IPOH, Jan 15 — The Perak government will remove expanses of private land from their planned gazetting of mangrove forests in Kampung Dew, Kuala Sepetang which is home to a population of unique fireflies.
In an attempt to safeguard the area, the Perak state government had announced plans to gazette 153ha of the forest as the Kelip-Kelip Forest Reserve in Nov 2013.
State tourism executive committee chairman Datuk Nolee Ashilin Mohammad Radzi said the process has been delayed before for a long time, because parts of the forest expanse are owned by several private entities.
“The gazetting process became complicated due to the presence of private land, so we have decided to take private land out of the gazetted area,” she told a press conference today.
Even with this new development, Nolee said it was difficult to gauge when the gazetting process would be completed.
“It’s tough. Even after removing the private land from the gazetted area, there will be more processes involved.
“It won’t be soon, but I hope that things can be sorted out by end of this year.”
Environmental groups have repeatedly called on the government to speed up the gazetting process to protect the unique ecology in Kampung Dew from land clearing.
In Sept 2017, a public-listed company reportedly cleared a 0.6ha piece of state-owned land that endangered the unique firefly population.
And only last week, Kampung Dew Fireflies Tourism Association secretary Shukor Ishak claimed that nine berembang mangrove trees in the area, estimated to be over 80 years old, had been cut down.
Nolee said the state took the protection of the fireflies habitat extremely seriously.
The Taiping municipal council, she said, had been told to discuss the preservation of the mangroves with the private landowners.
Nolee expressed her hope that the private entities got more involved in protecting the local ecology, while ensuring that it would not be disturbed.
“It’s crucial that we get them on board. We do carry out annual replanting programmes, working together with the local council and universities.
“The firefly colony in Kuala Sepetang is one of Malaysia’s largest. I was told that it is one of only two ‘synchronised’ colonies in the world, and it needs to be protected.”
