Kota Kinabalu Wetlands Centre--formerly Kota Kinabalu Centre Bird Sanctuary

Let me explain something about myself: I get crazy ideas.

A couple of years ago, I was lying in bed thinking about things when I got an idea for "Penang Mangrove Centre". I spent the next three days drawing plans and diagrams and even went out to Balik Pulau to take some pictures and scout out a place for the centre. Then I realised I was looking at around a $300,000 USD investment and I put away my research and idea.

What I envisioned looks something like the Wetlands Centre in Kota Kinabalu. This is a place where the public can go and walk through the mangroves that line the coastlines of Malaysia and other southeast Asian countries. These mangroves are also disappearing at an alarming rate, to make room for seaside resorts and posh condominiums. However, these mangroves are a vital ecological feature that prevent erosion and provide other valuable services. One of these was serving as a barrier during the tsunami.

Here, just outside of KK, you can walk along a raised boardwalk. Below you fiddler crabs scurry left and right, back to their holes, seeking shelter from your presence. Kingfishers call in the distance and green pigeons sweep past looking for new perches. Mangroves form islands in the shallow, brackish water, their twisting and knobby roots reminding one of the Ents that inhabited Middle-Earth.

At the end of one of the raised boardwalks is a bird hide. From the hide we were able to see the activities of a nesting colony of purple egrets. These large birds would glide in carrying beaks stuffed with grasses for their nests. By my count over 20 of these graceful birds were in the distant nesting area.

Just behind the main building was a small pond. Here white-breasted waterhens were guarding their three newly hatched chicks. The waterhens were semi-domesticated, used to being fed by the workers at the Wetlands Centre.

Malaysia is rich in ecological treasures such as this one. Sadly, eco-tourism in Malaysia does not mean tourism which protects the environment. It means people invading the environment en masse. An example is Sungai Sedim, which I did a post on earlier. They built the world's longest canopy walk there which was not sensitive to the environment. It is built now, and as Malays say, 'nasi sudah menjadi bubur' or 'why cry over spilt milk'.

For me, places like the Kota Kinabalu Wetlands Centre should exist all over Malaysia. They should be visited by families and scores of school children. Mangrove trees should be planted (and they were in KK) by science classes.

As you can see, I loved my visit to the Wetlands Centre and hope we see many more of these springing up across Malaysia, bringing us a better understanding and appreciation of the wild places we must work to protect.

White-breasted waterhen

Boardwalk through the mangroves.

Fiddler crab--More information here.