THE issue of the development of the RM40mil marina project off Kampung Tekek in Tioman Island has caused public outcry.
This project spans 127,000 square metres and is expected to include yacht docking areas, an administration building, water breakers and a cargo jetty. The jetty is expected to be 30m wide at the tip and stretching 175m into the sea.
Development will benefit the locals but it must be development accompanied by values and responsibility to care for the environment. For example, Cameron Highlands had to sacrifice its cold weather for development.
In contrast, Fraser’s Hills has not been developed and retains its beautiful environment. The corals in Tioman Island are a gift from Allah.
Let’s ponder why Allah bestowed such a gift to us? A daily revealed that more than 100 giant clams and 20 new species of corals aged more than 100 years are facing extinction due to this marina project. According to a Universiti Putra Malaysia professor of marine environment Dr H.M. Ibrahim, table corals can only grow two centimetres and as such a five metre table coral was estimated to be at least 1,000 years old. Furthermore, the case study of “Distribution and Diversity of Seaweeds in Tioman” by Ahmad Ismail and Rusea Go of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia recorded many micro-algae communities on the littoral and sublittoral zone of Tioman Island in which there are 53 species from 33 genera and 21 families. In terms of number of species, the seaweeds of Tioman represented one third of total species recorded in Malaysia.
A total of 24 species are new to Malaysia. Another similar case to Tioman Island’s marina project is The Misali Island Conservation Area in Zanzibar.
The local fishermen dynamited the coral reefs as a desperate resort to overcome their depletion of fish stocks. As a result, the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (Ifees) in collaboration with other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Care International, World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation carried out a programme called the Misali Ethics Project. This project aimed to gather the open Islamic environmental stewardship principles, to sensitise marine resource users to the Islamic conservation ethic and to implement these teachings within the parameters of an integrated conservation and development project bearing in mind sustainability issues.
The project was implemented in three stages. In stage one, three workshops were conducted accompanied by 24
photographic slides and an instruction manual produced by Ifees. Two of the workshops were conducted for fishermen, local government officials and madrasah (religious school) teachers.
The third workshop was held at the Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Ministry. This workshop was successful and representatives of international NGOs who took part thought that the use of Qur’an as a teaching resource has influenced state authorities on conservation issues in a matter of days compared with the poor result achieved over previous years using standard conservation approaches. As a result, there also have been proposals to use this teaching resource in school and for creating greater awareness in the adult population.
Further workshops that entail a deeper study of the Qur’an were conducted and aspects of some of the syariah law related to conservation were also examined. At present, the project is in its third stage.
Resource materials for the ulama and madrasah teachers are being produced to enable Islamic environmental messages to be disseminated to a wider cross-section of the community. An implementation process has been proposed which will incorporate the best Islamic practices within existing administrative structures.
A different view of the natural scientist, Charles Darwin, taken from “Coral Reef Degradation In The Indian Ocean” (Status reports and project presentations 1999, Stockholm) stated that corals are organisms which inhabit the world’s richest ecosystem. He had studied coral reefs and coral islands long before The Origin of Species was published.
From an ecological point of view, coral reefs provide opportunities to observe interaction such as competition and synergism between reef organisms, which further our understanding of community ecology. The formation of structures like reefs and islands of coral sand also provide prime examples of interaction between biology and geology.
When corals become stressed, a typical response is “bleaching,” which occurs when the symbiotic algae are lost from the tissue of the coral polyp. The polyp can survive for a short period without the algae but unless the situation that caused the bleaching improves and new algae are incorporated into the tissue, the coral will die.
The destruction of coral reefs can also result in drastic changes in the fish population associated with the ecosystems. When a reef is healthy, species of fish that eat the corals are abundant.
However, when a reef becomes degraded and many of the corals die and become overgrown by algae, corallivorous fish are replaced by fish that are algae-grazers. If the reef degenerates further, reef-dwelling species of fish may disappear and be replaced by species that are pelagic.
Moreover, coral reefs provide the very basis of a sustainable livelihood. Reefs are the predominant habitat for a great diversity of fish species and prove to be irreplaceable source for commercial harvests and recreational opportunities. Thus, coral reefs have become tourist attractions.
Developed countries like the US spend a lot to preserve nature’s beauty. In contrast, Malaysians spend a lot to destroy the beauty of Tioman Island for personal interest. Tioman Island is among the 10 most beautiful islands in the world. Can the developer pay the price of the loss of our marine heritage?