ECO STATS

# In 2006, Malaysia produced 15.9 million tonnes of palm oil, only 1.4 m tonnes are locally consumed.

# Sarawak's total export earnings in 2006 from timber and timber- based products was RM 9 billion ( a 25 % increase from 2005) about half of the products were plywood( worth about RM 2.5 billion ) or 3.5 million cubic meters in volume.

# Sarawak's Biodiversity Centre has in 2007 documented 1,500 species of medicinal plants based on indigenous knowledge, normally transmitted by oral tradition.

# Sime Darby group, formed by a merger of Sime Darby Berhad, Kumpulan Guthrie and Golden Hope Plantations in 2007 attained status as the world's leading palm oil plantation group with 543,000 hectares in land bank.

2008 Here I come!!

Hooray! It's me on TV, shouted Macy Grey. ( In Bintulu,during 4th return trip and spending the first day of New Year 2008 there.)

A barrowful of ' lumok' fruits ( Artocarpus lowii or "terap" in Malay)

The tallest 'lumok' tree from which we collected the fruits, by climbing and lowering them by means of a rope and a basket. This tree is 30 meters high.

'Berangan ' species of the banana family. Observe the three oil palm trees in the background.

New Year Jottings

To recap, I just started blogging with my partner and co-actor, Macy Grey the last two months of 2007. This first day of this new year, we had a rest at the verandah locally called the 'abak' in the Melanau tonque. "Sorry couldn't pronounce it "said Macy.

Well , what a day we had collecting a barrow load of "lumok fruits" from the tallest 'lumok 'tree in our ec0-farm and a bunch of berangan' bananas. A good day's harvest to start off the new year.

This year blogging will be focussed on environmental awareness and ecopreneurship. That much I promise myself. Did I hear Macy meowing yes? Good girl.

Malaysia Caught in the Middle

Making Sense of Environmentalism

This week the world is focused on Bali, Indonesia for a green reason. World governments must lead the way to a reversal of our climatic breakdown.
And I am in Bintulu, Sarawak trying hard to make sense of this thing we call environmentalism...aha..probably I may find a new way to wade through this web of environmentalism..by finding out how it means to me as an individual and a child of the universe.
Thus, this morning I spent the prime time of my research mode to three fruitful hours of mind mapping on a framework that I could use to deal ( happily for myself) the business of the environment.
I propose here a three step hierachial process which cities or societies need to move up the ladder in order to create the ultimate ecological cites of this millennium, for short we call eco-cities. as below:
( Eco- city)
Envolutionary City
Transformationary City
Transactionary City
Failed City

From the above scheme, I can safely place Malaysian towns and cities at the lower end of transactionary cities. At this point of time and phase, our concerns of developing our cities are based on strictly economical, low-intense environmental consciousness which are all the better of course when compared with survival themes of failed cities for instance. Examples of our environmental practises that replicate our transactional state are as follows

1) continuous attempts to create urban green lungs, landscaping protocol roads, animal in zoos
2) emphasis on passive( educational/preventive) environmental campaigns e.g. bird watching, jungle trekking, wetlands, birds or wildlife sanctuaries viewing ( eco-tour operation)
3) mandatory ( just so ) EIA reporting of industrial practices and controls to manufacturing firms
4) reforestation projects
5) corporate social responsibility ( just so 'triple bottom line' reporting)
6) re-generation of cities/ towns for (tourism and money spinning initiatives)
7) river re-habilitation and waterfront re-development
8) use of hydro-energy
9) slow adoption of re-cycling, renewal or alternative technologies e.g. bio-fuel, solar, wind, bio mass ( despite in abundance here)
10) promotion of organic living life style e.g. organic farming, organic food, organic gifts

The challenges to move a stage higher, i.e. to the transformationary city are placed right ahead ( on top of us!) This is where an individual citizen can contribute and participate in this great green transformation of Malaysia. It is a step taken one at a time as we climb up the green mountain .

An Ecological Butterfly

An ecological modernist once said :
" The dirty and ugly industrial caterpillar transforms into an ecological butterfly"
( Huber,1985)

This symbolism/analogy is very telling. Where do industrialised countries get their pulp/paper products, oil palm , timber-based products if not by feeding from the newly industrialised countries like Malaysia? Why then harp on destruction of forests , orang utans, loss of diversity, wildlife displacement? Is there more to environmental politics than meets the eye? Is there an 'overriding will' of foreign governments as they relentlessly drive Third World countries to have a stronger will and resolve in overcoming global warming while they are in the 'state of denial '?.The US which is the biggest polluter of all ( the ecological butterfly ) is still adamant in ratifying the Kyoto Protocol (1997) in reducing its green house gas emissions even by a mere percentage point by global standards ....something to think about or shall I say 'eat' as the orang utan reflects....... :)

The Rice Story

There is this unending list of global warming impacts. Like a good scrap book it keeps getting more interesting every time you re-look at it. Now it is the rice story. The story goes that global warming/climatic change causes too little rain, thus bringing havoc to the flowering and harvesting periods of rice, the staple food for more than three quarters of the world population. What are the risks?

• Political - hunger and increased poverty instigating collapse and overthrow of government
• Social - in-migration of displaced rural subsistence farmers to towns and cities compound the scope of diseases outbreak, malnutrition, unemployment and therefore much loss of human capital
• Financial- misapplication of financial resources and funds in mitigating urban poverty, slums and general degradation in quality of urban dwellers instead of using these limited funds to tackle the roots of poverty and rural-urban migration. This may lead some governments living on borrowed funds, and temporary erasure of reputational capital

Wow! Delicious pomelos!

Macy's thoughts: Not yet strong enough to climb a tree. But hey, early enough to admire these pomelo fruits. Gonna climb this tree when I grow big.
Location: Next to shoplot, while on pit stop at Selangau, along Bintulu- Sibu road.

Oil Palm farming - the eco-way

Can an oil palm holding retain bio-diversity? Preserve nature? Enhance the environment?
These questions are pertinent in view of the trend to open up more land in Sarawak for oil palm plantations, which are of the mono-culture kind. However all is not lost. As an example, an eco-farm in Bintulu has attempted to do more to nature than just mono-cropping. The kambatik eco-farm has applied these basic guidelines:
1) Retain 30 % of land for natural preservation and landscaping( natural landscaping ) e.g. stream or river courses, wildlife preserves, reintroduction of local plants for gene banks
2) Advanced planting techniques introduced to allow for various plants , trees and shrubs to colonise the areas to act as soil erosion measures, attract wildlife, provide shade( esp to workers), multiple harvest in the interim 1-3 years before the oil palm trees bear sufficient fruits to bring the hard cash
3) Suitable areas should be planted with herbs, medicinal plants, and other edible fruits that have both commercial and export values
4) Keep usage of chemical fertilisers to the very minimum, instead optimise good cultural practise
5) Plant better clones and obtain professional advise on technical and management matters