FW: [aapnet] (MY) Habitat destruction in Sabah

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Petition at bottom

 

 

Dr John Wedderburn [john]

Tuesday, 17 October 2000 23:20

AAPN List

[aapnet] (MY) Habitat destruction in Sabah

 

 

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-

<MHERRERO

Tuesday, October 17, 2000 5:04 AM

Borneo (Malaysia)

 

Dear people

 

We want to inform you about the proposed forest plantation and pulp mill

plantation project called " Benta Wawasan Project. " This project is going to

convert 241,399 ha of lowland tropical rainforest, which has the highest

biodiversity on earth, in to a mono-culture, single species, tree

plantation! The tree planted is Acacia magium, a soft wood species,

introduced from Australia, that going to feed a huge pulp and paper mill.

The project is a joint venture project between the China and Malaysia. The

location of this plantation is at the heard of Sabah, in the largest lowland

forest remain in Sabah, between the Danum Valley conservation area and the

Maliau Basin Conservation Area. The plantation will eventually cut the

linkage zone and corridor between these two important protected

rainforests. The first stage of logging already been carried out last year

which has caused the Segama River, the river that run through Danum Valley

Field Center, become very muddy and high sedimentation. The second phase of

forest clearing, is going to implement very soon. Many efforts have been

done to stop this project but unfortunately all failed, due to the authority

comes from very high (Prime Minister).

 

If the forest has been cleared to the size the project

proposed, this mean that the following amount of

" mega-wildlife " in the country is going to lost their habitat

and died. To make the calculation easier, I used 2000 km2 of

forest, instates of 2413 km2 as proposed in the project.

 

species density number

animals in this forest

Elephant: 1 elephant/7 km2 286 elephants

Sun bear 1 bear/ 4 km2 500 bears

clouded leopard 1 leopard/ 4 km2 500 leopards

orang-utan 1 orang-utan/ km2 2000 orang-utan

gibbons* 1 group of gibbon/ km2 6400 groups of

gibbons

 

* gibbon's group consists of 2-3 individuals

The density of animals are referred from " A Fauna Survey of Sabah " by

Davies and Payne, 1982, published by WWF.

 

We are very frustrated here as we tried many ways to stop

" the biggest disaster " in Southeast Asia. The political power involved

is way too big for us to do anything. I hope you can report something

about this catastrophic and let the world know that we are losing our

priceless biodiversity. The problem is not just losing the forest,

wildlife and biodiversity, it also create more and more catastrophic

to this part of the world, like pollution (waste from the pulp mill),

fire (Acacia magium plantation is very dry burn easily), social (many

illegal workers will be imported) and hunting. All of the animals

mention above, plus many many more will be doomed, if we don't act NOW.

 

Many things happen lately regarding the project. There has been a special

report regarding the project in a local press last Tuesday and created a

" hu-ha " among the government, politicians and agencies involved. The Chief

Minister (CM) of Sabah even wanted the researchers in Danum who provided

this reporter information to be " kick out " from Sabah. So they are now being

suspect and in jeopardy. they could even under " watch " . Anyway, in the

future communication via email, try to avoid using the full name of the

project,

i.e., B.....W.....P.... The whole environment in Sabah is pretty " hot " about

this issue. You guys should act while everything is still hot.

 

The local NGOs are too weak to do something. We can't rely on them,

we need people like you.

 

At the same time, you can also contact the reporter who made this

story for the latest information about the whole thing. His name is

S.S. Yoga, from The Star, email <yoga.

I thank you on behalf of all the flora and fauna of the forest that

call this forest HOME.

 

Here are the address of the Prime Minister of Malaysia and some other

top decision maker that you and your friends should raise the concern

over the BWP. Please write to them asking for stop this project.

 

Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

Prime Minister of Malaysia

Prime Minister Office

Federal Government Administration Center

62502 Putrajaya

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Tel: 603-88888000

Fax: 603-88883444

email: ppm

 

YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Osu Hj Sukam

Chief Minister of Sabah

Tingkat 25, Bangunan Yayasan Sabah

88502 Kota Kinabalu

Sabah

Malaysia

email: ketuamenteri

 

TB Datuk Chong Kah Kiat

Minister of Ministry of Tourism Development, Environment, Science and

Technology

Tingkat 5-7, Menara Sabah Bank

Wisma Tun Fuad Stephens

Karamunsing

88300 Kota Kinabalu

Sabah

Malaysia

email: menteri.mted

 

Things are running out of time now. Already 30,000 ha of forest has been

clear cut even though the project has not been finalized between the Chinese

government and the Malaysian side. However, the forests are too rich in them

of $$$$$$, they act very fast.

 

I also attach with the newspaper cutting about the BWP

 

For other information about the Malaysian government, please feel free to

visit the website: www.sabah.gov.my, www.smpke.jpm.my and the related page

from the internet.

 

Thank you very much. More later.

 

Joan Grau and Mercè Herrero

 

 

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