Activities Report Mar 2000 Newsletter

SAVE THE FIREFLIES (By Sarah Sabaratnam) 
      As far north as Japan to the west coast of the United States, fireflies, with their symbolic links to light and spiritually, are etched in history, literature and legends. In some folklores, they are emblems of the fairy kingdom. In others, they are the lingering souls of the long dead.
      Today, they are still an important feature of every childhood. Who doesn't remember chasing those light bugs in their moon-lit garden? Malaysia is fortunate to be home to one of the few known firefly colonies in the world. This colony put the sleepy town of Kampung Kuantan in Selangor on the map. Sadly, the number of fireflies has dwindled and this has been noticed by the villagers.
      "This has become a novelty," says Kg Kuantan resident Razali Shamsudin, 47, pointing at the Sungai Selangor with an outstreched arm. He is standing at the jetty which is the pick-up point for tourists who want to see the firefly colony. "Although I've lived here all my life, I still come here every weekend to soak in the atmosphere. When I was younger I didn't appreciate it. There were more fireflies then. Now I realise it has many enemies. One day, they might all be gone."
      Fireflies are part of a bigger picture, as is everything else in nature. Fairfield Osborn said it best in Introduction to our Plundered Earth, 1948: "Today, we know the concept of poets and philosophers in earlier times is reality. Nature may be a thing of beauty and is indeed a symphony, but above and below and within its own immutable essences, its distances, its apparent quietness and changelessness, it is an active, purposeful, coordinated machine.
      Each part is dependent upon another, all are related to the movement of the whole. Forests, grasslands, soils, water, animal life; without one of these, the earth wil die, will become dead as the moon. Parts of the earth, once living and productive, have thus died at the hand of man. Others are now dying. If we cause more to die, nature will compensate for this in her own way, inexorably, as
already she has begun to do!"
      It seems our ancestors understood and cared about the links in nature more than the present generation. They spent hours enjoying what they had. We spend millions of ringgit destroying what we have and then millions trying to restore what we plunder.
      Kampung Kuantan has become economically dependent on the fireflies as they are an integral part of tourism. A sampan operator who would like to be known as Hashim says: "Lots of people come from far to see this. If anything changes, the community here will suffer. I will lose my job."
      Dusk in Kampung Kuantan sees busloads of foreign tourist wait hours in a queue to take the 30-minute ride down the river. They've come to witness one of nature's wonders. "It's a chance in a life time," says German-born Albert Weis, 38, who was there with his wife and two children.
      The firefly species found here is the Pteroptyx tener and has a short life-span of two to three months. Dr Loh Chi Leong of the Malaysian Nature Society says this species is unique in that it blinks in sync. "Synchronous fireflies are found only in Southeast Asia and have disappeared from much of this region," he says. The colony, which is already under threat of extinction, now faces another challenge that might scupper its chances of survival.
      Plans are under way to build a dam across Sungai Selangor. Many, including the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Malaysian Nature Society, have voiced their concern about the effects of reduced water flow on the fireflies' ecosystem. These fireflies live in berembang trees which some scientists believe to be salt-water sensitive. Their larvae feed on snails found in the mud below. If a dam reduces the flow of water, more sea water will wash into the mangrove habitat of the fireflies. How will an increased level of salinity affect the staple diet of the firefly larvae, the berembang trees, and ultimately, the fate of the fireflies?
      Unfortunately, no real study has been done on the possible effects on the fireflies' ecosystem although the MNS has provided guidelines on how eco-tourism can be carried out with minimal impact on the fireflies. In 1997, the MNS submitted a report to the Selangor Government, outlining a management and development plan for the area which would allow the eco-tourism potential to grow without adversely affecting the fireflies. "As a part of that report, we also highlighted a number of problems and threats. These included the concern regarding the amount of water that would be extracted by the proposed SSP3 project and how it would affect the ecosystem and the fireflies. At that time, the SSP3 was still a proposal and no project developer had been identified," says Loh.
      Recently, the State's Department of Environment approached the MNS and asked it to carry out a study on the fireflies. "MNS has accepted the offer because it allows us to work at trying to save the fireflies," says Loh. The study, says Loh, will look into the hydrology of the river downstream of the dam (specifical-ly salinity and pollution) and to develop a model to predict future trends after the dam is built and increasing amount of water is extracted from the river. It will also look into the lifecycle of the fireflies and identify key elements such as the egg-laying areas, the invertebrate prey the larvae feed on and the trees on which the fireflies display.
      "We will then attempt to predict how chemical and hydrological changes may impact on the key components of the lifecycle. Once major threats are identified, it is hoped that mitigating measures or other recommendations can be developed." The two threats, says Loh, are increased salinity and higher pollution levels. "During dam construction, siltation may be an additional problem."
      It is good that steps are being taken to study the projected effects of the dam rather than initial suggestions by the project's Environmental Impact Assessment for a study that compares the changes in the fireflies and its ecosystem, after the project is completed. SOS Selangor, a coalition of non-governmental organisations opposed to the building of the Selangor dam, welcomes the study, although skeptically. "Will concrete action be taken on the results of the study or is this just a public relations ploy?" asks its representative Sonia Randhawa.
      "If SPLASH (Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor, the dam developer) can give us an assurance that it will halt the project if the MNS finds that the firefly population will be drasticallyaffected, we welcome the study.
From New Straits Times 8th February 2000 

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Created on 15th Mar 2000