The Star : Beetle May Destroy Palm Oil Sector

Monday, 11 April 2016

BY TASHNY SUKUMARAN

KUALA LUMPUR: A species of beetle illegally brought in across the Thai-Malaysian border has been ravaging the nation’s palm trees, and – if left unchecked – can potentially decimate the palm oil industry within just 20 years.

The red palm weevil, or Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, is a species of beetle that excavates holes in the trunk of palm trees, eventually killing the plant. It infests coconut palms, date palms and oil palms.

According to the Department of Agriculture’s (DoA) Plant Biosecurity Division, so far a whopping 465ha of coconut trees are gone, mainly in Terengganu and Kedah.

There are 85,799ha of coconut palms in Malaysia. Additionally, 335 date palms have been eaten.

So far, said department head Faridah Aini Muhammad, no commercial plantations had been affected, but the weevil’s spread was a major cause for concern.

“What worries us is that if these beetles do not have access to their main source of food in date palms, they will move to oil palm trees.

“There have been reports which are still unconfirmed as yet, but it is a very real concern,” she said, adding that research was currently ongoing in several universities across the country.

“Research at UKM has shown that even without being forced, the weevil will go to the palm oil fruits and breed inside the tree itself.”

The red palm weevil first entered the country when seedlings and date palms were illegally brought in across the border with the beetle in the trunks.

Under Malaysia’s Plant Quaran­tine Act, the import of any palms except for research purposes is prohibited.

So far, the weevil can be found in five states – Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Penang and Terengganu – with the latter being the worst-hit.

“People have been bringing pandan coconut and date palms in for years, but after El Nino recently the weather became more suitable for these palms to flower and fruit, so people wanted to bring it in,” said Faridah.

However, unknown to most people, the bulk of the date palms smuggled in were ornamental plants that would not fruit.

While Malaysia is home to several other species of palm weevil, the one that has recently entered our shores breeds far quicker and so is more dangerous.

See no evil : Trunks of a dead palm tree hollowed out
by a palm weevil infestation

“To control its spread, we must spray cypermethrin (an insecticide) every two weeks until the infestation is dead. We have to do preventive spraying as well, including soil drenching (adding diluted chemicals to the base of plants),” said Faridah.

The adults are also killed with the use of pheromone traps, which can be used as an early detection method.

“If we find beetles in the traps, we know there are probably more,” she said.

The DoA has also met with and briefed the Smuggling Prevention Unit (UPP) of the Border Control Agency to look into the matter.

The Biosecurity Division has urged Malaysians to contact the DoA if they notice a possible infestation, or spray insecticide themselves.

“The first sign will be a wilting crown – the leaves fall into a skirt-like formation around the tree. They will then start dropping.

“Eventually, the whole trunk will be hollowed out and potentially fall, which is also a risk to the public, as some areas use palms as avenue trees to line roads and pathways, and even around mosques,” she said.

Faridah said that while the beetle had appeared in Malaysia in 2010, the situation had worsened due to an increase in smuggling.

“We have approached nurseries and told them to stop selling these smuggled date palms, but people must stop buying from unreliable sources, and report any potential smuggling to the authorities,” she said.

The Star : Rare Agarwood Species is Back

 

Lost tresure : This 'Aquilaria rostrata' has been found in Besut, Terengganu after missing for over a century.

Thursday, 10 March 2016

PETALING JAYA: A critically endangered species of agarwood, which has been elusive for more than 100 years, has resurfaced.

The Aquilaria rostrata was first discovered in 1911 and was thought to be native only to Wray’s Camp in Taman Negara, Pahang.

Since then, nobody had spotted the species.

However, two Forestry Department rangers found what they suspected to be the elusive species in April last year in Besut, Terengganu, some 100km away from where it was first discovered.

Their suspicion was soon confirmed by a research team in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) led by associate professor Dr Rozi Mohamed.

“At first, we thought that it was a new species but after making comparisons with a 100-year-old specimen at Herbarium Botanic Gardens in Singapore, we discovered that it was the Aquilaria rostrata,” she said in a statement.

Dr Rozi, who published her findings in Blumen, an international journal on plant taxonomy, said the tree was found among felled timber in an area of about 700m above sea level.

“It is not available anywhere else but only in peninsular Malaysia and is in danger of extinction,” she said.

Some 50 of the same species were found in the same area, ranging between 2m and 5m in height. The trees were flowering and bore fruits. They were not cut down when found.

UPM Forestry Management Department head associate professor Dr Mohd Nazre Saleh said the rediscovery of Aquilaria rostrata was significant to floristic records everywhere.

“More so now because the species was discovered somewhere else from where it was originally found,” he told The Star.

Dr Mohd Nazre said this particular tree was “extremely rare” and was one of the species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

He called for more conservation efforts to “protect and preserve” the tree from being exploited.

Dr Rozi, whose study was funded by the Higher Education Ministry’s Fundamental Research Grant, also agreed that the species should be safeguarded from “unscrupulous quarters out to get hold of agarwood”.

Aquilaria rostrata was first discovered in 1911 by H.N. Ridley, with the findings published in 1924.

The species is listed as critically endangered under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List and is believed to have declined due to the high demand for agarwood.

The Star : Dangerous weed Mushrooming

Tuesday 9th December 2014

BY TASHNY SUKUMARAN

Deadly bloom: The dangerous weed with flowers growing wildly in Sidam, Kulim.

SUNGAI PETANI: It has been dubbed the “worst weed of the century”, destroying native flora and crops, causing rashes that can leave humans permanently scarred and damaging the intestines of animals that eat it.

Called Parthenium hysterophorus, it was first detected here in September last year in Ulu Yam, Selangor.

But the highly-allergenic plant has since been spotted in Perak, Kedah and Negri Sembilan, raising fears that it has spread throughout the country.

Initial accounts show that the plant has even resisted attempts to control it through weedkillers.

A species of flowering plant native to Mexico, it can cause severe skin disease and hayfever in humans.

It is also toxic to livestock such as goats and cows, causing fevers, ulcers, anorexia and intestinal damage, and can quickly replace native flora by releasing toxic substances, causing massive crop loss.

Similar in appearance to ulam raja, P. hysterophorus is classified as a dangerous pest under the Plant Quarantine Regulations 1981 and can quickly propagate.

According to Professor Dr S. M. Rezaul Karim of Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, this is because one plant, which can reach several feet in height, can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds during its four-week life cycle.

“The seeds can be dormant in the ground for up to 10 years, making it impossible to get rid of.”

In Sg Petani, some areas had been sprayed with herbicide, only to see fresh plants springing anew just days later.

“The weed spreads like wildfire. You can look at examples in other countries, such as Australia which spends millions of dollars yearly trying to control it,” said Dr Karim, who heads the university’s parthenium weed research group.

According to Dr Karim, P. hysterophorus not only competes with other plants for nutrients – it also releases chemicals which damage other plants.

Its effect on people, he said, was particularly worrying as it often grows by the roadside where the public can easily come into contact with it.

“We need to find out how many communities in Malaysia have been affected,” he said.

“In some nations, the rash can become so bad it leaves people permanently scarred. It can take three months for the symptoms to subside,” he said.

Checks by The Star during a recent field trip to Sungai Petani saw the weed growing as high as 1.2m (4 ft) in close proximity to restaurants, paddy fields, businesses and irrigation drains that allow the seeds to hitch a ride to other areas, thus propagating its spread.

According to DOA representatives, the area had been sprayed several times with weedkiller to no avail.

In a media release, the DOA listed several methods of controlling the weed, including destroying the weed in its early stages before it flowers and produces seeds, and curbing it in residential areas using salt water in a 1:4 ratio of salt to water.

The department believes that the weed arrived in Malaysia by way of seeds being carried through imported machinery or in fertiliser.

Among the known affected areas are Kinta, Hulu Perak, Selama, Perak Tengah, Manjung, Kuala Kangsar, Pokok Sena, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Muda, Kota Setar, Seremban and Kuala Pilah.

The DOA’s Plant Biosecurity Division has formed a technical committee on the control, containment and removal of P. hysterophorus that will come up with a standard containment operating procedure and work with state governments to identify and monitor problem areas as well as destroying existing weeds.

State agricultural officers have been briefed on how to deal with the problem while an exercise to identify places where the weed grows is already underway.

The Star : Declining dietary diversity

Monday 7 October, 2013

Scan the supermarket isles and consumers appear to be faced with endless choice.

Now, take another look.  How much of this is really just different versions of the same plant ?  Pasta, bread, crackers, flour, cereals, cakes, noodles, couscous and beer, for example, are all the products of wheat.  For much of the world, dietary diversity in an illusion.  Most of our arable land is coming to be dominated by an increasingly narrow range of crops.

Maize, wheat and rice are the superstars of agriculture.   Together, they account for 60% of the world’s calorie intake.

But there was a time, within the last 10,000 years, when man made use of 30,000 plant, 7,000 of which were crops.

Cast the net a bit wider, and today it’s still only 120 species of plants that supply 90% of our diet – down from the 7,000 above.

The Crops For The Future Research Centre aims to investigate and, where appropriate, elevate the status of a variety of underutilized fruits and vegetables in our diet.   Some examples follows :

Fruits

> Asam gelugur ( Garcinia atroviridis )

> Belimbing buluh ( Averrhoa bilimbi )

> Cerapu ( Garcinia parainiana )

> Ceri Terengganu ( Lepisanthes fruticosa )

> Kedondong ( Spondias cytherea )

> Kemunting ( Rhodomyrtus tomentosa )
> Kundang ( Couea macrophylla )

> Salak ( Salacca zalacca )

> Sentul ( Sandoricum macropodum )

> Sukun ( Artocarpus altilis )

> Rambai ( Baccaurea matleyana )

Vegetables

> Beluntas ( Pluchea indica )

> Beremi laut ( Portulaca spp. )

> Gandarusa ( Justicia gendarussa )

> Gajus merah ( Anarcardium accidentale )

> Kemoyang ( Homalomena sagittifolia )

> Mengkudu ( Morinda citrifolia )

> Mata itik ( Ardisia crenata )

> Peria pantai ( Colubrina asiatica )

> Tenggek burung ( Euodia ridleyi )

> Sabung nyawa ( Gynura procumbens )

> Salam ( Eugenia polyantha )

The Star : Rare finds on outcrops

Tuesday July 16, 2013

BY TAN CHENG LI

Lush hills: Soaring limestone outcrops, such as Gua Panjang, tower over the landscape of Kampung Merapoh, Pahang. Botanists say each hill is dominated by different flora. – Photo by LAILA BASIR

Botanists uncover a flora treasure trove in Merapoh hills.

THE drive along Federal Route 8, or the Gua Musang Highway, in Pahang, is a rather scenic one. Towering over the expanse of oil palm estates, which are broken up in parts by rural kampung and lush forests, are majestic-looking limestone outcrops.

Some 20 limestone karsts – some people say it is at least 30, as not all are shown on maps – are scattered along the road stretching from Chegar Perah to Merapoh in the district of Lipis before the land inches into Kelantan territory.

The karsts are highly visible as one makes the drive but surprisingly, they are completely unknown from a botanical viewpoint.

“We looked for data and found no record of the plants there. None of the limestone hills have been botanically explored before. For us, it’s a botanical blank on the map of flora,” says Dr Ruth Kiew, a plant taxonomist at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM).

And so, when her team converged on the hills around Merapoh, there were plenty of interesting discoveries – there were rare, endemic plants, and even an undescribed one.

At Gua Gunting, the hill which will be quarried, they recorded over 200 plant species in just two days. This is hardly surprising as limestone hills are known for their rich plant diversity.

Peninsular Malaysia’s limestone hills cover only 0.3% of the land area but are home to 14% of her plant species. Unfortunately, none of the limestone hills in Merapoh are protected, and hence, are at risk from wanton development. The FRIM team made two trips this year, where they surveyed five hills.

“From what we have found so far, it’s a unique place as the flora on each hill is so different. This is unique from my experience of working in Malaysia,” says Dr Kiew, a leading authority on limestone flora. “I expected the flora to be an extension of limestones from Gua Musang (in Kelantan), so I was surprised that the hills are so different and we’re picking up unexpected things.”

One such instance is the discovery of Pararuellia sumatrana (below) var. ridleyi which is previously known only from Batu Caves, Selangor.

Pararuellia sumatrana var. ridleyi was thought to grow only in Batu Caves, Selangor, but was recently found in Merapoh.

Another important find is that of a balsam, Rhynchoglossum obliqua, previously known only from Gunung Tupus (at Chegar Perah, south of Merapoh) and another undisclosed site. FRIM scientists failed to locate the plant at Gunung Tupus, now surrounded by oil palms, and believe it has become extinct there.

“This is just one indication of what can happen. If limestone hills are surrounded by oil palms and there is burning to clear the land, that will destroy the flora. If the hills are not protected with a buffer, then it is easy for species to become extinct.”

The Merapoh hills also harbour species of fern, begonia and balsam that grow only on limestone. The scientist also found the Pandanus irregularis which is endemic to Peninsular Malaysia and grows only on the summits of limestone hills.

Some other finds:

> Spelaeanthus chinii – Endemic to Pahang, it was previously known only from Taman Negara and another hill in Lipis.

> Zippelia begoniifolius – Known from only three collections, the last one in the 1930s.

> Monophyllaea musangensis - Previously known only from Gua Musang, Kelantan.

> Tridynamia megalantha – Last collected in Perak in the 1880s.

> Calciphilopteris alleniae - A rare endemic fern known only from five limestone hills.

> Cleisostoma complicatum – This is the third locale for this orchid which is found in Pahang for the first time.

These are just the preliminary findings; the botanists have bags of specimens awaiting analysis and they intend to make more trips to Merapoh.

“We’re just scratching the surface as we’ve only surveyed five hills. We need to survey all 20 hills to document the plants and see which is critically important for conservation because of rare and endangered species.

“Limestone hills have a lot of micro-habitats. For instance, at the foothills you get plants suited to damp conditions. On the rock face, there are other types of flora and at the hilltop, you get plants which are exposed to the sun. So, you must survey all habitats to get a complete list of the flora,” says Dr Kiew.

She adds that surveys of fossils, micro-snails and cave fauna are also needed to determine the importance of the hills for wildlife.

Preservation of the caves is important, she adds, as they can be part of the Sungai Yu wildlife corridor, a stretch of forest that is important for connecting Taman Negara and the Main Range, the country’s two largest forest complexes.

The Star : Protecting Native Flora and Fauna

Tuesday November 23, 2010

Protecting native flora and fauna

By TAN CHENG LI
star2green@thestar.com.my

Botanists are mapping the health of our native plants and the results so far are grim.

THE Shorea kuantanensis is no more. All that remains of it is a couple of faded, dried leaves and buds, taped to a piece of cardboard and stored in one of thousands of boxes filling the shelves of the vast Kepong Herbarium at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM).

We will never know how high the tree grows. Or the shade of green of its leaves. Or the colour of its blooms. We can only guess how its seedlings look like. The species was lost to science and mankind after the only area where it grew, the Bukit Goh forest reserve near Kuantan, Pahang, was cleared and planted over with oil palm.

Three other Peninsular Malaysia plants share the same fate as S. kuantanensis. The fern Oreogrammitis crispatula has not been seen in Bukit Larut, Perak, since 1952. Its cousin, Oreogrammitis kunstleri, was last collected from Gunung Ledang, Johor, in 1880. The Begonia eromischa disappeared after its forest home in Penang was turned into a farm.

If we don’t start protecting our native flora, all that remains in future may well be just pressed specimens in herbariums. - LOW LAY PHON / The Star

Now, we only know all these four plants from pressed specimens in the herbarium. With over half of Peninsular Malaysia’s original forests now replaced by townships, industrial sites, farms and estates, our wild native flora has certainly taken a beating.

The latest stock-take of our plant kingdom shows just how bad things are: of the 580 species and subspecies looked at so far, almost half face some degree of threat. The results are merely scratching the surface. With over 7,700 species left to study, more grim news might come.

The data is the culmination of the first five years of project Safeguarding the Plant Diversity of Peninsular Malaysia, undertaken by FRIM to update knowledge on our flora. It is our most ambitious project on plant biodiversity to date, and marks our first attempt to document, in detail, how our plants are faring in the wild.

“Previous work had only looked at the description and distribution of species. This project goes one step further to include their conservation status (such as whether the species is endangered),” says botanist Dr Saw Leng Guan, who heads the project. Saw is director of the Tropical Forest Biodiversity Centre at FRIM.

The effort is much needed as there are gaps in our understanding of native plants. Although Peninsular Malaysia has a long history of botanical collection, with naturalists and botanists gathering and documenting plant specimens since the 1800s, much of the information has not been updated for years.

Lost forever: All that’s left of Shorea kuantanensis is the pressed specimens (the page on extreme right) being held by botanist Dr Saw Leng Guan. Now considered extinct, the tree species is known from only the Bukit Goh forest reserve near Kuantan, an area that has been cultivated with oil palm.

Our earliest floristic account was the six-volume The Flora Of The Malay Peninsula by Henry Ridley, published between 1922 and 1925. Over the years, attempts to revise the knowledge have been scattered, limited or confined to plant families of economic importance (such as timber trees) or of personal interest to scientists (such as ferns, orchids and begonias). As such, we have plant groups, such as lianas, which have not been reviewed since Ridley’s time.

The FRIM project has so far resulted in three publications, with more to come: two volumes of Flora Of Peninsular Malaysia (one on seed plants and one on ferns and leucophytes) and one volume of the Malaysian Plant Red List (on dipterocarp trees). The Flora Of Peninsular Malaysia compilations contain the most up-to-date information on 580 species, covering taxonomic descriptions, botanical drawings, distributions, ecology, and conservation status.

The updated information will provide baseline information that is essential for the management and conservation of Peninsular Malaysia’s botanical treasure trove. Aside from the four extinct species, FRIM researchers documented 262 species (45.2%) as threatened, out of which 79 are critically endangered, 88 are endangered and 95, vulnerable. They found that restricted and declining distribution, due to loss of natural habitats, is the greatest threat to plants. A reduction in population size and small numbers of mature individuals are the other causes.

Aside from vetting herbarium specimens, FRIM researchers have gone on the ground to collect and document plants under the Safeguarding the Plant Diversity of Peninsular Malaysia project.

The Malaysian Plant Red List is a brief version of the Flora as its focus is on the conservation status of plants. The first volume focuses on dipterocarpaceae, an important timber group and the dominant family in lowland forests. Aside from the extinct S. kuantanensis, the Red List revealed 15 dipterocarps to be critically endangered and 35, endangered. Of the critically endangered species, six are peninsula endemics.

“Dipterocarps are the skeleton of the forest from where other plants grow. They form the canopy of the forest and if removed, other plantlife will be affected. By doing this (the Red List), we will know the response of the forest to threats,” says Saw.

Plant scrutiny

To revise the scientific knowledge on our plants, the researchers start by first vetting the 300,000 dried specimens – some dating back 100 years, and the oldest one is dated 1819! – in the Kepong Herbarium. From there, the distributions of the species are plotted on a map and then collated with the extent of forest cover; this narrows down the range of plants in our present day.

If the habitat of a species is gone, that species is likely to be gone, too. From there, the researchers determine the level of threat faced by the species, whether critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable, based on the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Cross-referencing is done with collections and information from herbariums in Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and the Netherlands, as well as with agencies such as the Forestry Department.

“It is impossible to go to the ground to look for all the plants as this will take too long. But for some 40 highly endangered plants, including the rare ones and those feared to be extinct, we went out to the field to do population counts,” says Saw.

In their pursuit to document local flora, the researchers found both good and bad news. One good news is the discovery of Dryobalanops beccarii in Peninsular Malaysia. The plant was previously found only in Borneo. The bad news is that one population of the critically endangered Vatica yeechongii in Setul forest reserve in Negri Sembilan has been wiped out by building construction. The only other population of the species, described only in 2002, in Sungai Lalang forest reserve in Selangor, is safe – but it has all of 10 trees.

“We have lost much of our forests, so the range of distribution for most species has declined. That’s why we have such a high number of threatened species,” explains Saw.

Malaysia has 15,000 plants species; Peninsular Malaysia hosts 8,300 species while Sabah and Sarawak, 12,000.

Saw estimates that revising all of the species found in the peninsula will take at least 20 years. The Flora Of Peninsular Malaysia features two series to cover all our plants. Series I, on Ferns and Lycophytes, will have another four to five volumes. Series II is on Seed Plants and 20 volumes are expected. Future publications of the Malaysian Plant Red List will be on begonias and palms.

To accomplish all this, funds are sorely needed. The initial RM7mil provided by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry covered only the first phase from 2005 to 2010. Saw says funding for botanical inventories usually comes up short despite the importance of such research. “By identifying what species are threatened, we can then do something about it. Very often, we act in ignorance. People do not have the right information to make the right decisions. The key is generating the data to give the right information.”

He cites the example of Hopea subalata or merawan kanching, an endemic that grows only in Kanching forest reserve in Selayang, Selangor. When FRIM botanists heard that a new road, the Rawang bypass, would cut through the only known site where the trees grow, they immediately appealed to the Forestry Department and the state government. The road was subsequently realigned.

In a similar case, the Forestry Department set aside 63ha within Jerangau forest reserve in Terengganu as a “genetic resource area”, protecting it from loggers, after the critically endangered Dipterocarpus sarawakensis (keruing layang) was found there. This may well be the last population of the species in Peninsular Malaysia as the other population in Sungai Dadong could no longer be located.

Yet another positive conservation example is that of the critically endangered Dipterocarpus semivestitus (keruing padi). Historical records show that the species grows only in two places: central Kalimantan and Perak. The species was feared to be all but lost as the sites in Perak, in the freshwater swamps of Parit, Sungai Rotan and Sungai Tinggi, have been taken over by tin mining.

In 2006, a FRIM researcher found D. semivestitus in a patch of freshwater swamp in the Universiti Teknologi Mara campus in Seri Iskandar, Perak. Unfortunately, the site was to be cleared for new buildings.
After consultation, the university authorities agreed to make changes to their expansion plans. Although some trees were sacrificed, 53 stands remain. FRIM is working with the university to preserve the swamp as the trees survive on fluctuations of the water table.

“This is likely the last population of D. semivestitus in the world as the central Kalimantan population is most likely gone as the area has been planted with oil palm. So it is fortunate that the university was responsive to our suggestions,” says Saw.

But there is also bad news. The limestone hill where the endangered begonia Senyumia minutiflora grows is earmarked for quarrying by YTL Cement. The hyper-endemic species is restricted to the two adjacent limestone hills of Gunung Senyum and Gunung Jebak Puyuh in Pahang. Only 60 plants have been seen so far. Saw says several letters appealing for conservation of the plant drew no response from YTL and the state government.

Protection plan

To best protect threatened plants, Saw says we need to pinpoint important plant areas (IPAs), which are sites rich in plant diversity and endemic species, and protect them. IPAs for dipterocarps and palms include the Kledang Saiong Range in Perak, north-west Negri Sembilan-East Selangor, Terengganu, as well as central and east Johor.

It is high time the Government provided legal protection for our plants. Right now, plants are not shielded under any legislation. Only those that happen to grow in protected areas such as state or national parks or wildlife reserves, are safeguarded.

“Critically endangered species should be listed in an Act and automatically protected. With such a legal instrument, if an endangered species is found, the land owner or developer will be required by law to protect it. Now, protection is just based on goodwill.”

We also need to move into spe-cies recovery and restoration of the most threatened species. Conser-vation actions include monitoring the populations to determine their health; developing conservation measures to remove the threats; initiating protection and recovery programmes; and initiating ex-situ conservation programmes to aid recovery (such as artificial breeding and genetic conservation).

“The Government has to take more serious action to protect our species. Once a plant is extinct, it’s gone forever. There’s no going back,” stresses Saw.