Tuesday, February 26, 2019

When I, when You

I want to slow down.
To stop doing so much.
To choose the things that matter.
I can't do everything anymore,
I can't rush from here to there.
I..
I....

When did it stop being about You.
When did the sight of You go missing.
When did the reliance on Your strength cease,
When..
When...

Remind me Lord,
Renew me,
Restore me

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Google Plus is going.. so many things to get off it.. but.. ahhh whatever lah




Here i am, sitting at a train station
Never really used public transport in my life.
Always getting around using dad's car.

There's something about these hubs that bring some kind of life to a place. The connectivity, the vastness of networks and tubes that bring people from all around to different places for different purposes.

I long to chat with one of them and find out Thier story.

But here I am. Along with everyone else staring down into a black mirror.

At least I don't have my headphones on.
I still get to hear the trains as they come to a screeching halt, the harmonica guy playing on the bridge, the rustle and bustle of the city in a distance.
i use to swim in the waters of Hulu Langat

The Star Online: Forest clearing works leave villagers with murky water - Nation.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/09/13/forest-clearing-works-leave-villagers-with-murky-water/

UNDP-GEF
Biodiversity conservation in multiple-use forest landscapes in Sabah

http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/undpgefproject/index.php

mhmm quite active


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32w
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Secretariat of the CBD (SCBD): National Focal Points
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020: Aichi Biodiversity Targets
Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) 2011-2020: Global Partnership for Plant Conservation: Liaison Group
Subsidiary Body on Implementation: CITES
National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)
Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5).

opportunities for:

1. Funding
2. Awareness
3. Network opportunities/partnerships
4. Training materials/capacity building

post-2020 global biodiversity framework COP-15 China
Targets: (specific) indicators (quantitatively measurable)

On October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD adopted an updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) for the period 2011–2020.

This updated GSPC includes 16 targets for plant conservation to be achieved by 2020. The role of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation (GPPC) is recognised by the CBD in supporting GSPC implementation worldwide.

other related Acronyms:
2050 Vision for Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, including indicators adopted for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


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http://www.vizzuality.com/

this site relates with so many forest related data presentations
from climate, to forest watch to agriculture

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way to go Datuk Ting
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/05/22/defending-malaysias-rich-biodiversity/#HvBQ7Te4yZ7Sw1rE.30

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40w
TensorFlow + RFCX = no more illegal logging.

if you had multiple Guardian devices set up in a network around the forest. you could triangulate the position of the same noise source and find out it's exact location. Audio radar in a way. how faint/loud it is to each station would be roughly equivalent/relative to that tree's position (and boy, how accurate phone devices are getting at GPS)

what if the area didn't have cell phone reception? well, either build a repeater tower at the DFO/ rangers quarters or FreedomTowers by Isaac Wilder concept to make a network from existing Guardian devices or towers in themselves

Since sunlight is hard to come by in the forest, platforms should be built above on emergent species that break through the canopies and receive almost full sunlight through the day. (angle the panels from east to west) or flat zenith. (or put in an actuator that follows the sun like a sunflower) - getting data on circadian cycles

There's also the potential to allow drones to be hooked up to the system and do a fly by the area that has potential illegal activities based on the triangulated position. The drones can be equipped with high resolution cameras for real time detection and validation as well as heat sensors to pick up body signatures or machinery in thermal sight. (vision to bypass the canopy)

other than intervening to human activities, ecologically the monitoring could be used to pick up bird calls signaling a fruiting tree (i.e. bulbul and fig trees) and log long-term phenological patterns

also,
TensorFlow could be used for ID-in tree species based on leaf and tree structure. Alot of species are ID-ed with a binomial key system in Taxonomy. And with the processing power of Google's TPU Cloud computing and visual machine learning, we could even infer how many leafs are on a tree based on the size of a leaf and the whole canopy and branches and outline and such.

Exciting times for ideas that'll seem probably due to the advancement of technology nowadays., but it'll require some form of machine learning, programming, coding background. sigh.




https://rfcx.org/

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rainforest connection.

reusing old smartphones, retrofitting them out with solar panels and maybe.. a better microphone? you could monitor so much more than just chainsaw noises.

we could have real time climate data,
humidity, barometer, lux meters (light intensities), recordings of birds, mammals and amphibians.

heck we could monitor growth of trees and such.

imagine if you could tap into the potential energy from living plants themselves, like plug wires into the trunk and use the bio-electricity generated from the tree itself to power the devices. it'll be like, hybridizing the trees and cyber-punking them up.
https://youtu.be/JtCk1Obg02s

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Some history about SDF, nested under some weeirrddd link

http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/resource/photo-gallery/45-30-08-2015-rumah-terbuka-ibu-pejabat-sempena-hari-raya/detail/358-30-08-2015-rumah-terbuka-ibu-pejabat-sempena-hari-raya?tmpl=component

The Sabah Forestry Department (SFD) was established in 1914 when the state was still under the rule of the British Borneo Chartered Company. Starting from a humble beginning of 6 staff, the department has grown over the years and has established 27 District Forestry Offices with a workforce of about 2,000 staff.


The past functions of the department focused primarily on the collection of royalty. The department however has evolved over the years and later assumed broader responsibilities covering the protection and conservation of forest reserves based on the concept of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).

Since its establishment, the Forestry Department has established forest reserves throughout the state, and is currently the custodian for about 3.6 million hectares or 49.1% of the state’s land mass. Based on the powers vested under the Forest Enactment 1968 and Forest Rules 1969, the department has undertaken various efforts to protect and manage the state’s forests.

The crucial turning point which has influenced the department as an organisation is in the late 1980s when SFM was introduced and later adopted for statewide application in 1997. Since then, the department had been restructured and its capacity enhanced to cover the many facets of SFM.

The Establishment and Key Milestones of The Sabah Forestry Department

Year Milestone
1914
The Forest Department was established. Donald M. Matthews, an American, was appointed as the first Chief Forest Officer.
1915
First Forest Department Annual Report published.
1916
Royalty charges on timber actually cut was introduced.
Bulletin No.1: Timbers of British North Borneo and Minor Forest Produce was published.
1921
D.D. Wood, also an American, was appointed as the first Conservator of Forests.
1923
Pulau Gaya was gazetted as the first forest reserve.
1931
The department was officially designated as the Forest Department with forest reserves amounting to 129,425 acres (52,376.44 hectares) at the end of 1931.
Harry Keith appointed as Conservator of Forests. His wife, Agnes Keith, wrote the book, "Land Below The Wind" in 1939, making Sabah famous.
1940
First Working Plan for the Elopura Forest Reserve (mangrove forest) was prepared and implemented by G.S. Brown, the Assistant Conservator of Forests .
1946
British Military Administration (BMA) began and J. Agama, the deputy Assistant Conservator of
Forests, was given the task to reorganise the Forest Department with a staff of 16. This ended in one month and North Borneo became a Crown Colony.
The Department of Agriculture ceased to be under the portfolio of the Forest Department which it was, from 1921.
1947
The Forest Department was divided into two divisions i.e. East Coast and West Coast divisions with 5 districts – Kudat, Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu), Sandakan, Semporna and Tawau.
1952
Monopoly of British Borneo Timber Company was terminated by the Government and 12 new concessions were entered into.
1954
Forest Botany Section was formed with the arrival of the first Forest Botanist Mr. Geoffrey Wood from Oxford University.
1957
Cartography Section was formed and the first Forest Cartographer was Mr E.C. Francis.
1959
His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh officiated the first Forestry and Timber Exhibition in Sandakan.
1962
A new Headquarters building was completed in Jalan Ching Meng, Sandakan.
Introduction of chainsaws for felling commercial timber in Sabah.
1968
The Forest Enactment 1968 and Forest Rules 1969 came into force on January 1st, 1969
1969
The Malaysian/Canadian Aid (CIDA) Forest Inventory and Economic Evaluation Project was implemented.
Datuk H.S. Martyn made history for being the first native to hold the post as the 7th Conservator
of Forests.
1970
The Sabah Foundation long-term Licence Agreement of 100 years, covering 3300 square miles was entered into.
1982
The Headquarters of the Forestry Department in Sandakan was relocated to KM10, Labuk Road
1984
Regazettement of 3.3 million hectares of forest reserves or 45.1% of Sabah's land mass to include various forest reserve classes into the constituted reserves
Security of tenure endorsed for forest reserves through change of legislation to transfer land use tenure powers to the legislature from the executive.
1985
The Sabah Foundation, Sabah Forest Department and the Royal Society (United Kingdom) signed an agreement on a Tropical Forest Research Programme to be based at Danum Valley, Lahad Datu.
1986
The Forest Department was renamed as Sabah Forestry Department and headed by the Director of Forestry. Title of 'Conservator' ceased to be used.
New divisions and regional offices were established and upgraded i.e. 10 Divisions, 5 Regional Offices and 19 District Forestry Offices.
1988
The Wildlife Division was officially separated and put under the management of the Sabah Tourism and Environment Ministry.
SFI (Sabah Forest Industries Sdn. Bhd.), the nation's first pulp and paper plant, was commissioned.
1989
The era of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) began with the commissioning of the Malaysian-German Sustainable Forest Management Project, at Deramakot Forest Reserve.
HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, President of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) visited the Sabah Forestry Department for the second time. He was accompanied by the Chief Minister of Sabah, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan together with the 9th Director of Forestry, Datuk Miller Munang.
1990
Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) was introduced.
1992
The world's first tropical forest carbon project was launched at the INFAPRO area, Ulu Segama Forest Reserve.
1994
Five (5) additional District Forestry Offices were established, making a total of 24.
1995
Exhibition of the client charter is made compulsory in all divisions and regional offices.
Danum Valley (43,800 hectares) was accorded totally protected status under Class I (Protection)
1997
Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad visited Sabah Forestry Department i.e. Deramakot Forest Reserve.
State Government introduced new policy i.e. adoption and statewide implementation of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and the FMU forest management system.
Deramakot Forest Reserve was certified as a well managed forest by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and is also the world’s first for tropical forests
Maliau Basin (58,840 hectares) was accorded totally protected status under Class I (Protection).
2000
The department received its first ISO certificate, MS ISO 9000 for its Royalty Collection System on the Production of Timber from Class II Commercial Forest Reserves for Local Processing at the Forestry District of Beluran.
Number of Forestry Districts expanded to 27.
2004
Helicopter Logging introduced in Sabah.
2005
Sabah Forestry Department's official flag was hoisted at the SFD Headquarters
2006
Ulu Segama and Malua Forest Reserves covering some 241,000 hectares of forest reserves were set aside for the Ulu Segama and Malua SFM project to secure a home for Orang Utans in co-existence with forest management in the long run.
The Centennial Time Capsule and the "Forestry in Sabah" book was launched by the Chief Minister of Sabah, the Right Honourable Datuk Seri Musa Hj. Aman at the Rainforest Discovery Centre.
Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, made a visit to Deramakot Forest Reserve, the second Prime Minister to do so.
2007
Logging completely ceased in Ulu Segama-Malua Forest Reserves, in the interest of conservation, after some 50 years of timber harvesting.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his wife, Tun Jeanne Abdullah launched the Rainforest Discovery Centre.
2008
Borneo's first Ramsar site for wetlands, covering some 78,803 hectares, declared at the Kinabatangan coastlines.
Forestry Department made a presentation at the Chatham House, London on good forest governance.
2009
Third Party Independent Auditing of all long-term licence holders introduced.
Imbak Canyon (16,750 hectares) was accorded totally protected status under Class I (Protection).
2010
RIL was made mandatory on all harvesting within forest reserves.
2011
Both Ulu Segama Forest Reserves and Tangkulap-Sg Pinangah Forest Reserves (FMU 17A) were certified under the FSC standard.
The Right Honourable Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak launched the 'SAFE" (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems) project at the Maliau Basin Field Centre, a Malaysian collaboration with the Royal Society and the University of London.
1.2 million m³ of plantation timber produced in Sabah and the highest ever since the first exports of planted timber in 1982.
The Sabah Forestry Department was invited to St. James's Palace, London, to present Sabah's Conservation agenda.
2012
Sabah Forestry Department made a presentation in a side event of the Rio+20 Conference, Brazil.
About 900,000 hectares of forests are partially or fully certified in Sabah under the FSC and the MTCC (Malaysian Timber Certification Council) as well managed forests.
Their Royal Highnesses, Prince William & Lady Catherine visited Danum Valley.
2013
Carbon locked up in trees legislated as a forest produce and a taxable commodity if traded.
Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) increased to 18.6% of the total land mass of Sabah or about 1.3 million hectares.
The Sabah Forestry team made a presentation on Sabah's Conservation agenda to the US Administration at Washington DC, USA.
For the first time in at least 50 years, no short term (Form I) licences were issued inside forest reserves.
SFD constituted a total of 3.6 million hectares of forest reserves or 49.1% of the State's land mass.
Totally restored and planted forests exceeded 500,000 hectares, the highest ever.
2014
The department is a proud organisation with about 2,000 staff and headed by Datuk Sam Mannan


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sigh, i felt like he did support the environment through HoB and also the development of Sabah with the plantations. I mean, if we didn't have all this oil palm, what else could Sabah be producing?

Not like the western countries are going to be paying us for keeping our forest.

and honesty, the westerns destroyed their forest for the sake of their own development back then.

i mean, yeah there are some wrongs here and there, if the moneies were allocated back out better to more people the community. then it wouldn't e such a big issue gess? if the riches were shared.

but yeah.... what if all this was a scheme to prevent Malaysia from rising up as a super power economy? haha

Excerpt:
>According to one source close to the matter, two board members of the Yayasan Sabah foundation are part of the corruption scheme and provide cover for the chief minister when granting logging concessions.

>The source recounts repeated cases of the granting of logging concessions in areas of the Sabah rainforest that were later declared as protection zones. «In one publicity stunt, the chief minister added one tract of rainforest to the Heart of Borneo protection zone – but at that time, the land had already been completely logged», the source says.


https://www.republik.ch/2018/03/26/ubs-in-the-jungle


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CAO's carbon map of sabah done in 2017

https://carnegiescience.edu/node/2268

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The most important control measure after planting is to manage for reduced tree stress. This includes regulating species composition, maintaining biological diversity, and reducing the chances for insect pest buildup. Mixed-species forests are more resistant to insect defoliation, and also slow the spread of species-specific pests such as dwarf mistletoe, which are both predisposing agents for Armillaria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae

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if only we learnt about this book while studying forestry in UMS. sigh, the things they leave out of the public education.

The History of Logging in North Borneo by Ross Ibbotson

https://www.nhpborneo.com/book/history-logging-north-borneo/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285815732_The_History_of_Logging_in_North_Borneo_by_Ross_Ibbotson

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1217053

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THe work im doing that has been done:

These collections were obtained over a 73 year period (1938-2011), with the majority (75%) having been collected during the 1950s and 1960s, which pre-dates the major loss of forest cover in Sabah. All herbarium specimen locality records without geographical coordinates were geo-referenced by consulting 1:250,000 soil maps and 1:50,000 forest stratum maps. Supplementary locality data were collected from research plots established predominantly during the 1950s and 1960s and during more recent field surveys conducted as part of the HOB Initiative and as part of the Sabah Plant Red List project (2009-2013). All dipterocarps encountered during these surveys were identified and their position recorded with a GPS.

Dipterocarp endemism in the Heart Of Borneo. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258839614_Dipterocarp_endemism_in_the_Heart_Of_Borneo [accessed Jun 13, 2017].

On completion of the Manuals of Dipterocarps for Foresters, the database was taken on by Dr. Rachun Pooma (BKF). Between 1999 and 2003, he made records of all specimens of Dipterocarpaceae collected in Thailand, more than doubling the size of the specimen records file. He then attached latitude and longitude coordinates to as many of them as he could and downloaded these records into ARC/INFO in order to carry out an area cladistic analysis. His work was funded by the Danish Environmental Research Programme’s project entitled, “Forests and People in Thailand” and led to his Ph.D. of Kasetsart University. Full details of his work can be seen at the Bangkok Forest Herbarium website .

In 2002, Professor Peter Ashton donated his collection of record cards to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Each of the 20,000 or so cards represents a specimen of a dipterocarp seen by Professor Ashton. His intention was that the cards should be added to the database in Edinburgh. As a first step towards this goal, two students of Aberdeen University digitised all the cards relating to Philippines species between May and August 2003. Mr. Zisis Gagkas and Mr. Erling John Karlberg, studied distributions of Philippines species and reassessed the IUCN categories of threat for each species, based on distributions of collecting localities plotted on maps of the extent of forests in the Philippines in 1900 and 1990.

http://193.62.154.38/diptero/

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some history of forestry in Sabah. and why we still have patches of forest =/

"Being a man of few words, all he said was that it was just one of many small patches of forest that had been preserved for future generations to know the type of the jungle in the area that had been cleared to make way for agriculture."

Ah, so that's why there's still these forest left around for us to do research on...
thanks man, good foresight
https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2017/09/16/small-filipino-community-makes-big-impact-on-sabahs-landscape/#hBFgJ0a5fYRTQe4s.30

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what the plan is for doing the Mphil in UMS, Sabah.
IUCN statuses for dipterocarp trees along with an ensemble heatmap showing priority areas where they could potentially be found.

Modeling FTW.

maybe the PhD would be upon using machine learning for the modeling work. time to take up some programing classes part time? gee, numbers and statistics should be a hobby

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Essential programs that should be thought to students in forestry:

1. R-studio (versatile Program language for Statistical analysis)
2. QGIS (free Geographic Information System)
3. BHRAMS (Database management System)
4. Zotero/Mendeley (reference citation)

Other useful side programs:
1. Estimate S
2. MaxENT
3. Microsoft Excel

I dont understand why we had to learn:
1. SPSS



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owh man, good guy Englishman looking out for us back then. if only there were more fervent people now adays to dig into matters and root em out.

The amount of detail and speech in this freely available online source makes me wonder how it can be open to the public.

Its like a gem waiting to be discovered

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1956/mar/29/north-borneo-timber-industry
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should be a case review for students in forestry:

http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/05/18/priceworth-gets-green-light-to-log-at-sabah-forest-reserve/


what are the economics and how to interpret it?


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i guess monitoring forest change is quite the in thing

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/194008291300600101

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a little about DVCA, Yayasan Sabah, Weyer Haueser Co.

Rivers: Bole, Segama,

Mt SIlam, Mt Danum,

Kennedy Bay Co on conventional tractor logging and cable yarding


http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/117/1178932851.pdf

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No... Please no more oil palm...

http://www.star2.com/living/2017/05/18/10-photographs-that-describe-the-palm-oil-industry/#SYuQsAafzLU4qGVd.30

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https://longreads.com/2017/05/08/death-by-fire/?

haha forest fire, what a joke to fight against nature7 classes of Forest Reserves (FR)
I) Protection FR - watershed and environmental services, can't log
II) Commercial FR - all the logging happens
III) Domestic FR - harvestable by locals, not large scale
IV) Amenity FR - recreational, education to general public and small research
V) Mangrove FR - harvested for the bakau
VI) Virgin Jungle Reserve (VJR) - stricly research, bioD conservation
VII) Wildlife Reserve - for the wildlife, Kulamba WR and Tabin WR

http://www.flyingdusun.com/005_Places/050_parks&class.htm

just seven classes.... what are they collectively known as?
haha

Last time they were called Permanent Forest Reserves (PFR),
but of late the umbrella term was changed to Permanent Forest Estate (PFE).

and under that the various types?landuse?categories? are known as:
1) Protective Forests a.k.a. Protection Forest last time (PF... no, they were better known as Protected Areas "PA"),
2) Protective Forests a.k.a. Production Forest last time (these were the PF)
3) Amenity Forests, no idea why they have this when a Class by itself is of the same name
4) Virgin Forest - Probably VJRs .. not really virgin, most of them are probably logged over.

And then the third level comes....(mostly for all Class II forest)....
"land use" the category/field/term that is used for ... Forest functions:
a) Conservation - using the category field "LANDUSE"
b) IPT / "Sabah ITP Area" - using the category field "CLASSIFIED"
c) Mosaic planting
d) NFM - using the category field "FUNCTION"
e) Agroforestry - having 'oil palm plantations' under "PAREAS"

so yeah... terms.. belit

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I think back of the time where i see trucks carting out logs and small timber.
the judiciary and laws are there, just that the enforcement and prosecution aren't.

worst still, alot of young people going into the work line are actually clueless about laws and their importance. hence, they just sign off papers that permit those old-timers (whom know how to exploit both the system and the land for unsustainable personal gain), becoming scapegoats.

for example, a fresh grad working in a third party auditing firm, no real interest in the forest, just looking for a job and some monthly cash. Goes to the site and gets "tricked" by deceit and deception, to pass off the logging as legal and in the right frame. never really bothering to read the fine details or go the extra mile and check not just on the brushed up, white-washed presentation site, but the deeper more harder back lines.

and just signs the paper.
http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/discover/policies/forest-legislation

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Policies

Okay so the whole idea for a "policy" is to set the.. goal? that is to be achieved. something like a guiding vision, mission, motto, objective, aim...

gosh. so much terms that overlap with each other. anyhow stakeholders

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those who don't know history are bound to repeat them.

http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/download/2007/23.%20xi.%20Forest%20Reservation.pdf

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http://iea.uoregon.edu/

the compilation of Environmental agreements..
led by Ronald B. Mitchell from University of Oregon.

haha, its like a giant database of recording all that has happened in history regarding the laws, polices and stuff people make up regarding nature.

i guess he was trying to see what makes people tick,
what works and doesnt.

owh well. one day.. one day we will all agree... with the singularity

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this is what we need.. in Malaysia

https://environment.google/projects/forest-watch/

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should be another compulsory reading for forestry students
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Hidden_Life_of_Trees.html?id=WEn4DAAAQBAJ

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special features of SFD Annual Report for year 2008 and 2012.. how far have we come since then? at 2017

http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/download/2008/29_Special.pdf
http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/images/pdf/publications/AR2012/Chap29.pdf



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