The almost destroyed forest near KL

[kuching]

I was shocked to see the scenery in front of me when I revisited the tropical forest not far from my friend's house near Kuala Lumpur. In December 2006, I came here to photograph the flora & fauna of this patch of forest, it was still an ever-green forest.....but now it's gone.

Some people who were concerned about this matter have discussed with the contractor & developer for not destroying the whole patch of forest for the new cemetery. They came to an agreement and the contractor who comes to clear the forest will not move beyond the swamp.....which is the habitat of a rare species of aquatic plant called Cryptocorne minima.


The muddy road. It was covered by dense forest in December 2006, but now it become this:





The dying forest.....






The lower part of the stream was blocked, so the water level in the swamp has increased a few feet high. All the leaves of Crypt. minima in the water were melt. However, this aquatic aroid is not dying. The leaf of Cryptocoryne will melt when there is a changes in the environment. The leaf will re-grow back once the water level is dropped. The contractor has promised to build a culvert to let the excess water flow out from the swamp to the nearby drain.





The jungle stream became a swamp. The terrestrial orchids, gingers & others plant growing near the stream are dead.

[kuching]

The fallen tree & the Vanilla orchid.




Vanilla orchid, Vanilla sp.





Some plants grow in the dark jungle can not adapt to the new environment & die. This Sonerilla sp. is not doing well under direct sunlight (no forest cover) & the leaves are being burnt by scorching sun:





Sonerilla sp. in the undisturbed area (under the shade of the forest):

[kuching]

The undisturbed area near the swamp:





I hope those people will not come to destroy this ever-green forest & turned it into concrete jungle:





A species of palm:





The flower of unidentified species;





Piper sp:

[kuching]

The creeper:





Didymocarpus sp. (most probably is D. platypus)





Close-up of the flower of Didymocarpus sp.







A species of aroid:





Black lily, Tacca integrifolia:





The flower of black lily (not yet fully opened):





More coming up.....

[Plantbrain]

With lax laws, folks that do not care, corruption(it happens here also, but not as bad), you need to have the same will and drive and tactics to beat the developer. Make it cost them a lot of $ to develop there. Offer alternatives.
Enforce the laws that are there.
Another method is to outright buy the land.
Set aside for the parks.

Development is a function of growth and human population growth as well.
Less human population: less growth and less resource demands.

So the real focus is human over population.

Hard to do and suggest in underdeveloped countries with lots of natural resources and cheap land, but not impossible.

Tom Barr

[kuching]

That area was a forest reserve but the local authority changed the status & became a new land for cemetery!!! I really can't understand why destroyed such a beautiful lowland forest just to have a land to bury dead people!