i was on a helicopter to release a Sun
bears back into the forest when I look
over the window of the helicopter net
took this picture I thought this is our
home and in fact this kind of forest
used to cover our entire nation and this
forest is called lowland dipterocarp
forest yesterday when I Drive down from
Penang to here and right before the ipoh
toll on the right hand side is this type
of forest these are the mighty
rainforest in South Asia these are the
forest there has been here for the last
120 million years and we need to take
care of them this forest is so special
is because over the last 120,000 T 120
million years the climatic conditions
high solar radiation high rainfall and
stable climates nurse or makes a lot of
life growing in this forest these are
one of the forest with the highest
biodiversity several years ago I walk in
a forest in Paso in a 50 hectare plot
they are more than 800 species of trees
alone in this forest and beside trees
there’s also a lots of Wildlife and so
why are these rainforests so essentially
so important to our life I check out the
internet and I saw this page they
provide rich biodiversity of organisms
these types of forests contain 30
millions species of plants and animals
regulations of climate change this
morning with me here I’ll go talk about
the climate change issue and it is real
and it is happening to us and say for
example Amazon forests contain over half
of the earth rainfall in our forest the
one in our backyard general Raines
research has shown that seventy-five
percent of the rain come from this
forest if we don’t have this forest
there will be no rain helps in
preventing soil erosion in these types
of climates they are written for the
monsoon rain for example in West
Malaysia every time the rainfall comes
pouring rain I’m sure that all of the
acts experience what it means by pouring
rain when they’re pouring tropical
afternoon shower come the forest what
they did do is to produce to protect the
soil from Aurora from the flush of
rainfall every day and every day so it
prevents soil from erosion and then it
is home for many many indigenous people
you’re not talking about plants and
animal but this is people homo sapien
and there are many many people live in
these types of forests and rainforests
also is our pharmacy they provide up to
twenty-five percent of the medicines
that we are using derive from the
rainforests and most important this type
of rain forests provide us with clean
air clean water and stable climate many
countries protect the rain forests
because it is says that this forest is a
important watershed without this forest
people in the city won’t have clean
water to drink and therefore we must
protect it in Malaysia we are very very
privileged to have these types of rain
forests in our backyard blasier compared
to other country is the 12th ranked
number 12
in the biodiversity hotspot in the war
means that our country do have so many
important and unique flora and fauna one
it is gone it is gone and species
interdependence is amazing this morning
one of the speaker mentioned about
avatar okay I’m sure I’ve watched avatar
twice in the avatar it gives us the
ideas of how connect between species in
this forest in these ecosystems and
often that types of interconnections and
connectivity and connections is very
complicated when no one you cannot you
cannot make this or artificially create
this these types of connections has been
ongoing has been created for the last
one 120 million years inside these
forests there’s a lots of species that
live in this forest once sometimes most
of them are very amazing say for example
Malaysia mammals there are 340 species
of mammal found in our forests and
unfortunately about 20 of them are
threatened with extinction and one of
them is a sunday of course and decide
that there are many many bird species up
to 800 bird species are found in our
forests and then decide the rich
biodiversity this forest also reach in
other natural resources in somebody eyes
this is money which is the timber our
forest is very rich on tropical hardwood
and because of that timber harvesting
has been ongoing for country over the
last 50 years this is the most easiest
extracted natural resources in our
country and no matter you are in West
Malaysia you’re in Borneo you are in
Sumatra things like this happen over the
last 50 years wherefores has been
cleared we call it deforestation wareham
wildlife habitat has been cleared and
therefore many species of wildlife are
threatened because
habitat loss so on and so forth this is
our West malaysians map from google from
Google Earth the dark greens are the
remaining forests the light greens is
something else our rainforest lowland
dipped rocket forest has declined from
seventy percent to the twenty-three
percent that we have today and most of
this law landed troca forests are
confined in national park taman negara
under romping Balaam’s rainforest and so
on and majority of the forest has been
converted the pig at the purple area on
these maps are all plantation most of
them are on plantation and some of them
rubber plantation the green part are the
forested cover majority of the forest
cover I found on the central spy which
is higher elevation we’re logging is
less likely and more difficult and
that’s why it is remained as forests and
the pink dot and this map showed the
forest cover loss over the last ten
years and as you can see in canton turn
Cano bahang there’s a lots of forest
conversions or there’s lots of
deforestation going on and if you still
recall few years ago on December of 2013
our country experienced the worst flood
ever happen in our country and during
and the reason of this floods is
contributing to the deforestation
several months later on februari of 2014
the West Coast inclined verily in slang
or peoples are having water shortage and
there’s no rinse one day when I fly over
to KL I noticed that why we have no rain
because there’s no forest you know it’s
not that the cut do not want to r in the
god cannot if we don’t have the forest
ring cannot make cannot be made and
therefore we suffer same thing with
Borneo I’ve been working with motor for
the last 50 for the last 18 years and
the
what happened all of the right areas are
the first are the forest clearance over
the last 20 years or so and many of the
forests are being converted into palm
plantation as we know and what sometimes
what we see as the pump plantation but
something that happening in this
presentation where you don’t see say for
example a lots of chemical a lots of
parasite insecticide herbicide rod end
in sight has been applied in these types
of land and many animals suffer and when
animals suffer they’ll die they go next
thing and one of the animals that are
found in this country that is suffering
from deforestation is the Sun there and
as you know I’ve been working with the
Sun bed for the last 18 years you know
my toe wouldn’t be complete without
mentioning about thunders so here it is
sundays are really cool the animals it’s
not that I’m bias is there sleep trading
really really cool animal the we should
feel proud of the sunburn the seraphic
name of Sun bears is he laughed as
mallanna’s Gila means Sun actors min
bears Milani’s means Malaya why Malaya
because the first specimens that known
to size was discovered two hundred years
ago so it carries our identity we don’t
have giant panda in our country although
everybody know what is dine kung kung fu
panda but we do have the sun bear which
is equally cool equally smart and
equally spectacular they have long claws
they have long tongue and all of these
are very very special they country very
very tall all the way to the treetops
like 40 meters above the ground you know
and I really have the privilege to
studying them 18 years ago and then I at
a time I was one of the very first
people who studied them in the forest
and then I’m very lucky to see how they
live in the forest and at the same time
I’m also very unfortunate to see what
happened to them through years of study
I know that they play very important
role as this person very very important
process where the Bears carry the seat
after they eat the fruits and then
disperse the seeds far away from the
mother tree and hence they plant the
forest
when they eat termite for example they
control the to my population you know
some of the termite populations are
known to kill live tree and when they
feed on these types of termite they
control the termite population in the
equilibrium condition to prevent an
outbreak of many many trees die at the
same time did you see what I see the
black spot on these pictures are Sun
bears climb up two of them climb up to
harvest a beehive inside these three
cavities and after that after they eat
the Beehive they left and let that
cavity later being used by Hon bills and
other wildlife in the forest as nests so
they are forest engineer they make nests
for other species which is really cool
and then when they feed on termite when
they feed on betos they keep on digging
and digging they actually enhance the
soil nutrient cycle and other animals
like bitter pages like lots of the
faster they actually follow Sun bears
because they pick up their items that
remains that that do not fit by the
bearers and then for bears also fit
those other animals with foot as well so
they are very important we call them a
keystone species but yes ah this is a
problem yes they are very cute this is
also the problems that brought to them
because they are so cute people want to
keep them as pirate pets because they
are so cute the matter being Q and then
they are locked up in small cages they
are not having small cages and then but
the cuteness does not last long when
they get big they got and they get
ferocious become very dangerous and
people look them up in cages this is
another side of thing that I have to see
as well and because of I see both the
good thing and the bad thing eight years
ago I found at the buddh in San Bay
Conservation Center to consult some
petrol holistic approach under the theme
of conservation we want to improve
animal welfare for the animal that we
rescue we want to do education to
educate the public about the problems
that the face that faced by the Sun
there’s we want to continue our reach
because these are the least known where
in the world we want to do
rehabilitation work for those bed and
still have the chance to go back into
the forest we want to give them a second
chance and our center open to the public
two and a half years ago and what is so
special about this is that visitors
comes in tourists comes in we can
educate them at the same time they learn
about the Bears they learn about the
forest at the same time we make region
revenues to run our our Center and even
better when the tourists come here they
just don’t they just not spend times and
money visiting our place they actually
spend a lot of money on their hotel on
the travels on the food on the souvenirs
and at the end many many people benefit
and I see this opportunity and I call
the theme that I want that we are trying
to work as conservation eco-tourism
where the product of Conservation’s
actually promote ecotourism and equal
tourism’s is the third options we can
save our forests can save our wildlife
because with the revenues that we are
generating from ecotourism we can no
longer we know need to know our forest
we know need to convert offers in to
come plantation and so on this is a map
of sandakan silicon is also known as the
nature city of sabah where a lots of
tourists come here to see the around
tons where the war famous the pillow
round tons rehabilitation is found next
to the around town center is our center
so for those of you who haven’t visit
our center please come and visit our
center one day in sana khan and then
beside that outside the masonic on is
the turtle Islands and then not far away
the kinabatangan river swear there’s a
lots of proboscis monkey and people can
actually see and enjoy and spend money
in sabah alone into 2014 the revenues
generated from ecotourism zor tourism in
general exceeded timber industry that is
a very very good sign and last year
sebaste generated 5 6.5 billion ringgit
from truisms
and if we manage this few nicely and
properly we can save our forest we can
save our wildlife as well another
statistic come from tourism malaysia
last year malaysia registered 20 5.7
million tourists they come here to enjoy
our country and about thirty to forty
percent of them there is equal to 10
millions of them actually involve in
ecotourism this means that they come
here to enjoy our forest to see our
wildlife you know so that this kind of
activity can generate the incentive for
the garments to protect our wildlife to
protect our forest right now we have the
choice and the choice is on us to
protect our forests to protect our
wildlife like the Sun bears the needs
our our help and our protection they are
in trouble right now over the because of
the 30 years or 40 years of have read
instructions plus poaching hunting pet
shipping you know all of these their
needs our help not only sunday but a
wide variety of wildlife needs our help
we have to think of how are we going to
change our lifestyle yeah the theme for
these talks is rethinking tomorrow and
then in the past we used to exploit the
forest resources timber resources other
plantations and other commodity that
very destructive to the to the to the
environment and right now we do have a
choice and all of them is all depends on
how we manage our resources and then
today’s there is such a privilege to
hear several people talking about the
environment about ecotourism and so on
and I think this is our choices these
are choices to protect our forests to
protect our wildlife at the end it will
benefit us as well especially when you
all ask you young for our the
sections is for our future generations
thank you [Applause]