(AP) – KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia-Mangroves that bore the brunt of last year’s tsunami in Indonesia and other places have been replaced with hurriedly and improperly planted trees that may wither soon and leave coastal communities vulnerable, experts warned Tuesday. Saplings were planted in areas where their survival is precarious because species have been wrongly matched…
Yet another Non-Governmental Organisation has been launched here and this time to save a green lung in Kelana Jaya. The “Friends of Kelana Jaya Park” was launched to ask the State Government to gazette the Taman Tasik Bandaran Kelana Jaya as a recreational park. The Friends of Kelana Jaya Park was launched by Petaling Jaya…
SAFELY hidden among the peaks and valleys of Bukit Kiara’s recreational park in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) is the Sungai Penchala, which we have set out to discover. We do not know what to expect as we drive past the commercial area of TTDI compact with its eateries, the infamous wet market and office…
Repairing the ecosystems damaged by the Asian tsunami should be a priority, say environmental organizations, if the longterm livelihood of devastated communities is to be secured. They are urging the international community to ensure that marine parks are maintained, some communities are shifted inland, and defensive buffer zones of mangrove are planted against future erosion…
Often, it takes a catastrophe to make us realise the importance of the environment. Reports are coming in from Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Sumatra that those coastal areas still covered by mangroves were relatively less affected by the tsunami. ONE of the emerging lessons of the earthquake-tsunami disaster is that mangroves and coral…
PETALING JAYA: Mangrove forests and other coastal vegetation can soften the impact of tsunamis, according to a Kuala Lumpur-based conservation group. Two reports from Sumatra have proven this fact, said Global Environment Centre (GEC) director Faizal Parish. “Farhan Ferrari, a community worker, reported to me on Thursday that five villages 100km to the south-east of…
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 (Bernama) — Environmentalists’ pleas to conserve mangroves to protect the ecosystem has gone unheeded for a long time. But today, apart from being the favourite habitats of birds, fish and microorganisms, mangroves are considered the best natural barrier to protect coastal communities from the onslaught of tsunamis. Global Environment Centre director…
A year after the tsunami destroyed vast stretches of Asia’s coastline, activists say little has been done to fix the damage caused by the surging waters, and devastated mangroves and agricultural land still await rehabilitation. In worst-hit Aceh province in Indonesia, the tsunami drastically changed the coastline, ripping out mangroves before slamming into forests and…
The Meliau Range in Sabah, covered in ultramafic forest, has researchers excited over new species of flora and fauna, discovered on a recent expedition into its depths. JONISTON BANGKUAI writes. TALK about the Meliau Range and many will likely mistake it for the more wellknown Maliau Basin in southern Sabah. The greatly unexplored Meliau Range…
Vast tracts of Indonesia’s peat swamps have been drained in a misguided attempt to turn them into rice plantations. Now the landscape burns every year, belching smoke and hastening global warming. Peter Aldhous investigates. Sitting in a small boat at the junction of two drainage canals, all I can see are walls of crumbling peat…