The importance of up to date information about land use and atmospheric changes, can enhance conservation efforts by monitoring and identifying the area. Examples of land changes are forest fires, illegal land clearing, logging and encroachment. The use of natural resources like forests, will be managed more sustainably by knowing the location, area size, the terrain altitudes and importance. The effective application of this technique was proven from the two satellite images recently reported to the cabinet.

The satellite images taken last March shows that land clearing was taking place along the borders (the buffer zones) of Taman Negara in Kelantan and Pahang. This shows how an up to date images is important to prevent any further ecological systems from being disrupted. MNS therefore support the cooperation between the Pahang State Government and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and other relevant departments on the Cabinet's directive, to further investigate the reported land clearing near Taman Negara. The integrity of the buffer zone is important to Taman Negara's ecological health. Therefore the decisions on further use of land which is not under the Forest Reserve status needs to be reconsidered. A recommendation is that these lands should be placed under the Forest Reserve status with restricted use.

MNS supports the Pahang Mentri Besar Tan Sri Mohd Khalil Yaakob's decision to create a buffer zone around the Park. These buffer zone provides animal corridors for natural migration and territoriality behaviour of animals to other Forest Reserve. They also act to prevent pests venturing from both sides.

Last February, satellite images showed major threats in the Air Hitam, South Kuala Langat, and North Kuala Langat Forest Reserve. It identified encroachment in that area. MNS feels that the Selangor Government should look seriously into the matter as Selangor has less than 30% of forest-ed areas left. There will not be any left if unmitigated development continues at this rate. The rainfall pattern over Selangor has changed due to massive development into and around forested areas. The rainfall remains more or less the same, but it has not been falling in the catchment areas. Further development will only cause more of the rain to fall outside catchment areas.

With the promotion of the Multi-media Super Corridor and PutraJaya, the forested areas sur-rounding these should be maintained to ensure a pleasant environment. Development balanced with conservation should be promoted. MNS supports the call by Datuk Law to safeguard the forests against further ecological deterioration caused by development activities. MNS would like to fur-ther recommend to all State Governments to reconsider all development around or that encroaches into forested areas, not only around the MSC or Taman Negara but also throughout the country.

While the use of satellite images is a welcome development, the task of interpreting the data from every aspect is a large one. MNS therefore, supports the idea of Associate Professor, Dr Richard Dorall, University Malaya Remote Sensing Unit, that Macres should collaborate with other appropriate agencies like the Department of Environment, Agriculture, Forestry or Wildlife Department, as well as Universities and the NGOs. The raw data may be provided at a low cost or even for free to the said agencies, Universities and NGOs. In this way the usefulness of the data in protecting our natural resources can be optimised. Dr Sharifah Mastura Syed Abdullah, coordinator of the Earth Observation Centre at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia also added that a multi-disciplinary group of researchers are needed to monitor the resources. This is important for the effective interpretation of the raw data.

The application of satellite images is wide, depending on the type of images procured. Computer-based programs like Geographical Information System (GIS) or Spatial analysis (SPANS) programs will generate detail analysis of vegetation types or land use of the area and even tracks the distribution of animals territory. This data can be important for proper Park management like fixing the boundary of the buffer zones e.g. in Taman Negara..

The service of Macres would hopefully compel all the State Government to realize visually, plan and manage the natural resources and be more conservation conscious before degazetting the land for development. This data should be use at the Local Planning stage, which is the most important stage of land use for the proper use of the land. Boundaries will be more accurate whether it is a wildlife reserve, forest reserve or a political border.

Dato’ Dr. Salleh Mohd. Nor
President, Malaysian Nature Society (Letter to the Editor: Kuala Lumpur, 4 February, 1999)