Eth Zurich field course on tropical forestry.
Searrp
Palm oil and habitat fragmentation.
Commercial forest to totally protected.
Lowland forest under pressure.
Sabah foundation concession.
Is there Redd in pristine forest? Or other carbon mitigation.
Are we able to sell the biodiversity? Rich, not just tourism, scientific research.
What is the ration of corruption to integrity in maintaining? Non logging.
Dominance forest structure, dipterocarps.
Elective logging, choosing the largest .
Impacts of timber harvesting, recovery, natural regeneration. Restoration
Enrichment planting, silviculture,
David
Long term records, weather, it's getting warmer and wetter, more erratic
Less scientist in Danube valley, more in plantations.
Soy stem functions and services.
Do you advocate the change/conversion from forested areas to oil palm plantations that are sustainably managed?
Long term forest dynamics In Terms of climate change.
Forest fragmentations due to plantations.
Restoration
Payment for ecosystem services
How can human modified landscapes support livelihood & economic returns, ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation?
Win-win natural values and human values.
No one expects developing country to maintain its land under forested areas.
Land use policy is under state government not federal.
Areas that are best protected are the sites with the most activity in it.
Sabah foundation so rich, could they not fund it?
Playing out the scenario is to attract carbon trading.
Permian global.
Currently Sabah forest is not in carbon trading due to lack of scientific data to prove.
Forest reserves can be oil palm plantations.
Paying carbon credits is paying corruption.
Highly fragmented but still rich in wildlife.
The conversion of forest is inevitable.
Orang utans building nest in oil palm plantations.
Elephants and orang utans seen in very degraded forest.
So what your saying is an altered forest is better for wildlife. Better than their natural habitat 100s of years ago.
Forest will never be paid for ecosystem services.
Acacia is a naturally invasive species
Something fundamentally wrong, morally, ethically.
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Field course for tropical forestry, eth Zurich
I flew back to Sabah from KL on the 29th January and slept over night at UMS in my own room at the university hostel. Met Abang Shafiq and helped him to plant some ornamental plants outside of Ibnu Khaldun. Had a good dinner with Sam and hui xian, we went to McDonald's after that for ice-cream. We talked about music and how pop culture is influencing the younger generation.
On the 30th morning I took the motorbike out with Jeph to 1B to buy stuff. We forgot the shopping list given to us by the chef and ended up not buying the right ingredients. Lesson learnt, take the small effort to prevent a big hiccup. So we couldn't eat steamboat that night and instead ate rice with salted fish. I had to leave early to meet Dr. Chris Kettle down in upper star KK. Took the bus too late and it was a little jam. Lesson learnt: go to the meeting point earlier, factor in travel time and traffic. Walked around and found them all seated around. 9 girls and 5 boys. Anna x2, carol x2, Liea, Diana, Rebecca, Dezzerie and the guys were Jonas, Lukas, Fabian and Herzi (who is Malaysian and lives in Taman Tun). After the rain stopped we walked over to the Phillipino market and ate sea food. Slept over in the grades hotel, walked up to the rooftop bar and pool side, beautiful.
On the 31st Jan 2015, we woke up and had a buffet breakfast, we packed our bags and went over to the air port to fly to Lahad Datu. Arriving at LD we were picked up and brought over to the Danum Valley Conservation Center (DVCC). There we had a short walk through the jungle as Chris explained about various expects in the forest to us. Stressing other importance of dipterocarps. Every few meters we walked he would tell us something. We went to the tree tower where some climbed up while others walked around the trial. We left Daisy behind after coming out of the forest. It rains so much there. We should really head count and check before moving from one place to another.
On the 1st February, Fabian and I woke up at 5 am to go to the watch tower and catch sunrise and see some birds. We saw a pair or hornbills fly pass us. Next we went back to the lodge and waited for breakfast and our field trip into the forest again trekking all the way to a waterfall. Long track and I accidentally left my packed food there. When we got out we waited for Glenn Raynolds to give a talk. We asked question that probed into him sharing genuinely how corrupt the politics in the state is and how political will is what will change things. Oil palm. Secondary forest. It's not so much the results from experiments that protect the land is the running of the experiments that do. We also swam in the river after coming out of the forest. It wasn't that high.
On the 2nd February we had a talk by Charlotte about the work she was doing in enrichment planting and tree rehabilitation. We walked into the jungle again to see some 50 hectares plots that were being marked out and surveying done. Really tedious work. We came back through the river way. Lesson learnt: don't put on boots straight after coming out of the river, water from the pants will flow into the socks. And I should probably a set of forest cloths. Lesson learnt: don't swim in muddy rivers with white shirts, they get stained with silt pretty badly... And stink too. The river water rose significantly. Saw Professor David Nubrey.
On the 3rd February we all woke up at 5 am in the morning to catch sunrise st the watch tower near the global climate weather station was. But it was too cloudy and we didn't see much. Glenn brought us to places where logging was carried out whereby a Center would just pull and drag logs with chains into the middle where it stood. We went to places that were logged twice and also to a place where reduced impact logging was carried out. Then we went to meet Mikey who was doing a biodiversity experiment in Danum Valley. Embolism and ground water potential. Type of plants that open and close their stomatal. In the afternoon we were to go to the Borneo Rainforest Lodge (where old rich bird lovers pay USD 300 per night to stay) to have a nice dinner. The gate was locked so Herzi and I ran 3 kilometres, in my new Teva flip flops. I should have walked much slower in the canopy walk. Sigh, regrets. The dinner that night was super.
On the 4th February we took a long road trip. Travelling from DVCS back to Lahad Datu. We then went to an oil palm plantation called Sabahmas which is under Wilmar. Mr Frederick Chok gave us a nice presentation. We were told not to ask too much probing questions as the field course would like to come back next year. Their mill and operations are run so efficiently that it is RSPO certified. They take care of their workers welfare and health. Genuinely having good intentions they retained the riparian strip beside the river as a wildlife corridor going beyond the required 20 meters to 50 meters. We then went to a Tropical Rainforest Biodiversity bank. Malaysian NGO that works to maintain genetic resources. They gave a nice tea time with local snacks such as banana fritters and 'kuih cincin'. Next we made our way to Sepilok and the butterfly resort. We arrived at 9 pm ish, went for dinner and after s good shower used the Internet and had a goodnights sleep at 12.30. I washed my cloths in the sink and hung them to dry outside on the balcony, which I realised had a fan only the next day. They have laundry services here, Rm 10 for 1 kilo.
5th February, we met James Margove and Collin Maycock. We walked over to RDC where we had lunch and had a presentation by Reuben, Betty, Huebert and Robert Ong. We met some local girls doing LI there it was a good talk with them. Next we went to FRC where we saw James work on drowning dipterocarp seedlings and then we went to the entomology library where a huge collection of bugs were.
On the 6th February, Fabian and I woke up at 5.30 to go to the observation tower where the birds only come out at 7am. Next, we went to the RDC again and had a talk by Benoit. He was doing remote sensing on snow leopards, elephants, civets and monitor lizards around Kinabatangan. Next we went to the Sunbear conservation center. Along the way we ate lunch in the forest. And enthusiastic wong gave a wonderful presentation on how sunbeams are important to the ecosystem. Working as forest doctors, eating termites and preventing population boom, turning over rotting logs and tearing them apart, making nest for the hornbills in trees way up high. Then we walked to the observational tower. After that we went back to B&B to take a shower and go meet Robert Ong where we asked hard question. We had dinner and went back for a good nights sleep early. Just do the small things, show interest and get the right contacts. That's how you move up, don't worry too much about the funding. Step out from being so conservative about the Church, listen to others and the way they think. Life isn't always fair. Especially if your dad died at a young age. Some people's hearts can be very broken. It is not us who heals it, but Christ at the end of the day. We... Just.. Listen and shine zoos light of hope. Diana doesn't believe that God created the world and that he isn't always good. I really should read the book where is God when it rots by Phillip Yancy. And maybe even pass it to her.
On the 7th we packed our bags and squeezed into room 4 as a new group was coming in. Forgot to bring over my towel. A few of the people had money stolen from them which included Chris, Diana and Anna. Quite a large substantial amount. Thank God their passports didn't get touched. We walked through the jungle for quite some time to get out at the mangrove area where there was a nice riverside hut built. We hiked back and I talked to Colin along the way. Learnt so much things on how UMS is run and why people like Azizi can't transfer to Geology cause they would have to run the whole course in English then. The next VC is also preferably a Sabahan which makes it hard to get people who actually has leadership skills in running things. I really need to focus on my studies. And be specialised. I can't be everywhere..
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