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Uncle Tan’s Wildlife Camp – Part 6 of 8

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Lumbering in Sabah

I bet you had heard standard message like “Sabah is blessed because of its rich natural resources such as forest…” in government speech or tourism promotion ad, over and over again for many years. My friends, after you look at the graph below, you will have to stop telling people that Sabah got lot of “kayu balak” (timber).

This graph, which shows the remaining forest for commercial logging, is from the government official report. You can find this information easily in reference section of Sabah State Library. Yes, we still have a few protected / reserved forest left, but they are threaten by illegal logging activities. Timber is not something so small that we can put it into our pocket. How can it got stolen and smuggled out “undetected”? Well, all Sabahans know the answer. In the river cruise on Kinabatangan River, every time we could see hundreds of log being transported on the river.

We paid a visit to HABITAT Nursery Centre in Bilit Village. HABITAT was formed by WWF, with the aim of reviving the forest to build the Corridor of Life for Kinabatangan wildlife such as Orang Utan. The tree species (e.g. Tangkol, Bongkol, Binuang, Sangkuang) they select are the ones that can produce fruits (food) for the wild animals.

Most people have a very wrong idea of recovering a forest. They think planting some trees on a deforested area can bring the same forest back. After logging, the soil and environmental conditions have changed. The tree species that are used to live there may not be able to survive. HABITAT has replanted 8,800 seedling so far. Flood is the biggest problem, as it would destroy their effort overnight. They also educate the local community on the importance of forest.

Please give hope to our Orang Utan…

On the newspaper, sometimes we could hear chilling statement like “There is no evidence to prove that logging leads to the declining of Orang Utan population”, “Eating shark fin will not endanger the shark”, “You want gold or monkey?”… Can’t believe all these were from the mouth of the government officers.

We did a few “symbolic” tree planting at HABITAT. On the same day, we were depressed to see another boat pulling hundreds of log on the river. Sigh… we feel so powerless when seeing those floating log passing by our boat like a long train.

We lose so much but gain so little. Sabah still remains one of the poorest states. Clearing the forest is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. In the future, we will run out of natural resources and all living a poor live, by that time, who have the time to care about the living of other wild animals?

The negative impact of overlogging is not so far away. Below is another graph from the official source, about the soil pollution in river. The report says, “In the year 2000… 47 out of 73 river monitoring stations, or 65%, fell into the polluted category, four were classified as slightly polluted (5%), and 22 clean or free from pollution (30%) (Source: Department of the Environment 2000)” Cool huh? Our rivers are not so far away from 100% polluted.

Logging and agriculture are the main cause of deforestion, which creates soil erosion and flood. Didn’t you notice that the flood in Sabah is getting stronger and stronger, more and more frequent? The problem will arrive our door step and water tap one day, if not now.

Photos taken in Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Uncle Tan’s Wildlife Camp – Part 5 of 8

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Black-Hearted Oil Palm, Half-Hearted Government

You would have heard stories about the wealth of oil palm farmers. They drive the most expensive cars in town and live in luxury houses. One of them even slammed thousand dollar cash in front of a car salesman coz he thought the salesman looked down on him. This sort of story “inspired” lot of people. For years, I have been hearing many people excitedly talked about the bright future of owning an oil palm plantation, wishing that they could also throw cash at people’s face.


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Whatever, it is absolutely nothing wrong to be rich, provided that we earn our money in legal way and don’t harm the others. However, the view of oil palm planted right to the edge of the Kinabatangan River is really a disturbing view to nature lovers. By law, 20 Metres of the land next to the high-water mark of bigger river is a reserved area (riparian reserve) of government, and does not belong to the planters. In short, it is a violation of law to use this reserve area for own purpose such as plantation.


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The 20-metre-wide riparian reserve will serve as (1) a buffer zone for flood, and (2) migration passenge for wildlife such as Borneo Pygmy elephants. To move to other area with more food supply, Borneo Pygmy elephants have a habit of seasonal migration along the river. The encroachment of palm oil plantation into riparian reserve cut off the migration route of Borneo Pygmy elephant and other animals. It is same as building a farm on the highway, blocking all the cars on the road. As a result, they have to venture into private lands, including villages, thereby causing conflict between them and human.


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In the river cruise for 2 days, we were so impressed to see almost no garbage floating on the river. The local community has done a great job to keep the river clean. The Kinabatangan River is also their source of drinking water and fish catch. Since the blooming of oil palm, the ca$h crop, the oil palm mills and plantation have polluted the river with 50,000 to 80,000 tons of harmful chemical and fertiliser every year. If you ask the local fishermen, you would know that there are less fishes nowadays and the contaminated water makes them ill.


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Did our government do anything? Yes, they did… well, to be precise, they did “say” something but didn’t “do” anything. Below was what the government said in Daily Express newspaper of May 8, 2006 (more than a year ago):
“Oil palm companies in the Kinabatangan have been urged to ensure their plantation boundaries do not encroach riparian areas (along riverbanks) to avoid the risk of being penalised by the Government. On April 4, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman called on oil palm plantation owners encroaching into State land reserves, especially riparian areas, to vacate the areas immediately or face the music… blah, blah, blah…”

Does this sound familiar? Oh ya, they also said the SAME thing in newspaper recently. Some politicians only made some big hooha like last year, then nothing would happen. It is already more than 1 year, but the oil palm plantation encroachment is still there. What is the authority waiting for? Just cut down those encroaching oil palm and lock those owners in jail!

If the environmentalists and press didn’t report the encroachment last month, I have doubt if the authority would do anything, even after 5 years, 10 years, 20 years… The commitment of government on conservation efforts is simply disappointing and a BIG failure (though I really appreciate they remove shark fin from the menu of official dinner). I’m afraid many other issues such as fish bombing, illegal logging… will never end until there is no fish, no forest left..


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In fact, 20 metres is not wide enough, so WWF proposes a 150-metre “Corridor of Life” to connect all the small forest patches, which are separated by the oil palm plantation. The vegetation on this corridor needs to be dense enough so the wildlife feels safe to use it. This also allows the elephants to look for girlfriend and boyfriend at other sides, rather than breeding with their family, which will weaken their genes. Otherwise, one day our tourists would see elephants with 6 legs, orang utan with long nose, etc…


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The Corridor of Life is a win-win solution to both planters and wildlife. The wildlife can have larger habitat and move freely to get more food, and the planters still can continue their profitable busine$$, without intruding the reserve. I don’t hope too much. A 50-metre corridor is really a good start already. The animals only need a small part of the land mostly situated near the riverbanks, which is not suitable for plantation too due to flood.

But the response from the oil palm plantation owners is like giving a big middle finger to everyone. I saw some clothing like the picture below put along the river. This is to scare away the elephants. I even heard shocking statement like, “It is cheaper to shoot the orang utan than relocating them.”


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Next year I will go back to Kinabatangan again to check the progress and take some photos. If nothing is done, probably I can send the photos to the foreigner press, together with a name list of those plantation that encroaches the reserve.

Photos taken in Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

New Wildlife Species

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Sabah is a paradise for so many wildlife. Many of them don’t have any official name. Therefore, I write the guide below to introduce a few common marine animals found in sea of Sabah. I would like to congratulate Sabah people for doing such a good job on protecting them coz they live freely in abundant amount.

1. Jellopisces Plastiba
Closest Relative: Jelly Fish
Most commonly seen marine life in Sabah. This animal can live nearly 100 years, and come in different colors and sizes. The fishes and turtles always think that it is jelly fish and eat it, then die of suffocation.

2. Aquacucumbell Bottledae
Closest Relative: Sea Cucumber
Sub-Species: Plastisa, Glassido, Aluminia
Its body is protected by a layer of hard shell. It is able to keep a packet of air inside its body, so it can float and travel freely with the ocean stream. Due to its commercial value, Aluminia is now extinct and rarely found.

3. Musculista Lunchboze
Closest Relative: Clam
Live in the warm water of Sabah. When heated, Lunchboze will release a toxin gas which will harm human body, so it is not edible.

4. Carcinoscorpius Shoeii
Closest Relative: Horseshoe Crab
Sub-Species: Slipperon, Nike, Adidas
Besides in the water, you also can find this creature hang on the tree roots at the riverside and beaches. You can tell its sex from the pointing direction of its head, i.e., male is left-sided, female is right-sided.

Say NO to Shark Fin

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Last night I went to a Chinese wedding dinner. As usual, you would find shark fin soup in every Chinese wedding dinner, and even important dinners. Shark Fin soup is a “traditional” (or must-have) dish in Chinese wedding dinner. I have been eating it for many year without questioning. After I learned that millions of sharks had their fin cut away from their bodies when they were still alive, I found the soup disgusting and I refused to eat it. This was the first time I said No to shark fin, in the future I will do the same.

My action surprised other old Chinese sat at the same table. When they knew my reason, they just haha then continued to enjoy the shark fin. They even finished mine. I know in their mind, they think, “This guy so stupid lah. Shark Fin is expensive and delicious but he does not want to eat.” Apparently there was no sense of guilt in them. All is done in the name of “tradition”. I will try my best not to attend Chinese wedding dinner that serves shark fin. If I do attend, I will not eat shark fin. This is not an act of boycott or something. Just like you can’t force a vegetarian to take meat, you also can’t ask me to eat shark fin. It is my choice to exclude myself from contributing to the cruelty of killing innocent animals.

I know I myself alone cannot do much. But at least I started to send a message “Not everyone loves shark fin.” I am deeply dismayed by the fact that Chinese is always associated with killing of sharks, tigers, rhinos, and many other endangered species, and even friendly animals such as dog and cat. I always hope I can do more. In the future, if I have children, I will educate them to love the nature, animals and environment, and of course, eat NO SHARK FIN. As one says, “The killing will stop when there is no buying.”

Below is a real reflection of a Chinese wedding I got from:
http://www.seashepherd.org/longline/longline_shark_finning.html