A swampy network that eludes authorities
New Straits Times 7 Oct 10;
SELANGOR Forestry Department assistant director (operations and enforcement) Mohd Yussainy Md Yusop cuts a forlorn figure as he glares at an abandoned squatters' settlement on the edge of a mangrove forest.
The "crime scene" is littered with the debris of life: empty tins, shirts and barrels, but Yussainy knows the thieves, mainly Indonesian immigrants, will return.
The score? Money for mangroves, which are harvested illegally but methodically.
He laments the problem of finding evidence against the ringleaders who make only verbal contracts with the workers.
"The biggest difficulty is linking the workers to the syndicate bosses,"
There are an estimated five syndicates which surreptitiously harvest from 17,000ha of mangrove forest spread out across several islands including Pulau Carey, Pulau Selat and Pulau Klang.
Depending on the operation, a mangrove tauke has about 30 to 100 workers who live in the middle of the islands, visible only during an aerial survey.
They amass the cream of the crop, piling them on huge barges before selling them to locals who in turn make a fortune in trafficking the much sought-after wood, used in the construction sector as a cheap alternative to concrete pilings.
Compounding the problem, Yussainy claimed, is the various authorities who, though equipped with the latest technology and boats with more powerful engines, seem unable to nab the sluggish junks en route to the mainland.
That could be because, Yussainy claims, there is a degree of corruption in the area, which once also saw him being offered a total of RM100,000 by five smugglers just before Hari Raya.
"After that offer, I began to work with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission," he said.
An expose by Berita Harian in August revealed that Immigration officers at the Pulau Ketam jetty were pocketing RM60,000 a month by allowing entry of illegal immigrants, which Yussainy claims is related to the mangrove theft.
The department's efforts are also hampered by 'slow boats' and the lack of enforcement officers, who in Selangor number three people -- including Yussainy.
Nabbing the thieves is difficult, unless they get the help of the army to navigate.
"Even then, it's very time-consuming and difficult." he said.
If things go on as they are, Yussainy says the mangrove ecosystem will be extinct in the next decade.
Which is why the department is working with the MACC, Customs Department and maritime enforcement officials to cripple syndicates and make mangrove theft "impossible".
Since July, the department has stopped issuing harvesting licences and began confiscating wood left at the river fringes, before it can be ferried to the mainland.
It has also begun jailing the offenders instead of having them deported.
The most recent case saw five people imprisoned for 11 months early last month under the National Forestry Act for being in possession of mangrove logs without a licence.
The department is also working with non-governmental organisations, such as the Global Environment Centre and Sahabat Alam Malaysia, on replanting projects.
"But obviously, replenishment isn't going as quickly as depletion."
Thieves living off the land
New Straits Times 7 Oct 10;
COMPRISING mostly Indonesian immigrants, the mangrove thieves live in groups of five to 10 in crudely-built wooden huts and camps.
The camps are built in the middle of the islands, away from the prying eyes of forestry and maritime enforcement officers and accessible only by trudging through kilometres of mud, marsh and swamp.
They live off the wild: eating plants, fish and other animals though some of them occasionally receive supplies from Pulau Ketam, courtesy of their bosses or tauke.
An aerial survey conducted by the Forestry Department revealed 30 such camps across the 17,000ha of protected mangrove islands, including Pulau Carey, Pulau Che Mat Zain and Pulau Klang.
The thieves delegate their tasks.
A few workers would fell up to 2,000 mangrove trees a day, piling the 4m-long logs at the island's edges, hidden inside narrow, shallow canals.
At high tide, the logs are almost submerged from view even though each pile can be up to 1.5m high.
At night or early in the morning, another group would load the timber onto small boats before transferring them to large junks, which would transport it to the mainland to be sold. A small boat can carry up to 250 logs while a junk can hold up to 1,500 logs.
With mangrove wood fetching up to RM7.90 per log, the syndicate bosses stand to make a killing with just two trips per night.
Many thieves, however, are exploited by the ringleaders. Paid an average of RM2 for each log, the thieves are charged for fuel, logging tools, and boat rental by the ringleaders.
But it is just a matter of time before forestry officers and maritime police catch up with the workers, while their masters, who refuse to acknowledge their link, escape the law.
Think green, not greed, say environmental activists
New Straits Times 7 Oct 10;
GREED is detrimental to the environment and will have a negative impact on the country, environmentalists warn.
Commenting on the indiscriminate clearing of mangroves nationwide, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said mangrove clearing had been going on in a few states "for quite some time".
The activity is part of the cause for more than a 90 per cent decline in fish landings throughout Peninsular Malaysia as the mangrove ecosystem is a natural fish nursery.
"Ignorance is not an excuse as we all know the importance of the mangrove ecosystem," he said, adding that he was "struggling" to figure out why such activities still occur.
Apart from it being a natural nursery, Sharma said mangroves were also a wave barrier that protected the coastline from erosion and home to various species including birds, otters and long tail macaques.
Its wood could be used to make charcoal production, which Sharma said, should be done in a sustainable manner.
Academy of Sciences Malaysia senior fellow Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Mustaffa Babjee said even a child knew the value of a mangrove ecosystem.
What was needed was the political will to stop such activities, he said.
States, he explained, needed to adopt a new way of thinking where intangible values were considered in economic planning.
"The value of a mangrove is when it is standing and not when it is felled."
Former Malaysian Nature Society president Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor said people were not looking at the long-term implications for short-term gains.
Greed, he explained, would rule when only the current needs were considered.
