DEVELOPMENT, A 'DOUBLE-EDGE SWORD' FOR WETLANDS OF BAKO-BUNTAL BAY

By Caroline Jackson

KUCHING (Malaysia), Sept 7 (Bernama) -- Located about 40 km northeast of
Kuching City, the capital of East Malaysia state of Sarawak, is the Bako-Buntal
Bay, an expanse of inter-tidal mudflats fringed by mangrove forest with
Santubong mountain lying to the west and Bako National Park on the east.

Residents in the two Malay villages in the area, Kampung Bako and Kampung
Buntal, derived their primary income from fishing with increasing participation
in tourism activities.

However the proximity of the Bako-Buntal Bay, one of only two project sites
in the country undertaken to support the implementation of the Convention on
Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) in four Southeast Asian countries including
Malaysia, to the capital city is like a double-edged sword.

(The other project site considered of global importance as a wintering site
for waterbirds is the north central Selangor coast).

Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Kuching branch chairperson Rebecca D'Cruz
said the bay has enormous potential for ecotourism but the human population
and infrastructure development in the area applied a constant stress on the site
and its natural resources.

"Kampung Bako is the only entry point to the (Bako) National Park and
villagers gain significant income from ferrying visitors to and from while
several tour companies provide wildlife cruises in the bay area, which offer
close-up views of proboscis monkeys, dolphins, crocodiles, fireflies and many
bird species,".

She told Bernama this when highlighting the Bako-Buntal Conservation Study,
a collaborative effort between the Sarawak State Planning Unit and MNS Kuching.

The cruises covered the nearby Kuching Wetlands National Park, which is
Sarawak's first and only Ramsar Site and the popular sea food destination of
Kampung Buntal, with its restaurants lining the sandbar, which is also the high
tide roost for shorebirds.

Bird enthusiasts from MNS Kuching frequently go for bird-watching excursions
at the bay, where 32 shorebird species have been recorded so far, with an
estimated 15,000 waterbirds escaping from winter there.

The most significant are the Spotted Greenshank, Asian Dowitcher and
Far-eastern Curlew while the numbers of Red Knot and Great Knot are among the
highest for any site in Malaysia.

"Of particular note in recent years is the 31 Chinese Egrets counted in the
bay in 2003, accounting for one per cent of the global population and may be the
largest number recorded to date in Borneo," said D'Cruz.

She said the previous record number of 13 was charted in Brunei in December
1984 and between 15-25 in April 1986, which reinforced the global conservation
importance of the bay.

Interestingly with continuous observations dating back to the early 1900s it
was noted from historical records that even back in February 1913 Spotted
Greenshanks were seen at Buntal while in 1935, Far-eastern Curlews were
described as 'swarming' at the same bay, she said.

The area also supported a steadily increasing population of proboscis monkey
initially confined to the park but protection has increased the numbers beyond
its carrying capacity and the excess is spreading across the bay and into
Santubong.

She said dolphin and crocodile-watching activities were rising in popularity
as the waters within the bay supported at least three species of dolphins - the
Irrawaddy Dolphin, Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin and the Finless Porpoise while
its delta has a healthy population of estuarine crocodiles.

"The larger crocodiles can be seen basking along the exposed mudbanks
and may constitute one of the most important populations of crocodiles in the
state," she said, adding that the study's objective was to improve the
conservation status of the bay through the establishment of a local
conservation group (LCG)

In promoting the approach as an effective contribution to the implementation
of the Ramsar convention on wetlands in Malaysia, she said, the LCG as an
effective community-based organisation worked to find solutions for nature
conservation issues of concern.

"The success of such an approach depends a great deal on the awareness level
of these stakeholders," she said of the project to promote sustainable
wetland-based livelihood especially for the people in Bako and Buntal villages.

Besides Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are participating in
the project to strengthen government-civil society partnerships funded by
the Darwin Initiative (United Kingdom), Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund,
(Japan) and the Ministry of Environment Japan.

The project received the nod from Ministry of Natural Resources and the
Environment, which serves as the administrative authority for the convention on
wetlands in Malaysia and will run for an initial period of two years, with the
possibility of an extension for a third year.

"South-East Asia's wetlands are very important for biodiversity, national
economies and the well-being of local communities but unfortunately, the same
wetlands have frequently been viewed as unproductive areas and converted to
other land-uses," she noted.

D'Cruz said South-East Asia's remaining natural and semi-natural wetlands
supported tremendous biodiversity wealth, including many threatened and endemic
species, which were of vital importance in terms of the ecosystem services
provided, particularly to local communities .

There are six Ramsar sites nationwide - Tasek Bera,Pahang (1994), Pulau
Kukup, Sungai Pulai, and Tanjung Piai in Johor (2003), Kuching Wetlands
National Park, Sarawak (2005), and the Lower Kinabatangan-Segama Wetlands,
Sabah (2008), covering a total area of 134,158 hectares.
-- BERNAMA