Project update - Malaysia Tropical Forest Conservation Project - December 2004
Added to website: 01 December 2004
Project Brief
Aim
The Malaysia Tropical Forest Conservation Project is a collaborative project between Coral Cay Conservation and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. The aim of the project is to conduct rapid biodiversity assessments of different habitats within Setiu Wetlands, in order to compile a detailed species list and highlight the species distributions within this area.
Location
The project moved from the Perhentian Islands to Kampung Betang Lintang, Terengganu, on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, in October.
CCC Partners
CCC is working in partnership with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Peninsular Malaysia) and Wild Asia.
Terrestrial Science Programme
Baseline Surveys
In our second month of surveying in the Setiu Wetlands we have studied two different habitats: coastal scrub and very dense (and thorny!) young rainforest. At each site we’ve conducted point counts for birds, small mammal and herpetofauna trapping, visual encounter surveys for herpetofauna, laid out pitfall traps for small reptiles and amphibians, and where possible, put up mist nets for bats and birds. We are adding new species to the Setiu species list every week, very exciting!
Interesting / Unusual Sightings
We have seen loads of colourful butterflies and managed to identify quite a few, even down to subspecies level. More snakes spotted too, including an oriental whip snake which provided us with a fascinating threat display in which it changed from a uniform bright green to brown and green stripes. We caught a large-tailed night jar and a stripe-throated bulbul in our mist nets, both of which we hadn’t seen in Setiu yet. We also had a great birding day surveying the lagoon in a boat. Finally, mammal trapping has been very successful, yielding lots of rats, tree shrews and plantain squirrels.
Environmental Awareness
Capacity Building/Training of Local Counterparts
The local schools are currently closed as it is a holiday period until January. However, we are organising weekly activities with some children from the village, such as arts and crafts, learning the names of plants and animals in English (and in Malay for us!), playing games etc. These Saturday afternoon sessions are as much fun for them as for us!
In addition, we organised an Open Day, which turned out to be a huge success! Around 100 people came, including the State Minister. We had prepared lots of food and large information boards explaining what we are doing, illustrated with photos of plant and animals we have seen and habitats we are surveying.
