It pays to keep river clean

Joniston Bangkuai, The New Straits Times 17 Mar 10;

RANAU: Just a year after a group of villagers cleared rubbish from a river, several types of fish started breeding again, making their home in a waterway once used as a dumping ground.

Eight years on, Sungai Moroli has healed itself, and is now a tourist destination, drawing locals and foreigners who flock to Kampung Luanti Baru, about 130km from Kota Kinabalu.

Fish like pelian approach visitors who wade into shallow parts of the river, giving them a "massage" by nibbling the skin.

The effort, which is part of the community-driven "tagal" system created to keep the environment pristine, is also providing jobs for 22 villagers.

Through tagal, villagers are only allowed to harvest fish at certain times of the year and only in some parts of the river.

Jeffren Majangki, who is the chairman of the tagal programme, said a portion of income from fees collected from visitors, was used to pay expenses for schoolchildren.

"This river was a rubbish dump. Villagers threw rubbish into it, and motorists travelling along the main road did the same.

"Some even poisoned the river to harvest fish. Although I faced some resistance from villagers when I first came up with the idea of cleaning the river, I never gave up.

"I bought chicken wings and held a barbeque to attract youths to help clean the river and eventually, it was done. Within a year, fish returned to this river," Jeffren said.

He said this when briefing members of the Sabah Environmental Education Network (SEEN) who wanted to see for themselves what the village was doing to preserve nature.

SEEN is made up of 34 members, including government agencies, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations.

Jeffren said villagers have also gained from the homestay programme, jungle trekking and other tourism-related activities linked to a clean river.

"For me, the financial part is secondary. What I am hoping is that visitors find out what we are doing here and will do something to protect rivers and forests.

"We need to leave a clean and healthy environment for our children and their children. We must not destroy nature. If we fail, our children will blame us."

Nibbling fishes lure visitors to revived river
The Star 20 Mar 10;

KOTA KINABALU: After a group of villagers cleared rubbish from a river, several types of fish started breeding in it and made their home in the waterway which was once a dumping ground.

Eight years on, the Moroli River has been revived, and is now an tourist destination drawing locals and foreigners to Kampung Luanti Baru, about 130km from Kota Kinabalu.

Fish like pelian approach visitors walking in the river’s shallow parts, and give them a massage by nibbling on their skin.

The effort, part of the tagal system created to keep the environment pristine, is providing jobs for 22 villagers.