching and destructive activities themselves.

However, the saying goes that everything is a rumour unless there is “black and white” proof. So we have for you today, a photo posted on the Facebook profile of a Malaysian soldier who proudly (shamelessly) poses with his fellow soldier friends, with a Rhinoceros Hornbill which looks like it has just been slaughtered. How disgusting!

The guess is that they could have killed it for food. Food that they can very well do without as those who know will attest that the Malaysian Army feeds its soldiers very well. The photo is said to have been taken in Belum. Even if it was not Belum, the Rhinoceros Hornbill wherever in Malaysia for the matter, is a protected species which is already classified as threatened. The Facebook page where the photo was displayed for the world to see, was copied and sent to Peraknews.com by a contact who is involved in various conservation activities in Malaysia including active involvement in Malaysian Nature Society Perak, and WWF.

The source who seeks anonymity for cited reasons, says the photo is just one prove and the tip of the iceberg for the unaccounted atrocities that the so called guardians have unleashed on the helpless animals. “Here we are thinking that Malaysian tigers and rhinos which are on the brink of extinction, are very safe and happy in Belum under Army protection,” he adds.

And now that leads one to wonder who the real poachers are, especially in an area where intruders can be shot on sight. Are outside poachers so daring enough to move in and out of Belum with a dead tiger or two, saddled on their back?

A lot of bickering, finger pointing, denial, and even alteration of facts can be expected after this exposure, but the right thing for the Army to do is to come clean by taking the right action, which is to stop its idle soldiers from participating in destructive activities that are not only detrimental to the surroundings, but also to themselves. Source here

Pagar Makan Padi

2011-03-14T11:51:00.003+08:00

I have seen with my own eyes during an expedition into the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve. The army personnels shoot to kill anything with refective eyes at night. In that incident, the eyes of the poor deer was smashed. Blood ozing like hell. The custodians were supposed to keep the forest intact but theirs were that of "Pagar makan padi"....

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When silence is not golden

Monday, 14 March 2011
By Azrina Abdullah, The Sun

THE end of February did not end well for Malaysia’s conservation efforts. Two non-governmental organisations filed police reports over a photo taken of four soldiers holding a majestic hornbill by the wings, with its throat slit. The picture was posted on Facebook with inappropriate captions along the lines of "sedap oooooo" (delicious oooooo). Hornbills are protected in Peninsular Malaysia under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.

This news relates to a study conducted by myself and two co-authors, Or Oi Ching and Kamal Solhaimi Fadzil, and published by Universiti Malaya. The study assessed the extent of wildlife trade by orang asli living in the Belum-Temengor Complex in Perak, a gazetted protected area. Orang asli communities living within the 50km radius of the complex were interviewed in 2010 to document their traditional hunting activities and issues affecting their dependency on the surrounding forests.

The survey revealed a not so surprising dependency of orang asli on the forest as an important source of livelihood which remained high despite the degradation of surrounding forests. However, and more importantly, the problem of encroachment, particularly by armed encroachers (both local and foreign), has increased over the past decade. This has affected the livelihood and safety of orang asli communities living in the complex.

The respondents identified parties who they believe are responsible for the overexploitation of forest resources, and nearly 30% stated that outsiders (mainly Cambodians and Thais), Malays from surrounding villages and soldiers are the main perpetrators. Therefore, it is not surprising that 42% of the respondents do not report any suspicious activities to the authorities because they believe that action will not be taken particularly as the enforcement authorities themselves are believed to be involved in poaching activities.

If the recent allegations against the soldiers are confirmed, this finding is something which the government should take seriously. The Defence Ministry has so far kept silent over the police reports and this is sending the wrong message to public about the government’s commitment to conservation. A message needs to be sent that such acts are not to be tolerated. It is a more serious crime when wildlife is killed illegally by those who have responsibility for protecting them and have taken advantage of their position.

As with any other country, Malaysia has inadequate resources allocated for effective wildlife enforcement. It is not a unique problem. But if enforcement officers cannot be trusted, then I despair about the state of our environment. The wildlife in Belum-Temengor will not have much hope of survival if this situation continues. Instead, what is happening in Belum is, on one hand enforcement officers allegedly exploiting precious resources illegally and on the other (based on media reports), parties that are more interested in saving wildlife that are not indigenous to the area. Both situations do not make efforts to save the native wildlife living in the 130-million-year-old forest complex any easier. Where has all the common sense gone?

Azrina Abdullah is conducting research on the links between indigenous groups and wildlife trade. She was regional director of Traffic, an NGO which monitors the global wildlife trade.

Do you still want nuclear plants in Malaysia, Najib?

2011-03-13T13:13:00.002+08:00

A nuclear melt down. Photo source here

13 March 2011 09:24
Written by Mariam Mokhtar,
Malaysia Chronicle

Photos of Japan’s nuclear power plants glowing orange, with fires raging and white plumes of smoke rising above the remains of each complex, should produce some soul-searching in Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. But probably not!

Last May, Najib’s cabinet approved the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant; two nuclear power stations are to be ready by 2022. Malaysia is now reliant on fossil fuels for its electricity supply; gas accounts for 64 percent of the total energy generation; the rest comes from coal.

Despite protests from environmental activists who accuse the government of not thoroughly considering other forms of energy generation such as solar, hydroelectric and wind power, Najib is set on two 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plants, to counter an “imbalance” in its energy supplies.

The Energy Minister, Peter Chin dismissed suggestions for renewable forms of energy: “Yes, very good, everyone wants to say that we want renewables, but what about cost? Can we force the people to accept high tariffs?”

Perhaps Najib and his cabinet might want to reflect on events in Japan. He should scrap his nuclear ambitions and consider the human cost as well as cost to the environment.

March 11 2011 was when the world got an apocalyptic reminder of the devastating power of a tsunami when the massive undersea earthquake generated a destructive wave in the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese and the rest of the world, witnessed the horrors of the earthquake which left thousand dead, and thousands more missing.

On March 12th the Japanese faced another danger: a nuclear accident.

Two nuclear plants near the coast reported emergency situations following the failure of systems to cool five nuclear reactors that had overheated. There was no electric power to circulate cooling water over superheated uranium fuel rods.

Then came the alarming announcements from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) that it had lost the ability to control pressure at several reactors and that it was having trouble with a valve that would allow reactor pressure to be eased.

As a precautionary measure, thousands of residents were evacuated from the immediate area of the Fukushima plants, about 150 miles north of Tokyo.

Najib will definitely use the argument that Malaysia is not on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and that we do not have earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. He will also say that local experts and foreign expertise will be on hand to man and manage our nuclear plants.

The Japanese work culture is very different from ours. Malaysians are “tidak apa” types, unlike the Japanese who are more dedicated, better team players and who display absolute loyalty to their companies.

Even with the best will in the world and even with the best technology, things have gone wrong for the Japanese. Apart from the power and valve problems, what other things have the authorities hidden from us, so as to avoid panic or embarrassment?

Malaysia’s greatest problem is not its geographical location. That is the least of our problems. Ours is the integrity of the people.

Our work culture is a culture of “anything goes”, where cover-ups are common, and where the “you scratch mine, I scratch yours” mentality prevails. These are more dangerous than being in an earthquake or volcanic activity region.

If we needed convincing of the integrity of our professionals see how recent court cases have exposed our chemists, investigating officers and forensic pathologists. They have broken many of the rules which their jobs and occupations demand of them. But then, they only take their cue from the top - our leaders lend themselves to abuses of power and pretend that serious crimes, like murder and rape never happened.

Najib is keen on nuclear power. What if our so-called professionals behave just like the “experts” we have seen in court? Their slip-shod methods and their sloppy attitude towards work will endanger lives and the environment.

Being good at cover-ups is almost a national disease. Billion dollar projects have failed and yet no one is made accountable. Even when lives have been lost, like Kugan, Aminulrasyid or Teoh Beng Hock, no one was found responsible.

Oftentimes, the scapegoat is someone insignificant at the bottom of the chain of command. These scapegoats are incarcerated for a few weeks or months, and enjoy a career revival after their releases.

Najib is also aware that in our country, people can be paid to “approve” things even when the conditions are not right. These include judges and heads of departments who issue the relevant permits.

There are very few people left with any integrity and self-respect, in our professions. So it is very difficult for the public to respect them.

Japan’s superior infrastructure and sophisticated technology are second to none. Even that did not prevent problems in the nuclear power plants.

In Malaysia, our problems with construction, equipment and maintenance are manifold. Our experience shows that we will have paid for a sophisticated system but what we get is the inferior product. There will be short-cuts taken in construction. There will be questionable business practices. After the various “commissions” are paid, only a pitiful amount remains.

Corruption in Malaysia has devastating effects, comparable to earthquakes elsewhere.

Will Najib realise that a nuclear power plant is a different behemoth altogether?

Environmental groups have said that the threat of a radiation leak underscored the general risks from atomic energy.

“We’ve opposed nuclear power for decades, and this is another proof that it can’t be safe,” said Sven Teske, director of renewable energy at Greenpeace International.

On Kuantan Rare-earth: Which drink would you prefer?

2011-03-10T16:08:00.006+08:00

According to their reasoning, it is less toxic than the one in Bukit Merah. Common, idiot... toxic is already toxic no matter it is less, diluted, or whatever...it is still TOXIC! Dumboo! Now, tell me would you choose Drink B?

Any sane person would only choose drink A. But in Malaysia, just because they want to outdo FDI of Selangor, Penang and Kedah (the opposition states), they welcome toxic industries to Malaysia. Want to be the world exporter kononnya. Want to outdo China pula.

We are not worry about the plant, but worry about the enforcement of rules and regulations that always gone disarray....afterall it has always been Malaysia Boleh! Pay and everything is OK!

Try build one at Pekan near Najib's home. Boleh ke?

Admin

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Aussie miner defends Kuantan rare-earth refinery: Less toxic than Bt Merah

Australian mining company Lynas Corporation moved last night to allay fears that its new refinery in Kuantan may repeat the environmental damage of Malaysia’s last rare earth plant, which is still being cleaned up nearly two decades after it was shut down.

Corporate and business development vice president Matthew James claimed the plant would involve lower levels of radiation than the Bukit Merah facility that has been linked to at least eight cases of leukaemia in the area.

“The key difference from Bukit Merah was that it used amang (tin tailings) that has 50 times the level of thorium of our raw material,” James said, referring to the radioactive element found in virtually all rare earth deposits.

He said the ore from the company’s mine in Mount Weld, Australia, would only contain 1,600 parts per million (ppm) of thorium as opposed to the 80,000 ppm in the amang used in the Bukit Merah plant set up in 1985.

Common signs of acute leukaemia. — WikiCommons The New York Times reported yesterday that the US$230 million plant (RM700 million) refinery will be the first such plant outside China in nearly three decades.

The rest of the world has been wary of the environmental hazards involved in their production, leaving China to control 95 per cent of global supply of rare earth metals.

The metals are crucial to high technology products such as the Apple iPhone, Toyota Prius and Boeing’s smart bombs.

The newspaper said that if prices of the metals stayed at current levels, the Lynas plant would generate over RM5 billion a year in exports for Malaysia, or nearly one per cent of its entire economy.

However, it also reported that Mitsubishi Chemical, which closed down its Bukit Merah factory in 1992 following steady protests by residents over pollution, is now quietly removing radioactive material from the site at a cost of US$100 million.

Nearby residents had blamed the rare earth refiner for birth defects and eight leukaemia cases within five years in a community of 11,000 — after many years with no leukaemia cases. Seven of the leukaemia victims have since died.

James, in the telephone interview, claimed that the factory would only expose its workers to 0.2 millisieverts per year of additional radiation. The normal radiation an average person would experience is 2 millisieverts per year.

He added that no special protective equipment would be required for the workers.

James also insisted that there was no concern over disposal of waste from processing the raw material.

He said that the facility could store six years’ worth of what he called “synthetic mineral product.”

Lynas is planning to reprocess the residuals into industrial products with only one, a cement mixture for road-building, containing thorium, said James.

He claimed that the cement would only contain 500 ppm of the radioactive element, the maximum permitted under international standards to allow the material to be disposed with few restrictions.

He also said the project has been approved by Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board, and that reports and studies were presented to the local public.

In the New York Times piece yesterday, Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, the director-general of the regulatory board, had said the project was only approved after an inter-agency review.

He said the report indicated that the imported ore and subsequent waste would have low enough levels of radioactivity to be manageable and safe.

“We have learned we shouldn’t give anybody a free hand,” Raja Adnan told the newspaper.

James added that the company chose Malaysia instead of refining the ore in Australia, due to savings in already available infrastructure and labour.

He said that the plant would need a larger supply of water, natural gas, industrial land and chemicals such as lime and sulphuric and hydrochloric acid — all readily available in Malaysia.

“Each container contains about US$1 million of rare earth so the transport cost is negligible,” James said.

James also said that the Kuantan facility, located in the Gebeng industrial area, will be the largest rare earth processing plant in the world once completed next year.

- Malaysian Insider

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Rare earth refinery slammed: Surely, we cannot be that desperate for FDI
Written by New Jo-Lyn,
Malaysia Chronicle

When Malaysian authorities quietly granted an Australian firm Lynas the licence to build a rare earth refinery at an industrial center in Gebeng, Kuantan, it revived bad memories of the radioactive contamination that occured in Bukit Merah, Perak some 2 decades ago which was blamed for the deaths of at least 7 people.

It has also spurred enviromentalists and opposition politicians into fierce action.

“The level of awareness regarding this issue is being raised only now, after I had gone to the New York Times who agreed to run the story,” Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh told Malaysia Chronicle on Thursday.

Bad record of enforcement and integrity

She was also worried about the poor quality of enforcement in Malaysia and the consequences of negligence in managing the radioactive waste.

The US$230 million Pahang refinery will be the first processing plant to be built outside of China in nearly three decades after governments around the world rejected rare earth mining facilities on fears that they might turn into public health hazards.

Lynas’s executive chairman, Nicholas Curtis, had told the New York Times that building and operating a rare earth refinery in Australia would cost four times as much. He also said that Australia could not host the facility as it was home to an environmentally minded and politically powerful Green party.

Later, at a separate interview with a Malaysian news portal, he assured that Lynas would be much "safer" than Bukit Merah.

“The key difference from Bukit Merah was that it used amang (tin tailings) that has 50 times the level of thorium of our raw material,” James said, referring to the radioactive element found in virtually all rare earth deposits.

His remarks immeduately set up the backs of Malaysian enviromentalists, who immediately condemned the move and Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration for taking chances with public safety. They compared the Malaysian government's apathy poorly with stringent Australian standards.

“Why would Lynas, who before this had operated in China, now want to move its operation to Malaysia, instead of processing the material in its own country, Australia?” demanded Fuziah, who is also the vice president of PKR.

Surely, we cannot be that desperate

According to Fuziah, lathanides (the scientific name for rare earth) can produce a low or mid-level grade of radioactive deposit.

She insisted that Malaysia should err on the side of caution even though the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board had approved the Lynas project after an inter-agency review indicated the radioactive ore at Pahang and its subsequent waste were manageable and safe.

Fuziah urged Najib to remember the debacle of Japanese company Mitsubishi Chemical in Bukit Merah. The firm had failed to dispose of low-level radioactive waste properly, exposing local residents to radioactive properties.

Residents there have suffered high cancer rates, premature and deformed births, and miscarriages. The locality's record surpassed the average nationwide rate.

If a similar leakage occurs at the Pahang refinery, it would pollute the nearby Sg Balok and ultimately the marine life in the South China Sea, Fuziah warned.

Lynas expects its new refinery to meet nearly one-third of the world’s demand for rare earth, which is used to produce goods such as mobile phones, batteries for hybrid and electric cars, wind turbines, and missile guidance systems, within two years of completion.

It also means that Malaysia will have the dubious distinction of being home to the world's largest rare earth processing plant once it is completed.

"We do welcome foreign direct investment, but surely, we cannot be that desperate. Public health and safety are paramount and so is the environment because that is what we will leave behind for our children to inherit," PKR MP for Gopeng Lee Boon Chye told Malaysia Chronicle.

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MCLM wants rare earth plant EIA made public
By Melissa Chi

KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — The Najib administration should make public the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for a RM700 million rare earth refinery in Kuantan and safeguards to prevent a radioactive disaster, a civil group demanded today.

Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) president Haris Ibrahim said even with assurances from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, there needs to be a proper study to prove that the refining plant will not leave harmful side effects.

“We want to know why Malaysia is hosting dirty industries belonging to other countries and why the government is allowing the country to be used by foreign companies in such a manner.

“We want to know what safeguard measures are in place to ensure there will be no radioactive disaster,” he said in a statement today.

The Malaysian Insider reported assurances about the refinery safety from the Australian mining company Lynas, which is building the plant near Kuantan, the capital of Najib’s home state Pahang. News of the refinery was first reported by the New York Times yesterday.

“Datuk Seri Najib Razak has given the assurance that there are safeguards in place to ensure that there will not be radioactive leakages from the new Australian-owned rare earth refining plant in Kuantan and that the waste will be disposed of properly.

“However, he fails to realise that radioactive waste poses an enormously difficult problem which to date no country has solved. Even France, the country where at least 80 per cent of its energy is nuclear energy, has problems with waste. This despite the fact that their engineering is a point of national pride,” Haris (picture) pointed out.

He charged that Malaysia has not yet proven itself in the area of radioactive waste management with its only experience being the Asia Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah in the 1980s.

“During then too the government failed to avert a radioactive disaster involving the rare earth plant in Bukit Merah, Ipoh, despite warnings of danger from the Bukit Merah New Village residents, lawyers and activists.

“There were numerous cases of leukaemia, miscarriages, babies born with deformities and early deaths, and the effects are still felt to this day,” Haris said.

The New York Times report that the Lynas refinery in Kuantan could break China’s chokehold on rare earth metals that are crucial to high technology products such as Apple’s iPhone, the Toyota Prius and Boeing’s smart bombs, said the newspaper.

The Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth plant near Ipoh was also reported by the New York Times to be still quietly undergoing a US$100 million (RM300 million) cleanup exercise despite shutting down in 1992.

The New York paper also reported that as many as 2,500 workers are rushing to complete the US$230 million plant in Gebeng, near Kuantan, that will refine slightly radioactive ore from Australia.

“The fact that the new refinery will generate RM5 billion a year in exports starting late next year which is equal to nearly one per cent of the entire Malaysian economy may be a tempting prospect. But not when human lives and safety are at stake,” said Haris.

He said the rare earth processing plant requires a lot of water each day — about three Olympic-size swimming pools per day.

“This water along with the waste will be flushed out into the nearby Sungai Balok. About 5km from the proposed plant site is a fishing village — Kampung Balok. The villagers, mainly Malays, supply fish for consumers in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Penang, Johor Baru and Singapore,” he said.

Malaysia Darul Sampah

2011-03-08T08:51:00.004+08:00

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish!
By LIM SUE GOAN
Translated by Soong Phui Jee

Like the unsettled traffic summonses and other issues, the waste management problem has long been an unsolved matter in the country.

The waste collection and disposal problem is getting more and more serious by the day. Everywhere, we see solid waste in plastic bags piling up in dustbins outsides houses or hanging on their fences. Roadsides, alleys and open spaces of residential areas are being used as dumping grounds for the solid waste. If they are not collected and left there for a week, the whole are will stink to the sky, and maggots can be seen all over the place, causing hygienic and health problems.

It is no exaggeration to say that many of our residential and commercial areas will soon become very unpleasant malodorous places if the rubbish problem is not resolved efficiently and fast.

Malaysians generally lack civic ethics, and are indifferent and irresponsible on matters of community hygiene and health. Many simply throw rubbish with nary a care for the public well-being. Hence, the drains and rivers are clogged with waste. The areas are infested with rats and cockroaches, and are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Stray dogs and cats roam the places, scavenging for food.

Meanwhile, it is doubtful that the scheme requiring the public to separate their waste before disposing them will succeed, unless there is effective enforcement, with heavy penalties for the offenders. The problem is that usually law enforcement often kicks off with a great fanfare and publicity, with ostentatious pledges by the authorities. But after just a few weeks or so, the pretentious enforcement efforts begin to tone down, and the situation is back to square one.

In addition, the waste management concessionaires are ineffective, collecting waste in certain areas only once a week. Will they be required to collect rubbish at least three times a week under the waste management scheme? The people are worried that the scheme might be used by the concessionaires as an excuse to charge addition fees.

Nevertheless, we still have to take the first step to protect the environment. The waste separation scheme has been discussed and debated for nearly 13 years. The then Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting had launched a trial scheme on waste separation in some urban areas with recycle bins being placed at public places. The authority had even sent a study groups abroad and spent millions of ringgit on publicity. However, the scheme never actually take off, and now there is talk that it will be implemented in April this year.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also planned to introduce Japanese technology, build waste incinerators and identify the construction sites for the incinerators. However, the plan was shelved due to the opposition from the affected residents.

Since we are still adopting the old-fashioned burial method, Malaysia contributes almost zero to environmental protection and the people have no understanding of how to save the planet. Some people are engaged in recycling work just for their own interests. They do it for money, instead of to protect the environment.

Compared to foreign countries, we only know how to use the old silly way to eliminate waste, but not how to turn them into profitable resources. The accumulate waste buried in the ground would sooner or later turn into toxins.

The agencies involved and their officials will never take act on the matter if the public health and waste management actions not included in the daily agenda of government departments. The public will remain ignorant if the environment protection education in schools and law enforcement are not promoted.

It is good to implement the waste separation plan within a month. However, are they well-prepared for it? It is also good to provide free garbage bins. However, I am afraid that the garbage bins might be stolen and as a result, the implementation of the scheme might be postponed again.

If the people’s mindset remains unchanged, it is impossible for the government to teach the public how to separate waste within a month.

The government has wasted too much time and resources on discussion, planning and advocacy. It is now the time to implement it so that the country can get rid of the "waste kingdom" stigma.

Sin Chew Daily

Foresters discover extinct raintree species in Sabah

2011-03-07T12:03:00.000+08:00

March 7, 2011
By MUGUNTAN VANAR
Thestar

KOTA KINABALU: Foresters are excited about the discovery of three tropical raintree species that were thought to be extinct in Sabah.

The rare dipterocarp species, known locally as Keruing Jarang was found in the Siangau Forest Reserve, near the coastal town of Weston, about 100km from here.

The discovery was made during a survey of the area by a research team from the Forestry Department.

In a statement here yesterday, Sabah Forestry director Datuk Sam Mannan said the species Dipterocarpus lamellatus was last recorded at Beaufort Hill in 1955.

The only other record was from Labuan in 1951.

The island today is virtually devoid of any natural dry land forests, said Mannan.

“It is a very exciting development for us,” he added, saying the research team also encountered four other rare dipterocarps in the reserve.

The survey was part of a statewide inventory by the Forestry Department to determine the conservation status of dipterocarps in Sabah, he said.

Forest botanist John Sugau said that of the 267 species of dipterocarps known to exist on Borneo island, 183 were found in Sabah.

While some dipterocarps were common and widespread, others are rare and restricted in their distribution.

Keruing Jarang was only known to occur in the west coast of Sabah.

In the natural forest, the dipterocarps are large trees that form the upper canopy.

Dipterocarps such as kapur, keruing, seraya and selangan batu, make up the bulk of commercial timber from Sabah’s natural forests.

After many years of logging, the status of some of the rarer dipterocarps had become uncertain, said Mannan.

Rainforest Robbery - Made in Malaysia

2011-03-06T11:04:00.002+08:00

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Rainforest robbery - How Sarawak's Chief Minister became a billionaire

Please forward this e-mail to your friends +++

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends, the latest edition of Tong Tana, the BMF newsletter, is now online under: http://www.stop-timber-corruption.org/resources

Please read the compelling account of how Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak since 1981, became a billionaire and transferred vast sums overseas. The newsletter includes the following chapters:

- Rainforest robbery: How to become a billionaire by logging and corruption
- Samling and the Taibs: collaborators in rainforest destruction
- The Boyert case and the FBI
- The Taibs' Swiss Monaco connection
- Taib's Canadian black money imperium
- Put a Stop to the Rainforest Mafia! - Demands of the Bruno Manser Fund

The newsletter is available in English, French and German. Please help us to highlight the Taib corruption case with anti-corruption and anti-money-laundering authorities around the globe and sign the online petition!

Your BMF team
Please contact us for more information: Bruno Manser Fonds, Socinstrasse 37, 4051 Basel / Switzerland, +41 61 261 94 74
www.bmf.ch, www.stop-timber-corruption.org.
PS: Follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/bmfonds

Solid waste management act to be enforced from next month

2011-03-01T16:30:00.003+08:00

What about littering? No management act on littering?

Tuesday March 1, 2011 MYT 3:07:00 PM
By NG CHENG YEE
Star

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians will have to start separating their waste when the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act is enforced by next month.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said, however, a two-year grace period would be given to the public to get used to the practice before fines were imposed on those who failed to do so.

"Within these two years, the three concessionaires in charge of solid waste management in the country will have to raise awareness on separation of waste at source.

"All household owners must know their duty to segregate their own waste before dumping it," he told reporters at a press conference here Tuesday, after officiating at the Green Tour - A Rehda Youth initiative.

On assessment charges, Chor said houseowners would still be charged the same rate when the Act took effect in April.

"The assessment fees will still be collected by the local councils and not the concessionaires," he said.

He added that RM1.4bil needed to be paid each year to the three companies - E-Idaman Sdn Bhd, which is responsible for waste management in the northern region, Alam Flora Sdn Bhd (central region), and Southern Waste Management Sdn Bhd (southern region).

"However, the fees imposed on houseowners are still very low and the maximum amount we are able to collect from them is only about RM900mil.

"The Federal Government still has to fork out another RM500mil to pay these three companies for their services," he said.

Malaysia Deforestation Is Three Times Faster Than Rest Of Asia Combined

2011-02-07T00:33:00.002+08:00

(AP) - New satellite imagery shows Malaysia is destroying forests more than three times faster than all of Asia combined, and its carbon-rich peat soils of the Sarawak coast are being stripped even faster, according to a study released Tuesday.

The report commissioned by the Netherlands-based Wetlands International says Malaysia is uprooting an average 2 percent of the rain forest a year on Sarawak, its largest state on the island of Borneo, or nearly 10 percent over the last five years. Most of it is being converted to palm oil plantations, it said.

The deforestation rate for all of Asia during the same period was 2.8 percent, it said.

In the last five years, 353,000 hectares (872,263 acres) of Malaysia's peatlands were deforested, or one-third of the swamps which have stored carbon from decomposed plants for millions of years.

"We never knew exactly what was happening in Malaysia and Borneo," said Wetlands spokesman Alex Kaat. "Now we see there is a huge expansion (of deforestation) with annual rates that are beyond imagination."

The study was carried out by SarVision, a satellite monitoring and mapping company that originated with scientists at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

"Total deforestation in Sarawak is 3.5 times as much as that for entire Asia, while deforestation of peat swamp forest is 11.7 times as much," the report said.

Malaysia's peatland forests are home to several endangered animals, including the Borneo Pygmy elephant and the Sumatran rhino, as well as rare timber species and unique vegetation

Kaat said the study showed deforestation was progressing far faster than the Malaysian government has acknowledged.

Scientists say the destruction of the Amazon, the rain forests of central Africa and in Southeast Asia accounts for more than 15 percent of human-caused carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Live forests soak up carbon from the atmosphere, while burning trees release that stored carbon – contributing to climate change in two ways at once. But emissions effect is amplified when trees are felled from the peatlands and the swamps are drained for commercial plantations.

Malaysia and Indonesia produce about 85 percent of the world's palm oil, an ingredient in cooking oil, cosmetics, soaps, bread, and chocolate. It also is used as an industrial lubricant and was once considered an ideal biofuel alternative to fossil fuel, but it has fallen out of favor because of earlier reports of widespread rainforest destruction for the expansion of plantations.

Indonesia has pledged to slow deforestation in its territory, and last year Norway pledged to give Jakarta $1 billion a year to help finance an independent system of monitoring and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions.

Greeted by Trash at Teluk Kampi

2011-02-01T23:27:00.007+08:00

Teluk Kampi, one of the longest and remotest beach in Penang National Park.

The stingless beehive

The strangling ficus after the host tree was strangled and had since decayed.

The suspected feces of a feral dog.

Greeted by trash

It has been at least 6 years since we last step foot on Teluk Kampi, one of the 8 beaches in Penang National Park. I remember we went there immediately after the tsunami and we found most vegetation along the beach were harsh brown and dry, after being washed with salt water. Today it is green.

Teluk Kampi is a special place for us. A remote beach not visited by many but we have been there countless time. In fact, each time we hike there from Pantai Kerachut, we have to bash through the overgrowth. It just mean that there were few hikers to Teluk Kampi.

You hardly see any trash along the trail as well as on the beach. The beach is long (about a kilometer) and the sand is white. There are several small streams that were our source of fresh water. A war trench is fading away and disappearing among the overgrowth. A solitary "pokok melaka" (Indian gooseberry) that once stood so firmly with fruits is now difficult to spot.

A wild dog was seen hurriedly disappearing into the bushes. Now I can understand why a four-legged skink was found crawling on a tree, apparently escaping from the hunting instint of the dogs on the ground! Mind you when a national park has introduced domesticated animals (we saw another pack of dogs at the ridge of Teluk Duyung), the local indigenous wildlife suffers. And that could be the reason why I didn't see any amphibian (usually frogs) and shy otters swimming across the small island off the beach. Of course these feral dogs will be competing with the local species for food too.

A national park status has provided a permanent protection for the last piece of wilderness in Penang Island. It has also increase the inflow of hikers and visitors to this remote part of the park. With increase visitors, the trash is becoming a norm. And that, withered a protected park.

The carefree flight of the white bellied sea eagles as the sun descended and disappearing into the sea were something that we will cherished for life. We should have been selfish to keep this to ourselves. I regret being one of the activists that lobbied the Pantai Acheh Forest Reserve as a Penang National Park more than 10 years ago. I thought by protecting it as a park, all these nature wonders will be kept for future generations. I am not so sure now!

Is this the way to welcome the rabbit year?

2011-02-01T22:14:00.004+08:00

GONG XI FA CAI

Welcome to the year of the Rabbit

Pet bunny craze spells bad news for rabbits
By Victoria Jen
31 January 2011 1205 hrs
channelnewsasia.com

TAIPEI : Rabbit souvenirs are flying off the shelves in Taiwan.

Some end up in personal collections, while others as presents to family and friends.

But there is one gift people in Taiwan are being asked not to buy for the Year of the Rabbit - and that's pet bunnies.

A shop owner said sales of its rabbits have gone up by as much as 30 per cent since October.

And that number is going to peak, ahead of the Lunar New Year.

"This year is the Year of the Rabbit, so many products with rabbit pattern are shown on television. And seeing how cute rabbits are makes many people want to buy one as a pet. That's why the demand is so high," said Lai Tai Yuan, owner of Ay Mhau Yuan Company.

Demand for pet rabbits is on the rise, as Taiwanese usher in the Year of the Rabbit. But animal activists are worried that many will end up on the street before the year is over.

Last year alone, more than 16,000 rabbits were abandoned in Taiwan.

The Taipei Rabbit Society is a shelter dedicated to rescuing the animals. It is worried that even more rabbits will be abandoned this year.

"A bunny is only about the size of your palm when you buy it. It grows three to four times bigger after six months as it becomes an adult rabbit. That's usually when they fall out of favour with their owners and get abandoned. If we take the Lunar New Year as the peak of rabbit sales, then we expect to see the height of abandonment this coming July and August," said Kuo Ba, spokesman for the Taipei Rabbit Society.

Rabbits are extremely vulnerable, and have practically no chance of surviving on its own.

"Pet rabbits are different from rabbits in the wild. When they end up on the street, their chances of survival are almost zero. They are easy target for attack from stray dogs, cats and even humans, or they can die from eating fertilizer and grass with pesticide," said Kuo.

- CNA /ls

DONE!

2011-01-26T11:39:00.001+08:00

6,000 GM mozzies released in Bentong
Wednesday January 26, 2011 MYT 10:45:48 AM
Star

PETALING JAYA: The Institute for Medical Research (IMR) released about 6,000 genetically-modified (GM) Aedes aegypti mosquitoes last month in a test to detect the insects' flight range and survivability in the wild.

IMR said in statement that the the mosquitos were released in an uninhabited forest near Bentong, Pahang on Dec 21.

"The experiment was concluded on Jan 5 and fogging was done on Jan 6. IMR will monitor the area for up to 2 months," the statement said.

The field trial had raised concerns from NGOs. The Government approved the trial after several tests were carried out.

Neighbours’ support sought to stop GM mozzie field trials

2011-01-20T22:30:00.000+08:00

Thursday January 20, 2011
Star

THE Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) have sent memorandums to the health ministries of neighbouring countries to oppose the release of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in Bentong and Alor Gajah.

CAP and SAM president SM Mohamed Idris said Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia should have been consulted in the decision to push ahead with GM mosquito field trials that are aimed at stunting the growth of Aedes mosquitoes.

He said the memorandum was also sent to Malaysia’s Health Ministry along with other related ministries and departments.

“There are some unanswered questions about the impact of the proposed releases,” Mohamed Idris said, dubbing the modified insects as ‘terminator mosquitoes’ due to their genetically altered state.

He said this at a press conference at the CAP office yesterday.

He also urged the National Biosafety Board (NBB) to revoke its approval to the Institute for Medical Research for the field experiments.

Earlier this month, it was reported that field trials for GM mosquitoes releases in Bentong and Alor Gajah were delayed due to the rainy season last month.

The objective of the project is to allow normal Aedes-carrying female mosquitoes (only female mosquitos bite) to mate with the male GM mosquitoes that carry a conditional lethality trait, resulting in any offspring dying before they reach adulthood.

Another Roadkill

2011-01-15T13:06:00.001+08:00

January 15, 2011
Probe on jumbo accident Dept to summon truck driver who knocked down elephant
By IVAN LOH
Star

THE Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department has launched an investigation into a road accident that killed a female elephant at KM32 of the East-West Highway near the Banding Lake in Gerik.

Department director Shabrina Mohd Shariff said they would be summoning the 32-year-old truck driver who had knocked down the elephant to record his statement.

“We want to determine whether the driver was driving too fast or if there was poor visibility during the incident,” Shabrina said when contacted yesterday.

“The animal was also dark in colour and the driver may not have noticed it during the night,” she said.

The elephant was killed when it was hit by the cement truck at the highway on Thursday at about 1am.

Although the driver was unhurt, the front part of his vehicle was seriously damaged.

Shabrina also said that the area where the elephant was hit was a common spot where herds of elephants would cross.

“It is also common for the wild animals to cross it at night,” she said.

She also pointed out that signboards, which advise road users about the presence of elephants, were placed at various parts of the highway.

Shabrina said the elephant, with a foot diameter of 36cm, had been buried.

She said that the one killed was from a herd of five elephants from the Temenggor Forest Reserve.

There are currently about 30 elephants at the Temenggor Forest Reserve and another 60 inside the Royal Belum Forest Reserve area, which are near the highway, she added.

More male turtles needed

2011-01-13T09:19:00.000+08:00

January 13, 2011
By CHRISTINA CHIN
Star

GEORGE TOWN: Penang is trying to hatch more male turtles to mate with females so that the reptiles will not disappear from the island’s coastlines.

The Pantai Kerachut Turtle Conservation Sanctuary is working to maintain a breeding ratio of 70 females to 30 males under a programme which began three years ago.

Department licensing and resource protection officer Mansor Yobe said they needed to have more male turtles for the females which come to shore to lay their eggs eight times a year.

“If we don’t do this, there may not be any turtles left here in future,” he said at the sanctuary at the north-west tip of Penang island.

Besides Green Turtles, the Olive Ridley Turtles are also known to lay their eggs at Pantai Kerachut, Pantai Teluk Kampi, Pantai Teluk Ailing and Pantai Teluk Ketapang on the island’s north-west coast.

Mansor said records from 2000 until 2006 showed that close to 100% of all hatchlings at the sanctuary were females.

He said they then started testing various sites by burying the eggs in shaded spots under trees or in cooler areas to try to get more male turtles hatched.

He added that a shaded hatchery was built at a cost of RM16,500 in 2009 to help determine the gender of the turtles.

“After collecting the eggs from several sites, we placed them in the shaded hatchery where the temperature is about 28.2 degrees Celsius.

“Eggs buried in the sand outside the shaded hatchery will produce females as the temperature there is hotter at 30 degrees Celsius,” he said.

He said eggs at the sanctuary were hatched on the beach rather than in a temperature-controlled incubator because research has shown this produced healthier hatchlings.

He said last year, some 5,000 eggs were collected and 70% were successfully hatched.

“We hope to collect the same number this year,” he said, adding that the peak period for turtles to lay eggs is between December and August.

The God must be crazy?

2011-01-02T18:17:00.001+08:00

Sunday January 2, 2011
More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in US
Star

BEEBE, Arkansas: Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said the birds fell over a 2km area, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."

The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.

Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Wisconsin.

Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive." She said she doubted the birds were poisoned. - AP

Wildlife Act takes effect in peninsula and Labuan

2010-12-29T08:55:00.001+08:00

December 29, 2010
By M. SHAMINEE
Star

PETALING JAYA: The Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 has been fully enforced in the peninsula and Labuan as of yesterday.

The Act, which was passed by Parliament in August, has a wider scope and jurisdiction in the protection of more wildlife species and activities related to wildlife.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) said in a statement yesterday that with the Act fully enforced, it would have better control on all wildlife species, wildlife derivatives, hybrid species and invasive alien species.

Perhilitan, it said, would also have the jurisdiction to address issues on wild animal welfare and cruelty.

“The new law will be more deterrent and provides stringent penalties and punishment for poaching and other wildlife crimes,” it said.

The new penalties include fines of up to RM500,000 with jail term of not more than five years while the minimum penalty imposed for several offences is not less than RM5,000.

The new Act also provides mandatory jail sentence for a term not exceeding five years and a fine not less than RM100,000 and not more than RM500,000 for offences involving protected wildlife such as tigers, rhinoceros, serow (a type of goat), gaur (seladang), leopard, clouded leopard and false gharial (a type of freshwater crocodile).

It also provides for the director-general of Perhilitan to appoint any public officer to exercise the powers of enforcement.

The Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716) can be viewed at www.wildlife.gov.my.

Another smuggling of exotic wildlife

2010-12-22T18:33:00.004+08:00

If you read the article below, you will notice that the seizure was with the help of a tip-off. So competent? Several questions need some answers.

How does the driver so easily vanish?

How come the lorry can pass the Msia's check point?

If it has been a tip-off, enforcers would have ample time to catch the smuggler even before entering the check point!

The driver could be informed by officer on the take?

Where do you think the wildlife will be released? As usual we won't know. Perhaps these wildlife could be sent back to the smuggler. Everything is just doubtful.

Money is king ok!

-------
December 22, 2010
Saved from fate as exotic meat
Story and photos by G.C. TAN
thestar

OVER 1,800 endangered reptiles meant for the cooking pot were rescued by the Customs Department at Bukit Kayu Hitam.

Acting on a tip-off, the department personnel seized 475 hill tortoises, 437 freshwater tortoises, 710 monitor lizards and 196 cobras and king cobras from a lorry that was parked near the Malaysia-Thai duty free zone at about 6.40am on Monday.

The reptiles were kept inside blue sacks, plastic bags and plastic baskets that were hidden in between heaps of empty fruit baskets and 20 boxes of sawn logs meant for carving.

State customs director Ishak Ahmad said the lorry had passed through the Malaysian Immigration checkpoint and had queued to enter the Thai checkpoint that opened at 7am.

“We believe the reptiles which weighed 4,300kg would end up in restaurants selling exotic dishes in a neighbouring country.

“The smugglers thought they can fool us by hiding the reptiles in the front part of the lorry and the empty fruit baskets and logs behind,” he said to reporters at the Customs store yesterday.

Ishak said the department laid an ambush for the lorry which was left unattended.

“We moved in after two hours when there was no sight of the driver or conductor,” he said.

He said this was the biggest seizure of wildlife by the department this year.

He said the reptiles worth RM24,000, lorry and the 20 boxes worth RM6,000 would be handed over to the state Wildlife and National Parks Department for further action.

The Shame of Pulau Jerejak

2010-12-21T10:30:00.007+08:00

SHAME of Pulau Jerejak. PSDC has a share in this resort thus making every Penangites guilty of this shameful acts. I can only say that the people are more interested in making money than to care for our pristine environment. Banning plastic in Penang while such shameful acts persisted really justified the hypocrizy in us. Shame to Penang! Do you want to visit the resort knowing that your food waste will be part of this shameful act?

Welcome to the Shame of Pulau Jerejak (Selamat Datang)

The last picture is from the Quarantine Camp, north of the Pulau Jerejak Resort. Foreign workers stay in this 1911's building, working at the PBA's new reservior

Dictators love nuclear power

2010-12-20T18:14:00.002+08:00

December 19, 2010
Malaysian Insider

I am not at all surprised that the Barisan Nasional government has decided to build a nuclear power plant. After all, despite what environmentalists might like to think, the primary case against nuclear power has always been its economics.

When you take into account the lifecycle cost of nuclear power — from feasibility to construction to operation and, finally, decommissioning — it is the most expensive conventional method of producing electricity.

Add to that the inherent risks of nuclear reactors, plus the still unresolved question of what to do with spent fuel, and it is no surprise that the nuclear power industry has seen some very tough times in the past three decades.

Over the past few years, however, high prices of oil, gas and coal, coupled with concerns with carbon dioxide and global warming, have given nuclear advocates a new lease of life. Under current conditions, provided we are prepared to ignore the safety and environmental contamination issues, it is possible to make a conceivable economic argument for nuclear power.

Nuclear power requires tremendous up-front investment followed by relatively low operating costs. Thus all you have to do is assume an unrealistically low interest rate and continually high prices for fossil fuels. Project these assumptions over decades and you can show that nuclear energy is less expensive than using fossil fuels. However, you must carefully avoid all comparisons of nuclear with renewable energy — hydro, wind, solar and biomass — which are undoubtedly superior in terms of economics, safety and environmental protection.

Paradoxically, the characteristics of nuclear power so feared by its critics — enormous capital cost, open-ended escalation clauses and the oligopolistic nature of the industry — makes it a very attractive proposition for corrupt practices, provided you can ride roughshod over the opposition. This is exactly what happened in the Philippines, more than three decades ago.

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP)

The story of BNPP, Southeast Asia’s first and only nuclear power plant, illustrates some of the points above perfectly. In 1971, Ferdinand Marcos decided to build a nuclear power plant for the Philippines. However, at that time he was still the democratically-elected president and was unable to convince his people of the need to go nuclear.

By 1973, conditions were in place for him to push through his choice. The opposition had been eliminated by his declaration of martial law in 1972 and the quadrupling of oil prices because of the Arab oil embargo during the Yom Kippur war of 1973, made nuclear easier to sell to the public.

The tragic tale of BNPP has been carefully and comprehensively documented by the conservative business magazine, Fortune, in a remarkable 1986 article entitled “The $2.2 billion Nuclear Fiasco”. Initially Marcos delegated the responsibility for the plant to the National Power Co, the government-owned electric utility, which began negotiating for the supply of two 600MW nuclear plants from General Electric. By 1974 negotiations were more or less complete, with GE offering to supply two 620 megawatt reactors for US$650 million (RM2 billion at prevailing rates).

Westinghouse was late to the game and decided to leapfrog GE by dealing personally with Marcos. Westinghouse appointed Herminio Disini, a golfing buddy of Marcos whose wife was a cousin of Imelda Marcos, as its agent and he was able to arrange for the latecomer to present its pitch directly to Marcos and his cabinet at Malacanang Palace. After the meeting Marcos directed National Power to stop negotiating with GE and deal only with Westinghouse.

In 1976, after many rounds of fruitless negotiations and interference from Marcos, National Power announced that Westinghouse would build the BNPP, with one 626MW reactor, for US$722 million. The intervention of Marcos meant that the Philippine people had to pay a higher price for half the power! In addition, Disini, although he had no prior experience in construction, formed a new company which was awarded major BNPP subcontracts by Westinghouse.

Volcano and earthquake zone

Although the site was contentious, work began quickly, even before seismic and other on-site tests by the government regulator, the Philippines Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), were completed. Just 100km from Manila, BNPP sits on Mount Natib, a dormant volcano and within 40km of three geologic faults.

Alarmed by these facts PAEC called the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) for help. In 1978, two years after construction had commenced, the IAEA concluded that the volcanic and earthquake risks were “improperly addressed” and recommended that construction be stopped until more tests were done.

The PAEC chairman, Librado Ibe, was under tremendous pressure to ignore the IAEA report and issue a construction permit for work on the reactor itself to commence. Unable to resist any further, Ibe signed the permit in April 1979 and, four days later, emigrated with his family to the United States. Ibe explained to Fortune Magazine that he felt it was unsafe to resist Marcos’s lieutenants any longer.

A few months later Marcos himself halted construction because Filipino opposition to BNPP has grown substantially after the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, US. Marcos appointed a new ad hoc commission to study the plant and they concluded that it was unsafe and would have to be modified to meet new US safety standards.

After two further years of haggling, Westinghouse agreed to upgrade the design, at an additional cost of US$700 million. By then the total cost of BNPP had risen to USD$1.8 billion.

Westinghouse rushed to complete BNPP amid growing opposition from Filipino activists. Construction was completed in January 1985 and BNPP was handed over to National Power. Westinghouse collected its money and the last construction worker left in May 1985.

Not a single watt

However, the plant was in no state to be fuelled. Inspections found more than 4,000 faults arising from poor quality control by the main sub-contractors, Disini’s company, and another controlled by a brother of Imelda Marcos. The main problems were attributed to poor welding, faulty pipe support brackets, substandard valve installations and leaking underground conduits and vaults.

In 1986, Marcos was overthrown in the People Power Revolution. Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii while Disini bolted to his villa in Vienna, where he apparently still stays.

Subsequent investigations by Corazon Aquino’s government found evidence of massive commissions paid by Westinghouse to Disini, which he shared with Marcos. The new government attempted to sue Westinghouse for corruption and restitution for faulty construction. In 1996 Westinghouse agreed to pay the Philippines government US$100 million in an out-of-court settlement.

Further studies have indicated it would cost an additional US$1 billion to correct all the defects in design and construction. Rather than throw good money after bad, the Philippines government decided to mothball the plant.

BNPP has been scrupulously maintained for more than 25 years, costing millions of dollars per year. It has not produced a single watt of electricity. The final price rose to US$2.2 billion, three times higher than the original estimate, and the final instalment was paid by the Filipino people in 2007, thirty-two years after construction commenced.

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December 19, 2010
Malaysia to rollout two nuclear power plants by 2012

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia plans to build two nuclear power plants that will generate 1,000MW each with the first plant ready for operation in 2021 and the second plant a year later, as part of the overall long-term plan to balance energy supply.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin said the government would engage an international consultant to evaluate the location and requirement for such plants to be built.

Meanwhile, more awareness and education programmes will be carried out to inform people on such a need.

“Hopefully, by 2013 or 2014, we will able to finish evaluating this. As for calling of tenders, we hope it will be done by 2016,” he told Bernama in an interview.

He said Malaysia was heavily reliant on gas and coal for its electricity supply and it was government policy to reduce reliance on fossil fuel. Gas accounted for 64 per cent of the country’s energy generation while the remainder came from coal.

“We must get away from this. (It is) very much imbalance. Most countries have a good balance. We want hydro to assume a prominent role as it is clean but this can only be achieved in Sabah and Sarawak where there is much potential but not in Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.

Besides, Chin said, other sources of energy such as biomass and wind were too minimal while solar was a good potential but the technology was still very expensive.

“Biomass and wind, there is nothing to shout about. Unless and until solar renewable becomes big enough, this type of energy just compliments (what you already have) as you can’t generate much due to its high cost,” he added.

Chin also said the government needed a balanced approach when it comes to renewal energy as it would not want tariffs to go up due to higher cost.

“Everyone wants to say that we want renewables but what about cost? Can we force the people to accept high tariffs? We have to look at a balanced way, that’s why we can’t depend on fossil fuel only,” he said.

Chin added nuclear has become a more prominent choice in balancing the energy source due to lower maintenance cost and lower tariffs in the long-run.

“For example, in Abu Dhabi, they are building huge solar energy plants but [were] at the same time balancing it up with a nuclear plant. They are not just concentrating on fossil fuel,” he said.

Malaysia began operating a 1MW Triga research reactor since 1982 and has an international nuclear safeguards agreement in place since 1972.

Recently, Malaysia also tightened export control laws to thwart the possibility of nuclear technology smuggling. — Bernama

In Bolehland, macam-macam idiot ada

2010-12-15T13:40:00.004+08:00

There must be some hidden connections. First, raintrees are not indigenous species. Trek into any jungle in Malaysia, you do not see any raintree growing wild. Raintrees are imported species. And why do you think these creatures called spending-spree-politicians so happy to insure these trees when even the Temenggor Forest Reserves with huge trees that support the natural ecosystem of rare hornbills, wildlife and flora, of heritage values of million years old were not protected? Insure the raintrees? Idiotic thinking, maybe for the benefit of their cronies from the insurance company. And you as the rakyat will have to suffer the consequences of more tax hikes just to fulfill the need of idiotic politicians. If you value trees, then declare the Belum-Temengor enclaves as a permanent protected areas. Don't you think there are more "social values" in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex? Only an idiot or a corrupt person would insured a few trees but chopped a whole jungle of heritage cum indigenous trees. In Bolehland, macam-macam idiot ada!

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December 14, 2010
Four raintrees valued RM1mil each to be insured by City Council
By SYLVIA LOOI
Star

IPOH: Four raintrees here will be insured by the City Council – a first in Malaysia – after they were found to be worth about RM1mil each.

Datuk Bandar Datuk Roshidi Hashim said the value of the trees was determined under the Thyre Tree Valuation, developed by Australian Peter Thyre in 1984.

The factors which determine the value of a tree are its quality, aesthetics and people’s view about it. Its “social value” is also taken into consideration. The trees must also be at least 50 years old and of a certain diameter.

The four raintrees to be insured are at least five-storeys high with a diameter of at least 20m.

“Three are located in D.R. Seenivasagam Park and the other at Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (Tiger Lane),” Roshidi said yesterday.

The trees will be insured once they are gazetted next year.

After chairing the council’s full board meeting, Roshidi said the council had conducted a study on 300 trees along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Jalan Datuk Onn Jaffar, D.R. Seenivasagam Park, Ipoh Garden and Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab.

Roshidi said the purpose of insuring the trees was to prevent people indiscriminately cutting them.

“It is also to protect the council against public liability claims in case these trees fall on people,” he said.

Roshidi said the study also found over 30 trees to be dangerous and he had instructed them to be removed.

“But rest assured, new trees will be planted to replace those that were chopped down,” he added.

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December 14, 2010
Ipoh Mayor cannot see the wood for the trees
Mariam Mokhtar, Malaysia Chronicle

In a pioneering move in Malaysia, Ipoh’s Mayor, Roshidi Hashim announced that four raintrees in the city would be insured by the City Council because they were believed to be worth about RM1mil each. He hoped to gazette and insure 291 trees valued between RM5,000 and RM1.3 million.

“Three are located in D.R. Seenivasagam Park and the other at Tiger Lane (Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah),” said Roshidi.

Roshidi said the value of the trees was determined under the Thyre Tree Valuation, developed by an Australian, Peter Thyre in 1984.

Roshidi stated that the purpose of insuring the trees was to prevent people indiscriminately cutting them.

His remarks will invite ridicule.

The bitter experience of the Ipoh public is that the only people who indiscriminately cut the trees are those who have been sent by the Ipoh City Council to remove them. Trees are usually chopped down without warning.

“We hope to gazette the trees by next year and we will also propose for enactment legislation to be drafted to ensure strict action is taken against anyone who purposefully harms or destroys the trees,” said Roshidi.

“At the moment, those who vandalise trees or chop them down are punishable under Act 172 of the Tree Preservation Order. It is also to protect the council against public liability claims in case these trees fall on people,” he said.

Roshidi said the study also found over 30 trees to be dangerous and he had instructed them to be removed.

“But rest assured, new trees will be planted to replace those that were chopped down,” he added.

Ipohites have ‘lost’ hundreds of trees which once graced the city for decades. Again, Ipohites know only too well that these beautiful trees, mostly tropical flowering trees, are replaced with nondescript palms usually the ‘Royal Palm’.

When asked for an explanation, the usual Ipoh City Council responses following a tree’s removal, are a combination of the following – “don’t know”, “only following orders”, “the rotting tree is a danger to the public”, “palm trees like those in the Prophet’s holy-land are preferred”. It appears that in Ipoh, even trees can take on a political and religious dimension.

Tree removal is not an Ipoh phenomenon. ‘Tree attacks’ also happen in other cities. The premature removal of trees in Kuala Lumpur happened in the name of progress and development.

No one sought to keep them. And yet, Singapore, a concrete jungle, can keep its trees and is also known as ‘the garden of the east’ with several beautiful trees lining their boulevards.

The trees in Ipoh did not make way for development – they were removed because of ignorance, apathy and an unwillingness to nurture and maintain the trees.

No one in Ipoh City Council or their department of parks and town planning, were willing to adhere to a rigorous maintenance, pruning and horticultural regime. ‘No trees’ meant no additional work.

The shortsightedness of the Ipoh City-Council is that they fail to see that trees can provide employment as well as beautify the city.

The Singaporeans had the good sense to acknowledge the social, communal, environmental and economic benefits of trees. But those in Ipoh City Council were proud that they could protect the general public from falling branches and rotting trunks - only because the safe removal of the trees meant the trees could no longer ‘harm’ the public .

Recently, Putrajaya sent a delegation to Singapore on a two-day study trip so that the Singaporeans could teach us a thing or two on planting and maintaining trees. Most people view such government study tours with skepticism. These so called study trips are usually an excuse for a jolly.

Thankfully, the Ipoh city council has not suggested this wasteful study–tour extravaganza, yet. As it is, the money to pay for the insurance of these trees will be paid for by the taxpayer, when all it needs is common sense to protect them from ‘indiscriminate’ people.

For years, Ipohites have shown appreciation for their trees not just for its beauty and aesthetics, its historical significance but also because of its various functions and how it helped enhance communities. These trees were priceless to us.

It was the Ipoh city council which did not show the same appreciation. It would only show ‘false appreciation’ once the trees were valued at a certain price, like the four raintrees which are valued at over RM1 million each.

The daft and corrupted way our leaders think means that everything has to have a monetary tag before it is treasured.

There is one other tree that the Ipoh City Council and the Perak state government have overlooked. This tree is a tourist attraction and also a shrine. It is located close to the Perak State Assembly and is affectionately called ‘The Tree of Democracy’. Have the authorities placed a value on it?

Unreliable GM Mozzies flying around in Malaysia now?

2010-12-11T15:33:00.007+08:00

This is worrying. Using an unreliable source to promote environment disaster? With poor management in Bolehland - where stadium could collapsed and parliment that leaked, tell me how not to worry? I believe these GM mozzies already being released (Read 2nd article below). Only time will tell....

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GeneWatch UK Press Release
14th December 2010
For immediate release

British Overseas Territory used as private lab for GM mosquito company

A new GeneWatch UK briefing questions the role of the British scientific establishment in the release of three million genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands earlier this year (1). The secret experiments were revealed by UK biotech company Oxitec last month, which claimed misleadingly that the mosquitoes were sterile. The GeneWatch briefing shows that no public consultation was undertaken on potential risks and informed consent was not sought from local people. Oxitec is a spin-out company from Oxford University and the trials were funded by the Wellcome Trust: neither body appears to have required any ethical oversight before using Grand Cayman for the trials.

Oxford University is an investor in Oxitec, which it expects to generate income for it in the future. The company also owes £2.25 million to a multi-millionaire venture capital investor in Boston, which it is due to pay back by 2013. The company is losing £1.7 million a year and its business plan requires it to commercialise its products and charge ongoing fees for continual releases of the GM mosquitoes, which are intended to reduce the transmission of the dengue virus. Former science minister Lord Drayson and former Royal Society President Lord May both acted as advisors to investors in the company.

GeneWatch UK’s Director, Dr Helen Wallace said: “The British scientific establishment is acting like the last bastion of colonialism, using an Overseas Territory as a private lab. There is no excuse for funding trials without public consultation or ethical oversight to help out a spin-out company that is heavily in debt”.

Trials of the same GM mosquitoes are expected in Malaysia soon. The biggest risk with the company’s approach is that a different, more invasive species of mosquito (the Asian Tiger mosquito) may move into the ecological niche vacated by the species it is targeting (the Yellow Fever mosquito), potentially transmitting more diseases and becoming harder to eradicate. The company has created GM Asian Tiger mosquitoes with a view to marketing these in future to tackle this expected problem.

“People in Malaysia should make their own decision about how to best tackle dengue,” said Dr Wallace, “But they need to be informed about the potential risks and why the company is so keen to push ahead. There is a real danger that this approach to reducing mosquito populations could lead to harm to public health. It is also likely to lock developing countries into continual payments for ongoing releases of two GM mosquito products.”

Oxitec’s scientists have published computer models of falling mosquito populations as a result of releasing their GM mosquitoes, but they have not included the effect of the two different species of mosquitoes, and their interactions with the four forms of the dengue virus and other tropical diseases.

Oxitec has close links to the GM crop company Syngenta and is also developing GM versions of agricultural pests which it intends to commercialise in future, partly to combat the growing problem of resistant pests, caused by the use of pest resistant (Bt) GM maize, soybeans and cotton (2). It has received significant public subsidies, including more than £2.5 million in grants from the UK government-funded Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), mainly for joint projects with Oxford University.

For further information contact:

Dr Helen Wallace 01298-24300 (office); 07903-311584 (mobile)

Notes for editors:
(1) Oxitec’s genetically-modified mosquitoes: in the public interest? GeneWatch UK briefing. December 2010. Available on:http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Oxitecbrief_fin.pdf
(2) Oxitec’s agricultural pest products are listed on: http://www.oxitec.com/our-targets/agricultural-pests/
Bollworms genetically-modified to contain a fluorescent marker have been tested in the USA but these were sterilised using radiation, rather than being genetically-modified with Oxitec’s ‘conditional-lethality’ trait.
Cotton bollworm pests resistant to the Bt toxin used in GM cotton were reported this week in India: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101212/jsp/frontpage/story_13290179.jsp#top

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GM mosquitoes: 'Cayman Islands unreliable model'
Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:55
By G Vinod

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian public are in the best position to decide if the soon-to-be-released genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes is the most effective method to combat the dengue menace.

GeneWatch United Kingdom (UK), a non-profit group that monitors genetic engineering issues worldwide, however, said adequate information must be provided by Oxitec Limited, the producers of the GM mosquitoes.

Its director, Helen Wallace, said that Oxitec cannot use the Cayman Islands' project in 2007, which it touted as a success, as a model for the latest experiment. This is because the island did not have biosafety regulations in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the GM mosquitoes.

“The Cayman Islands is not even a member of the Aarhus Convention or Biosafety Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity which would require it to consult the public and produce an environmental risk assessment before releasing GM mosquitoes into the environment.

“Cayman Islands appears to have been used by Oxitec to bypass the regulatory requirements that apply in the US or the European Union (EU),” she said.

The Malaysian government is keenly promoting the GM mosquito project using the Cayman Islands as the model to justify the proposed release in stages of the GM mosquitioes into several parts of the country, saying that the Cayman project had managed to reduce the Aedes population by 80%.

Wallace, however, dismissed the figures, saying that there has been no documented proof to substantiate the claims by Oxitec.

“The company now says it is producing an environmental impact assessment following the Cayman Islands project, but nothing has been made public. It still has not addressed concerns over the impact of the long-term release of GM mosquitoes,” she said.

Company making losses

Oxitec, which had been running at a loss since 2008, had thus far been evading scrutiny by the Malaysian public, said Wallace.

A check by FMT on the company's financial statement as of Dec 31, 2009, showed that it had suffered losses of 1,697,952 British pounds in 2009 and 1,712,994 pounds in 2008.

Wallace said that it was clear that Oxitec was under tremendous pressure to commercialise its GM mosquito project to generate revenue and Malaysia must be wary.

“The company is losing about 1.7 million pounds annually. It needs to meet all the regulatory requirements first before it can begin marketing its product and is under pressure from investors keen to recoup their investments.

“As a business entity, it needs to keep generating new markets for its GM mosquitoes and developing countries are its primary targets,” said Wallace.

Malaysia's National Biosafety Board (NBB) plans to release between 3,000 and 4,000 GM male mosquitoes in Bentong, Pahang and Alor Gajah, Malacca soon in a trial to suppress the Aedes population.

The progeny of the GM male mosquitoes die before they can hatch, thus preventing the spread of the deadly dengue virus. The move by the NBB has come under fire by several concerned groups, among them the Third World Network.

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Sunday November 21, 2010
Mutant mozzies
By TAN SHIOW CHIN
thestar.com.my

Genetically-modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes will soon be released in Bentong and Alor Gajah in the first-ever field trial in Malaysia.

SOON, genetically-modified (GM) male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes will be buzzing around the districts of Bentong in Pahang and Alor Gajah in Malacca.

No, it is not a follow-up to the Cicakman (2006) movie, but the latest step in the Government’s efforts to control the transmission of the dengue virus.

This virus, which causes dengue fever, is transmitted solely by the bite of the female Aedes mosquito, and most commonly, those of the A. aegypti species.

The GM male mosquitoes are being released in a limited mark-release-recapture field trial designed to test their flying range and ability to survive in the wild.

The small-scale field trial marks the third stage of experiments on the mosquitoes by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR).

The institute has been working on the mosquitoes since 2006, in partnership with Oxitec Limited, a spin-off biotechnology company from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Oxitec owns the rights to the A. aegypti strain OX513A being tested.

A mosquito symbolising dengue fever displayed on a pickup truck during a health campaign by medical personnel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Dengue cases are increasing all over the world, and Asean countries are particularly affected. — A P

For the past few years, IMR has conducted laboratory tests on the mosquitoes, as well as observed them in a fully contained trial facility, which simulated the living space of an urban household of two to four people.

According to IMR’s application for approval to the National Biosafety Board (NBB), the results of their previous experiments have shown that there are no significant differences between the GM mosquitoes and normal A. aegypti mosquitoes in terms of the egg, larval, and pupal stages, and their reproductive abilities.

The only significant difference between the two types of mosquitoes was in the number of days they survived as adults, with the normal types outliving the GM mosquitoes by an average of six days.

This means that once the GM mosquitoes have been bred to adulthood, they generally live, reproduce, and die just like their wild counterparts. The difference lies in the fate of their offspring.

How it will work

The adult A. aegypti male mosquitoes have been genetically modified to include two new traits: fluorescence and conditional lethality.

The fluorescence trait simply allows those mosquitoes carrying the “extra” genes to be easily identified as they will “light up” or fluorescence when a light of a certain wavelength is shone on them. (Think how the various CSI investigators use ultra-violet lights to check for semen stains.)

The conditional lethality trait is the characteristic of main interest. IMR’s application states that this trait causes the normal cell cycle of the mosquito to be suppressed in the absence of the antibiotic tetracycline.

NBB’s Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC) chairman Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir told Fit4Life that what happens is that the gene causes the production of a certain enzyme that reacts with tetracycline in the GM mosquito.

In the absence of the antibiotic, the enzyme builds up to toxic levels and causes the mosquito to die young.

This means that any mosquito born with this gene will die at the late larval or pupal stage of their lives as long as they do not come into contact with tetracycline. (See GM A. aegypti life cycle)

So, once the GM male mosquito mates with a normal female A. aegypti mosquito and reproduces, any offspring they have will not survive to adulthood.

The Cayman Islands in the Carribbean recently concluded a six-month suppression field trial involving the same GM A. aegypti mosquito strain to see if they could lower the population of the A. aegypti mosquitoes in the tested area.

Around three million GM male mosquitoes were released into a 16-hectare area over the months of June to October.

The results, which were announced at a press briefing in London last week, showed that the A. aegpyti population in the area was reduced by about 80%.

Oxitec chief science officer Dr Luke Alphey, who was present at the briefing, said that the results were influenced by migration of mosquitoes from an adjacent area into the tested area.

“Estimates suggest that in many places, 80% suppression (of the A. aegypti population) would actually be sufficient (to control the transmission of dengue).

“We would expect to do much better than that if we were in an area that was not immediately adjacent to an area heavily infested with mosquitoes. In a larger trial, if we were doing a whole town, for example, then we would expect to get much better than 80% suppression,” he said.

In response to a query on how many GM male mosquitoes would have to be released in order to control the transmission of dengue, Dr Alphey said: “In an urban environment, we would expect to have to release in the general range of 20 sterile male mosquitoes per human inhabitant per week.

“And the outcome in a large-scale programme would be suppression to an effectively zero level.”

Where we are

Malaysia is only one step behind the Cayman Islands in terms of testing the GM mosquitoes. The current planned field trial is a preparatory step to a larger scale suppression field trial, assuming that all goes well.

At a press conference announcing the decision of the NBB to approve IMR’s application last month, Dr Parweez said: “We are entering Phase One. Cayman is already in Phase Two – testing the effects on the progeny (of the GM male mosquitoes and normal female mosquitoes in the wild).

“If IMR wants to enter Phase Two, we will have to sit down again to review the application.”

Natural Resources and Environment Ministry Biosafety director-general Letchumanan Ramatha, who was also present at the press conference, said that both the NBB and GMAC had referred to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity in making their decision.

The Protocol, which Malaysia has ratified, is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.

It seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by these modified organisms.

Dr Parweez said: “We have considered all the various possibilities of releasing these mosquitoes, and we have found that there is very low or negligible risk.”

He said that after their own research and gathering views from the public, including non-governmental organisations and scientists, GMAC only had two potential areas of concern.

“The first of these is that there is a 3% survivability of the GM larvae in the lab. And secondly is the risk of releasing female GM mosquitoes along with the males.”

However, the committee believes that even if some of the GM larvae survive to adulthood, they will die a natural death within the normal two-to-four-week lifespan of the adult A. aegypti mosquitoes, as shown in the laboratory tests by the IMR.

In addition, the field trial will involve the setting up of traps at various locations to see the extent of the GM mosquitoes flight range, and extensive fogging and a gotong-royong will be carried out throughout the tested area after the trial is complete to ensure that all the adult A. aegypti mosquitoes are killed, and that any mosquito breeding grounds are eradicated. (Refer to Compulsory conditions)

On the risk of releasing female GM mosquitoes, Dr Parweez said that GMAC had set the condition that not only should the pupaes of the mosquitoes to be released be mechanically sorted, but each pupae must also be manually rechecked by a team of three highly-trained IMR laboratory technicians.

The difference between the male and female A. aegypti mosquitoes is that the male mosquitoes do not bite humans and do not carry the dengue virus.

What will happen

A total of 4,000 to 6,000 GM male mosquitoes, along with an equal number of normal male mosquitoes, are expected to be released at Bentong and Alor Gajah respectively in the upcoming IMR field trial.

According to IMR’s application, each location will have two release phases.

The first phase will be a release at an uninhabited site around 0.5-1km away from the nearest human population, while the second phase will be at an inhabited site. The areas of the site can be up to five square kilometres. The releases will be carried out from a single point, and may be done over two consecutive days or just one day. The trials may be repeated.

According to an officer in the Bentong Municipal Council, the council had given the approval for the trial to go ahead in a meeting last week.

“We gave them (IMR) the go-ahead to release the mosquitoes any time within the next three months, so it will depend on the weather,” he said.

The officer, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, added that it would be up to IMR to inform the public about the release through the media.

Meanwhile, an officer in the Alor Gajah Municipal Council, who also declined to be named, said that he had not heard of any planned release of the GM mosquitoes in his district as yet.

A request to interview the IMR scientists involved was turned down.

If the GM male mosquitoes are successful in bringing down the population of A. aegypti mosquitoes, they will be one additional weapon in the arsenal against dengue.

Dr Alphey does not believe that his company’s GM mosquitoes will be the silver bullet that kills off dengue, but he does believe that they will help reduce the transmission of the disease significantly.

Sarawak: Blacklisted Illegal-Logging Tycoon Involved In Running Malaysian World Heritage Site

2010-12-08T17:34:00.006+08:00

08 December 2010

Every tourist visiting the Gunung Mulu National Park contributes to enriching the Taib and the Yaw families - the main culprits in the destruction of Sarawak's tropical rainforest.

By Bruno Manser Fonds

Corruption scandal over the Gunung Mulu National Park widens as Samling owner Yaw Teck Seng and his family holding are identified as significant shareholders of the Royal Mulu Resort

Yaw Teck Seng, the controlling shareholder of the controversial Samling timber group, holds a significant equity stake in Borsamulu Resorts, a company that manages all the tourism activities in the Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak's UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site. Samling has recently been blacklisted by the Norwegian Government because of its involvement in large-scale illegal logging and environmental destruction in Malaysia and Guyana.

Map of Gunung Mulu National Park

Research by the Bruno Manser Fund has shown that two companies, Sarawak Land and Plieran, who hold a 26% stake in Borsamulu Resorts, are closely related to Samling. Sarawak Land is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Yaw family holding that controls Samling. Plieran is jointly owned by Samling founder Yaw Teck Seng and four children of the Sarawak Chief Minister via two front companies, KBE (Malaysia) and Daya Syukra.

Last week's disclosure that Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has a personal stake in Borsarmulu Resort, a company directed by Taib's sister Raziah and her husband, has provoked a storm of outrage in Sarawak. The new findings mean that every tourist visiting the Gunung Mulu National Park contributes to enriching the Taib and the Yaw families - the main culprits in the destruction of Sarawak's tropical rainforest - while the local Berawan and Penan communities hardly benefit from the conservation area at all.

Berawan community protests against Borsarmulu Resort, the Taib- and Samling-owned management company of the Gunung Mulu National Park.

Corruption must not be allowed to be part of a World Heritage Site.

The Bruno Manser Fund is to lodge a complaint with the UNESCO World Heritage Committee concerning the management and ownership structures of the Gunung Mulu National Park. Corruption must not be allowed to be part of a World Heritage Site. The Bruno Manser Fund is asking the Sarawak state government to hand over the Royal Mulu Resort and the management of the park facilities to the local communities whose native lands have been taken off them for the National Park.

Learn Planting Trees on Warisan 100-storeys building

2010-12-08T10:37:00.004+08:00

Trees on top the new Casino in Singapore

Yes, the most "kepala otak udang" from Bolehland, a by product from the ketuanan otak. We have FRIM which have years of tree planting research, we have so many Universities with trees planting experiences. USM is one example of a "Garden Universiti"....and this stupid ministry is trying to waste our tax payers' money by learning how to plant trees from Singapore....probably want to play jackpot at the new casino kut or maybe learn how to plant trees on top our 100-storeys Warisan building. Betui betui Bodohland!

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Putrajaya to learn how Singapore plants trees

By Lee Wei Lian
November 18, 2010

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 18 — A delegation from Putrajaya will go to Singapore next month in a two-day study trip to see how the island republic plants and maintains its trees said the secretary general of the Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Ministry Datuk Haji Ahmad Phesal Talib today.
This comes as the ministry said it will plant 30,000 trees in the KL region beginning March next year to boost the city’s liveability.

Another Comment:-

Hahahahaha!!

Malaysia has one of the greatest tropical rain forests in the world (or should I say used to) and now it wants to learn from Singapore how to plant trees?

See how much we have fallen.

See how much we have raped our forests in the name of greed and corruption.

This is our nation. God gives us resources and we just simply throw it away and now we want to ask others for it back.

We have university pertanian and all these government agricultural research agencies in this country.

Hello!!! What are the people inside these places learning and researching all these years?? We can't even plant trees ??

Coral in Penang

2010-12-08T09:42:00.002+08:00

20 years ago there were soft corals and sea fans off Pantai Kerachut and at Pulau Tikus. Pulau Kendi is an island south of Penang Island that don't have proper beach for boat to stop and that could be the reason few people ever been there, me included. Glad to know that the corals are thriving at Pulau Kendi.

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December 8, 2010
Expert: We must preserve corals

GEORGE TOWN: Pulau Kendi in Penang is one of many islands in the country that is rich in coral but has not been gazetted as a marine park.

Marine biologist Prof Zulfigar Yasin said there was no conservation work to protect the coral on these islands.

“If the situation persists, the fishes will lose their habitat and Malaysia will slowly lose part of its heritage,” he said during an interview at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Zulfigar, who is with the university’s School of Biological Sciences, was a presenter at a five-day training workshop on coral taxonomy at the university which ends today.

He cited other islands like Pulau Songsong in Kedah, some islands near Langkawi and Pulau Sembilan in Perak should be gazetted as marine parks to conserve their coral.

“Pulau Payar, for example, is providing the fishermen a sustainable source of fish after being gazetted as a marine park,” he said.

Currently, there are six marine parks in the country, which are made up of 42 islands in Kedah, Perak, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Sabah.

In a related matter, Prof Zulfigar said the government should incorporate a more specific policy to address coral bleaching as the issue would impact the coastal communities and the country’s tourism industry in the long-term.

He was commenting on the closure of nine popular snorkelling sites at marine parks in Kedah, Pahang and Terengganu in July for several months because of coral bleaching.

The Marine Parks Department had banned recreational activity and the sites were off limits to divers and coral enthusiasts.

Dr Zulfigar said Malaysia currently only has a general policy to protect bio-diversity and it was high time to rescue the coral reef by creating public awareness while adding that another factor related to coral bleaching was the rise in acidity levels of sea water due to human activities.

Bigger penalties for illegal logging from next year

2010-12-01T15:41:00.000+08:00

Dec 1, 2010 MYT 3:28:00 PM
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The penalty for illegal logging will be doubled to RM1mil and jail term raised to between five and 20 years, after amendments to the relevant law are made next year.

Currently, the penalty for illegal logging is RM500,000 and jail of between one and 20 years.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the decision was made Wednesday to amend the National Forestry Act 1984 (Act 313), to intensify law enforcement pertaining to illegal logging and similar offences.

He said the Attorney-General's office would study the minimum amount of penalty before the Bill could be tabled in Parliament next year.

"The National Forestry (Amendment) Act 2010 will emphasise on transferring the burden of producing evidence from the prosecutors to those who are found to possess the illegal logs," he said, after chairing the 66th National Land Council meeting here Wednesday.

For Sarawak

2010-11-15T15:03:00.001+08:00

Radio Free Sarawak on air
Monday, 15 November 2010

By Bruno Manser Fund

We have been informed that Radio Free Sarawak has gone on air this morning. The new alternative radio station will broadcast two daily broadcasts on shortwave, presumably in Iban and Malay (Bahasa). It aims at Sarawak's rural communities who lack access to independent media. As you might know, the media in Sarawak are strictly controlled by an extremely corrupt state government under Abdul Taib Mahmud and the logging companies who own and control all major media outlets.

The transmission details of Radio Free Sarawak are as follows:

1st transmission: 0630-0730 local time (GMT +8) on 7590 kHz (short wave)

2nd transmission: 1800-1900 local time (GMT +8) on 15680 kHz (short wave)

The Radio Free Sarawak producers send us the following message:

"Please send the details to all your Sarawak friends so that they know the existence of the radio-which will become an alternative news source to the Sarawakians, especially to those who stay in the interior. The folks in the interior have been fed with a monotonous 1-sided views from the ruling parties-if at all they can receive the TV and radio transmissions. So they need another avenue-and Radio Free Sarawak intends to fill in this gap."

With best wishes,

Your BMF team

Ban helps increase wildlife population in Johor

2010-11-07T21:30:00.000+08:00

Sunday November 7, 2010
By MOHD FARHAAN SHAH
thestar

JOHOR BARU: The royal ban on wildlife hunting in Johor has helped to steadily increase wildlife population in the state.

Johor National Parks Corporation director Abu Bakar Mohamed Salleh said the wildlife population, especially that of tigers, had seen an increase and he attributed this to the ban that was decreed by Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar in April last year.

“Previously, we recorded 11 tigers at our national park.

“Since the ban was imposed, we have sighted four more tigers, including three cubs.

“We are happy that the number of tigers in the state has increased,” he said, adding that the population of their prey had also increased.

“We have noticed that animals that used to be targets of hunters such as rusa (deer), kijang (barking deer) and kancil (mousedeer) had also increased,” he said.

Abu Bakar added that heightened surveillance of the national park had also helped the wildlife population to grow.

“We are working closely with our counterparts in (neighbouring) Pahang to ensure poachers do not hunt in our forests,” he said.

Abu Bakar, however, said poaching had not been eradicated.

“We still have hunters breaching our borders. Hopefully, with the help of the public and increased surveillance, we will be able to stop them,” he said.

The gods must be crazy

2010-11-02T11:14:00.001+08:00

Tue, 02 Nove 2010 06:38
By Maclean Patrick

It is human nature to remember your maker when things are bleak. Crisis and emergency and disasters remind us that there is a higher force at work, often times in conflict with the wants of mere mortals.

Who are we to question the heavens?

We accept the fact that we are mere dust in God's creation.

Yet, this mere fact has been turned into excuses by mortals seeking to hide the truth of the matter. Hiding fact behind a cosmic guise is nothing new. It has been practised by civilisations throughout history.

The Mayans cut out the hearts of captive soldiers to appease their gods when the harvest was bad or sickness hit the nation. The Egyptians believe that Pharaoh was a god in his own right, thus you should never question his word.

In Sarawak, the gods are the culprits for landslides and log jams and possibly the drought hitting the Rajang River.

The gods are responsible for putting Sarawak in the record books for staging the longest logjam in the world. And if that was not enough, the gods have been able to reduce the longest river in Sarawak, from mighty torrents of water to a mere stream.

Yes, the gods in Sarawak are really powerful. And with 10 pigs and 50 “piring” (small plates) and 200 people in attendance, the gods will promise not to break their record for the longest logjam and maybe turn a blind eye to the impoundment at the Bakun Dam and allow the Rajang River to flow again.

And before Barisan Nasionals start spinning the tale that disaster would strike Sarawak if Pakatan Rakyat takes over government, let’s look at the real disaster playing out under our noses.

Any sensible person, religious or not, would see that the logjam is man-made. Any sensible person, with basic common sense, would see that the drying up of the Rajang River can be traced back to the impoundment of the Bakun Dam.

Yet, we find none of these sensible people in the current establishment.

Scary reality

So far, there is no official report concerning the logjam, even though an investigation was promised to the people of Sarawak and various officials making trips to assess the situation.

Yet, reality seems too scary and it amounts to bad press for the establishment; hence, it takes the easy way out – blame the gods.

It is convenient to point the fingers at the gods and hold an appeasement ceremony. The gods are happy and no report is needed to explain things.

Who would question divine mischief? Aren’t the gods more superior to a report written by mere mortal man?

In one smooth move, the logjam has been swept under the carpet and the Ibans are made out to be really feeble-minded people who belong to the Stone Age.

Hooray for the government of Sarawak, which takes pride in dealing with the gods when it comes to man-made natural disasters.

How then will the drying up of the Rajang River be explained away? Will we need another 10 pigs and 50 “piring” to appease the gods of the Bakun Dam? Is nature to blame because the rains have not come on time or the gods have not allowed enough rain to fall in the Bakun area?

Clearly, the gods have gone crazy in Sarawak. And our sensible politicians are giving us the answers we all have been waiting for. It is a good thing that our local politicians have priestly backgrounds that allow them to mediate between this world and the nether-world in matters that defy explanation such as the logjam and the drying up of a river.

God from the machine

There is something wrong, seriously wrong, in Sarawak: people want to see Sarawak modernised and high-tech yet they won’t bat an eye to stooping down to old-wives tales in order to appease the masses.

The people of Sarawak want real answers to real problems. The logjam caused real problems to the people living along the Rajang River. It killed off large numbers of fish, prawns and river animals.

It stops everyday life for many riverside communities – children could not attend school, fishermen could not fish, commerce was at a standstill and river folks could not get much needed supplies.

And this is now compounded by the drying up of the Rajang River. With waters running dangerously low, the same effects of the logjam will be felt in the long term by the same communities who were just getting over the October logjam incident.

We want real answers and not mere “deus ex machina”.

The Latin “deus ex machina” meaning “god from the machine” points to a practice in ancient times in theatre which the script writer would employ to explain problems in the plot where no apparent solution can be provided to the audience.

Where no answer can be given, a god would appear on stage as it lowered down by a mechanical crane from the ceiling or raised via a lift through the floor of the stage.

This practice was considered bad writing and the practice was frowned upon by ancient writers such as Aristotle, who advocated a solution that was logical and acceptable based on the logic of the story.

The Sarawak government has pulled a “deus ex machina” on the people of Sarawak, and no amount of pigs or “miring” should blind the people to the fact that the government of the day has truly failed in looking after the welfare of the Rajang River communities.

Maclean Patrick is a webmaster based in Sarawak.

Source here

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Ibans to invoke spirits against 'irresponsible' loggers
Tue, 02 Nove 2010 06:00
By Joseph Tawie

KAPIT: Some 200 Iban elders and chieftains will seek the help of their “Petara” (gods) to punish those who were responsibile for the logjam in Rajang River and its tributary Baleh River.

According to an Iban shaman, who refused to be identified, they will be performing the traditional “miring” (ritual) next month to seek the help of the spirits because the government has refused to act against those responsible for the logjam.

The logjam has caused so much hardship and misery to the people who live along the rivers.

“We have to call our ‘Petara’ (gods) to punish those responsible,” said the shaman.

Meanwhile, State Land Development Minister James Masing confirmed that a massive “miring” ceremony will be held next month in Kapit to appease the spirits whose anger was believed to have caused the logjam along the Baleh and Rajang rivers.

The ritual is also to calm the angry Ibans living along the Rajang and Baleh rivers as their livelihood is affected by the logjam.

Ten live pigs, 50 sets of “piring” (ritual ingredients) and foodstuff will be required for the ceremony.

Some 50 longboats will be needed to transport the longhouse chiefs and guests to Muara Sungai Meratai, which is a four-hour journey by boat from Kapit.

Kapit district officer, Simon Japut, who is involved in the planning of the ceremony, said that after the ceremony, the 10 pigs will be slaughtered, five on each of the river banks, and their carcasses hanged on rocks at the Muara Sungai Meratai.

Massive losses suffered

Japut said that after the ceremony, no one will be allowed to pass through the site for at least one week. The cost of organising the ceremony is about RM50,000.

He added that the estimated loss of properties and infrastructures caused by the logjam is RM1.8 million. This amount did not include the two bridges which were washed away by the debris at Meratai.

None of the longhouses along the Rajang and Baleh rivers had been damaged, but some of the longhouses were badly affected by soil erosion and needed urgent attention, especially on building retention walls.

The logjam was caused when the logs, which have been piling up over the years as a result of indiscriminate logging at Sungai Meratai, a tributary of the Baleh River, were washed away.

The logs drifted down on Oct 7 after a downpour and caused a jam which spread over 250km of the Rajang and Baleh Rivers, suffocating tonnes of fish and cutting off river communications.

Then a few days later, the Rajang River began to dry up soon after the impoundment of the Bakun Dam on Oct 13.

Source here

'Stop impoundment of Bakun dam'

2010-10-31T20:20:00.001+08:00

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:56
By Joseph Tawie

KUCHING: Sarawak PKR wants the state government to stop the impoundment of Bakun dam immediately.

The party wants the governemt to conduct a 'fresh and independent' feasibility report and environmental impact assessment (EIA) to re-evaluate the viability of the hydro-electric dam project.

“This is in view of the problems brought about by the impoundment of the Bakun dam,” Baru Bian, chairman of Sarawak PKR told reporters.

He said the impoundment of the dam had caused hardship to the people and destroyed the ecological system.

He added that the Balui River which is the upstream part of the Rajang River had dryed up and marine life dying.

“The Balui River (the upstreamd part of the Rajang River) is drying up.

"We have received reports and complaints that river communications have been cut off, food rations, medical supplies and other essential services are affected. A lot of fish, especially the most expensive fish, the empurau are dying.

“So we call on the government to immediately stop the impoundment of the dam as the relevancy and accuracy of the factors and data taken into consideration in the feasibility study and EIA reports conducted in the early 80s are now questionable and doubtful,” Bian said.

He said the feasibility studies conducted 30 years ago had not taken into account the deforestation in the upper reaches of Sungai Balui which had inevitably affected the water retaining capacity of the catchment areas.

Another glaring flaw of the EIA is the dry riverbed experienced now which could not have been anticipated, he said.

Bian also warned the government not to proceed with the construction of the Baram dam project as it woul affect the people’s livelihood, longhouses and their lands will be much worse than that of Bakun dam.

Some 25 longhouses, churches, schools and clinics will be affected by the dam which is expected to submerge 38,900 hectares or 389 sq. km of land.

And more than 20,000 natives will have to be moved out and resettled, he said.

Source here

Rajang River has no future

2010-10-19T09:34:00.003+08:00

Rajang River has no future. Logging, then the logjam, then when Bakun Dam was dammed, you have Rajang river drying up so fast that 2 weeks ago it was floating with logs and today it is silting and drying up. I don't want to discuss the consequences anymore. But I know the ecosystem will never be the same again. Greed has taken over humanities. Blame it on the people that still vote for the greedy government.

Tuesday October 19, 2010
Rajang River is drying up
By PHILIP HII
The Star

SIBU: Less than two weeks after the logjam disaster in Rajang River, the country’s longest river is again a cause for concern for people living along its banks.

Express boats have not been able to ply the Sibu-Belaga-Sibu routes since Friday as the river is drying up due to the current dry spell. The only option left for travellers is the gruelling journey on the 190km Bintulu-Bakun road.

Floating pontoons at the Kapit Express Boat Wharf along Khoo Peng Loong Road here are now resting on a muddy river bed.

“This time the water level went down really fast. Just 10 days ago, it almost reached the road level, a drop of more than 2m,” boat skipper Lau Ah Kuok said.

Lau said he believed the drastic change in the water level was partly due to the impoundment of the 205m-high Bakun Dam which began last Wednesday.

The flooding of the dam, which is South-East Asia’s largest, is estimated to take seven months and in the process, would flood 69,000ha of land.

Social activist Wong Meng Chuo, who has a masters degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College in London, said he was worried that a prolonged drought would pose severe environmental and ecological consequences below Bakun Dam.

Wong said the Rajang River was denied one-third of the water source with the impoundment of the dam.

“Firstly, river navigation in some areas will stop due to low water. Secondly, salty water from the ocean would come up to as far as Sibu. Thirdly, marine and river life will be affected,” Wong pointed out.

He explained that with less water in the river, there would be less oxygen which could cause some species of fish to die. Wong added there could also be more landslides along the riverbanks as the soil structure would be different.

He said it was unlikely that the impoundment of the dam would stop because it would incur a loss of RM330,000 per day to do so.

The low water level is also a cause for concern for the RV Orient Pandaw, the only cruise ship here.

“If the dry weather continues, I am worried our ship would have difficulties navigating near the Pelagus rapids,” the ship’s purser Neville Joseph said, adding that October to December were peak seasons with an average of 40 passengers per trip.

Durin vegetable farmer Kong Chiek Wak is worried the prolonged dry weather will seriously affect his vegetables.

“We only have a small water pump. It would be difficult to pump water from the Rajang for farm use if the water level is too low,” Kong explained.

The low water level will also affect the transportation of logs by barges and cargo boats from Kapit-Baleh areas to the sawmills in Sibu or for export through Tanjung Manis.

Sibu Water Board general manager Daniel Wong said he was monitoring the situation closely.

“The water supply in Sibu is normal and there is no cause for alarm now,” he said.

At about 4.30pm yesterday, heavy rain fell for about an hour on Sibu after a dry week.

Continuing the Raping in Iban Country

2010-10-18T09:25:00.002+08:00

Photo source here

Monday, October 18, 2010
Taib's loggers: Sebuyau Ibans prepare to form a human shield

By Christina S Suntai

My brother Numpang anak Suntai and his wife, Helen Unchat, together with 11 tribal leaders and villagers from 11 longhouses are now camping in Ulu Sebangan as we speak. Today I want to refer to their make shift camp as “Langkau Ngintu Menoa.”

They are leading the villagers to form a blockade to stop bulldozers used by illegal loggers, Quality Concrete Holdings, whose Executive Chairman is Tiang Ming Sing, from further penetration into their native customary lands, which include rice fields, pepper vines, fruit trees, rubber plantations and communal forest at Ulu Sebangan.

The illegal loggers, Quality Concrete Holdings, whose Executive Director is Tiang Ching Kok and major shareholder is Rodiah Binti Mahmud, sister of CM Taib Mahmud remain relentless in their efforts to grab the valuable trees. They are bulldozing their way to get to the trees and destroy everything in their path! Every tree they killed for the timber, 28 other little trees will die with it. So far the loggers continue to steal the valuable trees when no one is around to stop them. Therefore the villagers decided to set camp in the jungle to guard the forest, to ensure that the valuable trees will not be stolen by Quality Concrete Holdings.

Unholy mess

2010-10-14T15:13:00.002+08:00

Nature is unleashing the consequences of greed, courteousy of Pek More and cronies....

14 October 2010
By NST

The sight of thousands upon thousands of logs mingled with debris and mud clogging up Sungai Rajang for as far as the eye could see was reminiscent of scenes from the 2004 tsunami in Aceh. Even without the floating corpses and cars that accompanied the earlier event, it was not hard to comprehend that what happened in Sarawak last week was a disaster whose scale, though yet to be fully measured, was huge. Little wonder that local residents flocked to the river banks to look at the strange sight. Elders described it as a portent of the end of the world, God's punishment for mankind's rapacity. A combination of heavy rains upriver, denuded ground and a massive landslide resulted in this -- a 250km logjam starting from Ulu Baleh to Sibu -- nearly half the length of the mighty Rajang, Malaysia's longest river. The logjam cut off Kanowit, Song and Kapit from Sibu because express boat services could not traverse the river safely.

The sheer flood and mud flow killed fish and polluted the river, and may possibly affect the peat-swamp-rich area of the delta. If not recovered, the logs will wash out to sea and continue their destruction there. A fully grown tree can suck up five tonnes of water. It is for this reason that trees are described as nature's great flood mitigator. Without them, every time it rained heavily, water would hurtle downstream and flood the area there.

Whether further investigation proves this to be a natural or man-made disaster, the fact is that this is an environmental calamity. How is it possible for an entire mountain to collapse from the beating of days of heavy rains? Where did the logs come from that formed the initial debris dam that then broke and swept its deadly detritus downstream?

These questions have been implied by Baleh assemblyman Datuk Seri Dr James Masing, who has acknowledged that the area upstream is heavily logged. Heavy rain may be an "act of God", and humankind might be helpless in preventing it. But, for the trees that are felled and the ground laid bare, humankind must take responsibility. Eighty per cent of Sarawak's 12.3 million hectares is supposed to be covered by forests. The Sarawak Forest Department's remote-sensing system should gauge the state of forested areas to see whether what remains corresponds with legitimate logging activities. Perhaps, too, it's time to tighten laws, so that it is not possible to run out of forest cover, even by legitimate means.

We have been warned.

Field testing approved for GM mosquitoes

2010-10-11T12:31:00.002+08:00

Beware, GM mosquitoes will be here soon. I wonder how the ecosystem will be affected. Disaster in waiting?

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October 11, 2010
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Biosafety Board has approved the release of genetically-modified Aedes mosquitoes for field testing, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.

However, the decision would still need Cabinet approval, he said.

“Clinical trial at the laboratory level was successful and the biosafety committee has approved it for testing in a controlled environment,” he said.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry would present it to the Cabinet for approval, he told a media conference at the 61st session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific here yesterday.

The board had assessed the field experiment proposal from the Institute of Medical Research to release the mosquitoes in Bentong, Pahang, and Alor Gajah, Malacca, in early October.

Male Aedes Aegypti would be genetically-modified and when mated with female Aedes mosquitoes in the environment, it is hoped the killer genes would cause the larvae to die. (The Aedes Aegypti mosquito can spread the dengue fever, Chikungunya and yellow fever viruses).

“We see it as the most efficient and fastest way in eradicating Aedes mosquitoes from our local environment,” Liow said, adding that Aedes is not a species endemic to Malaysia.

However, he said, dengue posed a major concern in Malaysia because the number of cases has increased by more than 25% this year.

Liow said his ministry was taking the disease seriously because it was not only a health issue but also an environmental hazard.

WHO Western Pacific regional director Dr Shin Young-soo said Malaysia is leading in the research in this area but cautioned that care be taken in introducing a new species to the environment.

He said global experts on tropical diseases research would discuss the issue soon and decide on what they would do with the new development.

Severe Penalties To Stamp Out Poaching

2010-10-07T21:15:00.002+08:00

October 07, 2010

IPOH, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- Illegal wildlife traders and poachers will face stiffer penalties when the new Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 is gazetted and enforced by year-end, said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas.

The act was amended from the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 to stamp out illegal wildlife trading and poaching, he told reporters after opening the Department of Environment's Vehicle Smoke Testing Centre here Thursday.

Under the new act, poachers or those who keep endangered species of animals can be fined up to RM500,000 (up from RM5,000 before) or imprisonment, he said.

The Wildlife and National Parks Department has established an inter-agency cooperation with the Customs, army, People's Volunteer Corps, Orang Asli Affairs Department and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to curb wildlife smuggling.

BERNAMA

The Macaque that abducts and bites

2010-10-07T13:05:00.003+08:00

The news today about a macaque that abducts, bites and drops baby from the roof is horrible and is going to be a common phenomena. Human has been constantly encroaching into wildlife's territories and destroying their food and habitats. Its payback time! If you read the article here you could identify two key points that caused the aggressive behaviour of the macaque.

1. Staying in a "residential areas with a foliage of trees", just like an island of forest, no corridor for the monkeys to move. Seeking food from the residential houses is the best option for the monkeys. These macaques are omnivorous. Anything moving that is small enough to carry will be food.

2. "The family kept a female monkey in captivity". And the male was attracted and perhaps that was the consequences of taking something that belonged to the wild.

In all cases, wildlife is best left in the wild. The consequences are too many.

Kenyir Lake a FTZ

2010-09-29T17:31:00.005+08:00

The headline on Staronline (29 Sept 2010) quoted "Kenyir Lake, the largest man-made lake in South-east Asia, has been officially declared a Free Trade Zone (FTZ), Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said said".

OMG...a FTZ in an unpopulated wilderness? On a lake? Well, the first thing that came ringing in my head was the happy drinkers enjoying their boozes and getting drunk and perhaps drown too.

Suddenly the locals will have a new job - as smugglers. Many poor locals thriving to earn a living by becoming smugglers will perhaps be shot to death or put into prison. I am trying to recall many years ago when Penang was a FTZ. Being so near the mainland, smugglers had a good time smuggling dutyfree goods. Customs tightened their enforcement and many were shot in the smuggling attempts. Penang is an island and it was still not an easy task to enforce the rules. Imagine the situation in a lake like the largest lake in South East Asia, with so many many islands, so many many hiding coves and so many many trees to hide behind - do you think there won't be any smugglers? Then we have the increase in drinking and smoking habits because these items will be dammned cheap! Many bottles and cigerattes butts will be thrown into the lake. Boats and ferries will increase, bringing all the pollutions related with motor machines. I don't know about the effect on the fish but then these exploitations will surely damage the ecosystem slowly but surely.

In the name of making money from tourism, the greedy government couldn't care a hood about the environment, the locals and the culture. Development will be coming in leaps and bounds and as usual many cronies will be getting fat contracts. Business towkays will be happy with incoming tourists. Land prices will escalate. The poor will be forced to leave the kampungs. Everything will not be the same again. Bringing a sin city into a pristine culture of wilderness is surely not the right thing to do.

A pittance for your rights, please

2010-09-28T15:21:00.001+08:00

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:50
Source here

PETALING JAYA: How would you like RM250 in exchange for the inheritance that has been the source of your livelihood? That is how much the Sarawak state government is offering Iban villagers in rural Sebangan so that timber companies can have free rein of the rainforest.

Sebangan is a small range of rainforest in which there are 16 Iban villages. The Ibans have lived there for generations and depend on the forest for their livelihood.

Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Abdul Mahmud now has his eye on the area, according to Sarawak Report, a website dedicated to exposing alleged corrupt practices by Taib and his family.

It quoted Nicholas Mujah, secretary-general of the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association, as saying that loggers can reap 700 tons of wood from every hectare of the Sebangan jungle.

Taib's sister, Raziah Mahmud, is said to be a shareholder and director in Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad (QCHB), the company that wants the timber there.

“Taib traditionally demands a rate of RM100 per ton of timber,” says Sarawak Report, quoting timber industry insiders. “However, in this latest case the sum is likely to be substantially larger, given the value of the hardwoods at the Sebangan reserve.”

With 3,305 hectares of forest at his disposal, Taib would stand to gain at least RM250 million, it said.

Because of the land's Native Customary Rights (NCR) status, QCHB has been given a conditional occupation certificate valid for only a year. One of the conditions is that the company needs the permission of the NCR landowners to start logging.

However, QCHB appears to have taken wood from the forest without asking.

”Nobody warned or consulted us about anything,” said Sadun Ason, Kampong Ensika's headman, adding that he found out about the poaching when a villager spoke of logging equipment being shipped upriver on July 11.

Ason then contacted the local penghulu, who not only admitted to having knowledge of the poaching but also told the headman and his people that any form of protest was futile.

"We were told the whole matter was perfectly legal, and we had no rights," Ason told Sarawak Report.

Villagers bribed and tricked

According to the article, Taib elects his own headmen and penghulus for villages in the interior.

In the case of Kampong Ensika, he appointed an outsider and a member of his Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, as the penghulu a few weeks before QHCB's logging licence was issued.

The article also said that Forestry Department and Land Survey officials were friendlier with QCHB's representatives than with the villagers.

Despite records from the Land Registry stating that the land in question was gazetted as NCR land in 1956, the government agents claimed there was no evidence that the area had such a status.

Sarawak Report said QCHB had offered to pay each villager RM250 and each headman RM800 if they would sign away their rights to the forest.

It also alleged that in one instance QHCB bribed and tricked 11 villagers and three headmen into giving up their rights.

It said the victims, who were illiterate, were taken to Sibu in QHCB's vehicles for a dinner and were then asked to sign documents waiving their rights to their land without any lawyer being present. They did not get copies of the documents, it added.

“We have been threatened that if we oppose this, we are going against the government and opposing development,” a villager told Sarawak Report.

“But why does the government act like a common thief in this case and how much development can we achieve for RM250?”

The article also said Sebangan's villagers were expecting gangsters allegedly employed by QCHB to intimidate the indigenous population.

Sarawak Report said it would forward the information it had to a legal team headed by activist lawyer Baru Bian.

MB: Perak will not gazette all its forests as non-logging areas

2010-09-26T13:03:00.004+08:00

"Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed" by I. F. Stone

If you want to enter Temengor Forest Reserve where alot of logging is going on, you need a Forestry permit....and that permit takes weeks to process. The ultimate aim is to discourage you from entering. At every entry point, Forestry staffs are there to mann the trucks coming in and out. So tell me, how can illegal logging activities happened? How can ordinary people enter to take pictures when entry permits are so strict? I tend to believe the quote by I.F. Stone above. Do you agree?

What about this valuable gems mine in the Temengor Forest Reserve? Any accounting for mining this valuable gems?

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Sunday September 26, 2010
By ROSHIDI ABU SAMAH
Thestar

IPOH: Perak cannot entertain demands by any party that wants all its forested areas to be gazetted as non-logging areas, said Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

“Logging cannot be stopped completely because it is one of the major industries in the state,” he told reporters at a Barisan Nasional Hari Raya open house here yesterday.

“We are ready to work with any party to ensure that our forests are not completely destroyed,” he said, adding that it would also work with the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in its effort to protect the state’s rainforests.

Dr Zambry said the state government had already gazetted an area about five times the size of Singapore at the Royal Belum rainforest as a state park.

He agreed that the state government needs the support of the MNS and WWF to solve the problem of illegal logging and poaching at Royal Belum and its surrounding areas.

He said the two organisations could help by submitting to the government pictures of illegal logging and poaching activities.

“We will ask the relevant authorities to identify those involved and bring them to justice,” he said.

MACC raids wildlife dept over ‘permit issue abuse’

2010-09-25T09:37:00.000+08:00

September 25, 2010
By SEREAN LAU
The Star

PETALING JAYA: Anti-corruption officers raided the headquarters of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) in Cheras following allegations of abuse in the issuance of wildlife permits.

It was learnt that officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) went to the headquarters on Tuesday morning and carted away files, documents and laptops related to wildlife permits and licences to help in their investigations.

According to a source in the department, the MACC personnel asked for the office of a high-ranking officer in charge of the overall issuance and monitoring of wildlife permits and licences.

Although the officer, believed to be responsible for the support and recommendation in the approval of such permits was on leave, MACC personnel were allowed to enter the office.

It was believed that during the raid, several officers were also interviewed.

When contacted, a Perhilitan senior officer confirmed that MACC was at the headquarters to conduct an investigation but declined to elaborate.

He also refused to speculate if any wildlife permit issued to infamous wildlife trader Anson Wong or his family member had been revoked.

In confirming the incident, MACC investigations director Mustafar Ali insisted that it was merely “visit” and not a raid, but declined to comment further.

The headquarters is one of the three offices in the country - besides Penang and Johor branches - responsible for the issuance of wildlife permits.

There are three types of permits and licences for the handling of wild animals.

A licence is required to handle protected wildlife such as reticulated pythons and meerkats which fall under Schedule Two, Four and Five of the Protection of Wildlife Act while a special permit is necessary for totally protected species like Malayan tigers and Sumatran rhinoceros, and orang utan.

A Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) permit is required for all activities involving the import and export of wildlife listed under it such as snakes and turtles.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas had announced that the department would be undergoing a shake-up to weed out officers who were in cahoots with illegal wildlife traders.

The department had been dogged with allegations of corruption among its enforcement officers following Wong’s arrest at KL International Airport on Aug 26 for trying to smuggle out 95 boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and a Mata Mata turtle without a permit while on transit from Penang to Jakarta, Indonesia.

The ministry, particularly Perhilitan, had been heavily criticised by conservation groups after Wong was sentenced on Sept 6 to six months’ jail and fined RM190,000 by the Sepang Sessions Court.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers is appealing against the sentence while a Penang National Park and Wildlife Department director was reportedly transferred to another state effective Oct 1.

Elderly Malaysian rhino enlisted in breeding attempt

2010-09-24T08:50:00.001+08:00

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:43

freemalaysiatoday.com
Source here

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian wildlife officials on Borneo island said today they will try to artificially inseminate an elderly female rhinoceros in a bid to revive one of the world's most endangered species.

Gelegub, a Sumatran rhino who at 28-years-old is equivalent to a 70-something grandmother in human terms, will be impregnated with sperm from a virile young male rhino.

"Gelegub is too old to mate normally and the mating ritual of rhinos is quite violent so this would be one of the best ways to try and get her pregnant and give birth to a rhino in captivity," said Sen Nathan, coordinator of the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary where the procedure will be carried out.

Sen said the only breeding facility in the world that has had any success in producing Sumatran rhino calves in captivity is the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States, which has produced three calves over the last decade.

"Our priority of course is to have natural mating in the first place but at the moment we only have one male rhino in captivity and Gelegub is the only other viable female that we have," he said.

"It is critical that we try and get the rhinos to reproduce as there are only 50 such rhinos in the region and without reproduction, they face imminent extinction."

Nathan said Gelegub will be injected with hormones in November to stimulate the production of eggs, which will be removed and fertilised, hopefully producing viable embryos for implantation.

Spare embryos will be frozen for implantation in surrogates at a later date.

Between 30 to 50 of the Borneo sub-species of the Sumatran rhinos are known to remain in the wild in Borneo -- a vast island shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

It is distinguished from other Sumatran rhinos by its relatively small size, small teeth and distinctively shaped head.

Only 150 to 300 Sumatran rhino are known to exist in the wild, making it one of the world's most endangered species, with only small groups left on Indonesia's Sumatra island, the north of Borneo and peninsular Malaysia.

- AFP

MNS: Protect first, then plant

2010-09-18T09:29:00.000+08:00

September 18, 2010
By PRISCILLA DIELENBERG
Star

INSTEAD of planting new mangrove saplings in unprotected areas, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) wants the state to first concentrate on protecting existing mangrove swamps.

One such critical area is the north Seberang Prai coastal belt, spanning about 2km to 2.5km long from Teluk Air Tawar to near Kuala Muda, said MNS Penang branch advisor D. Kanda Kumar.

He said the coastal swamp should be gazetted as a protected area.

“The mangrove trees have been there for a very long time. The size of the swamp varies from only a few strands to about 10m wide at some parts, and more than 100m wide at other parts.

“Natural reclamation and erosion have also occurred at certain places, and some of the trees have also been cut,” he said.

Kanda Kumar said the coastal mangrove was quite rich in terms of animal biodiversity, especially during the migrant bird season between September and March.

“At least four species of globally threatened migrant birds can be found there — the Asian Dowitcher, Chinese Egret, Nordmann’s Green-shank and Lesser Adjutant.

“It also has slightly more than 1% of the global population of Chinese Pond Herons, and 1% of the world population of Common Redshank,” he said.

He added that the coastal swamp in north Seberang Prai was globally recognised as an important bird area by Birdlife International and classified as an important wetlands area by Wetlands International.

He also said there were other mammals not commonly seen in Penang at the coastal swamp, such as mongooses and otters.

Kanda Kumar was speaking in light of the felling of six young mangrove trees of about 2m tall near the Gurney Drive roundabout, said to have been planted by the state on Aug 31.

He had said that it was a waste of time and money to plant the trees at Gurney Drive if it was not gazetted as a protected area.

Kanda Kumar said that in Penang, there were two known large protected mangrove forests — at the southern part of the National Park near the Pantai Acheh Village on the island and at the Byram forest reserve near the Pulau Burung landfill on the mainland.

He said: “Unprotected mangrove areas included the Gurney Drive, Tanjong Tokong and Bayan Bay areas, and there used to be other protected mangrove areas in Balik Pulau that had since been de-gazetted for aquaculture.”

Chicken Feed Jail Term of Bolehland

2010-09-06T22:43:00.002+08:00

Anson Wong gets 6 mths' jail, RM190,000 fine

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 6, 2010): A Malaysian was jailed for six months and fined RM190,000 for trying to smuggle 95 snakes out of the country, a sentence that campaigners said was too light.

Anson Wong, already convicted of trafficking in wildlife in the United States in 2001, pleaded guilty last week and will start his sentence on Sept 13.

Under Malaysian law, Wong could have faced seven years in jail and fines of up to RM100,000 for each snake up to a maximum of RM1 million or both.

Wong was detained when in transit from Penang to the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Aug 26 when staff at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport were alerted to a bag that had broken while on a conveyor belt.

They found 95 boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and a matamata turtle inside the bag.

The US Department of Justice said Wong had pleaded guilty to a trafficking in the United States in 2001 and was sentenced to 71 months in jail.

TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring organisation, said the sentence indicated unwillingness by Malaysian authorities to get tough with real wildlife criminals and to show the world it was serious about wildlife trafficking.

"This is a tragedy. It clearly tells wildlife traffickers that they have little to fear from Malaysian law," said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia regional director William Schaedla. — Reuters

More news here

A distant cry for help from the jungle

2010-09-05T18:47:00.000+08:00

Sunday, September 5, 2010
Sim Kwang Yang
Source

The year was 1993, and I was serving my third term as an opposition member of parliament (MP) of Bandar Kuching.

In the Malaysian context at the time, the core of an MP’s job was to service the constituency, by solving the little problems created by inefficient administration, like looking after blocked drains, neglected garbage collection, and attending to minor daily problems faced by the constituents. That was how politicians saw their roles in Malaysians’ daily lives.

But I had different ideas about politics. I believed that the duty of our Wakil Rakyat was to serve the whole nation, and in the context of Sarawak, to serve all the people in the state. Therefore, I devoted my energies throughout the 1990s to the contentious battle to protect the forests of my home state, Sarawak. It was a tough job, because nobody was interested in environmental protection, and the powerful timber interests made sure that we were denied access to the mass communication media.

I fought the lonely battle against the timber interests with the help of a few environmental groups and our news faced a constant blackout by local newspapers and news agencies. The general voting population in the towns were completely apathetic regarding the suffering people in the rural areas, who had little access to the urban-centric media organisations.

It was some time in 1993, that one day, the then MP of Petaling Jaya, Kua Kia Soong, walked up to me and demanded what I would do for the poor Penans in upper Baram. He had received numerous reports about the anti-logging blockades in that isolated part of Sarawak from many international NGOs. Young children had been killed by the security forces trying to evict the Penans from the anti-logging protest sites, and one young girl was reported to have been raped. I promised him I would look into the issue upon my return to Kuching from Parliament.

When I arrived in Kuching, I discussed the issue with my political assistant, See Chee How, who was then working at my office fulltime.

See Chee How has since qualified as a lawyer and he is one of the most active human rights defenders in Malaysia. He has now taken up over a hundred court cases against powerful plantation owners and loggers to fight for the rights of the Sarawak natives. He has been winning native customary land cases that have created Malaysian legal history through landmark decisions).

Arduous journey for worthy cause

After some discussion, Chee How travelled alone all the way to the upper Baram area, to conduct his own fact-finding mission. His journey took several weeks to complete and he had to travel on foot through the deep forest, as well as take longboats and long journeys over land, before he could meet the Penans personally and hold interviews with them. Fortunately, Chee How was a healthy and strong young man.

Chee How returned to Kuching and told me he had been stopped on his way back by the police at Marudi, and he was searched and questioned by the police personnel. But he did hide his photographic films so he was able to show me his photos.

After that, Chee How attempted to send the affected Penans to Miri town, to lodge police reports about deaths and the rape case at logging blockades and the suffering inflicted upon the villagers in upper Baram. Those efforts at bringing the Penans to the attention of the police were unsuccessful. The police even refused to record their police reports.

The issue of the Penans and logging in Sarawak had become so sensitive to the state Barisan Nasional leadership that minimal information about the Penan protests trickled out to the outside world. The newspapers in Sarawak were mostly owned by the timber interests in the state and so, there was a clampdown on what the Penans and other Sarawak natives were saying against the logging.

I refused to feel hopeless, because we were the only hope for the Penans and other groups to voice out their suffering, and apathy and cynicism were luxuries we could not afford. In ordinary life, even a dog being kicked has a right to howl in pain.

The Penans are the most disadvantaged members of our society. It is the duty of all Malaysians to hear their cry of pain, in our political system that favours the rich and powerful at the expense of the weak and dispossessed.

The other added obstacle in my path was the nature of racial politics that permeated civil society in Malaysia. Malaysians view all things political through the racial lens, and to ask them to see politics over and above their narrow racial considerations has always been a near impossible task.

Breaking through information blockade

I had always considered myself a Sarawakian first, and a Malaysian second, and being a Chinese was just a minor consideration, by accident of birth. In my mind, much of our political rhetoric is tinged by our racially based prejudices and these are not real political issues.

The persecution of the Penans is a universal crime against humanity. The Penans are equal citizens of our nation. Their suffering deserves our national attention, especially when they are the weakest and the most marginalised group among our citizens.

Since it was so difficult for the Penans to gain access to reporters in town, I decided to call for a press conference to bring the reporters and the Penans together.

The press conference was to be held in Kuching a few months later in 1994, and the representatives of the Penans were transported from the deep interior: from upper Baram to Kuching city. It was a logistical nightmare, but with the help of Chee How and his NGO friends from inside and outside Malaysia, we pulled off the trip.

Nearly twenty village leaders representing fifteen Penan settlements in the Baram area made the long trip to Kuching city. There, they made a police report on the rape of a Penan girl and the death of two Penans at logging blockades, and held a series of events to highlight to the world, the plight of the poor Penans. – Hornbill Unleashed

(Sim Kwang Yang was Member of Parliament for Bandar Kuching, Sarawak from 1982 to 1995)

Who is lying?

2010-09-04T00:00:00.005+08:00

A sample photo of a logged hill for oil palm?

Friday September 3, 2010 MYT 9:17:00 PM
Protest against palm oil smear campaign in Aussie zoos
By STEPHEN THEN

Star

MIRI: The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) have submitted official protest to the Australian Government - to express its anger over the move by zoos in Australia to allow activists to blatantly smear Malaysia’s and Borneo’s image through anti-palm oil public posters.

MPOC Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Yusof Basiron told The Star Friday that his council had sent two memos to the Australian Government.

“We are countering the lies spread by these activists and making known our objections to the Australian authorities.

“The allegations against us are very serious and damaging to the image of not only our palm-oil industry, but also the reputation of peninsula Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.

“The Aussie posters was also brought up to the attention of our Cabinet also. The posters used by these activists in Australia contained a lot of lies. We want the zoos to take down those posters,’’ he said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

The Star recently highlighted the move by environmental activists who put up posters in the Adelaide Zoo criticising the oil-palm projects in peninsula Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Papua New Guinea.

The posters, among others, claimed that the palm-oil industry had caused serious deforestation, wildlife abuse, global-warming and the genocide of Orang Utans.

The posters also called for pressure to be applied on the Government and policy-makers to force palm oil industralists to do more to protect the environment and wildlife.

One of the posters claimed that in Borneo, palm-oil developers are “killing up to 50 Orang Utans per week by using guns, machettes, wooden stacks and fire’’.

The Star found out about these poster campaigns during the visit to the world-famous Adelaide Zoo by Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen during her recent mission to promote Malaysia’s tourism spots.

Dr Ng protested against these posters and tried to counter the activists’ stance during her meeting with trade representatives and foreign journalists during her stop in New Zealand and Australia.

Yusof told The Star Friday, the MPOC found similar posters in other Aussie zoos.

“We have contacted politicians in Australia and also the management of the zoos and have asked that those posters be pulled down.

“We have hired independent researchers from overseas to come to Malaysia to carry out independent probes on the Orang Utan and have found no evidence of any killings by oil-palm workers.

“In fact, our studies showed that the Orang Utan population in Sarawak and Sabah have not even declined as claimed by these activists.

“As for claims on our forest destruction and wildlife abuse, the latest information we have is that the environment authorities have already taken steps to improve enforcement and penalise offenders.

“Making sweeping allegations against us is most unfair under the circumstances,’’ he said.

Anson Wong pleads guilty to exporting snakes without permit

2010-09-02T17:57:00.001+08:00

Thursday September 2, 2010 MYT 4:31:23 PM
BY M.MAGESWARI
Star

SEPANG: A businessman pleaded guilty at the Sessions Court here Wednesday to exporting 95 snakes without permit last week.

He posted bail on Thursday.

Wong Keng Liang, better known as Anson Wong, 52, believed to be an international wildlife trader, admitted to exporting 95 Boa Constrictor - which is endangered species - without permit at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 8.50pm on Aug 26.

The Boa constrictor is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake and variable in drawing and color. They are very adaptable and live in a number of habitats in different climates.

It is a member of the Boidae family found in Central America, South America and some islands in the Caribbean.

The snakes were found in a luggage bag while Wong was in transit from Penang to Jakarta.

Wong could be fined a maximum of RM100,000 or jailed up to seven years or both under Section 10(a) of the International Trade of Endangered Species Act 2008.

Prosecuting officer Faridz Gohim Abdullah, from Perhilitan (Wildlife and National Parks Department), applied to the court to set his bail at RM50,000 in one surety.

Sessions Court judge Zulhelmy Hasan set his bail at RM50,000 in one surety. Zulhelmy also ordered Wong to surrender his passport pending disposal of the case.

The judge set Sept 6 for mention pending appointment of a lawyer.

Meanwhile, Wong posted bail Thursday.

It had been reported by The Star in February that Wong had been linked to a Dec 15 seizure in the United States of various types of animals from an exotic animal outlet.

Two of the trader’s companies were found to have been supplying animals to the outlet.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) had claimed that CBS Wildlife and Sungai Rusa Wildlife, both owned by Wong, were supplying various types of animals and wildlife to US Global Exotics (USGE).

Wong pleaded guilty to trafficking in wildlife in the US and was sentenced to 71 months jail in 2000.

State to take stern action

2010-09-02T14:09:00.001+08:00

Thursday September 2, 2010
Star

GEORGE TOWN: The state government has issued a stern warning to those who cut down mangrove trees off Gurney Drive — “You will be prosecuted”.

State Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said he had ordered rangers from the state Forestry Department to investigate who had chopped down six mangrove trees at the popular recreational area.

“The trees are Government property, planted in public places on government land by government officials. What do they think they are doing?” Phee, when contacted yesterday, asked.

Saying that the felling was illegal and a form of vandalism, Phee said there were provisions in the law to bring the fellers to book.

“They better stop (the felling) right now,” Phee warned.

It was reported on Wednesday that six young mangrove trees measuring about 2m high were felled. The six trees were among 300 saplings that the state had planted in the mud flat near the Gurney Drive roundabout last year.

On rubbish accumulated on the mangrove trees, Phee said it was proof that Government projects could not succeed without public participation.

“Some people dispose their rubbish without any regard for the environment. Those that end up in the sea get washed in during high tide and end up hooked on the mangroves,” Phee said in reference to the mangrove trees that had entrapped plastic bags and other colourful litter in their branches.

Man plays God again

2010-08-20T08:55:00.003+08:00

If the authorities are really compentent, the problem of mosquitoes is quite simple. The increase of mosquitoes are mainly due to the number of foreign workers, increase in rubber price and the "tidak apa" (couldn't care) attitude of Government servants.

Let me point you to the source of the mosquitoes problems:-

1. Check every foreign workers' squatters, especially the illegals found in the estates and forests

2. Construction sites

3. Rubber estates

4. All outdoor government departments - and even Penang General Hospital's drains (Yes this one is real and I personally saw it with my naked eyes - go see for yourself during the dry season)

There you are, no need to play God, just do your job!

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'Don't release new strain of Aedes mosquitoes'
Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:00
By G Vinod

PETALING JAYA: A plan to release about 3,000 genetically modified Aedes mosquitoes into the environment may be just the weapon needed to curb the spread of the deadly dengue fever. The National Biosafety Board (NBB) is studying the plan in view of the alarming number of lives lost in the country to the infectious disease.

But the Third World Network (TWN), an independent non-profit international body involved in issues relating to development, has sounded a warning: don't jump the gun.

It has urged the NBB to reject the plan, saying the new non-biting male Aedes mosquitoes from the OX513A strain may cause other environmental problems.

The TWN said that a number of factors must be considered before such a move is undertaken.

The NBB is assessing a field experiment proposal from the Institute of Medical Research to release the mosquitoes in Bentong, Pahang, and Alor Gajah, Malacca, in early October.

It is hoped that the genetically-modified OX513A male mosquitoes will mate with the female strain, causing its progeny to be dead and thus eventually reduce the number of Aedes mosquitoes.

Currently, NBB is seeking public opinion over the matter in its website, www.biosafety.nre.gov.my and the deadline is Sept 4.

“Although the board is seeking public opinion, many other factors must be taken into account before releasing them (mosquitoes),”said TWN's senior researcher Lim Li Ching.

She said that one important factor to be considered is that the progeny of the mosquitoes will only be dead provided the environment is free of an antibiotic called tetracycline.

“However, tetracycline is fairly common as it is used for medical, veterinary, lifestock and agricultural purposes.

“If the mosquitoes breed in the presence of this antibiotic, the progeny may live and may increase the Aedes population in the environment,” said Lim.

Subsequently, the living progeny may pose additional health risks, being the by-product of a genetically modified male.

“These new Aedes mosquitoes may then cause another environmental problem as it may alter the way the disease (dengue) is transmitted,” said Lim.

New strain a concern

Lim added that even if the strategy is effective in suppressing the population of the Aedes mosquitoes in the long run, it may open the gateway to another health problem.

“In a natural ecological cycle, when one species goes down, another takes its place. There is concern that once you suppress the Aedes mosquitoes, another strain may take over their place and cause further harm to humans,” said Lim.

She also has a word of caution for the government: don't jump the gun by releasing the genetically modified insects into the environment because even the international community is wary of it.

“The international community is still debating about the safety of genetically modified food products and here we are planning to release genetically modified insects,” she said.

Lim also questioned whether Malaysia has adequate capacity to control this proposed release.

“Are we able to recall the genetically-modified mosquitoes to control the situation if anything goes wrong?” she asked.

Source here

Environmentalists want Sabah to scrap coal plant

2010-08-19T17:56:00.001+08:00

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
August 19, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 – A Sabah-based enviromentalist group has told the government to call off the proposed Lahad Datu coal-fired power plant after the Department of Environment (DOE) rejected the project’s detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) report.

Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future) spokeman Wong Tack said that the state must take stand after DOE’s rejection of the report.

“We thank the DOE for carrying out their duty without fear or favour. Now that a federal agency has made such a decision, we hope that the state government too will take a stand.

“We should all collectively chart a new path towards clean energy that helps create jobs. Going into alternatives to coal, including renewable energy is a solution for Sabah,” he said in a press statement.

Green SURF is a coalition of five NGOs including SEPA, WWF Malaysia, Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP), Malaysian Nature Society and Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS).

The DOE recently rejected the DEIA for the proposed 300-megawatt coal-fried plant in Felda Sahabat because many important environmental parameters in the proposed project were not addressed in the report.

The Malaysian Insider had previously reported that an environmental impact assessment on the proposed power plant stated that its construction stands to raise surrounding sea temperature by four degrees Celcius as well as damaging the livelihoods of local fishermen.

According to documents made available to The Malaysian Insider, the power plant near Kampung Sinakut, Lahad Datu, will also result in the loss of a traditional seaweed farming area measuring 4km.

Wong added that DOE’s decision was important as the state government had rejected DEIA’s first proposed site in Silam.

“The decision by DOE speaks volumes as the State Government had in April 2008 rejected the DEIA for the first proposed site in Silam, also in Lahad Datu, on grounds that it would have negative environmental and health impacts.

“Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd’s proposal for a second site in Sandakan did not reach the DEIA level following strong objections from locals,” he said.

The 300MW plant worth more than RM1.3 billion was proposed to generate power supply to help spur development of the Palm Oil Industries Cluster (POIC) Lahad Datu.

The proposed power plant will have four power units, each having a net electrical output of 75MW, and will use the most widely-used method of burning coal to generate steam.

The documents made available to The Malaysian Insider also stated that the maximum total ash generation in the power plant is estimated at 49,000 tonnes per year.

The coal plant was initially proposed in Silam, near Lahad Datu, and Sandakan, but both were rejected by the state government following protests.

Lahad Datu is located within Tawau in eastern Sabah and occupies the peninsula on the north side of Darvel Bay. The district is also the gateway to the Danum Valley Conservation Area (160 km away), the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in the east (20km away), and Madai Caves in the south.

Source here

Global warming: Aussie group to work with S’wak tribal leaders

2010-08-16T10:04:00.000+08:00

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:23
By FMT Staff
freemalaysiatoday.com

KUCHING: Nine tribal leaders in Sarawak have signed an agreement with an Australian based grouping to certify carbon credits under the avoided deforestation program known as REDD+.

The agreement with the Indigenous Customary Land Owners of Sarawak will see Shift2Neutral, a grouping of individuals and companies committed to a sustainable future, work directly with the tribal leaders to achieve realistic change and ensure the protection of their native flora and fauna.

The move underscores regional concern over the increasing effects of global warming and the urgent need to save the world’s third largest island from indiscriminate deforesting.

“The immediate protection of tropical rainforests is critical if we hope to turn the tide on global warming, and the added benefits of conserving these sensitive ecosystems are immeasurable," said the group said in a statement issued recently.

The spokesman said via avoided deforestation, Sarawak could “ensure the protection of the carbon that is already stored in vegetation”.

"The cutting of forests releases billions of tons of greenhouse gases (from carbon stored in trees, plants and soils) into the atmosphere.

“Roughly 20% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by deforestation. By comparison, the entire global transportation sector is responsible for roughly 14% of annual greenhouse gas emissions,” the group said.

Explaining further, the group noted that Shift2Neutral believed that linking people's economic self-interest and the health of ecosystems was one way to generate interest in the conservation challenges facing the world today.

“We believe the business sector could pioneer new ideas, forge new partnerships and implement new solutions that will permanently halt unsustainable deforestation and allow the global society to protect the ecosystems.

“We believe this can be achieved with benefits to the local stakeholders.

“We must recognize the rights of indigenous peoples and the local communities involved," the spokesman said adding that "the total land area involved for the first phase alone more than 100,000 hectares or endangered forest.”

X-rated egg rush in Terengganu

2010-08-09T09:22:00.001+08:00

Monday August 9, 2010
Star

KUALA TERENGGANU: Market traders here are openly selling endangered turtle eggs, much to the shock and dismay of the state authorities.

While the Pasar Payang central market traders are enjoying brisk sales of the Green Turtle (Chelonia Mydas) eggs, State Agriculture and Agro-based committee chairman Ashaari Idris intends to get to the bottom of the illegal business.

“I am really shocked that the market traders are selling eggs collected from the beaches of Terengganu. Previously, they only sold eggs from Indonesia.

“We must catch the culprits supplying them,” he said.

Under the law, only licensed collectors are allowed to harvest the eggs which must be sold to the Fisheries Department, which then sends the eggs to incubators to be hatched.

Ashaari said he would direct his officers to check whether poaching was rampant as it could have a dire effect on the turtle landings on local beaches.

He also stressed that the belief that turtle eggs could improve sexual prowess was a myth. This, however, has failed to stop couples wanting to revive their flagging sex lives from buying the eggs.

Salleh Solat, who has been trading at the market for over two decades, said he had buyers from as far as Kuala Lumpur.

He sells the Green Turtle eggs at RM30 for a packet of 10 and said he could get double or triple the price during off-season.

“There is a huge demand for these eggs as they can also be used to treat asthma and backaches,” he claimed.

He added that he previously sold eggs supplied from Sabah and Indonesia but there was now a great demand for Terengganu eggs.

This was because the locally laid eggs can be obtained for sale within a few hours of collection and therefore fresher, compared with eggs from elsewhere which took about two weeks to reach here.

Salleh said he got his supplies from two agents, but declined to name them.

The endangered Green Turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle in the world. Females lay their eggs at night in a process that takes two hours, each time laying 110 to 115 eggs.

The leatherback and Olive Ridley turtles are already said to be close to extinction in Terengganu while the number of Hawksbill and Green Turtles has also plunged drastically.

It has been reported that a leading cause for the decline of turtle species is egg consumption.