Move to Get Kuala Gula Birdpark on Ramsar List

By Jaspal Singh

IPOH: The Perak government will revisit a federal government proposal made six years ago to list the Kuala Gula bird sanctuary under the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance.

In 2002, Datuk Law Hieng Ding, then Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, had announced that the sanctuary, within the internationally recognised Matang mangrove forest in the northwest part of the state, would be declared the country’s second Ramsar site after Tasek Bera in Pahang.

Ramsar is the convention on wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. The intergovernmental treaty provides the framework for national action and international co-operation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Since Law’s announcement at the Perak-level celebration of International Wetlands Day in Feb 2002, no move has apparently been made to get the 7,000ha sanctuary on the renowned list.

Now, in a move sure to please conservationists and environmental groups A. Sivanesan, the state executive councillor in charge of the environment portfolio, has said the state government will take a look at the proposal.

“If the previous state government had agreed, even in principle, to study the proposal we are curious to know what kind of studies were undertaken by the relevant government departments,” he told the New Straits Times yesterday.

Sivanesan said he would communicate with the state Forestry Department and the state Economic Planning Unit to resubmit their findings to the exco so it can evaluate the viability of listing the bird sanctuary as a Ramsar site.

“It would promote Perak as an environment-friendly state and enhance its eco-tourism sector. I will bring the matter up in the next sitting of the state executive council,” he said, adding that he will invite Wetlands International (WI), the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and other stakeholders to discuss in greater detail their proposals for the listing.

WI and MNS have said the international recognition will help in promoting the area as an eco-tourism site. And it will also open up the possibility of international funding for its conservation and management.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks has recorded sightings of at least 165 species of birds in the Kuala Gula bird sanctuary and the larger Matang mangrove forest, which has become a transit point for migratory birds from East Asia and the sub-Arctic region during the winter season.

The rare and highly-endangered milky storks and lesser adjutants, as well as large numbers of waders (small water birds) seek shelter in the area from August to April each year.

The move to make the sanctuary a Ramsar site is also driven by plummeting bird traffic in the area over the last 20 years.

Although this is the case all over the west coast of the peninsula, the situation is especially bad at the Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary.

According to WI’s latest publication, The Status of Coastal Water Birds and Wetlands in Southeast Asia: Results of Water Bird Surveys (2004-2006), the overall number of migratory birds has shown a large drop between 1983 and 1986 and 2004 and 2006.

The most significant decline over the 20-year period occurred on the coast of Perak, at 86 per cent.

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