Malaysia Deforestation Is Three Times Faster Than Rest Of Asia Combined

I pulled out a story today being posted by my friend on facebook. It was a post by Huff Post Green.

28 Feb 2012- New satellite imagery shows Malaysia is destroying forests more than three times faster than all of Asia combined, and its carbon-rich peat soils of the Sarawak coast are being stripped even faster, according to a study released Tuesday.

The report commissioned by the Netherlands-based Wetlands International says Malaysia is uprooting an average 2 percent of the rain forest a year on Sarawak, its largest state on the island of Borneo, or nearly 10 percent over the last five years. Most of it is being converted to palm oil plantations, it said.

The deforestation rate for all of Asia during the same period was 2.8 percent, it said. In the last five years, 353,000 hectares (872,263 acres) of Malaysia's peatlands were deforested, or one-third of the swamps which have stored carbon from decomposed plants for millions of years.

The study was carried out by SarVision, a satellite monitoring and mapping company that originated with scientists at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

"Total deforestation in Sarawak is 3.5 times as much as that for entire Asia, while deforestation of peat swamp forest is 11.7 times as much," the report said.

Only yesterday I was writing a post about how we wouldn't know the total land cover in Sarawak, but today there is a company Netherlands was able to calculate the total and type of land area being converted to agriculture over the past 5 years. How amazing!

My biggest question would be how did they obtain the data of Malaysia (specifically Sarawak) land cover 5 years ago. I bet that would be the similar question posted by Malaysian government too.

Young Hornbill

Horn bill! Who wouldn't be excited to see one, especially if it is young, wild and is somewhere reachable to you?

This is a young unsub horn bill. Nobody was a bird specialist there, so no one knows the species and gender of this horn bill. But what they do know, it has become friendlier and talkative!

Its favorite place is the kitchen area. As the ladies in the kitchen fed it when it was young, it has became dependent to them. No one understood how this baby got strayed away from it's parents as horn bill are pretty protective to their young ones. Here is another picture of it "talking". It makes the sound " Urngh Urngh Urngh" all the time. Non stop!

Clearer picture to whom it was talking to. Pity Mr. Meow couldn't have it's meal peacefully.

  And here it is turning to get a candid picture shot!

 Please let me know if anyone of you knows the gender and species of this horn bill, thanks!

~Happy Reading~

FERN: VPA Malaysia Update

It is a 2 months old post of update the current VPA status in Malaysia:

 

One of the big blockage of the VPA EU-Malaysia signing is directly related to the in-openness of Sarawak government to the current state status, especially related to native customary rights of land use and forest area. Adding to it, Sarawak government feels land area pertaining native customary right issues and selection of contractors are not suppose to be part of the VPA requirement because it is not a certification or legality element. Hence, when the public or international body relates the both issues, together with the history of the poorly managed Penan issues, automatically the timbers from the state itself became controversial. And they directly link to the part where in Sarawak recorded significant volume of timbers are being exported every year. 

If at the starting point we are still discussing about human rights, it will be a long way before we canlook at something that can better improve the livelihood and forest for the future.

~What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do, Aristotle~

Contradicted Headline: Royal Belum Still Untouched

I find this a very contradicting headline as I was expected to read an article of a 130 million years old forest that was not logged since "ever" being protected from log harvesting in Peninsular Malaysia! 

Just to find out the headline was highlighting that there were no illegal logging activities detected in The Royal Belum Forest, Hulu Perak. No illegal logging being detected does not mean there were no logging was permitted nor human settlement. Aerial survey can detect only phenomenal changes of the area, but not if the logging was done in scatter or small scale. 

I wondered if this article was posted for people questioning why harvesting is permitted in the Temenggor FR that is part of the Belum Forest Reserve. Same question I would have posted to the government whom allows harvesting operation at the buffer of Maliau Basin, the Virgin Jungle Reserve. Or if it is an indication the is a plan to have a log-harvest tperation in this forest area. Hope not!!!

Although the article mentioned that more stringent standard has been imposed on the logging contractors in terms of size of trees felled and proper reforestation program, what worries me is what does it meant with proper reforestation program. Since harvesting in Peninsular Malaysia practices Selective Felling, means selected tree  with sizes allowable for felling and area being harvested should be left AFTER harvesting  for regeneration over a period of time. And, normally reforestation programs are being plan for area that has been degraded and are not able to regenerate naturally back.

From the article posted, I also interpreted that illegal logging is more prone to area that has been open for logging operation. This is probably due to because the roads has been open and it is more easily to access to the forest area.

 
More details about the Royal Belum State Park -Royal Forest

Quoted from the Royal Belum Nature Park website

The entire forest of Belum and Temenggor was considered a ‘black area’ and was placed under a State of Emergency from 1948 until 1989.  The communist party of Malaya was extremely active in that area and according to sources; the East-West Highway proposed by an army General believed cutting a road through the area would hamper the communists’ movements.  However, this road was constantly under threat of being bombed and sabotaged by renegades.  Peace has since reigned over the area after the signing of the Haadyai Accord in 1989

Source: WWF Website

Royal Belum forest reserve is situated northern most corner of Perak, sharing border with Thailand. Quoted from the Belum Outdoor website:

Located in Northern Perak district, Malaysia, the area is surrounded by Thailand border on the northern side, East-West highway on the Southern side and state of Kelantan on the Eastern side. The area shares border with Bang Lang National Park, Thailand and Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand. The Royal Belum State Park was established in the year 2000. In July 2003, the Belum forest was known as “Royal Belum”. Officially gazetted as the Royal Belum State Park on May 3rd 2007. Royal Belum State park has land mass of 117,500 hectares which cover almost 50% of total Belum Temenggor Forest Reserve (300,000 hectares).

 Source: Belum Outdoor Website

Does anyone knows why is it call the Royal Belum? Translate "belum" to English means "not yet", Royal Belum is equivalent to "Royal Not Yet".

Picture of the Day: Unique Mineral Water Source

Was on the car journey from Sandakan to Keningau and we bypassed Bukit Taviu. We stopped at the roadside for a while as the car driver wanted to fill in his water bottle with the water, like this:

It was believed by the local people that this water have natural source ingredients that have mineral contents and better than normal mineral water, it also believed that it can help to cleanse the toxic out of the body.

And more than a year ago, I took the picture of the same spot where I did filled up my emptied water bottle with this water.

Now, would you drink the natural mineral water from that source? ;)

Olive-backed Sunbird in my Garden!

Chirping in my garden in the evening!

This bird is known as olive-backed sunbird or the specie name is Cinnyris jugularis. It was first sighted at my house last October 2011, and it was not easy to take a picture of it until last week! I did some research and found that this sunbird was originally from mangrove area, however has adapt well with the humans, hence it is  commonly sighted in overpopulated area. 

The picture above is the male sunbird. The female does not have a black ring around it's neck. Olive-backed sunbird can be found from Southeast Asia (Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia) to Australia (New Guinea, Wallacea).  Differ from the picture shown in Wikipedia, this bird is thinner and longer, perhaps adapting to the South East Asia humid weather. And  it looks a lot cuter, than the one in the Wikipedia! :)

As it is a song/sunbird, it favors nectar feeding (over feeding on small insects). It looks like a passerine bird, the perching bird. Therefore, it will perch on flowers for nectar, like it comes to my garden to perch from the pink flower (which is the form of pink birds gathering). And I noticed it comes early in the morning, cloudy afternoon or favorably in the evening. There were once or twice I seen it coming in couple.

Although I am not staying in the city or any major town, but my place is still considered a quite heavy populated area. And to see another specie of bird (other than crows, swallow and common brown birds) in my housing area, or better in my garden, is an rare opportunity. I don't need to go often to KL Bird's Park to see birds in an open area. :)

FYI, it is no longer afraid of me. Only last 2 days, it lets me take photo of it face to face.

Hope you enjoy reading my entries as much as I enjoy writing it. :)

Updated on 1st of March 2012.

The flower plant this olive-backed sunbird is feeding on:

Don't Flush Tiger Forest

I like this video. Tho Passeo toilet paper brand is not selling in Malaysia, but it is an interesting video to show how you can be a responsible purchaser.