RMBR Children’s Season Open House 2012 (19th May, Saturday, 9am-5pm)
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Letter from Tan Nguan Sen Director, Catchment & Waterways, PUB
Today Online 19 Apr 12;
PUB, the national water agency, thanks Mr Tang Hung Kei for his letter "Tall grass, ferns cut all the way to stream" (April 11).
The stream at Venus Drive channels water from the upstream forested area towards Kallang River and eventually to Marina Reservoir.
As part of our maintenance regime, PUB contractors regularly clear litter or debris from the stream to prevent them from flowing further down the waterways.
The contractors also trim the overgrown grass and ferns along the sides of the stream to help keep the water free flowing.
We agree with Mr Tang on the need to maintain the natural habitat for damselflies and dragonflies. We have instructed our contractors not to trim the grass too aggressively.
As he pointed out, littering is detrimental to the environment. Hence, we urge the community to keep our environment and waterways clean, so we can continue to enjoy beautiful waterways and reservoirs.
The public can contact PUB's 24-hour call centre, PUB-One, at 1800-284 6600 to provide further feedback.
The Star 18 Apr 12;
KOTA KINABALU: Fisheries and marine police officers have stepped up checks to ensure the catch collected through fish bombing does not end up in Sabah’s northern Kudat district’s markets.
This follows complaints of marine life being caught by such a method and sold to the public, Kudat Marine Operations Force commanding officer Asst Supt Mohammad Aris Jambul said.
He said enforcement officers inspected wet markets and fish landing sites in the district, known for its abundant and cheap seafood, but did not find such fish.
“But this does not mean we will be lax in our enforcement. Such checks will be done from time to time,” he said.
Fish bombing, also known as blast or dynamite fishing, is an outlawed practice of using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection.
This method endangers the surrounding ecosystem, as the explosion also destroys the underlying habitat such as coral reefs. The explosives also pose a danger to the fishermen, who risk accidents or injuries.
ASP Mohammad Aris said three men were detained in Kudat last year for fish bombing.
“We seized about 60kg of bombed fish from them,” he said.
Jakarta Globe 18 Apr 12;
With no more than 80 Borneo pygmy elephants left in Indonesia, the massive clearing of forests to make way for palm oil plantations poses a major threat to the survival of the species, environmentalists warn.
In a statement released on Wednesday, WWF Indonesia said a four-year- survey that concluded last year showed there were only 20 to 80 of the elephants left, all in northern East Kalimantan on the border with Malaysia’s Sabah state.
The group warned that the expanding plantations were driving the elephants out of their natural habitat and forcing them into more frequent conflict with villagers in Nunukan district.
Agus Suyitno, WWF’s human-elephant conflict mitigation official in Nunukan, said the group was addressing the problem by setting up a task force involving local residents and wildlife officials.
“WWF Indonesia calls on the government and the private sector to provide operational support for these task force members so that the conflicts won’t escalate,” he said.
Anwar Purwoto, WWF’s forestry, species and freshwater program director, said forestry and conservation did not have to be mutually exclusive. He cited the case of logger Adimitra Lestari, whose concession covers the pygmy elephant’s last major stronghold.
He said WWF had worked with the company over the past two years to practice sound forestry management by only logging in areas the elephants did not visit and leaving the trees that they fed on untouched.
“This,” he said, “showcases the real implementation of the green economy, in which business operates without harming endangered species populations.”
Investor Daily
Andrew D. Kaspar Jakarta Globe 18 Apr 12;
The Australian government is learning firsthand just how fraught environmental conservation in Indonesia can be.
Introduced as an effort that would provide “immediate and tangible results” in Indonesia’s ongoing struggle to protect its forests, a leading initiative by Australia’s Agency for International Development (AusAID) has been “quietly but drastically scaled back” and is well behind schedule, according to recent research.
The project in Central Kalimantan’s Kapuas district was announced jointly in 2007 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australia’s then-foreign minister, Alexander Downer, with the aim of reflooding drained peatland, replanting deforested areas and protecting 70,000 hectares of peatland from further deforestation.
The effort, known as the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership, would ultimately reduce climate change-inducing carbon dioxide emissions by 700 million tons over 30 years.
More than four years after the project’s unveiling, the reflooding target has shrunk from 200,000 hectares to 25,000 hectares, just 50,000 of an originally announced 100 million trees have been planted, and the entire undertaking is “moving forward too slowly when considered against the rapid rate of deforestation,” researchers from the Australian National University have found.
‘Still valid’
“We really feel that the work we are doing on the ground, forging a path to show how REDD might work in Indonesia, is still a very valid approach and it is one of the most advanced,” Sara Moriarty, a counselor for climate change at AusAID, said last week in response to the report.
The KFCP is a “demonstration project” for REDD — reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation — with an emphasis on carbon-rich peat forests.
A scheme that envisions one day paying nations to conserve their forests, REDD is seen by some as an effective way for Indonesia to cut its carbon emissions, the vast majority of which come from deforestation or land use changes.
But the paper highlights serious concerns about the 47 million Australian dollar ($49 million) project’s feasibility and transparency, with a particular focus on the under-the-radar nature of the scaling back of the KFCP objectives.
“[We] could have and should have been more open and transparent with the release of information when we were revising what we were actually going to achieve through the program,” Moriarty said.
The report cites multiple factors, including insufficient funding, questions of land tenure rights and administrative hurdles, in assessing reasons for KFCP’s delays and lesser ambitions.
Having already extended the project’s implementation phase by a year to run through June 2013, Moriarty conceded that “it’s unlikely that we would meet all of the objectives in the time frame that was initially outlined,” although no official decision has yet been made.
Catch-22
Tim Jessup, a forests and climate specialist with AusAID, said another factor slowing progress was the emphasis placed on gaining support from local governments and indigenous Dayak populations in the project area.
“An important part of REDD is delivering and sharing benefits with local communities … but that’s not something you can do quickly,” Jessup said.
“We would be criticized much more strongly than they’ve criticized us if we’d rushed in there.”
The ANU report is not the first one critical of the KFCP. Journalists, environmentalists and indigenous rights groups have all voiced concerns in the years since the project’s inception.
Stibniati Atmadja, a researcher with the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) in Bogor, has conducted research at the site intermittently since 2009 as part of a global comparative study on REDD. Describing the dilemma between following REDD permitting procedures and consulting local communities as a “catch-22,” Stibniati said the project had to get the necessary permits prior to consultation.
“[In 2010] REDD was a new concept; it’s hard to explain it to the people, and I had the same problem when I was there,” she said. Conveying the meaning of REDD and KFCP is an ongoing activity, and some progress is now being seen, she added.
Jessup said KFCP finally inked cooperative agreements with all seven villages located within the site in February. The blocking of major canals, a critical component of the peatland rehydration, is expected to begin this year.
Lessons for Jambi
But against a backdrop of continued deforestation, palm oil plantations’ expansion and Indonesia’s penchant for lax law enforcement and corruption, the report asks whether it’s all too little, too late.
The ANU researchers advise AusAID to reconsider plans for a similar project in Sumatra’s Jambi province, saying it “already has its hands full with KFCP,” and should “not disperse its efforts through a second demonstration project.”
That input, along with Aus- AID’s own review of KFCP, will be considered as it weighs its ambitions in Sumatra, where the proposal is still in its infancy.
“So much has happened internationally in terms of REDD that we do feel it’s important with the second demonstration activity to be mindful of those changes,” Moriarty said. “We’re currently discussing with the government of Indonesia what that means for the Jambi project.”
ScienceDaily 17 Apr 12;
This Friday, April 20, will mark two years since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused vast quantities of crude oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
But despite the size of the spill, "the natural recovery is far greater than what anybody hoped when it happened," said James Morris, a professor of biology at the University of South Carolina. "The fears of most people -- that there would be a catastrophic collapse of the ecosystem in the Gulf -- never materialized."
Morris is the director of USC's Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, which has a field laboratory on the South Carolina coast in what is widely recognized as the most pristine estuary in the United States -- North Inlet. A wetland essentially untouched by development, it serves as an invaluable resource for understanding the effects of climate change. More than 40 years of daily data -- temperature, sea level, salinity changes, and the like -- augment the hundreds of research papers based on studies in the area that have been published since the institute was created in 1969.
For the past year and a half, Morris has served on a National Research Council committee tasked by Congress to assess the effects of the spill on the Gulf's ecosystem. He's been impressed with the recovery of the area's ecology.
"The fisheries have come back like gangbusters," he said. "One of the interesting findings was that after the oil spill, bait fish populations collapsed, and predator populations boomed. The reason was that there was no fishing pressure on the top predators because people stopped fishing after the spill. So the predator fish populations rebounded, and they grazed down their prey."
"The marshes that I saw actually looked very good," he added. "And I was taken to the worst by officials who wanted to impress us that the damage was really significant, and that you could still find oil in the marshes. And you can still find oil in the marshes, but the greatest damage to the place where they took us was from the trampling by the reporters, scientists, and agency people tromping around out there looking for damage."
"There's some evidence that perhaps there are some lingering problems, but it's not entirely clear," Morris said. "For example, there's ambiguity about whether there's been an effect on species like dolphins. Some people will remain forever convinced that dolphins are washing up because of this spill, but in a recent report that NOAA just released, the dolphin mortality was unexplainably high leading up to the spill. So before the spill, the dolphin mortality was higher than normal, and it's been higher than normal since the spill."
In the face of dire predictions since the early days after the oil spill, Morris has been measured in his response. "There was a time when a simulation model of the currents was released, showing how a loop current in the Gulf got caught up in the Gulfstream, and how the Gulfstream carried whatever was in the loop current all the way up the East Coast," Morris said. "And people here just started to panic. It was crazy."
Interviewed by TV reporters at the time, Morris said "they showed me this model, and asked me why I wasn't concerned about it. And I told them that the stuff was going to degrade long before it got here."
25 Apr (Wed): U@live features Prof Leo Tan
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Celebrate Earth Day in our mangroves!
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朱背啄花鸟母子scalet backed flowerpecker mother & Chick@SBWR from PurpleMangrove
Alina Musta’idah Jakarta Globe 17 Apr 12;
The World Wide Fund and International Rhino Foundation have placed 120 additional video cameras to capture images of endangered Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon National Park, the animal’s original habitat, in Banten.
The cameras were added to the 40 that were already in place. They are aimed at monitoring rhinos’ movements in an attempt to better identify and judge the size of the animal’s population.
“After Javan rhinos were declared extinct in Vietnam in 2011, the animal’s population in Ujung Kulon was the last in the world. We hope the additional cameras will be an important step to ensure their existence,” IRF director Susie Ellis said on Monday.
Earlier, camera traps in the park captured images of 35 Javan rhinos, five of them calves.
Researchers studying the images were able to identify 35 different rhinos, though the total number is likely higher.
The Javan rhino was once the most widespread of all Asian rhinoceroses, but it was nearly wiped out following the Krakatau volcano’s violent eruption in 1883.
The greatest threat they face today is from poachers and habitat destruction.
Experts estimate only 40 to 60 Javan rhinos remain in the park.
The last known Javan rhino in Vietnam was found dead in April, apparently after poachers killed it for its horn.
A recent survey of the rhinos has found far fewer females than males, a potential setback in efforts to save the species.
Video cameras set up in the eastern half of Ujung Kulon recorded 17 rhinos this year. Just four were female.
Mohammad Haryono, the head of Ujung Kulon National Park, said that with 160 cameras the observers could monitor not only rhinos but also other animals and human beings.
“The cameras will become key equipment to help increase the population of Javan rhinos in accordance with our conservation plan,” he said.
Haryono said officials could also take quick action if they saw people trying to kill endangered animals in the park.
Investor Dail
Marwaan Macan-Markar IPS 17 Apr 12;
BANGKOK, Apr 17, 2012 (IPS) - With Vietnam’s fertile Mekong delta threatened by rising sea levels and salt water ingress, the country’s future as a major rice exporter depends critically on research underway in the Philippines.
Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are working with Vietnamese counterparts in the town of Los Banos, 63 km southeast of Manila, to develop a new strain of rice that can withstand submergence for over two weeks and also resist salinity.
A flood-tolerant variety, dubbed ‘scuba rice’, which has the submergence (SUB 1) rice gene, already offers half the solution.
"IRRI is experimenting to find a rice variety to deal with both problems," says Bjorn Ole Sander, a scientist at the world’s leading non-governmental research centre on rice. "Even if we have rice crops that are tolerant to floods they can die because of salinity."
The search for this new grain had its roots in the Indian state of Orissa, home to the flood-resistant rice variety that resumes growth after being underwater for even 14 days – unlike other rice varieties that die if submerged for just over a week.
"This has been achieved without genetic manipulation, by breeding the SUB 1 variety," Sander said in an interview. "It can be submerged for 17 days."
But the quest for a salinity-tolerant variety that could be blended with scuba rice is more daunting. "It will take at least four years to find a rice variety that will be tolerant to both - salinity and flooding," he said.
"That would be the answer to the problems faced in the Mekong Delta from flooding and salinity from the rising sea tides," he added.
Salt water from the South China Sea now spreads 40 km into the delta, unlike the 10 km inland reach of the sea 30 years ago.
"The future of the delta is at stake. That is why we are working with IRRI to develop a rice variety to deal with floods and salinity," says Nguyen Van Bo, president of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Science, a government-backed entity in Hanoi. "Seven percent of the paddy fields in the delta are affected by rising sea levels."
Already farmers have begun to change occupations, many going from rice farming to shrimp farming, he told IPS. "There is a very noticeable shift from the previous times when growing rice and shrimp farming were seasonal."
And Vietnam’s fate – particularly on the delta – is going to worsen, warned Asian agriculture scientists and climate change specialists at a meeting in Bangkok, Apr. 11-12. It would add to existing woes from erratic weather patterns that have hit the region’s other major rice producers like Thailand, they added.
The delta accounts for nearly 50 percent of the 42 million tonnes of unmilled rice produced in Vietnam - the world’s second largest rice exporter after Thailand - with three annual harvests.
In 2011, Vietnam exported a record seven million tonnes of rice, mainly to the Philippines and other Asian markets.
For over 17 million of Vietnam’s 87 million people, who call the flat, humid delta their home, the network of waterways has been pivotal to rice production.
These arteries are fed by the Mekong River, Southeast Asia’s largest body of water, which begins its 4,880-km route in the Tibetan plateau and flows through southern China, touches Myanmar and Thailand, and winds its way through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before flowing out into the South China Sea.
Four dams built by China on the Mekong were the first to impact the delta’s rice farmers. As the usual water flow ebbed, salt water raced inland and the alluvial soil dumped on the delta by the river during the annual monsoon floods also dropped, reducing the natural fertility.
But, the dams provided clues to the possible impact of climate change. Almost one-third of the delta, where nearly half of Vietnam’s rice is grown, could be submerged by salt water if there is a one-metre rise in the sea levels, a report by the country’s National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Science warned in 2009.
World Bank studies rank Mekong delta communities among the most threatened by sea level rise in 87 developing countries surveyed.
Warnings that 21 percent of Asia’s crops will be affected by climate change by 2050 are yet to push government leaders from the 190 countries who gather at the annual United Nations climate change summit to include agriculture in the negotiations.
"Agriculture and food production are mentioned in the UNFCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) but they have not been translated into language that will initiate a specific work programme on agriculture in relation to climate change," says Bruce Campbell at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
"There isn’t a common voice on agriculture at the UNFCCC negotiations," said Campbell, a director at CGIAR which is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.
"Climate change is impacting farming systems and it is endangering crops," Campbell told IPS. "Agriculture systems have to be transformed to make agriculture climate resilient."
(END)
Hunt on for rice to resist salt, flooding
UPI 17 Apr 12;
BANGKOK, April 17 (UPI) -- With rice production in Vietnam's fertile Mekong delta threatened by salt water from rising sea levels, researchers say they're turning to genetics for help.
Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute are working with Vietnamese counterparts in experiments in the Philippines to develop a variety of rice that can withstand submergence for over two weeks and also resist increased salinity.
An existing flood-tolerant variety, dubbed "scuba rice," already offers half the solution, researchers said.
"IRRI is experimenting to find a rice variety to deal with both problems," Bjorn Ole Sander, a scientist at the world's leading non-governmental research center on rice, told Inter Press Service.
"Even if we have rice crops that are tolerant to floods they can die because of salinity."
The search for a salinity-tolerant variety that could be cross-bred with scuba rice is daunting, he said.
"It will take at least four years to find a rice variety that will be tolerant to both salinity and flooding," he said.
With climate change and global warming the search for a solution is vital, he said, noting that salt water from the South China Sea now spreads 25 miles into the Mekong delta, unlike the 6 miles inland the sea tides reached 30 years ago.
"That would be the answer to the problems faced in the Mekong Delta from flooding and salinity from the rising sea tides."
Researchers in Britain and Japan also are working on developing saline-resistant rice.
Radio Free Asia 17 Apr 12;
Plans move ahead for Laos's controversial hydropower project on the Mekong.
In a controversial move, a Thai company has signed a nearly $2 billion-dollar contract for the construction of a dam on the Mekong River in Laos even though governments in the region have not cleared the project.
Ch. Karnchang informed the Thai stock exchange Tuesday it had signed a 52 billion baht (U.S. $1.7 billion) contract with Xayaburi Power Co. Ltd., a Lao-Thai joint venture, to build the project, Thai media reported.
The Xayaburi hydropower dam would be on the lower part of the Mekong River, and environmental groups say it would affect the lives of millions in the region.
The latest contract says construction on the dam will begin on March 15 next year and be completed in eight years.
In December, Laos had shelved plans for the dam pending further environmental assessments, following a meeting by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a regional body of Southeast Asian countries that share the river.
Leaders from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam agreed further study was needed on the sustainable management and development of the river before the Xayaburi project could continue.
Despite the delay, Lao energy officials have remained committed to the project, which costs a total of U.S. $3.8 billion, Bounthuang Phengthavongsa, director-general of the Energy and Mining Ministry said in January.
“We want to build this dam and we will try hard to do so. Our intention and our hope is that in the end we will be able to build it despite all opposition,” he told RFA.
Laos has planned 70 hydropower projects on its rivers and officials have said it hopes to become “the battery of Asia.”
It is not immediately known whether the Lao government had been officially informed by the companies that signed the contract.
Preliminary construction on the project, including work access roads and a work camp, has picked up in recent months, according International Rivers, a U.S.-based environmental NGO.
"Laos has not clarified if construction on the Xayaburi Dam will stop while the study takes place. Legally, Laos may not proceed with construction until all four governments have agreed. Practically, allowing construction would undermine the study," the group said.
A large number of workers have been employed for a two-year period to construct access roads and facilities for the project, it said.
High stakes
Critics of the Xayaburi dam, which would provide 95 percent of its electricity to Thailand, say that damming the Mekong threatens to destroy the ecology of the river, disrupt the livelihood of riparian communities, and jeopardize the food security throughout the region.
“The government should take care of the environment too, at the same time as developing the economy,” a resident in the Lao capital Vientiane said.
Mekong dams have faced stiff opposition from environment activists, who say the fate of the Xayaburi project will affect future decisions on the 11 other dams planned on the mainstream part of the Lower Mekong.
"The ecosystem is already changing, and now the dam will be built on Mekong River. The Xayaburi dam will be the first; of course it will affect the ecosystem the most,” a Thai resident who lives near the Mekong said.
“If the Xayaburi dam can be built, so will 12 others. I think that is a big concern," he said.
The Stimson Center, a U.S.-based think tank, applauded Laos’s postponement of the Xayaburi project last year, saying it was the first time a Mekong country had made a decision about a mainstream dam based on the impact beyond its borders.
The Xayaburi project is the Mekong River Commission’s “biggest test” since its establishment in 1995, the think tank said in a report in March, and warned that dams on the river could have a harmful impact on the entire region.
“The negative impacts on food security, livelihoods, water availability, and water quality have the potential to jeopardize the region’s hard-won peace and stability,” it said.
Reported by RFA's Lao service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
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Andrew Sia The Star 17 Apr 12;
Will turning Pulau Perhentian into a high-end tourist destination help protect its environment?
MOUNDS of rotting garbage greeted me when I got off the jetty at the village on Pulau Perhentian, Terengganu, late last month. How could this happen at one of Malaysia’s most popular and beautiful islands?
Fortunately, the mess was only in the kampung and not at the beaches and resorts where tourists visit. But garbage has a nasty habit of travelling.
“Tourists have complained of used diapers floating in the sea,” says Long Seh Ling, the coordinator of the Ecoteer voluntourism (tourists who do volunteer work) outfit on the island.
I have heard of similar complaints of kampung garbage when doing beach clean-ups in Pulau Redang in the 1990s. The “solution” then was to move the seaside village inland. What about Perhentian?
Prof Ibrahim Mamat, who heads the economics faculty at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, proposes a Langkawi-like solution.
“The people’s mindset is the problem. They are not fit to do eco-tourism. Just look at the flies and garbage in the kampung.”
He and his team of academics were on the island to gather information as they have been asked by Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, the former Terengganu Menteri Besar and Besut Umno division chief, to prepare a long-term masterplan for Perhentian. But the kampung folks have another reason for the garbage.
“It’s not that people here like throwing rubbish everywhere,” says village elder Jidin Mohd Aris. “There are no garbage bins. There is just nowhere to throw rubbish.”
Indeed, according to the kampung chief Zainuddin Mohd, the Besut District Council (which is in charge of Perhentian) neglected to renew last year’s garbage collection contract, so rubbish has been piling up since January. (Ecoteer is proposing an experimental composting project to encourage villagers to turn food waste into fertiliser but it has not taken off yet.)
Sewage is another problem on Perhentian. When snorkelling at two points in Perhentian, I see swathes of corals choked by green algae – something often “fertilised” by improperly disposed sewage. Most chalets have built their own septic tanks but what happens when they are full?
“Some chalets will pump out their septic tanks into the sea during the monsoon season when nobody is around. That affects corals,” says one villager.
K.K. Lee, the owner-operator of Tuna Bay resort says: “Not all resorts have septic tanks, some just let the sewage soak away in (a pit in) the ground.”
He adds that Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) does not provide sewage treatment services on the island.
“The island’s Association of Business Operators has asked them to and IWK may consider.”
Imitate Langkawi?
Is high-end tourism the way to save Perhentian’s environment? The argument is that posh resorts will have the money and management skills to do things in a classy, professional and eco-friendly way.
“A lot of tourism here is at the low-end,” observes Ibrahim. “We want to move it to the high-end, whereby visitors will spend RM10,000 a week. We can do it with big professional operators and international hotels. And we can also upgrade the ferry to a big one like in Langkawi.”
He adds that administratively, Perhentian is a “no man’s land”, claiming that only one person in the district council oversees the island.
“How can they not have appointed a garbage contractor for months? Transparency is lacking in the awarding of these contracts,” says Ibrahim.
He says one role model is the Langkawi Development Authority or LADA. “Look at how big they are. I will propose that Perhentian has something similar.”
He also laments: “So much alcohol is being sold on the beach here and it’s not being taxed. The government is losing a lot of money.”
So should Perhentian become another Langkawi? But firstly, will ordinary Malaysians still be able to afford to visit one of the country’s most gorgeous islands? The case of Gunung Kinabalu is sobering – since operations there were privatised a decade ago, the cost of climbing the mountain has increased from about RM100 to over RM1,000.
Secondly, the local kampung folks are against it. Jidin explains how income from tourism here is spread out: “Some boatmen take people from the mainland to the island. Others take tourists on snorkelling trips. The snorkel guides bring guests to the kampung to buy lunch. Everybody in the community has a share.
“But in Redang, the big resorts grab everything and local kampung folks don’t get a chance to earn from tourists. Tourism has been a real blessing for Perhentian. Thirty years ago, people here were very poor. When visitors started coming, many fishermen changed to the tourism business and earned good money. Now many have their own fridges, TVs and boats.”
Helping locals
Ecoteer wants to help villagers improve their tourism earnings, and has so far trained three local women in Western cooking. In addition, once a week, Ecoteer pays villagers to host a traditional Malay dinner (for volunteers) in their homes.
Zainuddin adds: “We don’t want high-end resorts like those on Redang. What will kampung people get? Big resorts want paper qualifications which our people don’t have. But what we have is experience. What’s the use of being proud of big, grand resorts? We don’t want to be just spectators of tourism development. We want to be part of it.”
One sterling example is that of Panorama chalets, a long-standing backpackers’ favourite on Perhentian’s Long Beach.
“My father opened this resort on his ancestral land back in 1996,” recalls Mas Ron Mustafa. “He started with only four wooden chalets containing eight rooms.”
Now, Panorama has 30 rooms and rates have risen from RM40 to RM75 per night. Mas Ron recently got an offer of RM15mil for his half hectare of land.
“But I won’t sell. I am doing good business here. My guests may not pay much, but dia orang mulut manis (they give good recommendations). That’s how we built our business.”
He first learnt English from a tourist who gave free classes for village kids back in the 1990s – the same thing being done under the Ecoteer project now. Mas Ron is one example of a successful bumiputra businessman who has made it through hard work without government hand-outs.
“My family built up this place with whatever money we had. Every year, we would add maybe three rooms. We kampung folks didn’t know how to borrow money from banks.”
Another Long Beach establishment is Matahari chalets, which began in 1997 with just six small A-frame wooden huts.
“We were using oil lamps and candles and charged only RM15 per room then,” says Zamdil Zapen, who manages the place for the late owner’s widow.
Now, Matahari has 30 large wooden chalets available at RM50 per night, while a new two-storey concrete block with 15 more expensive rooms is being built. Zamdil is also against the idea of high-end tourism being forced upon the island now that it has become famous.
“Tourism here developed because of word of mouth among backpackers, not because the government promoted it.”
Indeed, the island is a renowned stop on the “banana pancake” (backpackers) trail through Malaysia, which goes through Perhentian, Taman Negara, Cameron Highlands and Penang, before looping back to South Thailand’s beaches.
Lee also disagrees with high-end tourism, saying that villagers in Redang do not get many spin-off benefits from the big resorts there. He also points out that some high-end island resorts (charging about RM1,000 per night) in Redang are now suffering badly because of the European economic slowdown while the mid-market range (his rooms at Tuna Bay are between RM250 and RM350 per night) has been much more resilient.
Perhentian is also much smaller than Langkawi and thus, is not suitable for big resorts.
“Langkawi has lots of land for roads and an airport, we don’t,” Lee adds.
Good governance
Three days after I arrived, the kampung’s garbage problem was magically solved. On April 1, a contractor newly appointed by the district council began collecting rubbish from the kampung and resorts.
Sweepers were also hired to clear open ground and drains. This showed that exclusive resorts are not the only route to a better environment; well-executed public policy could do the same.
One obvious government role is good old-fashioned enforcement of existing laws. Lee has spent RM40,000 to install two “bio-robic” tanks that have enzymes which can clear up bathroom water and even toilet sewage into clean water suitable for watering plants.
Lee is glad to show me the official Environmental Quality Monitoring report sent to the Department of Environment showing how clean the water near his resort is.
However, he notes that only a handful of resorts in Perhentian are monitored closely while others seem to get more “leeway”.
Good laws and policy intentions are one thing, but implementation is often another issue. One example is the garbage trap built at the end of a major drain in the kampung.
“The accumulated garbage ends up blocking the flow of water,” says Zainuddin. “Patut buat kat kepala longkang (should be done at the beginning of the drain).”
Other examples here are the spanking new teachers and police quarters in the kampung which look almost like resorts – from the outside. However, serious defects lie hidden.
“The walls are wet,” observes teacher Che Ayub Che Deraman. “I think the pipes inside are leaking. I fear this will cause a short circuit one day. At the police quarters next door, water flows down the stairs like a waterfall when it rains.”
The village also has a volunteer fire brigade complete with equipment like water pumps. But during a fire in March, two houses were destroyed.
“Only one person was trained to operate the equipment, but he did not teach other people,” complains Zainuddin. “He lives on the mainland in Besut and was holding the only key (to the equipment storage area).”
If the rules are properly enforced, things can be done – especially for the environment. Lee has grease traps to filter his kitchen wastewater, and he sends all used cooking and engine oil back to the mainland for recycling.
“I tell my staff never to pour oil into the ground because it will eventually go back to the sea. I feel it’s a pity when I see some resorts with their engine (generator) rooms full of oil everywhere. It’s not just for the environment; actually there is also a market for used oil. I sell mine to someone who recycles it.”
Lee sends bed linen to a laundry in Kota Baru every day, not only because it’s cleaner, but also because he does not want to contaminate the sea with detergent residue (which also affect corals). And the kitchens use biodegradable liquid dishwashing soap.
“If everybody uses eco-friendly systems, it would help the island a lot. But some operators are reluctant to spend money, even on something as simple as a RM600 stainless steel grease trap.”
Another role for the government is to provide infrastructure. Water supply used to be a big problem because water from wells was limited. But last year, the government built an undersea pipe to bring in fresh water from the mainland.
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) had also spent RM13mil in 2007 to build two wind turbines and install 100kWh of solar panels. But the wind turbines no longer work after parts were stolen last year. The solar panels were working well – until transformer wires connected to the panels were stolen a few months ago.
Now, according to Ali Akbar Abd Rahman, the TNB officer on the island, some RM20mil has been allocated to install four 500kWh diesel generators, which can supply power not only to the kampung but also some of the (smaller) resorts.
(On the wind turbines, Akbar says although the theoretical capacity is 200kWh, in reality, they only got 40kWh because of insufficient winds.)
Sewage treatment
If water pipelines and electrical supply can be provided as a public infrastructure here, why not sewage disposal services too? After all, if the government (or government-linked companies) can provide infrastructure for foreign businessmen to set up factories, why not support tourism in one of the country’s loveliest islands?
Julian Hyde, general manager for Reef Check Malaysia, says that there have been several rounds of discussion between IWK and the island’s Association of Business Operators on solutions to the sewage issue.
“One idea is for a big sewage treatment plant like on the mainland which is estimated at RM30mil. A more cost-effective measure would be for every resort to improve their own sewage treatment facilities. Even if all the 35 to 40 resorts on Perhentian put in a good system like in Tuna Bay, that would only come up to between RM2mil and RM3mil.”
Hyde adds that another option is to continue using septic tanks. IWK could go in twice a year with a special barge (estimated to cost RM2mil) to clear all the septic tanks.
“The barge is a fairly low-cost option which could also cover all the islands in the East Coast, including Redang and Tioman. RM2mil may seem like a lot of money, but perhaps the company or the government should see that it’s actually a small investment to protect the Perhentian tourism market worth some RM100 million annually.”
Filling Perhentian with exclusive resorts may not be the best way to maintain a pristine environment.
Surely stricter enforcement of existing eco-guidelines will ensure that all resorts, big and small, will clean up their act?
With support from appropriate, well-managed investments in infrastructure, the resorts (and residents) will have every reason to do the right thing.
Treasured Island is a project by The Star and Ecoteer to improve the livelihoods of Pulau Perhentian villagers, protect the marine environment and promote responsible tourism. You, too, can be a voluntourist at Perhentian. To find out how, go to ecoteerresponsibletravel.com or facebook.com/ecoteer or e-mail explore@ecoteer.com.
Trawler trouble
The Star 17 Apr 12;
WHILE pollution from sewage and grey water (soapy water from bathrooms and kitchens) may have jeopardised marine life in Pulau Perhentian, over-fishing from trawlers has been a major problem too, points out the locals.
Kampung chief Zainuddin Mohd recalls: “Back in the 1970s, we could catch a whole basket full of fish right at the kampung jetty within one hour. Now, big commercial trawlers sweep up most of the fish in waters around the island.”
He says traditional fishermen know how to maintain the ecological balance.
“We know the waters well. We won’t throw our nets over corals because we don’t want to damage our own nets. Now, when the kampung people fish a little with our traditional nets, the Marine Park people will catch us.”
Village elder Jidin Mohd Aris adds: “The trawlers drag and grab everything. During the monsoon, they become even more daring. We have reported to the authorities but they said it’s difficult to come (and do enforcement) then.”
K.K. Lee, the owner and operator of Tuna Bay resort, hails from Besut and first came to Perhentian 40 years ago.
“There was so much fish in those days. The trawlers are affecting the marine life.”
He explains that the bigger the boat, the further they should stay away from the island. For instance, the biggest “D zone” fishing boats are required to stay 30 nautical miles clear, while the smallest “A zone” boats should stay two nautical miles away from the island.
“But the rules are not really enforced,” says Lee. “Many formerly illegal Thai trawlers have now been legalised with Malaysian licences. Our fishing industry is not as developed as theirs. In the end, it’s the locals who are losing out.”
One fisherman who declined to be named says: “We know they are Thai boats but they are flying the jalur gemilang (Malaysian flag). The marine park authorities should be on alert 24 hours against trawlers breaking the rules. But these people have money, so you know how it is lah…”
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