New resort accused of threatening Malaysia's top dive spot

Romen Bose Yahoo News 18 Nov 08;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – An oceanarium resort planned near the world-famous Sipadan diving spot off Malaysian Borneo could spell disaster for the region's delicate coral reefs, environmentalists said Tuesday.

The plan for the huge resort, complete with an artificial reef and research facilities, has also come under attack from indigenous Bajau or "sea gypsies" who say it infringes on their native rights.

The oceanarium resort is slated to be built on a 33-hectare (82-acre) site on Mabul island, located just next to Sipadan, which is famous for its coral reefs, teeming sea life and crystal clear waters.

Reports said plans for the resort, touted as "a marine habitat wonder," include fake sea grass and other devices to attract fish, as well as the construction of swimming pools and more than 200 bungalows and villas.

Environmentalists have criticised the plan, which will require tonnes of construction materials to be brought in by barges, saying it could destroy the island's marine life and degrade the corals off nearby Sipadan.

Sabah Environmental Protection Association president Wong Teck said there were fears of a repeat of a 2006 accident on Sipadan when a construction barge ran aground, destroying a coral reef patch the size of three tennis courts.

"Mabul has an extremely sensitive marine ecology and the plan for a new oceanarium is certain to affect the environment there badly," he told AFP.

"An increase in the number of people staying on the island as a result of the resort and the amount of waste created, in addition to the construction work right on the coral and shallows, are almost certain to destroy much of it."

"It is definitely not environmentally sustainable and the whole idea of an oceanarium seems quite strange given that people can already see all the fish and sealife in the pristine clear waters without the need for such a facility."

Bajau villager Fung Haji Sappari also opposed the project, telling the Star newspaper that his people have had customary rights over the land as they have been using the area for fishing, transport and passage for hundreds of years.

"How can they do it? Several years ago I also applied for 15 acres around the same spot. It was not approved," he told the daily.

Fung said more than 2,000 villagers on the island feared being moved out once the project was complete as the local land office considered them to be squatters.

The Star quoted officials as saying the state cabinet had approved the resort on condition that the project managers would conserve and repair the coral reefs.

However, it said the developers would have to get approval for the project's environmental impact assessment before they can begin work.

Concerns over environmental damage on Sipadan prompted the closure of five dive resorts on the island in 2005, and most visitors now stay on Mabul and travel to the Sipadan reefs by boat.

Controversial oceanarium still needs EIA evaluation
P. K. Katharason, Muguntan Vanar and Ruben Sario, The Star 18 Nov 08;

KOTA KINABALU: A controversial oceanarium resort at Pulau Mabul along Sabah’s east coast still has to get the approval of various authorities here although the state cabinet has endorsed the land office’s green light for project.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the oceanarium proponents would need to get approval for the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) and development before it can get off the ground.

He said his ministry would evaluate the proposal when they received the development plan of the proposed oceanarium.

“As such, the issue of the project’s approval does not arise at this point in time,” he told The Star yesterday.

He said the EIA was a crucial component in the entire evaluation process of the project.

Masidi said the state cabinet had endorsed the state Land and Survey Department’s decision to approve the resort’s location on a 33ha site on the basis the project proponents carry out rehabilitation and conservation works of the coral reefs in the area concerned.

He said the state needed more high-end tourism products such as resorts “to value add what nature has endowed us.”

He added that despite this, protecting and conserving the environment would be the overriding consideration as Sabah had one of the best track records of conservation efforts in the country.

“We in the state government would like to maintain, if not impro-ve on that,” he added.

Voicing worries over the oceanarium resort plan, environmentalists, villagers and dive operators said the proposed project would spell disaster to Mabul marine life and might also degrade the eco-sensitive coral reefs of Pulau Sipadan, a 20-minute boat ride away.

Application for a 99-year lease for the parcel facing south of Sipadan was first put in by a local company based in Kota Kinabalu in September last year. It was reported the oceanarium would be surrounded by five villages of more than 200 sea-view bungalows and semi-detached villas, with side pools and spa villas as well as staff and scientist quarters.

Sabah Environment Protection Association president Wong Tack questioned the necessity of the oceanarium being built.

He added that tonnes of construction material would have to be brought in by barge and sand pumped in from the shores of the island. Wong said the authority that approved the resort project should remember what happened at Sipadan in 2006 when a construction barge ran aground, destroying a coral reef patch the size of three tennis courts.

He said the existing four resorts for higher-bracket tourists and five to 10 homestay places for backpackers with a total of more than 250 rooms, provided enough accommodation for the 120 divers given permits to dive in Sipadan waters daily.

Mabul natives cry foul
P. K. Katharason and Muguntan Vanar, The Star 17 Nov 08;

MABUL ISLAND: Native Bajau villager Fung Haji Sappari feels that outsiders are robbing his family’s right to customary land as scenic Mabul Island grows in popularity with tourists and divers.

“Not right. How can they do it? Several years ago I also applied for 15 acres around the same spot. It was not approved,” said Fung, 50, pointing to the 33ha parcel of shallows approved for the proposed oceanarium resort by a local company.

He said the area belonged to the Bajau Laut families who have the customary right over it as they have been using the area for fishing, transport and passage for hundreds of years.

Fung is the operator of the 15-room Arung Hayat longhouse homestay and his family was one of the first four Bajau families to stay put on Mabul Island since the 1970s.

“My ancestral burial ground is here,” said Fung, explaining that as Bajaus or sea gypsies, they lived in boats in the past and only set foot on land to bury their dead.

He said the villagers feared being moved out of Mabul once the oceanarium resort venture was completed. At present they could live side by side with the existing resort operators, who provided the villagers with jobs.

Most of the 2,000 Bajau and Suluks staying on the island are considered squatters by the Semporna land office as they moved in only in the last decade.

Fung and several older villagers said Mabul Island was unknown to the outside world, except to a few Tawau and Semporna people who came over for weekend fishing trips.

Sometime in the mid-1990s, they said a Swiss TV crew came over to Mabul to film the Survival series, which led to the opening of the Sipadan-Mabul Resort (SMART) on the island shores beside the village, before it later extended to the sea.

The April 2000 Abu Sayyaf attack on the Sipadan Island chalets and the kidnapping of 21 tourists, including Malaysians, saw more tourists opting to stay on Mabul.

In December 2004, the Govern–ment ordered the closure of all chalets operating on Sipadan Island to prevent environmental degradation of the reefs and later restricted the number of divers to Sipadan to 120 per day.

This led to other dive operators, including Borneo Divers, Water Village and Sea Adventure, moving their resort operations to Mabul, with SMART and local homestay operators increasing the number of chalets and rooms to some 300.

Fung and other homestay operators said the local people feel cheated because the Semporna land office kept rejecting their applications for TOL to build new chalets but has now approved a sea area bigger than the size of the 25ha Mabul Island to an outside company.

They also want to know how the land office could approve the tenure of the area to the company for 60 or 99 years when all other existing resorts on Mabul waters were granted TOL for only three to five years.

The bigger resort operators are also opposing the approval but are reluctant to voice their criticisms to the media, for fear that their respective TOLs, due for renewal soon, might be rejected.

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posted by Ria Tan at 11/19/2008 08:49:00 AM

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