Tree-planting for the future: Raja Musa Peat Forest Reserve

The Star 10 Dec 09;

MENTION tree-planting and most people would envision a delightful and relaxing experience. After all, how hard can it get: just dig a hole, remove the poly bag from a young tree, plonk the tree into the hole and cover the roots with sand?

Try planting a tree in a peat swamp and you will discover that it is no walk in the park.

This was what participants of the UMW Toyota Staff Volunteer Programme discovered during the recently-concluded tree-planting event at the Raja Musa Peat Forest Reserve in Batang Berjuntai, Kuala Selangor.

Just getting to the planting site posed a challenge, with treacherous trenches that dunked several participants into the murky tannin-rich waters.

The tree-planting programme was the climax of the Raja Musa Peat Forest Reserve Rehabilitation Programme organised by the Global Environment Centre (GEC), an NGO, and the Selangor Forestry Department. The event also involved 62 students and teachers from Toyota Eco Rangers, a Toyota-initiated environmental club in 22 schools in the Klang Valley.

The programme kicked off in June with the collection of more than 1,000 Mahang seedlings from Sungai Panjang, Selangor.

The seedlings were then housed at the Toyota Community Nursery at the Toyota head office in Shah Alam, the nation’s first Corporate Community Nursery in Malaysia.

Over the last few months, dedicated volunteers took turns to nurture and care for the seedlings until they were ready for re-planting.

“Our initial plan was simply to organise a tree-planting activity. However, the entire project took on a life of its own when we were told that getting the seedlings posed the main challenge in any effort to green the earth,” UMW Toyota Motor external affairs head K Mohanan said.

With the advice and assistance of the GEC and the Selangor Forestry Department, the volunteers decided to start their own nursery to create their own pool of seedlings for re-plantation.

The project not only sowed the seeds for more tree-planting activities in the future but also ignited a deeper passion for conservation in the volunteers who were involved.

Tony Liew Ye Onn, a treasury manager in the finance division and a programme participant, felt that the project provided a good opportunity for the employees to be involved in the bigger picture of conservation.

The Raja Musa Peat Forest, which covers an area of 1,000 hectares, is among one of the most severely degraded forest areas in Selangor since it was encroached upon by illegal settlers in the 1970s.

Rehabilitation efforts started in late 2008, after the settlers were successfully removed from the area.

According to GEC communications and resource development officer Niki Kamal, 500,000 seedlings are required to rehabilitate the Raja Musa Peat Forest.

However, Niki said it would take more than a million seedlings to return the forest to its former glory.

The project is estimated to take more than 15 years, considering the unfriendly terrain which affects tree-planting activities as well as the survival rates of re-planted seedlings. Niki estimated that only 50% of the replanted trees would make it past the first year.

SMK Seafield geography teacher Goh Poo Eng agreed that there were many lessons to be learnt from the event.

“Most of my students are city kids, so it was good for them to get out and get dirty once in awhile. They also learnt about the peat forest and its role in the eco-system,” she said.

The UMW Toyota volunteers and students managed to plant 1,600 trees that morning.