The Fate of One Thousand Young Trees

Wake up, Starwood! Your "babies" are now struggling to survive in this terrible hot weather and possibly in the suicidal mode.

The Mother Earth may be grateful in your quests to make the planet a greener place for the homosapiens to live in. However, She may not be pleased too. 

Why?

Bukit Hantu, Langkawi. Earth day on 22nd April 2011. 1000 saplings were planted on the dry open land by staffs the Starwood hotels and resorts. Wonderful efforts to recognise Earth Day!

But, what's next?

A recent check in Bukit Hantu revealed that the saplings planted were withering and the soil condition was hard dry. 

 Very dry soil

Leaves drying out. Can you see those tiny white spots next to the lake? Those are the flags

Another eye sore was those white flags with the drawings tied to tens of poles and tags standing among the saplings. It is cool to be flamboyant once in a while, however, who will clear all these white flags when they became rubbish later?

Bendera berkibar-kibar... a sign of 1Malaysia Boleh...

With the current dry spell, these young saplings are in desperate need of TLC (Tender Loving Care). When young trees are kept in polybags, there are usually well watered and fertilised in control environment ie. away from the direct sun exposure. During that period, these saplings became so comfortable that they developed root balls. When these saplings got to be planted on different grounds, they lacked the full capability of absorbing water from its surrounding soil. 

From a botanist's or a horticulturist's point of view, when saplings are in full sun, strict watering plan must be followed and not just leaving them to Mother Nature to do the rest. SOS needed for these young trees!

Four hundred young trees were planted on the same site almost two years ago for the World Environment Day. And yet, what happened to those young trees? Haven't we learned from the past?

Like most "greening" programs, it is sad to see so much funds wasted. 

Links:

1. Langkawi Gazette on Tree Planting In Langkawi

2. MNS Langkawi On World Environment Day 2009

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A Journey of A Thousand Food Containers Begins With A Single Step

Wet, wet, wet. Langkawi had an unusual weather pattern for the month of March 2011 as the month ended with three days of rain. The island needed the rain as I believe this would be a compensation of a very dry spell in year 2010.

Rain or shine, the show must goes on as this little girl in the picture demonstrated how to jiggle in the rain.

What was the turn up like on 30th March 2011?

When Mandy and I arrived at the Tapak Ramadhan in Kuah town, a bus from Kolej Kommuniti was parked there and lots of people were taking shelter from the rain under two huge canopies. The sound system was setup with the radio deejay from Langkawi FM making announcements before the event was officiated by Kak Zuraidah and Dario of ToptoTop.

 Kak Zuraidah with a lady who came all the way from Singapore for this event

Kak Zuraidah, the woman who made this happened and Dario (right) from ToptoTop

Dario gave a short briefing to everyone with a message about plastics should be eliminated, blah... blah... and Kak Zuraidah delivered her message in Bahasa Malaysia. A quick short briefing was followed by giving out cloth bags which were sponsored.

Dario showing a handful of cloth bags to be given away while Kak Zuraidah looked on

The march to the pasar malam after a group photo!

The "gung ho" team

Do you notice a tiffin carrier clamped in her arms?

Some of the participants came unprepared and they "bungkus" (take away) the food bought from the stalls wrapped with those new small and medium plastic bags before tucking them away into those pink cloth bag. Oh well... I guess this kind of event must be done more regularly so that they will eventually get the point.  

This picture below is my highlight:

Amongst the crowd, this lady was spotted carrying an old fashioned rattan basket (my grandma used to have) with the food stuff in the used containers. She is Mandy!

Kak Zuraidah has given me an update that the Langkawi Town Council has suggested to do this similar gathering once a month starting with the pasar malam in Kuah town. Apart from the individuals who practice "Reduce or No Plastics", there are four companies which are doing so: 

1) FOS shop in Langkawi Fair - no plastics given on every Saturday

2) Barkath (book shop) - no plastics given DAILY

3) Wildlife Park - Same as Barkath

4) Petronas Station in Telaga Harbor Park - on every Saturday 

Kak Zuraidah said this in her email to me, "Switzerland took 20 years but with Penang in the lead, I am sure Langkawi will take less than that."

Well, Kak Zuraidah, I totally agree with you on that. One reason being that Langkawi is a lot more smaller than Switzerland. 

Congratulations Kak Zuraidah! Once again, thank you so much for making this event happened. I hope this does not stop here. With regular gathering such as once a month will be a good start in getting the Langkawians to create a clean island. And of course, the love for nature.

To end my post here, please watch this. I love those stick figures cartoon!

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"Ingat Bungkus; Ingat Bekal..."

Simply means "Remember container (referring to a food container) when you think of take-away".

I gave this idea to a five-star resort last year in conjunction of the Environment week and they did it. It was a very easy task to do and zero cost. The staff gathered at a pasar malam (night market) armed with their own food containers, used plastic bags or cloth bag for storage bags, tiffin carriers, etc. In a troop, they marched down the lane of the night market and took away their dinner using their containers. That was only for one day and how effective or impactful can that be?

A pasar malam stall

Not until last year when I met this amazing local lady, Kak Zuraidah; through an invitation to their Raya open house by her brother, Razak.  Kak Zuraidah is currently an active committee member with Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Langkawi chapter. As we chatted during the open house, she spoke with passion of her dream to see Langkawi people doing green practices which led to our idea about gathering an army to march down the pasar malam lane with food containers. She was keen about this and not only we spoke about it but she did all the work to materialize this event.

Why pasar malam (the night market) is the target? 

On those pasar malam days, I observed that most littering on the ground left by the public mostly came from all those small to medium sized of red, green, yellow or white plastic bags. It is the "D-day" when a lot of NEW plastic bags and polystyrene boxes (Styrofoam) were utilised. I don't have the statistics or plastic usage count now but I am sure you can imagine this. Each time a different kind of food is purchased, a new plastic bag will be used. For example, a person walks to a stall that sells an assortment of delicacies. He will chose a few pieces of fried chicken and a NEW plastic bag is used. Then he picked up RM2 of keropok lekor (fried fish crackers) and second NEW plastic bag is used. Hmm... how about a pack of nasi lemak kukus? And a NEW Styrofoam box is used. The list goes on. Imagine he walks to the next store, he does the same thing and together with hundreds of other people doing the same thing too. That is hell of a lot of NEW plastic bags and Styrofoam boxes used in one night! The worse part of it is when some of these irresponsible people threw these NEW plastic bags and Styrofoam boxes onto the ground, into the nearby river, into the drain or even next to a tree after they had filled up their tummies. This is not an unusual sight in Langkawi for I had seen this many times and had seen enough of it!

Also, pasar malam is the spot where most of the Langkawi locals congregate and "lepak".

The green, red, yellow, white small or medium sized new plastic bags

Kak Zuraidah has knocked on doors of NGOs, government agencies and other stakeholders of Langkawi. She has been getting positive response from most of them. Bravo, Zue!!

And so, this event will happen on Wednesday, March 3oth in Kuah town where the pasar malam is happening. Here are the details:

Date: Wednesday, 30th March 2011

Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm

Meeting point: Tapak Ramadhan, Kuah Town

Our society has been dependent on plastics since an Englishman, Alexander Parkes invented the first human-made plastic in 1855. Surprisingly, polystyrene was discovered earlier than plastic, which was in 1835 by a German, Eduard Simon. Plastic is inevitable and it is impossible to create a plastic-less society within a short span of time. Not in my lifetime, at least. 

Most of us would have known about the 3Rs (Recycle, Reuse and Reduce) and there is no need for introduction here. With the 3Rs, which "R" should come first? This is my personal opinion.  The "R"s lining up with the utmost priority should be "Reduce"; follow by "Reuse" and then "Recycle". 

With this pasar malam event, I hope this will create awareness to the locals that the first priority is to REDUCE usage of new plastic bags and polystyrene materials. By reducing, then REUSING is possible by bringing your old plastic bags or any reusable bags (eg cloth bag). Lastly, "RECYCLE" those existing plastic or glass materials once their usage are exhausted.

Bring any kind of containers. As long as new plastic bags or styrofoam boxes can be avoided

Kak Zuraidah's wishlist on this day will be having lots and lots of people participating together with a perfect weather. In order for this effort to be effective and impactful, this gathering ought to be done continuously, for example, once a month or even twice a month. An once off event tend to make a purpose to be forgotten; homosapiens' habit. Best of luck to you, Kak Zuraidah and thank you so much for making this happen.

As I mentioned earlier, this effort is the easiest task for the public to do and zero cost. As easy as All Bring Containers (ABC). Please spread the words/emails around for the benefit of making Langkawi a greener island to live. Keep these in your car; old reusable plastic bags, food containers or cloth bag or anything you can use to take-away your lunch/dinner. Remember, "Ingat Bungkus, Ingat Bekal". 

Links:
1) Wikipedia about Plastic
2) Wikipedia about Alexander Parkes
3) The History of Polystrene

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LADA's Mission

Bravo to LADA (Langkawi Development Authority) for stepping up to support Malaysian Nature Society Langkawi branch in efforts to sustain tourism on the island while conserving Langkawi's natural heritage. This is indeed welcome by some stakeholders. While some stakeholders may not be too happy should unfavorable strict rules and regulations be implemented in complying to the correct practise of eco-tourism.

I especially love the part where LADA's Tourism Manager said, "Tourism can really improve the locals' standard of living but we must not kill the goose that lays the golden egg."

What a relief to Langkawi for such news from LADA! However, before the country code can even be implemented, LADA ought to clean up their backyard first.

Click below for the story.

For the full news from The Star on Protecting Langkawi's Splendour, please scroll all the way down.

We wrote a couple of letters concerning two conservation issues to The Star (our Malaysian famous newspaper) and they failed to publish them.  It was Malaysiakini and EcoMalaysia.org  who helped published our concerns. A BIG THANK YOU TO Malaysiakini and EcoMalaysia.org. And now The Star has finally decided to put Langkawi's plight in the limelight. Why?

Actually, I must also thank YB Dato' Sri Dr Ng Yen Yen, our Minister of Tourism, for her frequent visits to Langkawi in the year 2010 and her efforts to improvise the tourism facilities on the island. Because of that, the medias are now opening their eyes in seeing Langkawi as the goose that lays the golden egg. Read her posting in related to Langkawi in her blog.

Back to LADA's commitment to support the conservation efforts. In my opinion, to allow conservation efforts to have a higher rate of success, the relevant authorities ought to walk the talk. Show the local Langkawians that the relevant authorities are rolling up the sleeves and getting the results out. LADA created and implemented a lot of projects to facilitate tourism on the island that had helped the locals to earn their living. However, some of the failed projects are often left abandoned, no proper studies conducted before implementation and no follow-ups to ensure facilities are maintained well and efficiently. Therefore, how do we expect the local Langkawians to respect the authorities?

I have a few examples that LADA ought to buckle up. For now, I will put up one example by focusing on Kilim Jetty which is in our pride Kilim Karst Geoforest Park. Why Kilim? Because the mangrove tour is one of the most popular activity on the island and a majority of tourists flocked there to partake on such tour.

Let's look at what has been done at Kilim and what are those that are left as eyesores:

1. I shall begin with this short bridge to allow visitors to cross over to see the mangroves. It is a nice bridge opposite the toilet building. By the way, the toilet there is properly maintained because visitors have to pay RM0.30 to the Persatuan (Society) to ensure its cleanliness. I have no objection to that. Here is how the short bridge looks like.

Once you have crossed over, this is what you will see...

2. While on the boat towards Gua Kelawar (Bat Cave)...

The short left most cement structure seems to be the remaining section of a bridge that was supposedly to link to the other side where the Gua Kelawar (Bat Cave) is. 

Maybe some of you remember the incident of a newly constructed bridge that collapsed in February 2008. Here is the story below, click on the image to read the contents or use a magnifying glass.

That cement block looks like one of the missing part. Call the CSI please...

If this ugly thing was not meant to be the bridge, then what the hell this is supposed to be?? A wildlife observation tower? Or Monkey's tower to look at men's stupidity?

3. After the Gua Kelawar and Kilim's new incinerator area, you will come to the remnants of a heritage site. The old time favorite, Barn Thai Restaurant that once stood pride for its fabulous Thai food is now left with this.

A website claimed that this restaurant was constructed without having a single tree chopped down. Well... I doubt so.

The owner left in a hurry that there were some stuffs left behind in the mangroves. All of these were there for a few months now.

This is one of those things left behind. At an angle, this thing can be clearly identified. Anyone want to guess what "species" is that? Let me give you a hint, is a bowl where we put our bum on it!

4. Next, let's take a boat ride towards the fish farm from Kilim Jetty.

This is one of the latest display which was put up less than six months ago. WHAT IS THIS?? Obstacle course?

5. Next to the "obstacle course", you will see a tributary adjoining Kilim River. According to the local, that is known as Sungai Garam. Do you see the section of mangroves has been cleared?

It is such a visible deforestation of the mangroves. Why our authorities claimed that Kilim mangroves are untouched?

According to the locals, that area was cleared to build a small jetty for fishing boats to dock their boats. That area was cleared for almost a year and nothing happens until now. So, all those trees died in vain... sad...

That's all for the Kilim Jetty area. There are more and I will keep them to myself for now. I seriously do not understand how the stakeholders, tour companies and users of Kilim Jetty can withstand all these eyesores that had been there for all these years. No wonder they say Malaysians are very patient lots!

Overall, I must salute En Megat, Tourism Manager of LADA for his bold statement to support  conservation efforts in Langkawi. I hope that En Megat will get the fullest support from other government agencies otherwise he will be the soloist in LADA's conservation work. It is a tough job indeed and conservation work cannot rely on a single person. Good luck to En Megat and his team.
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Protecting Langkawi’s splendour

By CHRISTINA CHIN, TheStar

COME March, the Langkawi Country Code, a guideline for sustainable eco-tourism for Langkawi, will be available for all local authorities, tourism operators and stakeholders.

Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Langkawi branch chairman Eric R. Sinnaya said the code hoped to prevent natural attractions from being ruined by tourism so that everyone could enjoy long-term benefits.

“Tourism can really improve the locals’ standard of living but we must not kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said.

“We can have the greenest is- lands in the world if everyone works together.

“Two decades ago, 95% of the Langkawi islands was green — now we are down to about 60%,” he said.

He said although NGOs could prepare a guideline of best practices, the state and local authorities’ support was needed to endorse and enforce the code, adding that the ecology of Langkawi was very sensitive and needed protection.

He said the Pulau Payar Marine Park was a good example of how tourism had resulted in garbage pollution and coral damage.

The code addresses the conservation of existing tropical rainforests, mangrove forests, coastal eco-systems, bio-diversity and landscapes; garbage management; reduction of pollution and usage of natural resources and adoption of ethical business models by all parties.

The code was among the out-comes of the ‘Conservation of Bio-diversity in Langkawi through Sustainable Eco-tourism’ project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and implemented by the MNS.

The project, which was initiated in October 2008, ended on Thursday.

Other activities carried out under the project were bird watching, shark spotting, green month campaign, beach cleanups, jellyfish operation at Pantai Cenang and myriad exhibitions, dialogues and seminars on fauna and flora.

The aim was to nurture, educate and empower the community to protect Langkawi’s natural heritage through a pragmatic environmental awareness, training and monitoring programme as sustainable eco-tourism practices would minimise the negative effects of tourism on bio-diversity and natural resources.

Eric said the RM145mil project was very important for Langkawi because there was low conservation awareness among the locals and those who were aware didn’t know how they could help protect the environment while helping the tourism sector grow.

Langkawi Development Authority (Lada) tourism manager Megat Shahrul Azman Abas welcomed the code.

He said that as a tourist development agency under the Ministry of Finance, Lada’s focus was to develop the 99 islands as a premier tourist destination.

“We want to practice green tourism by complying with eco-tourism practices to ensure sustainable development,” he said.

“The Langkawi Country Code is a very good effort by the MNS — it shows that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are playing their roles well by being pro-active,” he said, adding that Lada would continue working closely with the MNS.

He said Langkawi’s main draw was her natural surroundings and laidback lifestyle.

“Here, visitors feel very safe — they are not harassed by haggling traders.

“Eco-tourism activities like bird-watching and mangrove tours are very popular these days,” he said.

Tourists arrivals from January to October last year was about 1.8mil compared to more than 1.9mil for the same period this year.

Besides Europe which is Langkawi’s traditional tourist market, Middle Eastern and South Asian tourists are also flocking to the islands.

Megat Shahrul Azman also noted an increase in arrivals from Scandinavian countries.

He said Lada would target tourists from Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan next year.

Links:

1. The Star: Protecting Langkawi's Splendour

2. The Star: Kilim's Bridge Is Falling Down

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Jelly Photo Released

Finally, the picture of the mysterious notorious looking jellyfish caught on the night operation is now publish on my blog. What you are seeing here is the blob scooped up with its long tentacles. The speed of our boat seemed slow to us but a little too fast for jellyfish catching. Due to the momentum and our lack of experience, most of its tentacles broke off. 

Here is the picture of the entire blob...

A look at this picture, one can guess which family of this blob belongs to.

Unfortunately, this jelly did not survive more than eight hours because it was in captivity in a tight enclosure and stressed out. We learnt later than we should have proper facilities in which we didn't have to keep the jellyfish alive longer. 

LADA arranged another meeting with some of the players in the industry together with the marine experts. The marine experts will not confirm the exact species of this jellyfish until a DNA test is done. Is it possible to retrieve any tissues from a frozen jellyfish when it is composed of more than 90% water?

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What's Next for Langkawi?

Langkawi will become a State Park!!

Wow! That was a very strong and bold statement made by the Head of Jabatan Perhutanan of Langkawi (Langkawi Forestry Department), En Rashid.

That statement was made on the evening of 5th August 2010 at LADA Auditorium for an event jointly organised by Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and Langkawi Development Authority (LADA). The attendees were from MNS, Tourist Guides Association, resorts, Taxi Drivers Association and some government agencies. Sadly, the attendance was quite poor.

There were two discussion sessions held this week. The first discussion was on the 3rd August 2010 targeted to the boat operators in Kilim Geoforest Park. The purpose of this session was to present Langkawi's natural heritage, the need for conservation and resolutions.

The speakers for those two sessions were Dato Hashim bin Abdul Wahab, Vice President of MNS and Prof Ahmad Ismail, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science UPM.

The second similar session was for the rest of the stake holders of Langkawi's tourism industry. The panel of the discussion session were Dato Hashim, Prof Ahmad, En Megat from LADA, a representative from Tourism Department and En Rashid from Jabatan Perhutanan (Forestry Department). 

After the slide presentations from Dato Hashim and Prof Ahmad, the rest from the panel were given the opportunity to speak about their roles before the Q & A session started.

The most interesting part came from the Head of Forestry Department in his statement about creating Langkawi as a State Park and it is now a proposal that is in the discussion and planning stage.

A State Park. What does one understand from it? 

From my layman's point of view, it would mean protection of land under the jurisdiction of the state government and no one else can touch it. Does that mean no one can touch the forest and its natural beauty? When En Rashid was asked about the priority of the state park whether it is for conservation or development, his answer was CONSERVATION. Good answer!

Now, further questions...

What about the current gazettement of Langkawi's forest reserve? Will that be altered as to increase the size of forest reserve?

Which areas would be gazetted as State Park? Kilim? Mat Cinchang?

I do hope that they will not solely focus on those Geoforest Parks above as other areas like Kuala Teriang, Gunung Raya, Bukit Sawak, Pulau Tuba, etc. are equally important for Langkawi's biodiversity.

How committed the state government can be in ensuring the State park is managed in a clean and ethical manner?

The current enforcement by Jabatan Perhutanan is in a pathetic situation. You need to first beef up your team of enforcement officers against the poachers before this State Park is turned into reality. And then... WHEN? WHEN WILL THIS HAPPEN? Next year? or next decade?

There were many good relevant questions from the attendees. One of them commented on the lack of networking between government agencies. For example, when poachers were spotted or caught, the issue will be pushed from one Jabatan (department) to another Jabatan. Oh... so true!

Someone commented on Prof Ahmad's conflicting ideas about eco-tourism and bringing buses into small kampung roads leading to the Buffalo Park. To allow buses into the Buffalo Park would mean destroying the small kampung roads. Small kampung roads are used by cycling tour operators taking tourists into rustic kampung houses, paddy fields, rubber plantations and the Buffalo Park. These are the scenic experiences that tourists are looking for and not some big roads! There are alternative means to bring in groups rather than by buses and yet maintaining the current kampung roads. Thank you to that person for reminding all of us that eco-tourism equals to minimum impact. This is what I had studied before, eco-tourism is defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people. In layman's term, controlling the number of people going into an area according to the sensitivity of the eco-system means lesser the impact to the surrounding. Simple equation!

A representative from the Taxi Association brought up about alternative to using petrol like LPG. Applaud to him!! Instead, the answers given to him was about this and that policies with such and such company... aiyo, I felt his frustrations too..

En Megat from LADA pointed out that there was lack of support and participation from the local born and breed Langkawians themselves. He was right. In that auditorium, more than 90% were locals from other states. Most of the Langkawi's conservation and green issues were raised by locals from other states and the Mat Sallehs (expatriates). Where are the local Langkawians? The vibes that I got at the end of his comment was:

"Please give us solutions. If the rakyat are not interested, this is as much we can do."

And... I just thought of this. One of the solutions will be making strong commitment in educating the young Langkawi kids. It is time for LADA or any other organisation to think about setting up a proper fully funded nature education center with trained and passionate facilitators instead of developing more buildings or resorts.

After sitting in the auditorium from 8:30pm to 11:00pm, the next question will be SO WHAT NEXT? What are their action plans?

That question was answered by Dato Hashim as his conclusion. After all his ramblings that went round the circle on the conclusion, it seemed to me that there was no definitive plan or was it just too late at night for me? Another wait-and-see game? Or one is waiting for the other hand to clap?

These two events are a good start towards protecting Langkawi's natural heritage. We look forward to the next actions, commitments and more participation from the local Langkawians. Many thanks to Jimmy, MNS-UNDP and En Megat, LADA for bringing this together. 


Link:
1. UNTAMED Path.com: Defining Eco-Tourism

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