<
Friday, March 03, 2006
MALAYSIA NATIONAL PARK
said to be 130 million years old. In 1925, an area of 9,240 hectares
surrounding Tahan mountain was gazzeted as a Tahan Mountain Game Reserve
by the British authourity. Then in 1939, it was declared a national
park, through the states of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu
under enactment in 1938/9. It was named King George V National Park,
named after the King of England. After independence in 1957, it was
named Taman Negara. The creation of this park was due largely to the
persistence of one man, Theodore Hubback, Chief Game Warden of what was
then the Federated Malay States. He pestered the colonial government
relentlessly for 15 years until the region was set aside for
conservation in 1938. His enthusiam was carried on by subsequent state
and federal governments,and by the Department of Wildlife and National Park. Now, it covered a total of 4,343 sq km,
seven times the size of Singapore.
Taman Negara is located 4 and 5 north of the equator. It lies within
the headwaters of three river system; the Tembeling in the south, the
Trenggan in the east and the Relai-Aring-Labir in the north and received
rain throughout the year, around 2,200mm(lowland) and 3,800mm(mountain).
Temperature during the day is average at 26 and at night 22 celcius.
It lies on sedimentary rock, remainder is granite and some scattered
limestone. Interesting to know that a large part of Malaysia was
submerged under water several million years ago and that volcanic and
non volcanic islands emerged and drowned from time to time. Peninsular
Malaysia only became land during the Jurassic era. Sedimentary rocks
would normally yield fossils and the bulk of the fossils are found in
Taman Negara.
Ten percent are lowland area below 120m with many huge trees. The
majority is covered with lowland dipterocarpaceous forest. Within the
park are around 14,000 species of plants, 250 species of birds, around
200 mammals and as many as 240 species of trees can be found within a
single hectare, compare with an average of seven for a European forest.
Evidence of human habitation within part of Taman Negara almost 2,000
years ago came in the discovery of bronze artefacts along the Tembeling
river. One small group of Orang Asli(Original People), the Negrito Batek,
still live within the border of the park, gathering wild food and
hunting with blowpipes as they have for countless generations.
It is managed by the
Department of Wildlife and National Park(Perhilitan) which is under the Ministry
of Science, Technology and Environment.
Its purpose is for the preservation of the national environment,
research work,educational activities and public recreation.
A Note
In the past 70 years, ten pieces of legislation were enacted to protect
wildlife and habitat in the peninsula, ranging from the Perak River
Right Enactment of 1925 to the Taman Negara Act 1980.
To be fair the government has already set aside 12.7 million hectares of
forested land to be managed as 'permanent forest estate'. Of this 3.6
million hectares will be designated as 'protected forest'.
In addition the Forestry department maintain a network of virgin
jungle reserves consisting of 81 areas covering 19,000 hectares.
Together, they represent less than five percent of land in Malaysia.
Another 2.3 percent has been proposed. The National Park Act 1980, which
could provide some measure of permanence is believed to be unpopular
with State Governments.
The first law to protect wildlife was established in 1894 by the state
of Selangor followed by Perak in 1902 and Negeri sembilanin 1903. In
1939, Taman Negara or King George V National Park was established. This
is the largest and only national park gazzeted in the Peninsula. After
independence in 1957, few protected areas were established.
In the last two decades, the Wildlife protection Act 1972 (ammended
in 1982), has been the most powerful tool for protecting biodiversity in
Malaysia. The Act,followed by the Wild Animal and Birds Protection
Ordinance 1955, was enacted to protect most of the wildlife species in
the Peninsula and the ammendment incresed the penalty for infringment of
the Act besides enhancing the powers of the enforcement authority.
The maximum penalty for poaching totally protected animals has been
increased from RM3,000 and two years imprisonment to RM5,000 and three
years imprisonment. Last year alone, the Department of Wildlife and
National Parks collected almost RM1 million in fines.
Click Here for your Free Traffic!
