Abandoned Malaysian Tin Mining Site Now Open for Bird Conservation
12/27/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Abandoned Malaysian tin mining site now open for bird
conservation
Source: Earth Times News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 27, 1999
Byline: RESHMA PRAKASH
KUALA LUMPUR--It used to be an open tin mining site, the kind that
has the ground stripped bare in layers and processed with chemicals,
creating huge craters in a barren landscape. The gigantic bulldozers
are now silent and the ugly, gaping wounds in the earth have over the
years filled up with water. Bulrushes grow by the manmade ponds that
has been created. The mounds of piled mud, once bleached white, are
now covered with grass and wild flowers.
"Many bird species are slowly coming back. It's now common to see
birds such as purple herons, purple swamp hens and black shouldered
kites," said Edmund Oh Joo Vin, one of the newly appointed managers
of what is now the Paya Indah Wetland Sanctuary, Malaysia's latest
environmental make-over. Monitor lizards and all three species of
pythons that are found in Malaysia are among the species that have
come back ever since mining activities stopped in 1997. According to
officials, 142 species of birds, 40 species of fish, 35 species of
wildlife and 220 species of aquatic and terrestrial plants have been
found in Paya Indah.
Long targeted by environmentalists who felt little was being done to
protect Malaysia's rainforests and rich biodiversity, the government
has over the years taken up many environmental projects with great
fanfare. The Paya Indah sanctuary is situated in what is known as the
Multimedia Supercorridor or the Cyber Jaya Corridor, part of an
ambitious plan to develop a high-tech industrial area around the
capital Kuala Lumpur. The area will include large-scale development
projects, a new administrative capital that the government is almost
ready to move into, and a new international airport.
The reclamation of a degraded site and creation of a wetlands
sanctuary in the midst of what is going to be a high-profile
echnology center has great symbolic value for the government. The
sanctuary has received support from the highest political office, and
is reputed to be one of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's pet
projects. Not surprisingly, it has a proposed budget of nearly $16
million (60 million ringets), some of which will be furnished by
international donors such as the British, Japanese and Netherlands
aid agencies. The sanctuary is under preparation to open sometime in
2000.
Situated on 3,100 hectares, one-third of the sanctuary is based on
degraded land which is slowly being reclaimed and landscaped. Besides
the tin mining lakes, a portion of peat swamp forest, a small part of
a larger forest, occupies the rest of the land set aside for the
sanctuary. According to Vin, having a peat forest on the sanctuary
increases its ecological value considerably. Peat swam forests act as
sponges, soaking up water and recharging groundwater supplies.
Besides regulating the flow of water, these forests also act as giant
carbon sinks and help regulate the climate. Most of tropical peat
swamp forests lie in the Indo-Malaysian area- Malaysia, Indonesia,
Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines--and have been greatly reduced
due to development. According to the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP), most remaining peat swamp forests are to be found in
Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Paya Indah Wetlands Sanctuary, though, is being developed not
just for its ecological value. In order to be self-sustaining, Vin
says that careful attention is being paid to attracting a lot of
tourists as well. Exhibition halls and information huts containing
special education programs on wetlands and their importance are being
prepared. Forty chalets overlooking the lake are being constructed,
where guests can stay overnight. Hiking routes are being prepared,
canoes, bicycles and horses will be available to rent for those
interested. Negotiations are on to set aside an area where the Orang
Asli people, the local tribe living in the area, can sell their
crafts as one way of being involved with the day-to-day viability of
the sanctuary. The lake is being stocked with many varieties of fish
and special enclosures to breed and exhibit some of the rarer species
of fish are being constructed. A hippo lake and enclosure is being
built to house four hippos, a proposed gift from the government of
Botswana. An estuarine crocodile enclosure is also on the books. As
many as 80,000 visitors are expected in the first two years, a huge
number that has some environmentalists grumbling. Some ecologists
have been leery of creating a tourist trap and have charged that the
introduction of non-indigenous plant and animal species creates an
artificial landscape that has little conservation value.
"Yes, we're aware of these concerns, but we have to be self-
sufficient. The government cannot give us money forever," said Vin.
"We're trying to maintain a balance between conservation and
attracting people. We're studying the carrying capacity of the park
and we're dividing it up into high-impact and low-impact zones to
protect the land better."
Vin is not as concerned about some of the criticism as he is about
another serious threat facing the sanctuary. According to Vin, the
health of the peat swamp forest and lake depend on water flowing in
from the surrounding catchment area. With all the economic activity
and development taking place in the area, he is concerned that the
water supply may be diverted for household and industrial use and
that the swamp may dry up. Tube wells would follow development,
further sucking up ground water supplies that would have otherwise
seeped into the sanctuary. Water supply is also provided by the
Sungai Langat, a river that passes the area on its way to the sea.
But if a recent proposal to built a steel plant around 10 kilometers
from the sanctuary is approved, it could extract millions of gallons
of water from the river. Vin is nervous that if the plan goes
through, it could be a serious threat to the long-term viability of
the swamp forest and the sanctuary.
Conflicts such as this are arising all over Malaysia. Development
policies have in the past encouraged the conversion of peat swamp
forests for use in agricultural, aquaculture and industry. They have
been drained and dried out in search of timber. Recognizing that if
left unsupervised and unplanned, development activity could very well
destroy the last remaining peat swamp forests in Malaysia, UNDP is
working with the Global Environment Facility, the Danish and Dutch
development agencies and the Malaysian government to conserve large
tracts of wetlands and peat forests.
"Peat swamp forests are the most important of Malaysia's wetland
types in terms of biodiversity, area and biogeography, accounting for
approximately 75 percent of total wetland area," says UNDP's proposed
project document. "They are highly significant globally, both for
their diverse and threatened species and as representative unique
ecosystems. Viable populations of many globally threatened species,
such as the Orangutan, Proboscis Monkey, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Storm's
Stork, Wrinkled Hornbill, Tomistoma, and the dipterocarp tree Alan,
are found in Malaysia's peat swamp forests. Many unknown species
almost certainly remain to be discovered," adds the document.
According to UNDP, Malaysia possesses around 1.5 million hectares of
peat forests, with more than 80 percent of it located in the east
Malaysian state of Sarawak. The rest are found in the eastern state
of Sabah, with a smaller portion in state of Pahang in peninsular
Malaysia. The sites chosen for the project are Loagan Bunut National
Park in Sarawak, the Klias Peninsula in Sabah and the Southeast
Pahang Peat Swamp Forest in Pahang. Each site is to have an area
acting as a "buffer zone" around it to ensure protection of the core
areas.
"We're very excited about this new proposal to protect peat swamp
forests," said Phillip Young, head of UNDP's Malaysia office. "But we
need to keep in mind that we cannot be purists about this. We cannot
come in and tell the government and people that there can be no
logging in the forests. Such plans will collapse from the pressure of
industry. We have to be practical and the right balance will have to
be achieved. One has to allow economic activity because states are
dependant on revenues from it but one also has to sustain the forest
in various stages of growth. We think it can be done right," he
added.