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In Response to "Nature Society is Making Baseless Claim, Says Botanist", 18 March 1999

        Further to the March 18, issue of the STAR, we would like to reiterate here that MNS did not make the “baseless” claim that the sampling size was small, and non-timber trees were under-represented.  The claim was made by Dr. S. Appanah of  FRIM, and MNS and WWF supports this. The MNS would also like to clarify that there are many species of the ‘berembang’, and the species that we are concerned with are the Sonneratia caseolaris, which, though capable of tolerating high salinity levels, prefers freshwater habitats. The Sonneratia caseolaris seems to be highly preferred by fireflies for their blinking displays, and possibly, for some of their food needs.
      The MNS had made a study, "Strategies for Conservation and Tourism Development at Sungai Selangor Riparian Forest, 1997". It was observed that the Sonneratia caseolaris grows well in tidal zones and are dominant where the salinity is between 3-10 parts of a thousand. In Kuala Selangor, the plants form a thin belt of about 18 kilometers starting before Kampong Sepakat and extending beyond Tanjong Pasir. The trees are concentrated along 2 points along the river. One is about one kilometer to the west of Kampong Kuantan towards Kuala Selangor and the other is about a half a kilometer to the east towards Batang Berjuntai.' It is obvious that they prefer a more freshwater condition, and are only salt tolerant to a certain extant. There is however a last stand of around 10 trees near the bridge on the way to Pasir Penampang village. However, these trees are not very healthy.
       MNS hopes that this will clarify the whole situation as it relates to the berembang trees and the fireflies.

Dato' Dr Salleh Mohd Nor 


(Letters to the Editor)


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Created on 26th April 1999.