HOW encouraging it has been lately to see a heightened level of awareness of and respect for nature.
In Malaysia, this was evident in the huge public outcry after last October’s attempt by the Johor government to degazette the Pulau Kukup National Park — one of the world’s largest mangrove islands.
Just off the southern Malaysian coast, it has been a national park since 1997 and renowned worldwide as one of our nation’s five Ramsar sites, accorded international importance under the United Nations’ Convention on Wetlands.
Early last month, the Selangor Forestry Department invited stakeholders to voice their views on a proposal to remove protections for virtually all the 93-year-old Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve in order to green light a mixed development project.
The peat swamp forest is important for the conservation of several critically endangered plant and animal species, and the prospect of its development sent shock waves through the environmental community, to say nothing of the reaction of members of the Temuan Orang Asli tribe who live off the forest. Some 2,000 objections have been submitted so far.
A respectful attitude for nature is shared not only by so many common people but our royals too.
In a speech on climate change and global warming delivered in Kuala Kangsar on Tuesday, the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah lamented that trees and forests seemed no longer appreciated, seen increasingly as simply commercial fodder for timber or as land for commercial farming.
The monarch gave a regal nod to the efforts to replant indigenous trees, noting that several places in the state are named after trees, including Ipoh, Beruas, Lekir, Changkat Keruing and Padang Rengas.
Outside Perak, there are also towns named after native trees: Tampoi and Simpang Pulai in Johor; Durian Tunggal and Sungai Rambai in Melaka; Alor Star and Pokok Sena in Kedah; Machang in Kelantan; and Dungun in Terengganu.
“How many of today’s generation still recognise these trees and do they still exist in places that use their names?” he asked.
As aptly pointed out by the New Straits Times Leader on March 5: “It’s time we got to know our trees. One, they are living things. Two, other life forms depend on them, including us.”
Planting trees is part of the great Malay culture. My late father enjoyed doing it.
It was common to plant a tree, usually a coconut, to signify the arrival of a new child in the family. This is also widespread globally.
One giant personality involved in a big way was the late Wangari Maathai who started “the Green Belt Movement” in 1977 and inspired the planting of 51 million trees in her native Kenya.
For these and many other environmental efforts, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
One of the more active corporate players in tree planting is the Aeon Environmental Foundation, the sponsor of the Midori Biodiversity Prize.
Launched in 1991, its tree-planting project in Japan and elsewhere in Southeast Asia has now reached 12 million trees.
More needs to be done.
Thankfully, biologists who champion biodiversity are starting to achieve the success of scientists who champion the mitigation of global warming.
Biodiversity conservation and protection must also be mainstreamed. This means understanding the contribution of biodiversity to socioeconomic development and human well-being and including actions to conserve and use biodiversity sustainably at the policy, planning, and programme stage of every project cycle.
We simply must reduce the negative impacts that our productive sectors, development investments and other human activities have on biodiversity.
Mainstreaming forms an integral part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, in which the Parties are obliged to develop national strategies, plans or programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and to integrate the latter into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies.
In January this year, the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry unveiled a programme due to be launched this month — with strong private sector support — to rehabilitate degraded areas throughout Malaysia by replanting 100 million trees, starting this year through 2025.
It remains to be seen whether this programme will take off now given the change of government.
Trees are a vital part of our planet’s ecosystem.
Every one of us relies fundamentally on them for oxygen, fruits, wood, water, medicines, soil nutrients and more.
Trees not only give life, they improve livelihoods. We cannot take them for granted.
The writer is a senior fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and Chairman of Atri Advisory
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times