On Feb. 22nd, parts of the largest rainforest nursery in Malaysia has been bulldozed.
The forest conatining two million trees over an area of 200 acres was destroyed by Perak Corporation Bhd (PCB), a state-owned firm. Can you imagine that?
The following text come from the Facebook post bay journalist and documentary filmmaker Jules Ong that you can find at the end of this article with more pictures:
Say we have a large collection of precious manuscripts in a library – a national treasure! Now they are burning the library!
James Kingham, 84, a retired planter planted a whole forest an area of 200 acres with 2 million rainforest trees!
His Tunas Harapan/Penawar Hutan in Tanjung Malim contained 1200 species of forest trees, many of which are endemic (existing nowhere else) and endangered.
He collected them often in difficult circumstances with the help of Orang Asli and park rangers over the last 20 years and grew them in polybags, supplying to Rimba Ilmu, University Malaya, Taman Tugu, United Plantations and most of his collection ended up in Singapore that really treasures them.
Planting 2 million forest trees, thus making his rainforest nursery possibly the largest in Malaysia and South East Asia or even Asia. Even FRIM and Jabatan Perhutanan go to him for his diverse exotic collection of seedings and tree saplings. He showed us 20 species of mangosteens and other forest fruits that we have no idea of.
Today, bulldozers are destroying his rainforest tree collection as we speak. His lease on the land has not been renewed and the state land has been sold to new owners. The Perak Corporation has taken over the development and are bulldozing everything in its path.
No doubt James can’t fight for the land rights, but the forest trees does not belong to the new owner or developer. It is a national heritage that belongs to Malaysians and to humanity!
We went there to see for myself and to speak with James. I also met Ally, the manager of Tropical Rainforest Tree Research Centre, who with her staff of 20 young youths whom she trained, are fighting against time to rescue the trees, often in stand off with the tractors.
They have been working everyday and have managed to save only 2000 trees from 30 species. Ally is really tough but she is crying as she spoke to us.
I am calling for the local media to please cover this issue of national importance, bring it to the attention of our MPs and the Federal Government. This needs to stop!”
This indeed really neeeds to stop. Should we introduce an armed environmentalist militia to cope with those forestry problems? Meanwhile, a couple in Brazil spent 20 years to replant a destroyed 4 million tree rainforest and the result is luxuriant! More devastating news on Strange Sounds or Steve Quayle. [Facebook]
