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Papers:
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management (Hornbill 1998)
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Comanagement(Hornbill 2000)
Recreation(Johor 2001)
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2002 | |
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I spent Christmas 2002 at Danau
Sentarum NP, across the border in West Kalimantan. I had been
through the area in 1991 on the way to Benua Martinus and the
Betung-Kalihun NP, but that was during the dry season when water
levels were low. This was a chance to see it in the wet season.
Although the scenery was much nicer with so much water around and
the flooded forests were impressive, the wildlife was spread out
over a much wider area instead of being concentrated along the
rivers, so I didn't see very much. The wet season seemed to have
taken a break over Christmas, as we had good weather all the time I
was in the Park (though it poured down when I was in Pontianak on
the way to and from the Park).  |
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In December I moved house. The old place was close to Forest School
where the Lincoln programme had been based, but too far from Kuching.
I decided to start house-hunting in earnest when the local council changed
the name of the area from "Taman Range" to
"Fairyland"; I didn't fancy telling all my friends of my
new address! The new place is an eighth floor apartment with a
splendid view across Kuching (and the swimming pool) to the
mountains of Santubong and Matang and the spiky limestone hills of
the Bau area. |
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In November, back in Sarawak, I made a couple of short trips to
national parks which I had never visited before. The first was Maludam
NP, a new park established in 2000. It is a peat swamp which has
been heavily logged in the past and where there is still some
illegal logging, so there are few big trees left. Nevertheless,
it has a unique species of monkey - the world's only red
banded langurs - which I heard but did not see. The next venue was Tanjung
Datu NP, at the extreme western tip of Sarawak, close to the
Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary. The land slopes steeply down from the
Indonesian border to the sea, with plenty of small waterfalls and
deserted beaches. I saw several groups of bearded pigs and macaques,
plus the tracks of otters on the beach, a female argus pheasant with
a chick, and a pair of Pacific reef egrets (dark
morph). |
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After graduation I went across to Peninsular Malaysia for a couple
of weeks. First stop was Ulu
Muda Eco Park, close to the Thai border in Kedah, where I spent
a morning boating on the reservoir, arranged by High Adventure
Travel - saw pied hornbills, otters, osprey, fish eagle. Then I went
to Perlis
State Park, again very close to the Thai border and spent a few
nights in the simple chalets in the park. I didn't visit the caves
there, but saw many great hornbills flying over and got excellent
views of Asian paradise flycatcher (an immature male white-morph)
and red-throated barbet. Next destination was Taman
Negara NP, where I last visited in 1988! The visitor
accommodation at Park HQ was upgraded to a smart resort a long time
ago, but there's an assortment of private lodges on the opposite
bank: I stayed further upriver at Nusa
Camp. I spent several days walking in the Park and in the hills
behind Nusa Camp, where I was able to watch several groups of rhinoceros
hornbills; lots of helmeted hornbills were calling in the distance but I didn't see
any. The nearest I got to 'big game' was fresh tracks of tapir on
the trail north from Kuala Trenggang. The final destination was Tasek
Bera, a Ramsar-listed wetland in the centre of the Peninsula.
After Yellowater and Lake Barrine in Australia - and even the Muda
reservoir - I was struck by the dearth of visible aquatic life.
Nothing wrong with Asian fairy bluebirds and spectacled bulbuls, but
not what I'd come to see. |
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A second group of 20 students received their Certificates in
Conservation and Ecotourism management at Lincoln
University's International Graduation in Kuching on 12 October 2002.
Fifty-eight students have now completed the programme and a further
nine have done all the taught modules and now only need to complete
their research projects in order to graduate. |
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Would you believe that on the day I went into Kao Yai I left my camera at the hotel?! |
Early October I was in Thailand. The main reason was for a Remote
Sensing and Conservation workshop at Chulalongkorn University. It
was interesting to hear from people in the RS/GIS business who are
trying to make systems more user-friendly and more easily accessible
to the ordinary park manager - without having to employ an expensive
GIS consultant. I will be interested to see how this develops in
future. I also visited old acquaintances at the national parks
office and learnt something about their computer-based English
language courses; they're hoping to expand to technical subjects in
future. Finally I spent a day at Khao
Yai NP, Thailand's flagship PA. Public transport no longer goes
up to the Park, so getting there was a bit of an Odyssey ending with
a 35km walk! During the walk I got excellent views of a family of
lar gibbons and a pair of great hornbills, plus pig-tail macaques,
squirrels, barbets, bulbuls, etc, so it was an enjoyable day. |
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Four weeks in northern Australia began with Kakadu, with a four-day
tour of visitor attractions and a chance to chat with one of the
Park staff, Don Arnold, then on to Uluru and Kaka-Juta NPs. Although
the traditional Aboriginal people play a formal role in Park
management and own some of the tour operations, they seem to take
little part in day-to-day operations. Then across to Cairns, were I
met Rosemary Hill at JCU and Julia Logan at TAFE to find out about
"Caring for Country" training programmes for Aboriginal
rangers. I hired a car to go to smaller reserves on the Atherton
Tableland, including a visit to the Centre for Tropical Reforestation
which is working with a local NGO to plant wildlife corridors
between the remaining fragments of tropical forest
there. Also drove to Daintree NP, to the Undara Lava
Tubes and as far as the Gulf coast at Karumba. |
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The Certificate
programme for Lincoln University in Sarawak officially ended on 31
July 2002 and there'll be some delay before the Diploma can begin.
That gives me an opportunity to visit some of the places I've heard
or read about. My first trip was a short visit to Philippines.
I went first to Los Banos, near Manila, to visit Mike Appleton and
the ARCBC people, but then went on to Palawan and Puerta Princesa
(formerly St Paul's) Subterranean River NP. It was interesting to go
into the cave by boat from the sea, but once inside the cave is not
as spectacular as those in Mulu (well, I'm biased, of course!) The
down-turn in tourism following 9/11 has had a big impact on the
nearby village, with many of the chalets being left to fall down. |
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For most of June
I was on leave in the UK. This year I fitted in a trip 'up north' to
visit old friends at Lyon Equipment in Dent and to see the new shed
at Tebay, very handy to the M6 Motorway. Straight after getting back
from leave, I went over to Kinabalu Park in Sabah for a workshop
organised by ARCBC
to discuss competence standards for park staff. |
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From 24 Feb to
11 March I did a tour with the bike from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu
and up to Keningau, a total of 3,380km for the round trip. The
objective was to visit all the students working on Research Reports
or papers for Hornbill, and I used the bike so that I
could take more time and call in at the places where students work.
A pleasant trip with mainly dry weather: only one tropical storm!
Chasing Research Reports has been a major theme for the following months, with a further trip to Miri, Mulu NP and Sibu in May. |
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Two guides from
Mulu - both of them students on the Lincoln course - were sponsored
by the University to take part in the Coast-to-coast
race in 2002. It is a demanding race involving cycling, running
and white-water canoeing, and both had been training hard. This was
the first time they had competed and Jenny Malang did well to
finish. Robert Gani dropped out due to a knee injury in the early
stages. |
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The third run of
the Engineering module with Tim Davies and Ian Domigan began on 29
December and finished on 11 February 2002, just before the Chinese
New Year holidays on 12th and 13th. The course built a third viewing
platform along the plankwalk at Bako NP. |
| © 1999-2004 Michael E Meredith | |
