SEPTEMBER 16 — I refer to the Malay Mail piece, “A big wow for the merbau!“. This selection of merbau as the national tree and the ongoing Hutan Kita exhibition at KL Tower couldn’t have come at a better time.
As major parts of this nation continue to choked by the smog from neighbouring Indonesia, we could do with a timely reminder about the importance of forests preservation and protecting our rich biodiversity.
Nothing is more effective to drive home the point of the government’s forests preservation campaign than to see for ourselves what happens if we do not take care of our forests and let them burn — literally. From life-giving oxygen-producers, large tracts of green lungs turn into smog machines, disrupting lives, harming public health and hurting the economy.
While most of the smog originated from hotspots in Indonesia, I believe that had we preserved more forested areas and retained more green lungs in city centres, the effect from the haze could have been mitigated. The “KL Garden City of Lights” project which took off to much fanfare years ago, had since been abandoned too.
Be that as it may, I am glad that the Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources had organised a Hutan Kita — Journey Through Our Rainforests exhibition at the KL Tower. The exhibition, opened to the public, and is free, showcases the rich biodiversity in our forests.
It was opened by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahahtir Mohamad and I visited the exhibition with my fellow nature enthusiasts recently. We were struck by how well structured and informative it was.
Visitors had the chance to learn about the different types of forests such as the Kilim Geoforest Park in Langkawi and the 130 million-year-old rainforests in Taman Negara. There’s even a section which simulates the fireflies colonies in Kuala Selangor. During our visit, we also bumped into Malaysian astronaut Datuk Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who brought his children to the exhibition!
As for the ongoing haze, it’s a matter of time before clear blue skies return. But when it does, we tend to forget about the importance of forests preservation — until the haze returns next year.
This is why a solid grounding on the importance of forests preservation is important. When we collectively stand firm on the environment, we can cascade this to the lawmakers and policy makers, who would then have to step up diplomatic efforts to keep the annual haze occurrences to the annals of history.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
