Article: Something fishy going on at wetlands

Tuesday September 22, 2009

By FOONG THIM LENG and CHAN LI LEEN

IPOH: The Kinta Royal Wetlands in Batu Gajah is under threat and will lose the largest heronry in the country if illegal and incompatible activities continue.

A recent check by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) revealed that someone had fenced up the whole lake where the heronry, with five breeding species of 2,000 waterbirds, is located.

MNS Perak Bird Group coordinator Lim Kim Chye believes that the fence was put up by parties interested to use the pond for commercial fish farming.

Such an activity could lead to the farmer trying to get rid of the birds on the heronry to prevent them from feeding on the fishes reared.

Mysterious motive: Someone has fenced up the perimeter of the lake at the Kinta Royal Wetlands

Lim, an ornithologist from MNS, had helped set up the park popularly known as the Kinta Nature Park (KNP) in 2001 with the Kinta Barat District Council then.

KNP consists of 14 ex-mining ponds and is home to at least 130 bird species, with almost 60% of them listed as totally protected or protected under the Protection of Wild Life Act 1976.

"Several pristine mining pools at the southern end of the KNP have been taken over by duck farms.

"Incursions such as these have increased recently, with the expansion of sand extraction activities and the establishment of more duck farms and also the cutting down of trees," said Lim.

The lack of a management body had resulted in damage and disrepair to the infrastructure in the parks.

Lim urged that immediate action be taken to save the KNP before its objective as a site for conservation, recreation, tourism and education is destroyed.

He suggested the dormant KNP Technical Committee, set up in 2001 but which had only met once, be revived again.

"All sand-mining activities, whether licensed or not should cease and there should not be any more approval for duck farms and fish ponds in the park," he said.

Lim said 10 years had passed since former mentri besar Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali announced the park was in the process of being gazetted as a wildlife sanctuary.

State executive councillor Datuk Hamidah Osman said the tarred road leading to the park was damaged by lorries transporting sand. Repairs would cost about RM500,000.

She said facilities in the park were managed by Perhilitan.

"I want the management of the park handed to the district council as most tourism products are being looked after by the local authorities.

"The state government will discuss the matter first, but we will still seek advice from Perhilitan to tackle issues relating to birds and wildlife," she said when contacted.

Hamidah said she had also received a complaint about the fence and would look into the matter.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation 22 September 2009