Public awareness about mangrove forests should be developed and enhanced among the young right up to the elderly, a workshop on sustainable forest management was told, Malaysian News Agency Bernama reported. Perwira Bintang Holdings Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Tan Kar Meng said this was because mangroves served an important ecological function in mitigating coastal erosion by reducing the energy of waves, tidal currents and storms that would otherwise erode the coastline. Mangroves also acted as sediment stabilisers, biomass producers, refuge for wildlife and fish, nutrients and toxicant traps besides keeping the seas clean. "Mangrove forests also act as green lungs to improve the air quality and consequently help in reducing global warming. They also help communities living near mangrove areas to derive greater economic benefits from the preservation of mangrove forests through the catching of fish and shrimps and rearing of crabs in floating cages," he added. He said this in his working paper on "Erosion protection, natural reclamation, rehabilitation, regeneration and preservation of mangrove forest at the workshop organised by the Organisation of Asia Pacific News Agencies (Oana) here. He said "pillowtube" technology might be the answer to promoting the regeneration of mangroves as effective barriers against natural disasters like tsunamis, cyclones and hurricanes. The pillowtube, an environment-friendly product produced from high-strength woven material and a slurry of filling materials, could help as a wave breaker and protect targeted areas from strong waves and soil erosion. The idea for the Pillowtube came from Perwira Bintang, a leading contractor for several civil infrastructure works and building and interior works in Malaysia, and is 100 per cent locally-designed and manufactured. Tan said 1,414.5km, or about 30 per cent of the country's entire coastline of 4,809km, were affected by erosion. Laurentius N. Ambu from the Sabah Wildlife Department, in his working paper on "Maintaining Balance", said there were about 11,000 orang utan in Sabah, of which 62 per cent live in non-protected forests. Their number had declined by about 35 per cent in the past 20 years due largely to habitat loss and degradation, habitat fragmentation, poaching and killing, he said. He said timber production, land conversion to agriculture and forest fires were among the factors that destroyed the orang-utan prime habitat (lowland forests). Among ways to save the orang-utan were protecting their habitat, applying better environment management practices and raising local awareness, he added. The Sabah state government had also introduced the Honorary Wildlife Warden Programme whereby the local community was appointed as their eyes and carried out forest patrols and joint enforcement with police to detect encroachment, illegal logging, poaching and fish poisoning, he said.
