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