Article 5: Save the Mangrove Forests, says NGOs

Link to article:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/12/27/nation/20071227133647&sec=nation

Mangrove ecosystem is a peculiar habitat found at the interface between land and sea. The term "mangrove" is being applied to the specific ecosystem of the intertidal world in the tropics and subtropics and the plant community of this ecosystem is termed as “mangrove vegetation”.

Many people think that mangroves are a few dwarf weedy plants along the shoreline but mangroves are much more than that. It is a whole ecosystem acting as a buffer between land and sea. Mangroves are extensions of tropical and sub-tropical forests into the sea.

Most mangrove forests in Malaysia are found along the coastline of Sabah (341,377 hectares) followed by those in Sarawak (172,792 hectares) and in Peninsular Malaysia (123,482 hectares). Over half the total mangrove forests are located in the East and South-east of Sabah. About 60% of the mangrove areas in Malaysia have been designated as forest reserves to be used for sustainable harvest of mangrove products.

Despite the importance of mangroves, they are being destroyed at an alarming rate and it has become an urgent matter to understand trophic interactions and material flow within these ecosystems. More than 35% of the world’s mangroves are already gone. The figure is as high as 50% in countries such as India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, while in the Americas they are being cleared at a rate faster than tropical rainforests. Malaysia has lost almost 30% of her mangroves and the rate is expected to continue at 1% a year.

The main culprit in the destruction of mangroves is man. Human have destroyed this magnificent ecosystem on the reason of development. Land reclamations, industrial effluents, dumping of all kinds of waste and debris in the mangrove area cause the degradation of mangrove forest. The waste or debris dump in mangroves area creates a barrier preventing the sea water from entering the mangroves and eventually kills the mangroves. In many instances, this is done intentionally to reclaim land for construction activity. There is an urgent need to stop this systematic degradation of mangroves.

Why should we protect mangroves?.....

· Coastal protection: The dense root systems of mangrove forests trap sediments flowing down rivers and off the land. This helps stabilizes the coastline and prevents erosion from waves and storms. In areas where mangroves have been cleared, coastal damage from hurricanes and typhoons is much more severe. By filtering out sediments, the forests also protect coral reefs and sea grass meadows from being smothered in sediment.

· Fisheries: Mangrove forests are home to a large variety of fish, crab, shrimp, and mollusk species. These fisheries form an essential source of food for thousands of coastal communities around the world. The forests also serve as nurseries for many fish species, including coral reef fish. A study on the Mesoamerican reef, for example, showed that there are as many as 25 times more fish of some species on reefs close to mangrove areas than in areas where mangroves have been cut down.

· Timber and plant products: Mangrove wood is resistant to rot and insects, making it extremely valuable. Many coastal and indigenous communities rely on this wood for construction material as well as for fuel.

· Tourism: Given the diversity of life inhabiting mangrove systems, and their proximity in many cases to other tourist attractions such as coral reefs and sandy beaches, it is perhaps surprising that only a few countries have started to tap into the tourism potential of their mangrove forests.

To save mangrove forest….
It is suggested that future studies focus on biological, chemistry and ecological aspects and their links with mangrove forest management. Linking scientific research with management issues should enable effective and efficient management guidelines for mangrove forest. These studies are also important in teaching the community the proper value of mangroves in terms of economic and biological aspects.

In the context of mangrove management in Malaysia, the National Forestry Policy applies. There are three management alternatives for mangrove areas: preservation or closed exploitation, conservation and conversion. Preservation in its natural state will be applied in mangrove areas without causing any damage to the system. It will be done with great care because it can lead to irreversible economic or ecological results if pushed too far. Conversion meanwhile will alter the condition of the mangrove ecosystem such that all other potential uses are foreclosed. The inputs required are much higher than in preservation or conservation.

Wetlands International-Asia Pacific in 1996 recommended a smart partnership based on an integrated framework for action as an alternative to the National Mangrove Management Plan of Malaysia. An integrated framework for action implies the process of government and community uniting with the science and management plan of protection and development of coastal ecosystem and resources. A smart partnership involving good public-private partnership is an excellent way to conserve the mangroves.

Article 4: Important to Recycle Unwanted Cellphones

Link to article:
http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2008/7/30/technology/20080730163036&sec=technology


Unwanted cellphones are regarded as one of the e-wastes. E-wastes are generally defined as ‘used’ electrical and electronic products cover a wide range of products from as big as a refrigerator to as small as a calculator, alarm clock, electronic thermometer or laser pointer.

Proper e-waste management is important due to the tremendous increase in quantity of e-waste, its growth in increasing complexity and the toxic ingredients it contain such as lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants. These are highly hazardous and pose both occupational and environmental health threats. However in Malaysia, e-waste is yet to be taken seriously by industries, governments and consumers mainly because its impacts on the public are not immediate unlike municipal solid wastes which affect our daily life.

The recycling programme initiated by Nokia is one of the options of e-waste management. This programme makes it easier for consumers to recycle mobile phones where it has set up kiosks in public places for consumers to drop off their old or unused handphones for recycling. To reward those who do so, Nokia will plant a tree in their name at Sebangau National Park in central Kalimantan, under the NEWTrees Initiative (a collaboration with WWF Indonesia and Equinox Publishing).

This recycling programme initiated by Nokia should be taken as an example for other electrical and electronic manufacturer to encourage customers to recycle the old or unwanted products. Electrical and electronic manufacturers need to commit their policy towards the environment and have a ‘take back’ system to collect back the used products.

Besides recycle, reduce and reuse is also one of the options e-waste management. The higher standard of living and purchasing power has resulted in many discarding functioning electrical and electronics appliances. Donating, giving away or selling usable electrical and electronics appliances to other people or secondhand shops will extend the lifespan of the products and keep them out of the waste management system for a longer time.

In addition, we should be a wise consumer. While buying electronics and electrical appliances, the consumers should opt for those products that have the least toxic constituents, use recycled contents, are energy efficient, utilise minimal packaging and are designed for easy upgrading or dis-assembly. Priority should also be given to manufacturers of appliances that offer leasing or take back options for the e-wastes.

As the world of technology keeps progressing at an unprecedented rate, more and more diverse types of e-wastes will be discarded into the waste stream. Tremendous amounts of e-wastes will result in disastrous consequences if not managed properly as e-wastes contain highly hazardous substances that pose serious threats to human health and the environment as a whole. With effective e-wastes management, e-wastes could be regarded as valuable resources rather than sheer waste.

Article 3: MNS Wants Reserve To Be Made National Park

Link to article: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/2323687/Article/index_html

Refer to the news “MNS Wants Reserve To Be Made National Park”, I would like to share some information about forest management.

The earth is 70% water and 30% land. Tropical rainforest covers 7% of the world's landmass, representing 1.7% of the earth's surface. Tropical rainforest contains more than half the flora and fauna in the world and is an important factor in the conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen.

Concerns about environmental and social issues associated with forestry, such as effects on biodiversity, climate change, desertification, flooding and conflicts over rights and sustainable development generally has led to some international agreements and programmes for improving forest management practices. However, forest management is widely considered to be a difficult concept to implement.

The challenges of forest management are:
a. Weak understanding of sustainable forest management in forestry practice
An adequate understanding of the implications of the meaning of sustainable forest management is a prerequisite to effective implementation as it helps in systematic determination and prioritisation of actions required for changing the existing forestry practice to conform to the requirements of sustainable forest management principles.

b. Ineffective governance and law enforcement
The most fundamental requirements for successful implementation of sustainable forest management are effective governance and law enforcement. The importance of this has been stressed in many international initiatives and particularly in the recent EU led Forest Law Enforcement and Governance and Trade/ Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) initiative involving tropical timber-producing countries where illegal timber harvesting is a problem; this includes Malaysia and Indonesia. The World Bank has estimated a revenue loss of USD10 billion a year to governments through illegal logging and corrupt practices in the last 10 years!

c. Inadequate technical capacity
Achieving sustainable forest management requires specific technical capacity, which in turn requires forest managers to have adequate understanding of the wide range of issues involved. Principally, sustainable forest management involves three broad disciplines (environmental, economic and social), which ought to be manipulated in such a way to ensure high quality forest management and responsible practice

d. Inadequate financial resources
Implementing sustainable forest management is costly and needs adequate financial resources, although it is believed that in most cases, premiums may be realised in the long term. In the short term, however, this could be a disincentive, especially for low income countries where short-term returns is probably needed to maintain commitment towards progress; they are therefore unable to meet the associated financial and logistics costs.

For long term biodiversity welfare, the above challenges should not be treated as the obstacles in achieving sustainable forest management. Continuing effort should be carried out to increase international pressure to facilitate effective implementation of sustainable forest management. Adequate understanding of sustainable forest management should be formulate to ensure the policy outcomes address key issues that help to strengthen practical implementation of sustainable forest management.

Article 2: Selangor aims for zero plastic bags, statewide

Link to article:

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/6/6/central/21470942&sec=central

The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. Plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas, or other petrochemical derivatives, which are transformed into chains of hydrogen and carbon molecules known as polymers or polymer resin. After being heated, shaped, and cooled, the plastic is ready to be flattened, sealed, punched, or printed on.

Everyday in our daily activities, we use plastic bag to carry groceries, clothing, and other routine purchases. However, do we really realize the significant problems of plastic bags to our environment? Here are some hazards of plastic bags. Unlike many other materials we use, plastic is very slow to break down. Some suggest it can take up hundred of years for plastic bags to totally disintegrate in a land-fill site. Other problems with plastic bags are that they are often blown by the wind and end up in lakes, rivers, or fields and forests. In addition to being unsightly, they are a hazard to wild life, because animals can mistake them for food. Floating bags can look all too much like tasty jellyfish to hungry marine critters. According to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Society, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic. The conservation group estimates that 50% of all marine litter is some form of plastic. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean. Besides, plastic bag is photodegradable, meaning that the sun eventually breaks them into tiny toxic particles which contaminate the soil and waterways, ultimately go into our food and drinking water.

Realizing the significance of plastic bag to our environment, it is a right way for Selangor State Government to declare Selangor as zero plastic bag within a year time. Now, it is the time for the state government to formulate strategies on how to achieve this target. From my point of view, some strategies as following could assist us to have a pastic bag free environment:

· Introduce legislation to tax or ban plastic bags. Some governments have already make laws to reduce the use of plastic bags. For example, Ireland was the first country to introduce a plastic tax of 15 cents per bag in March 2002. The revenue was redirected to environmentally friendly projects. This tax successfully reduced the use of plastic bags by about 90 percent. Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, the Ladakh Women's Alliance and other citizens groups led a successful campaign to ban plastic bags in that Indian province, where the first of May is now celebrated as “Plastic Ban Day.”

· Introduce reusable cotton shopping bags to replace plastic bags. These bags can be used for years and be washed when necessary. When they eventually wear out they can be disposed of and they will break down naturally.

· Industry players such as hypermarkets and retailers should voluntarily encouraging shoppers to forgo plastic bags, or to bring their own bags by offering a small per bag refund or charging extra for plastic.

· Manufacturers should introduced biodegradable or compostable plastic bags made from starches, polymers or poly-lactic acid, and no polyethylene.

· Create public awareness by having “Plastic Bag Free Campaign”. It is to create the awareness among public about the hazard of public bags. Signs declaring the markets plastic bag-free initiative are displayed at the two main entrance points to the marketplace. Reminders for patrons to bring their own shopping bags are also included in the advertisement

As a responsible resident and to conserve our environment from plastic hazard, we should actively respond and support the campaigns held by government to ensure that the target is achieved. We should think twice about taking a plastic bag when our purchase is small and easy to carry. We also should keep permanent shopping bags in our home, office, and car so we can always have them available when we go to the supermarket or other stores.

Let us work together towards plastic free environment. It is our responsibility to pave the way to cleaner and safer planet for the coming generation. Always remember, every plastic bag we have ever used in our entire life will still exists in some form, even fragmented bits, and will exist long after we are dead.

Article 1: Ban on Development Project on Hill Slopes

Link to article:
http://star-space.com/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/10/plegal/21494816&sec=plegal

Despite tragedies that have occurred incessantly, such as the collapse of the Highland Tower on 11 December 1993 and the Hulu Klang hill slope landslide in June 2006, hill slope development is still rampant in the Klang Valley particularly with the scarcity of land. A stark example is along Jalan Kuari in Cheras where extensive tracts of once beautiful lush forests have been cleared, only to have concrete blocks of flats erected in their place.

Hill slope development could cause adverse environmental impacts such as:
· Slope erosion - Site clearing during earthwork activity can result in the removal of
vegetation and the creation of cleared surfaces, which become vulnerable to the erosive action of rain and surface runoff.
· Slope stability – Land forms are the product of the local balance between weathering, erosion and deposition and are continuously evolving. Natural slopes that have been stable for years may suddenly fail because of development activities on hills.

· Landscape impacts - Construction on hills will bring about a change in the landscape and will thus have a visual impact on landscape quality.
. Loss of ecological habitat

· Annoying noise levels from construction and transportation activities
· Vibration associated with piling, vehicular movement and blasting
· Wastewater and solid waste disposal.

Realizing the adverse impacts of hill slope development, it is a heartening news for public in Selangor where the new state government has announced a ban on development on hill slopes of Class 3 (gradient > 25%) and Class 4 (gradient > 35%), for fear of landslides. This guideline for sure will reduce the occurrence of adverse impacts as mentioned above, land slides, tragedies, and to conserve our environment.

However, the implementation of such guideline may indirectly affect the pricing of housing in Selangor. A blanket ban on development of Class 3 and Class 4 land would cause a serious scarcity of land in Selangor and thus will cause the price of housing to escalate tremendously, resulting in higher inflation and hamper the economic growth of Selangor.

Besides, for the developer that have have purchased their land for development using guidelines provided by the previous state government, are now stuck with land they have already bought since the state government put a halt to development on Class 3 and 4 slopes.

Let us look into countries like Hong Kong and Taiwan, due to the scarcity of land and the nature of its contours, even Class 4 land is developed but these developments must adhere to stringent guidelines. Thus, from my point of view, to ensure that our environment is converse and by the same time to avoid the new legislation hampers the growth of economic in Selangor, it is important for the state government to seek advice from independent technical professionals specialising in hill slope developments regarding the new legislation and to carry out some studies on how countries such as Hong Kong could allow the hill slope development without scarifying their economy.

In conclusion, it is not an easy task to have a balance between environment conservation and economic growth. All parties should work together to come out an environment management plan that have minimum impacts on both the environment and economic growth.