Sigh, my guide living back at Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo is telling me that the river wouldn’t survive the impact of it all. They did a river pollution survey and here are the terrible findings….

River sand and stone extraction, effluent from oxidation pond, hundreds of canals from plantations on the riparian reserve, mass palm oil spillage at pipelines when tranfer from mills and tanker to barge etc etc…

I think the next time they do a river survey, i shall fly there to photograph the evidence big and clear with my 80-400mm zoom lens….

On a brighter note, and the Bornean pygmy elephants are back at my guide’s hut. Herd of 90!!! Quite a few baby elephants too! Wish they were there while i was there few months back! It will be so cool to have them around the hut and every morning when i wake up, i can see them playing by the river. sigh, how perfect would that be

Well, i could always fly back if i have the time…. and money of course…
I think i can find the time… maybe a visit by the end of this year again even though my original plan was to visit next year since i’ve visited Borneo like three times this year alone already!! lol…

And yup, hopefully i will meet my wild orangutans on my next visit. They sure are elusive

SIGN to support the campaign to demand urgent international action at the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Nairobi to stop the conversion of South-east Asia’s peat forests into timber and oil palm plantations, or agriculture, and to restore the peatlands which have already been drained and degraded.

We are in the middle of all these haze. We are experiencing the consequences first hand. Do something about it and let’s not let the haze come back again next year or ever again.

Things to see before i die…. this is one of them. I wanna lie down on a barren land and watch the night sky and the stars go by…. without a single worry on my mind. Just being there and watching the greatest show on Earth, the Northern Lights ( or Southern Lights if i’m at the South ) in total silence. Taken away by the magical sight, almost like floating in outer space…. mysterious and magical… i like

Again and again…. history keeps repeating itself and they still don’t learn. All the warning signs are there but they turn their back on it. Kidding themselves that if they ignore or cover up the problems long enough, it will just disappear.

“Indonesian officials say the majority of the hotspots have appeared in small community farming areas. The country’s forestry minister says 60 percent of the burned area is farmland, and the rest is forest.”

According to a recent report by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, 80 percent of forest fires in Indonesia are caused by companies clearing land on big plantations, timber estates, and protected areas.

All they cared about was oil. Cutting down precious trees to plant cash crops like oil palm. Cutting down even more wood for timber. There’s no responsibilities at all. Everyone is pointing their fingers and none are doing anything to stop all these corruptions.

One third of the orangutan population perished in the 97/98 forest in Sumatra and Borneo… Seriously, after this, i don’t know if there’s anything left for me to return to Borneo… first is the palm plantation, then the sand-extraction theft, then forest fire….
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The haze is really bad today here in Singapore. i can definately smell the smoke and feel the dust in my eyes.
It’s the burning season again…. coming from the Kalimantan side of Borneo.

If i can already sense this from oceans away, imagine what it’s like over there in the jungle. The orangutans can’t swim, so they can’t cross the river to escape from the fire if it’s on their side. Large terrestrial mammals like the Bornean Pygmy Elephants might get trapped within pockets of fires.

“Satellite pictures showed 97 hotspots in Indonesia’s Sumatra from deliberately-lit land-clearing fires. Fires have spread through farm areas in Sumatra and Borneo since late last week.
“

Recently, my guide back in Sabah, Borneo imformed me of the illegal river sand extracting activity at the Upper Kinabatangan River. Major damaged has been done but the government departments were unconcerned and started pointing fingers amoung themselves.

Shall visit all parts of Borneo before it disappear. Brunei and Kalimantan of Borneo are next on my list…