Are we going to allow the same mistake to happen again & again?

Dear all,
The marine life supported by the corals are very precious, once gone, it will take a longg.. time to regenerate... haven't we made enough mistakes already? Why can't we stop, step back, reassess & reapply? this is why we hope will happen by us sharing this... pls tell us if you wld like to join the effort... here is a copy of the letter sent to the NRE...

5 October 2009


Honourable Minister Y.B. Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE)
Wisma Sumber Asli
No. 25 Persiaran Perdana
Precinct 4, 62574 Putrajaya
Malaysia


Pulau Payar Marine Park: To Build Or Not To Build An Eco Resort

Pulau Payar Marine Park has come a long way since it was first declared as a Fisheries Prohibited Area in 1985 and later gazetted as a marine park in 1994. Since then the tiny island of Pulau Payar, which measures a mere 1.75 km in length and 0.5 km at its widest point, has seen a lot of development, changing its face on the eastern seafront and making it a popular destination for reef-related recreational activities such as snorkelling and scuba diving.

A small island located 19 nm south of Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Payar, once a hidden treasure trove of marine fauna and flora known mainly to the local community of scuba divers, is now on the list of places to visit for many visitors to this region, both locals and foreigners. This is to be expected considering the Pulau Payar Marine Park is rather well known for its rich marine life in terms of diversity of coral reefs and fishes over small areas throughout the group of four islands - Pulau Payar, Pulau Kaca, Pulau Lembu and Pulau Segantang - that make up the entire marine park.

In the 1980s, a small Marine Park Museum, a small jetty and limited accommodation was built to house one Fisheries Department Ranger on Pulau Payar. In the 1990s, along with its marine park status, the floating platform with underwater observatory and shower facilities came into existence and was moored off the beach at Pulau Payar. A few years later, several chalets were built by the State Government but the project was discontinued due to constraints of water and electricity. Instead, expansion works was then carried out on the small museum converting it into the existing Marine Park Centre, public washrooms were rebuilt to cater to the influx of large numbers of visitors, the jetty was extended and more boardwalks were put in place in the name of tourism.

Yet, until today, Pulau Payar Marine Park remains the only pristine coral reef environment in the West Coast of Malaysia (Yusri, 2006). A study conducted in 2006 by Yusri bin Yusuf of Universiti Sains Malaysia found that a comparison of total species of coral reef with other islands of Malaysia has shown that Pulau Payar has the highest species count.

Corals are made up of limestone structures filled with thousands of polyps and are actually animals. And these coral reefs are sensitive to changes in the environment. As it is, the coral reefs have been facing environmental stress with increasing water temperatures since the El Nino in 1997-1998 and now with further rise in temperatures due to climate change.

Increasing water temperatures interrupt the metabolic activities of zooxanthellae that live among the corals by blocking photosynthetic reaction and causing zooxanthellae to be wiped out, thus leaving the corals bleached white. Instead of seeing brightly coloured corals, snorkelers and divers will now be looking at brittle white branches of dead coral.

Coral bleaching can also be caused by exposure to chemicals, sediments covering the corals and excess nutrients such as ammonia and nitrate from plant fertilizers and household products entering the reef ecosystem (Woods, 2003). All these are possible causes from operating a resort on Pulau Payar.

As of today, the chalet project has been revived to build an eco-resort on the island and construction works commenced two months ago. As such, in addition to environmental stress, there will be increasing stress from human impacts too.

For how long can the Pulau Payar Marine Park hold its status with all the threats man continuously throw at its coral reefs and its fragile marine ecosystem?

The issue of concern to many is that to maintain the pristine beauty of the marine heritage of Pulau Payar, development should be kept to a minimum and accommodation should not be allowed for obvious reasons. With these happening, primary threats to the coral reefs have been put in place with increasing nutrient run-off from human activities on the island, increasing sediment run-off from land/forest clearing for development and increasing sanitary and waste disposal problems, which would all be contradicting to the conservation of a marine park, no matter how “eco” this resort claims to be.

According to Aikanaithan & Wong (1994), the Pulau Payar Marine Park is one of the most frequently visited marine parks in Malaysia. With mass tourism and the daily operations of a resort on the island, fresh water intrusion will affect salinity levels at sea and increase sedimentation load on the corals. As well, shampoo, detergent and lotions in nutrient run-off all contain chemicals that are harmful to marine life.

How would sedimentation, low salinity level and nutrient run-off affect the corals?

Freshwater adds salinity stress, causing low salinity level and increasing sedimentation load to the area. Similarly, when trees are cut down or existing ground cover disturbed, large quantities of fine soil particles are carried by rainwater into the ocean. These particles decrease visibility in the waters and the sediment blocks out light, thus reducing the growth of coral. When the sediment finally settles, they fall onto corals, which must then clean themselves as fast as the sediment falls, or else these corals will be buried and smothered to death. At high rates of sedimentation, all corals will eventually be buried by sediments and killed.

Nutrient run-off from human activities into the reef system encourages the growth of algae. Algae compete with corals for living space and light. Added nutrients could shift the balance in favour of algal blooms, thereby retarding the growth and recovery of corals, even stopping their recovery, and finally causing death.

Once the corals die, fish and other marine species will eventually die too.

Is there any mandate for a reef check survey to be carried out now before construction work continues further and the resort starts operations? And will this eco-resort be environmentally responsible enough to engage an independent party to conduct regular quarterly reef check surveys in the surrounding waters to ensure the ecosystem has not deteriorated further? Will its operations be discontinued should there be signs or evidence of irreparable damage to the corals? Would it be too late by then to reverse these damages?

In many countries throughout the world, when an area is designated as a nature reserve or a marine park, great efforts are endeavoured to maintain it in its natural state as much as possible so that the public or visitors may enjoy the true value and heritage of the park in its original, undisturbed environment.

In Malaysia, however, it seems that an area that is designated as such would often become the target of more development, making it more urbanised rather than conserving nature in its natural heritage. The Pulau Payar Marine Park is one such example. The irony is that marine parks were created as a means to protect an area of sea (or lake) to sustain its reef resources and to preserve its marine ecosystem, which is often a very sensitive environment.

The problems faced in Pulau Payar are not new to us. In the past, other marine parks and islands in Malaysia have gone through similar cat-and-mouse games with development and conservation (refer Appendix A). Conservation should be more valuable to us in the long term and we should be proud of the natural heritage in our environment. With further development and eventual destruction of the marine ecosystem, we lose our heritage, we lose our jewels in the sea and we would also lose out in terms of tourism.

It would be recommended to issue a stop-work order immediately and move out the resort from Pulau Payar. At the same time, visitor numbers should be restricted in a move to conserve and protect the marine ecosystem of Pulau Payar and its surrounding islands.

Looking at the bigger picture, the State Government and local development authorities should also check itself on the amount of development allowed on both Pulau Payar and Pulau Langkawi. It may seem lucrative to keep building more resorts, malls and theme parks to bring in tourist dollars. But how sustainable can this be for the islands?

Let us not forget that even with the duty-free status, Langkawi cannot compete with other cities like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong for ‘shopping tourism’. In the first place, tourists do not come from far to visit Langkawi for shopping. Instead, they are here for the nature that can be found here. In this respect, the State Government and local development authorities should look into spending on conserving nature and protecting our forests to boost tourism rather than focusing on clearing more land and forests for many more buildings and development projects.

We are concerned islanders and we do not want to be in a mourning position over the loss of the jewel of Langkawi in the near future. We are here protecting the rice bowl of the islanders.

Yours truly,

Signed by
M L
W C
A R


Cc via email: 1) The President
Malaysian Nature Society

2) The Editor
The Star

3) The Editor
NST

4) The Editor
Malaysiakini.com


References
Aikanathan, S. & E. Wong (1994). “Marine Park island management conceptual plan for Peninsular Malaysia.” Report produced under WWF Project MYS 256/93. Department of Fisheries Malaysia and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Woods, V. (2003). “Coral Bleaching – will global warming kill the reefs?”, Nova Science In The News [Online]. Available from: http://www.science.org.au/nova/076/076key.htm [Accessed: 18 September 2009]

Yusri bin Yusof, 2006. “Marine Life Study in the Coral Reef Ecosystem of Pulau Payar Marine Park.” Thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang.


Appendix A

A look at the newspaper archives produced the following extracts regarding marine park issues:

20 June 2006, The StarLay Off Sipadan.PM lashed out at Sabah Chief Minister for going ahead with the RM4.5mil clubhouse project at Pulau Sipadan despite his objection.PM said he was upset with the general quality of environment in the country, and that Malaysians should learn to appreciate the environment as it was a gift from God.


4 August 2006, New Straits TimesTourists The Bane Of Corals.Too many tourists are hindering the natural rehabilitation process of the spoiled coral reefs in Pulau Payar, the oldest marine park in the country.


27 August 2006, New Sunday TimesThe Custodians Have Spoken - Protection Is The Priority.Diving is revenue, but protection is the priority says the islands custodians.Sabah State Secretary Datuk K.Y Mustafa said Sipadan would soon be gazetted as a marine park and visitor numbers will be restricted.


24 September 2006, New Sunday TimesAn Ecological Nightmare.Prior to the construction, they found 220 coral species in waters surrounding the site, 17 of which were considered rare worldwide. These included at least 200 giant clams, classified as "vulnerable" on the Red List of threatened species.For surviving coral beyond the 30m radius, the future looks bleak. Under stress from the sediment that shrouds them, the corals excrete mucus to remove it from their rainbow-hued bodies. But this slimy protector prevents the corals’ tentacles from emerging to capture food.Sedimentation is a major headache in any construction project on an environmentally-sensitive island like Tioman, says Universiti Malaya sedimentologist Dr Azhar Hussin. And harmful effects from the large-scale marina project will never end, says the deputy director at Universiti Malaya’s Maritime Research Centre.


2 October 2006, News Straits TimesRethink This Development.It was reported recently that Tioman’s airport project and other construction work is on. This will prove to be an ecological and economic disaster for Tioman. The end result of unwise development- construction, roads, airport, etc,-on Tioman will sooner or later, discourages divers from going there.


17 December 2006, New Sunday TimesLoving Our Islands To Death.Marine Parks islands alone welcomed over 300,000 visitor’s last year and half a million the year before. For many, the crowds are strain. Those are with limited fresh water, like Pulau Payar and Sibu supply, can’t even cater for present needs.


18 March 2007, New Sunday TimesGood Bye To This Underwater Jewel.In the wondrous world of jeweled corals and riotous reefs, Pulau Tioman is a rock star. It sits on the star-studded coral species belt where stellar reefs average 450 species of corals. Tioman even outranks diving havens like Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Redang. All these are at risk from the new airport to be built on the sea between Kampung Paya and Kampung Genting on the island’s west coast. Designed to cater Boeings 737, it was proposed almost a decade ago to boost tourism. The project is widely expected to start this year before its EIA approval expires in October.