The Malaysian Nature Society on 27 July 2017 welcomed VIPs, Society members, residents, members of local communities and students to witness a launch event for Urban Community Forest (UCF) Bukit Persekutuan.
      UCF Bukit Persekutuan is an initiative to empower local communities to protect their green spaces, and is a novel endeavour for the city centre. MNS President Henry Goh said Bukit Persekutuan, with a lush secondary forest and low-density build-up, could serve city dwellers as a place to appreciate nature, in doing so improve their well-being.
      “Nature enriches our lives, and for stressed city people, UCF Bukit Persekutuan can be a place for a quick recharge. Come and enjoy the cooler temperature from the shady trees, plant some seedlings or help replenish the forest, or take short hikes along the trails; there’s plenty to see and enjoy,” Goh said.
      The things to see and enjoy include an impressive range of flora and fauna within such a small area, as found by surveys since 2007. They include bats, five species of amphibians, nine of reptiles, 77 types of birds, 34 families of insects including butterflies, moths and two types of fireflies. These biodiversity surveys will continue to be carried out in Bukit Persekutuan, alongside the development of the Forest Trees Nursery and scheduled enrichment of the forest, as well as the marking out of trails. Visitors can also enjoy facilities provided by the Resource Centre and Auditorium.     

     The launch of the UCF Bukit Persekutuan Resource Centre was officiated at by Dato’ Nor Akhirrudin Mahmud, Director-General of the Forestry Department Peninsula Malaysia, representing the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Also present were Datuk Mahadi Che Ngah, Executive Director (Project Management), City Hall, and Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor, Senior Advisor to MNS.
      The guests were also taken on a tour of the Forest Trees Nursery, which serves to provide saplings for forest enrichment initiatives by MNS members and the public. On the Heritage Trail, a long-standing path through the forest adjacent to the MNS HQ that was upgraded through UCF Bukit Persekutuan, the guests planted several trees as part of the Society’s enrichment programme for the historic Federal Hill.
      As a takeaway from the soft launch, it is hoped that the UCF initiative will impel the authorities and general public to see this Bukit Persekutuan as an important green lung that provides nature, recreational, health, tourism and youth services to the public and must be protected from development threats.

Text and images by MNS Conservation Division

THE NURSERY at MNS headquarters was created in response to the ever growing disaster following forest degradation and the need to save our endangered native species, says the key man of the Urban Community Forest (UCF) initiative.
      Balu Perumal, Head of MNS’s Conservation Division, says the environmental NGO has over the decades been involved in reforestation activities and this conservation method is in need now more than ever owing to the serious state of the nation’s green areas. However, these efforts have been hampered by issues including the cost of saplings from providers and lack of supply. “Sometimes the situation is not conducive, as there is no supply of saplings, or lack of funds to buy them, when our members want to carry out replanting activities,” he says.
      “The nursery is meant to solve these problems, in that we want to have a healthy supply for whenever replanting is planned by our members, volunteers of even the school Nature Club (Kelab Pencinta Alam or KPA) members,” he says. “Our target is to have 10,000 saplings for planting at any one time,” which can be provided by request, and all the applicant needs to do is fill out a form stating their intentions and needs, and send MNS a report of the successful planting. Applicants can also buy these saplings, donate an amount to the cause or volunteer their time and effort towards the running of the nursery.
      “We want to nursery itself to be a volunteer activity, where MNS members, affiliates or supporters come and help out with the planting, and then take the saplings for their planting activities,” he says, adding that parties already involved with the initiative so far include MNS’s Green Living special interest group and students from Monash University. The nursery also accepts any plants that the public wishes to drop off. “We had one member drop off some orchids, so we’re open to caring for unwanted plants. Some other visitor might be happy to take them, so it’s a good give and take.”
Read more about the UCF Bukit Persekutuan initiative

       The second prong of the nursery’s aim is to look at issues regarding the country’s endangered native plant species, especially the trees. “There is a decline in some native species, and we need time to save these rare species. That is our priority,” Balu says. At the moment, the nursery is home to seedlings and saplings of the merbau hardwood (Intsia palembanica), sourced from seeds collected by the orang asli in Gua Musang, Kelantan.
       This commercial timber tree grows in river basins, and is at risk from land clearing and changes in land status, leading to development where they once grew freely. “Now most river basins have changed, leading to the species being threatened. This is the time to plant the species, to being the riparian forests back,” he says.
      The nursery also complements the society’s work at Kuala Selangor Nature Park, the seaside haven for wildlife on the North Central Selangor Coast, which is an Important Bird Area for migratory species. There, MNS runs a mangrove nursery supported by the Forestry Department (Peninsular Malaysia), which will supply members with saplings for coastal mudflat planting activities.
      The two nurseries thus cater to the dry forest and wetlands, and Balu hopes success of the venture means more species can be saved, so that replanting can happen in any area, from the coastal wetlands to the country's dry inland forests . It’s a small consolation to the damage humans are inflicting on nature, but from small movements it is hoped that awareness about deforestation can occur, and thus be checked for the future of the country and planet.

BUKIT PERSEKUTUAN, or Federal Hill, is an unassuming patch of greenery close to the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Unassuming, that is, if not accounting for the impressive range of flora and fauna found in this 74.4ha secondary forest bordered by high-density developments – Damansara to the north, Perdana Botanical Gardens to the east, KL Sentral and Brickfields to the south and Bangsar to the west.
      According to the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), a short biodiversity survey carried out in 2008 found an impressive number of species, including mammals, at eight (mostly bats), amphibians (six), birds (65, a good number of them migratory) and 39 types of moths and butterflies, with a surprising discovery of some forest species. Among the 163 species of flora, meanwhile, are two rare plants and two endemic trees.
      This area is also part of the city’s green lungs, which currently stand at a depressing 6.2% of the total land area of the city (demarcated as “open space”, and not necessarily forest cover*) and, MNS says, not enough to ensure the health and wellbeing of those who live in, and breathe the air of, Kuala Lumpur. That is the reason MNS has started an initiative called Urban Community Forest (UCF) for Bukit Persekutuan, with the aim of working together with affiliated communities, stakeholders and the authorities to continue protecting the area from being exploited for development and preventing its low-density, institutional status from being irrevocably changed.
*as noted in the KL Structure Plan 2020

      I. S. Shanmugaraj, MNS Executive Editor, says the days of leaving everything in the hands of those in charge are over, and communities should take action to protect their interests. He says the success of some community-based projects around Malaysia is proof positive that when like-minded people come together for a cause, they can move mountains – or, more relevant in this case, ensure mountains don’t move just to satisfy human lust for development.
      In the first step of the initiative, run with Think City, an urban regeneration body owned by Khazanah Nasional, a briefing was held on 28th May at UCF Centre, the second-floor meeting space adjacent to the MNS HQ building. Attended by MNS Honorary-Secretary Stephanie Bacon and board member Chris Boyd, MNS members, Think City’s Solomon Jebaratnam and Riduan Ngesan, green interest groups, fans of Bukit Persekutuan and residents responding to an invite sent to houses and properties in the area, the session touched on Bukit Persekutuan’s ecological and cultural heritage, its richness in terms of biodiversity and necessary steps to take the initiative forward.

The Past and The Future
In his welcoming speech, MNS Board of Trustees Chairman John Koh spoke about the history of Federal Hill, with representation of eight states in the road names and its build up in the British Colonial era. The buildings were erected from early in the 1900s, and used as government offices and residences for British officers. Among the earliest structures was the European Hospital (circa 1900s), which still stands today as the Health Institute, while of the 100-odd remaining bungalows, the oldest is arguably the MNS headquarters (JKR 641) on Jalan Kelantan, which was noted on a 1929 map. Prominent buildings are the Galeria Sri Perdana on Jalan Terengganu, the former residence of the Prime Minister now run as a museum, and the palaces of the states of Kedah, Perak and Negeri Sembilan.
      The remaining bungalows, sited on expansive tracts of land, are owned and run by the government, and used to house its officers. Nonetheless, owing to age, upkeep costs and possibly ancient amenities, the properties became less popular among civil servants, and some have been leased out to non-profits (such as MNS, an orphanage and the Red Crescent Society) while others have been left vacant. This raises the risk of these heritage buildings succumbing to nature or gravity, or the structures being misused, for example by drug addicts or the homeless.
      Then there is the larger threat to the area, that of unchecked development. Bukit Persekutuan is arguably the last remaining green area within the highly sought-after triangle of KL Sentral, Bangsar and Damansara, and while it is protected by its status – low density, for public use and non-commercial – attempts are continually being made, Koh said, to chip away at the hill for commercial purposes.
      In 2014, The Star newspaper reported concerns by residents after a plot of land on Jalan Travers, next to the police station and across from the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, was bulldozed, apparently for development. The report raised the issue of the land’s institutional status, and recalled similar opposition by residents in 2008 to a land-swap development on the same plot which would have meant the construction of two 30-storey towers and a 16-storey tower atop a five-storey podium. The proposal, which would have altered the land status from institutional to commercial, was cancelled. However, the day following this report, City Hall came back to say that the land would house police quarters and that the “construction of a nine-storey block of police quarters, a three-storey police station, a store room and other facilities… is an extension of the current Travers police station and does not contravene any policies”.

      Meanwhile, a large tract has been marked for Setia Federal Hill by SP Setia (through its associate company), a mixed residential and commercial project with a gross development value of RM15 billion. It is situated on 21ha of land, in a green plot across from KL Sentral and adjacent to Jalan Bukit Travers, in a government land swap with the existing Health Institute (formerly the above-mentioned European Hospital) to be relocated to a development in Setia Alam, Shah Alam that will comprise offices, health management institutions, medical research centre, facilities blocks and staff quarters. With funding secured late last year, construction is due to begin in 2017.
      Also around the corner from the police station is Seri Bukit Persekutuan, a rolling, hillside development comprising 148 condominium, terraced and semi-detached units and villas. Completed in the mid-Noughties, the gated enclave boasts “tranquil views of Lake Garden Park and Kenny Hills, as well as the Kuala Lumpur skyline”, with units priced at a range of  single-digit millions, as listed on several online property sites.    
      Houses and land in the area are also on sale, with signage to that effect posted on trees along the narrow roads. In a 19 July 2016 listing on The Edge Property site, a tract with 12,240 sq ft of land and 7,000 sq ft of built-up area, comprising a building with 10 rooms, is priced at RM16 million. It is marked freehold and “suitable for super bungalow redevelopment” (www.theedgeproperty.com.my). Meanwhile, a May listing on iProperty.com has two adjacent vacant bungalow lots on Lorong Travers being offered for RM30 million.

A Swatch of Biodiversity
Development, with its attendant land clearing, movement of heavy equipment, debris, pollution and soil runoff, is a death sentence for forests, especially if it does not adhere to practices that protect the environment. And Bukit Persekutuan’s lush greenery is valuable and should be protected, Sonny Wong, UCF’s project coordinator, told the audience in his brief.
      He said a survey was carried out in a 2007/2008 project with Badan Warisan, looking at architectural and biodiversity treasures on the joint conservation platform, and the discoveries were plentiful. Aside from recording 113 heritage buildings, the short trek into the nature trail just off the MNS HQ grounds recorded the aforementioned numbers of flora and fauna, some not usually found in a city setting of regrowth forest, which had crept back onto land previously cleared for rubber estates.     

Among the insects which captured Wong’s fancy was an iridescent green tortoise beetle with black markings, which he chose as the UCF mascot. And all these, he pointed out, in a small area right next to the perenially busy Lebuhraya Sultan Iskandar (previously Mahameru), on a circular nature trail that takes only 30 minutes to complete. A more current study, which is planned under UCF, he said, would allow a comparison of findings, and perhaps unearth more species, making Bukit Persekutuan valuable to researchers and conservationists.
       The benefits of healthy green lungs also cannot be downplayed. He said Bukit Persekutuan linked up with the Lake Gardens area, Bukit Nanas and Bukit Kiara to create an advanced forest network, which helped to reduce carbon dioxide, filter the air, keep the weather cool and prevent hillside erosion, at the same time absorbing rainwater and preventing flash floods. More directly, tree-lined streets offer shade, offering walkers, cyclists and other road users a tranquil oasis on their travels and better quality of life.  
      UCF was working towards “World Class Living” as defined in the KL Structure Plan, Wong said, and this included protecting Bukit Persekutuan’s low-density status, the linking of all green spaces, restricting development on dangerous slopes and increasing the open space to 10% of the city area, “although 12% would be better”. This in the face of encroaching development as well as apathy, as a quick look into several gullies show that they are popular spots for indiscriminate garbage dumping.
      “By making UCF a model for community-based conservation, plus a centre for environmental education and nature activities, the government may see that this place is being utilised, that it benefits the people and is a tourist attraction, and with a strong management plan for the sustainable running of the initiative, hopefully they will be persuaded to keep Bukit Persekutuan green,” Wong said.

It’s baby steps yet, but the foundation has been laid for the initiative’s community approach, with the UCF Centre available for meetings, workshops and nature talks, and the short nature trail that will entrance botanists and wildlife lovers alike. A budding nursery has also been started to meet future plans to enrich the forest (see Greening the Future), while plans are afoot to improve the existing trail with interpretive signage as well as mark out more trails in Bukit Persekutuan’s verdant nooks and crannies.
       MNS also boasts a wide range of experts willing to share their knowledge, and in fact, on 16 July, UCF hosted a free nature walk led by botanist Lim Koon Hup for the benefit of friends of Bukit Persekutuan and newcomers to forest walks. The 90-minute stroll, punctuated by explanations on different and special trees as well as the spotting of wildlife, was attended by an encouraging number of participants, making the initiative’s first official activity a modest success. In fact, one eagle-eyed participant spotted and managed to take a fetching picture of the UCF mascot, basking on a leaf in the morning sun. Talk about a great start to this important initiative! 
      Also on the same day, participants from a special interest group (SIG), the MNS Selangor Branch Flora Group, had a walkabout on the trail. Then on the final weekends of July, the UCF Centre was utilised for the MNS Selangor Branch AGM and the Frogs and Reptiles Introduction and Photography talk, while the herpetology SIG went “night frogging” – searching out, photographing and recording frog species, in the dark – along the nature trail.

      The participation of MNS branches and SIGs, alongside the area’s residents and people supporting Bukit Persekutuan, is important to the success of UCF, says Balu Perumal. “There needs to be a strong community backing to protect Federal Hill, as it is ever more urgent and more important now to protect nature. As we can see in Bukit Kiara, a ‘protected’ area is facing encroachment despite protests, and a community approach is necessary from this early stage.
      “We are used to letting the government make decisions, but the people are the ones bearing the impact of development, and as the country gets more developed, we think it is time for Malaysia to embrace wholesome decision-making,” he says. “The people now are more educated, more cultured, and we can really contribute. What the community needs to do is come up with its own plans and decisions for Bukit Persekutuan.”
      Balu, a botanist by training and community-involvement advocate by practice, ran several successful people-oriented conservation programmes before joining MNS three years ago, and he wants UCF to be a strong voice in keeping this area green. MNS Selangor’s 5,000-strong membership, which also comprises KLites, means there will be more activities and volunteers to raise UCF’s profile as a hub for city dwellers’ nature needs, he says.
      “We want people to feel free to come to UCF, to take a nature walk on the weekends, to meet and discuss ideas, to help at the nursery, to run workshops, to plan more activities.” He adds that feedback from the briefing included ideas to move the initiative forward, including mini expeditions to other areas of Bukit Persekutuan, organising heritage or nature walks, creating more trails and engaging the authorities and even the Member of Parliament, and these can only be carried out by volunteers willing to put in the time and effort. “We hope they will come forward and make this community urban forest initiative a reality.”         
       It’s responsibility-sharing for the benefit of the whole, and as one of the last remaining greenholds of KL, this may be the best option Bukit Persekutuan has to keep its lush forests intact.

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PADDLE FOR NATURE’S main focus might be marine conservation, but there is a strong link between the health of the ocean and what happens on land. With this in mind, the 2014-2015 MNS kayak expedition worked hand-in-hand with the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia to plant 5,000 trees during its six-month journey along the coastline.
      The planting of casuarina and mangrove saplings in five locations started on 2nd October 2014 in Pahang, where the Paddle for Nature crew broke off kayaking to beach up in Sungai Ular, Cherating. There Pahang Forestry Department’s Edevaldo J. Yapp, Deputy Director of the East Pahang Silviculture Division, led the planting, explaining that casuarina trees helped mitigate damage to the coastline from strong winds and huge waves, protect nearby residences and infrastructure and, in time, would create welcome spots for recreation.
      At the end of December, Paddle for Nature stopped in Pontian to plant more casuarina, under the Johor Forestry Department’s response to the devastating tsunami of 2004. Forest Rehabilitation Assistant in the Silviculture and Forest Protection division, Ahmad Aizuddin Hashim, said coastal trees could lessen the impact of such wave formations, and since 2005 the department had planted trees in some 300ha of land. The exercise also saw the participation of staff from KPJ Pasir Gudang Specialist Hospital and Western Digital.
      Further up the coast, along vast stretches of mudflats interspersed with sandy beaches that make up the West Coast all the way to Perlis, February 2015 saw Paddle for Nature dropping by to plant mangroves at the Selangor Forestry Department’s ongoing plot in Sungai Hj Dorani, Sabak Bernam and the Perak Forestry Department’s eco-education centre in Larut Matang.
      Finally, two days before hitting its final destination in Kuah, Paddle for Nature completed the five planned sessions by planting mangrove saplings at Pasir Tengkorak on the northern side of Langkawi island, under the Kedah Forestry Department. Also present was Hj Suhaili Rosli, Senior Assistant Director, Coastal Conservation Section, Forest Protection Division, Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia, as well as MNS President Henry Goh, both of whom were not shy to get stuck in, mud up to their thighs, to show everyone how it’s done.