Saving rare plants
A tract of forest that hosts rare plants in urban Petaling Jaya, Selangor, is giving way to a burial ground and other development plans.
Standing knee-deep in water, a small group of Zoo Negara staff pulls up plants from a freshwater lake found in the Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve in Selangor. The intermittent roar of a bulldozer and sounds of crashing trees pierce the silence.
The team is salvaging the recently discovered Cryptocoryne minima - a rare aquatic plant that is much loved by the aquarium trade - as it becomes clear that the pond will be destroyed soon.
Leading the rescue operation is assistant curator Herman Bernard Ganapathy, who says the crypt, as the plant is commonly called, is the first record for Selangor, and the conservation community is thrilled as that gives another reason to protect the forest.
Sadly, that may not be the case. Sitting in the fast developing suburb of Petaling Jaya, the forest is in the centre of a dispute between local residents and the state government over the conversion of some 140ha for a mixed development project.
The peninsula's oldest forest reserve has slowly shrunk from its 1898 size of 1,600ha. Recently, residents from Kota Damansara and members of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) demonstrated against the development plan. The peaceful protest was marred by racial and religious slurs from certain quarters.
Twenty-two hectares of the degazetted reserve are earmarked for an 8,000-burial-plot Muslim cemetery. Planning authorities intend to receive the first burial at the end of this month. Work on the first phase of 1,200 plots began on March 17.
Detractors, while puzzled by the relocation of the cemetery plan from another site, maintains that they are not questioning the need for the burial ground. Instead, they fear that the graveyard may be a smokescreen for a hidden agenda to convert a larger area, as attested by a plan shown to them by state assemblyman Datuk Mokhtar Dahlan.
Residents feel short-changed by the developers' promise of an intact forest reserve. Many have participated in an MNS-led campaign to safeguard the green lung since 2004.
The Kota Damansara Community Forest Park, developed with a United Nations Development Programme-funded management plan a year ago, will be a research, education, conservation and recreation centre.
Gathered under the banner of Friends of Kota Damansara are seven residents' associations from Kota Damansara, Tropicana, Bandar Utama and Taman Tun Dr Ismail. They also lobbied for the forest reserve to be included in the state structure plan as a green lung. Land and Mines Department and Town and Country Planning Department also assured that there was no development plan.
In fact, the state government has revoked an August 2004 gazette as it wanted to preserve the remaining forest as a national heritage. However, in late 2005, MNS learnt that the revocation has somehow been overturned and the degazettement was passed without public consultation, a violation of several laws.
Kota Damansara resident Mohamed Akmal Sultan says that starting earthworks while several legal issues remain unresolved is a blatant disregard for law and order on the part of the authorities. He adds that the cemetery has yet to be gazetted as required.
Datuk Dr Salleh Mohd Nor, the former MNS president and advisor to Friends of Kota Damansara, believes the reversed decision was motivated by greed.
"It is sheer arrogance and unprincipled. The local population should sue the government," he says.
Imminent loss
MNS executive officer Dr Loh Chi Leong says the Sungai Buloh secondary forest is a splendid example of the regeneration ability of tropical forests, and if destroyed, it will be a great loss to the scientific community. He says the reserve hosts a significant wetland ecosystem that plays a major role in flood mitigation and this function is now under severe threat.
Early this year, while recording the bio-diversity of the area, MNS members stumbled upon the Begonia aequelateralis that is endemic to Selangor, raising hopes that it will be wrestled from the brink of extinction.
Author of the book Begonias of Peninsular Malaysia, Dr Ruth Kiew, says the population is the best one discovered thus far. A known population in Sungai Kroh, Kepong, is believed to be extinct and the other in the Sungai Buloh area (near the leprosy centre) is likely to have been wiped out by massive land clearing. Unlike most begonias that produce asymmetric leaves, the equal-sided B. aequelateralis is one of the most critically endangered of the 52 species found in the peninsula.
"I was happy when I visited the site. The canopy is complete and the stream is healthy. These are essential to support a reproducing population. The best way to protect a species is to preserve its habitat. It's not just the petai trees, there are far more valuable species to be conserved in this reserve. We are very worried given the uncertain status of this forest," says the eminent botanist, referring to the authorities' rhetoric that the only valuable trees there were petai.
Dr Ahmad Sofiman Othman of Universiti Sains Malaysia, who is studying the population genetics of Cryptocoryne species, says the aquatic plant has high commercial value and the species C. minima is nearly extinct. Besides this new record, the other known distribution is in Beriah, Perak. That population has been nearly depleted by expanding oil palm plantation.
"In Europe, crypt enthusiasts form a society. So do the Japanese. They have long appreciated the ornamental value of this plant which we are only beginning to discover, although the centre of diversity of this genus is over here.
"We have to consider this as a national heritage. This should be considered in the equation (of development)," urges the deputy dean of the School of Biological Sciences.
Meanwhile, Zoo Negara staff is preparing for more collection trips as there are signs that land clearing will speed up.
Beautiful and hardy
Forming a verdant spread at the bottom of a freshwater lake, the aquatic plant Cryptocoryne minima is thriving in the pristine water.
First reported to the Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) by orang asli who fish in the lake, news of its discovery was kept secret for fear that it might be plundered by those aware of its ornamental value.
The bullated-leaf aquarium plant displays shades of green and red under different light and is highly prized for its beauty and hardy nature.
When it became clear that the lake would soon be filled up, assistant curator of the Zoo Negara Tunku Abdul Rahman Aquarium Herman Bernard Ganapathy rushed in to rescue the plants.
"We will put them in our nursery and share them with other research institutions. I have never seen this plant in this kind of abundance. We can easily collect 1,000 bags," Ganapathy says.
The team will also collect the Malaysian water lily (Barclaya kunstleri) and other plants like orchids, gingers and timber tree saplings.
Universiti Sains Malaysia biologist Dr Ahmad Sofiman Othman says other Cryptocoryne species have been heavily harvested for export, such as in Johor, and many face an uncertain future. Johor is a major producer and exporter of ornamental fish and collecting Cryptocoryne is a natural extension of the business. Some people may be growing the plants but many are exploiting wild populations.
In the last six years, the Department of Fisheries has been conducted a tissue-culture programme to propagate Cryptocoryne, but it has yet to experiment with local species.
Ahmad says the extent of the distribution of the known 12 species of Cryptocoryne found in the peninsula is still unclear but the C. minima in Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve is of great interest to science. His plan to include the newly-discovered population in his upcoming book of the genus status looks shaky.
"Obviously we have lost some populations. The big population in Beriah, Perak, in a narrow river of just 150m, once hosted millions of this plant but this has been reduced to small pockets. Some of the dominant plants may re-colonise streams at the edge of oil palm plantations but we may have lost its genetic diversity for good.
"Maintaining the ecosystem is important. Hence, we need to look at what we have and realise that we can't find this anywhere else," he adds.
The reserve is one of the few fragmented lowland forests found in the Klang Valley. "We have great ideas for this area as an extension to the Kota Damansara Community Forest Park. Besides the rich bio-diversity, the ecosystem is really something to be preserved. But it seems we won't have a chance," bemoans Ganapathy.
By Hilary Chiew
hnchiew@thestar.com.my
Source: The Star
Date: 17th April 2007
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