Politicians in bed with bad company at Sg Pulai

May 15, 09
GreenPea
Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/104389

Johor was a state endowed with vast tracts of coastal mangrove. Note the past tense used.

Ironically, it is also the only state in the country with the highest number of Ramsar sites. The recognition for the protection of wetlands such as mangrove swamps of international importance was awarded to Pulau Kukup, Tanjung Piai and Sungai Pulai in January 2003; all located in the southwest of the state.

The three sites are part and parcel of the bigger Pulai river basin which incidentally is one of the highest fishery production centres in the country due to its unique geographical location.

In terms of bio-diversity, the wetlands are home to the endangered dugongs, turtles and seahorses as well as being the flyway of migratory birds. Unfortunately, the eagerness of the state in listing its Ramsar sites is not matched by its protection measures.

In the last one decade, the region's pristine mangrove forests have seen tremendous destruction - from the construction of the port of Tanjung Pelepas to the setting up of the 2,100MW Tanjung Bin coal-fired power plant to, now, the reclamation of a further another 913ha of the forest for a petro-chemical hub.

The development, which has largely escaped scrutiny of the Malaysian public, has ignored various national laws and guidelines.

Firstly, the approval of the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (which means no public review) reports for the power plant and the petro-chemical hub are highly questionable as public participation was sorely inadequate.

A coal-fired power plant and a petro-chemical hub carry with them inherent environmental and health effects that have yet to be clearly communicated to the local communities.

Secondly, a provision under the Environmental Quality Act (Prescribed Activities) Regulations requires development projects encroaching into more than 500ha of coastal wetlands to be subjected to a Detailed EIA (not just a Preliminary EIA) which compels the report to be reviewed by the public.

Thirdly, the Sg Pulai wetlands are clearly identified as an Environmentally Sensitive Area Rank 1 by the National Physical Plan - a plan that was approved by the cabinet and tacitly endorsed by the various state governments.

Forget about scrutiny by public regulatory bodies like the Department of Environment which is powerless when our legislators ie, the politicians, are in bed with corporate devils.

All three projects are operated and owned by various subsidiaries of a giant public-listed company, which, hypocritically, professes to uphold Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility.

To salvage its tarnished image, the company now attempts to green-wash its activities. To ensure that the strategy is effective, it needs the endorsement of the greenies.

In November, 2007, it enlisted the ‘help' of none other than the Malaysian Nature Society by funding a coffee-table book project to document...ahem...the rich biological heritage of Sg Pulai.

Recently, it also managed to quell dissenting voices from the fishing communities by compensating some full-time fishermen to the tune of RM10,000 each and further promising a monthly RM800 compensation scheme for the next 20 years. So, looks like the fisher folks are throwing in the towel.

In 2007, using a tried and tested formula to pacify initial uproar through the mainstream media, the Johor menteri besar ‘ordered' the project developers to submit a DEIA report.

But the menteri besar has since turned his back on the environment, ignoring the threat posed to food security and potential health problems arising from these development activities in the much-hyped Iskandar Development Region.

Tomorrow, in typical oxymoron fashion - ‘destroy first, restore later'- the menteri besar of Johor, Ghani Othman, will sink his feet into the Sg Pulai mud to plant some mangrove saplings to show the state's ‘commitment' to the environment and further green the image of the environmental crime perpetrator.

Your readers may never have heard of Sg Pulai and will probably never get a chance to experience its beauty but they ought to know of this carnage and hopefully will stand up against further destruction of our precious, life-giving wetlands.

Sabah to conserve 78,000ha of mangrove, wildlife reserves

Friday July 18, 2008 MYT 3:45:57 PM
Staronline
By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is permanently conserving wetlands and forests three times the size of Kuala Lumpur at a wildlife rich region on the state's east coast.

Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan said the state cabinet approved the setting aside of some 78,000ha of mangrove and wildlife forest reserves in the Lower Kinabatangan-Segama region.

The cabinet made the move when giving its nod to the suggestion by the Borneon Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conservation Phase II programme to list the area as part of the global Ramsar Site Network.

Named after a place in Iran, Ramsar is an international convention on wetlands that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. It it was first established in 1971 and came into force in 1975.

Ramsar falls under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and is managed by the Ramsar secretariat, which shares its headquarters with the International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Switzerland.

Mannan said the area included were Trusan Kinabatangan, Kuala Segama-Maruap Mangrove Forest Reserves and Kulamba Wildlife Forest Reserve.

He said the site would be tabled and registered at the next “Conference of the Parties” (CoP10) to be held in South Korea in October. With that, Sabah would have the largest Ramsar Site in Malaysia, the others being five other areas ranging from 526ha to 6,610ha totalling 55,000ha in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak.

“Sabah's proposed area represents the largest contiguous area of wetland forests in the country,” Mannan said, adding there were numerous benefits from listing the wetlands as a Ramsar site.

These include international prestige for achieving the gold standard in the conservation of wetlands of global importance, access to international assistance on the research of wetlands.

Other benefits include external funding for management activities such as forest management plan preparation, enhanced protection, bio-diversity assessments and increased access to expertise, he said.

“The listing will also further raise the profile of Sabah’s conservation efforts internationally and this is bound to have a multiplier effect on the state’s growing nature-based tourism industry,” Mannan said in thanking the Sabah cabinet led by Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman for the listing decision.

Peat swamp guideline for state govts

The Star,
Wednesday March 12, 2008
MYT 12:30:16 PM
By AMANDA LEE

KUALA LUMPUR: A guideline will be drawn up for state governments to ensure conservation and sustainable use of Peat Swamp Forests (PSF) based on the findings of the five-year Peat Swamp Forest Project, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry secretary-general Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin said.

“The aim of the guideline, which includes a comprehensive long-term plan until 2020, is to encourage state authorities to manage PSF through informed decisions in managing the forests,” he said at the Symposium on Peat Swamp Forests.

However, he noted that the choice to adhere to the guideline depends on the state governments.

Launching the project’s 15th publication, “Orchids of Peat Swamp Forests in Peninsular Malaysia”, Suboh said that it is crucial that PSF are managed in a sustainable manner as they are a significant mitigating factor in climate change, as demonstrated in the three sites chosen for the project: Loagan Bunut Park in Sarawak, Klias Peninsula in Sabah and the South-East Pahang PSF in Pahang.

"Accounting for 75% (about 1.54 mil hectares) of total wetlands area in Malaysia, PSF provides waters supply, groundwater recharge, carbon storage and sanctuary to a wealth of flora and fauna,” Forest Research Institite of Malaysia (FRIM) director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Mohd Ali said.

Coordinated by the FRIM and implemented by the forestry departments of Pahang, Sarawak and Sabah, the RM19.9mil project was initiated by the Malaysian government in 2002 and received additional RM22.5mil in funding from the United Nations Development Programme/ Global Environment Facility (UNDP/ GEF) in collaboration with Danish International Development Assistance (Danida).