Gunung Kanthan & Lafarge media reports 2015

For the last 2 years, I have been keeping a record of all the media reports concerning Lafarge quarrying Gunung Kanthan in Perak. I will continue this list in 2015.

See the list for 2014 and 2013.

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The Star , 18 Feb
Expert: Little being done to protect hunted serow

The Star , 5 March
Lafarge’s encroachment into eco-sensitive areas causes alarm

The Star , 7 March
Working to conserve heritage

The Star , 11 March
Working towards biodiversity conservation

The Star , 4 June
Lafarge Kanthan expansion

Gua Naga Mas is now a temple cave

Whilst I was looking around the industrial estate surrounding the southern end of Gunung Lanno, I noticed there were flags up on top of Gunung Pua. The main reason I had gone there was to see the
at the small hill next to Gunung Pua (where Gua Naga Mas is located), as it is being quarried. It is the southern end of that hill that is being quarried, right next to Gunung Pua.

I went to investigate the flags and found a new temple. It is called the Erawan Shrine Cave.

There is a large car park, which is lined by shrines housing individual deities - Chinese, Thai Buddhist and Hindu. And there is a separate Erawan shrine It seems it only opened - or at least had a ceremony, in Oct 2014.

It was midday on a really hot day so I had no intention of climbing the stairs to the top of the hill.

The cave is now gated and fenced off, with a large area outside with flooring and seats. The cave used to be a 'house' and was packed full of 'rubbish/recyclables'. Now it has been turned into a shrine with new flooring.

There are now concrete steps leading up to Gua Naga Mas. The main chamber has a few statues (Buddhist, Chinese and Hindu) and flags. Luckily the side chamber with the fossil bones hasn't been touched.

The views from the cave have changed considerably over the years. 2004 and 2008 there was still plenty of greenery

but this had changed by 2015

I wonder if the temple will help to save the hill, considering the one immediately next to it is being quarried.

[Apparently there is a replica of the Naga Mas fossil in the museum at Putra Jaya. A short video on youtube.]

For  more on Gua Naga Mas, see labels on the right column.

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Another Perak limestone hill being quarried, near Lanno

In Feb 2015 I noticed the small hill immediately north of Gunung Pua was being quarried. This hill is unnamed, and is Prk 11 on my register and No 35 in the MNS 1991 report.

The hill used to be totally covered with vegetation. Now the quarried side is clearly visible from the old trunk road. On the east side is Gopeng Kalsium (GK). This whole area is being taken over by a huge industrial estate.

Here are some scenes from Google Earth over the years, you can see the increase in development in the area.

2015 view where the quarrying can clearly be seen on the right side

 

 

 

 

2 small caves have been revealed

Hill from east side

 

A video I posted on YouTube -

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I went back on 21 March and there wasn't much change, just a flatter top from 28 Feb -

Lanno rubbish dump, Perak

There is/was a nice secluded valley on Gunung Lanno's south side. Gunung Lanno is a big limestone hill in Perak, south of Ipoh. So I was shocked in May 2014 to see smoke coming from the valley, so went to have a look. And to my horror and disgust, I saw the valley had been converted into a rubbish dump. The only 'good' thing was that the trees were absolutely full of egrets - it was early evening.

The dump is cicled in orange -

Google Earth images from 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, showing the changes in the surroundings and also the valley

The dump

The dump attracts plenty of birds, particularly egrets (you can also see them in the trees in the first 2 dump photos above)

They are Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis). Their colours become more brownish/ orangish during breeding season (breeding plumage). Thanks to Andy Paul for the ID.

Vietnam lava tubes in Dak Nong

A strange article appeared on 24 Dec 2014 in the Tuoi Tre News about the discovery of Vietnam's first lava tube cave. The title "Southeast Asia's longest volcanic cave discovered in Vietnam" is OK, but the article goes on to say that "A group of Vietnamese and Japanese scientists have announced the discovery of the first volcanic cave system in Vietnam, one part of which is considered the longest such feature in Southeast Asia. The discovery was made in Krong No District in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong by experts from the general department and the Japan Caving Association after seven years of research".

What the article really means is that they are the first lava tubes to be found in Dak Nong province, not in Vietnam. Prior to this article, the longest lava cave in Vietnam is Hang Doi 1 Km 123,  at 437 m, found in 2013.  According to the article, 12 caves were found and 3 were surveyed, the longest being 1055 m.

See the above link for the full article and photos.
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The next day a better article appeared in Thanh Nien News on 25 Dec, "Record volcanic cave system discovered in central Vietnam". Although it still said "The recent discovery represents the first volcanic cave system ever found in Vietnam." and "scientists have conducted detailed surveys of three caves--the largest of which measures over a kilometer in length and several thousands of meters in width." I think the width might be a mistake!

Cement company blows up limestone hill and renders snail extinct - Guardian

Following my last blog , this piece was also published in  The Guardian , Monday 17 November 2014. I will just post the bits relevant to Malaysia here, click on above link for full article.

Cement company blows up limestone hill and renders snail extinct

Jo Confino

Malaysian snail among hundreds of species to become extinct as a result of fishing, logging, mining, agriculture and other activities to satisfy our growing appetite for resources.

Humble snails are no match for the might and indifference of the global cement industry. So it has proved for the now extinct Plectostoma sciaphilum, a rather beautiful snail that lived only on a single limestone hill in Peninsular Malaysia. A cement company blew up the entire hill and all remaining molluscs with it. All that is left of its former habitat is a big hole in the ground filled with water.

Its extinction was highlighted by the global environment network IUCN when it launched a major new study showing that 22,413 out of its 76,199 assessed species are threatened with extinction.

The neighbouring isolated hills are being quarried by Malaysian multinational YTL, owner of Wessex Water, where snails such as the bizarrely-shaped Hypselostoma elephas are in critical danger.

While attention is often drawn to iconic species threatened with extinction – the IUCN report highlights the vulnerability of the Pacific bluefin tuna among others – it also chose the demise of the tiny snail as an example of the damage being done by the extractive industry.

According to the IUCN: “The future of several other species in the region is uncertain for similar reasons. Whilst some mining companies are starting to take the necessary steps to reduce impact, IUCN is urging stronger commitment to prevent further extinctions.”

IUCN’s intervention comes just weeks after Guardian Sustainable Business revealed that another snail was at risk in Malaysia. The mollusc, recently discovered living on an isolated limestone hill called Gunung Kanthan in the northwest of Peninsular Malaysia, was named Charopa lafargei after Lafarge in a bid to prevent the global and aggregates giant from decimating it. The IUCN says this snail is critically endangered and that the “continued existence of the species will depend in large part on the actions of the company.”

Tony Whitten, Fauna & Flora International’s Asia regional director, says the humble snail should not be seen as any less important than iconic species. “Snails have a marketing problem because they are small and in general are considered joke animals because they are slow and slimy,” he says.

“But they have beautiful shapes and colours and on a personal level I abhor the idea of extinctions when it results from deliberate ignorance. A species is a species and we are morally bound to protect them. When I ask people why they think snails are less worthy, they don’t really have an answer.

“Some people may see species such as the bluefin tuna as being more important but that is only because we can identify with them because of their size and the fact we like to eat them.”

Whitten says the reason the cement industry has been able to escape scrutiny until now is because limestone is not considered a strategic mineral so regulation tends to be governed at a local level, and because the companies rarely need international financing. Cement is a basic commodity and margins are razor thin. Whitten says because companies focus on volume to maintain profits, they are unhappy to set aside protected areas within quarrying sites.

It is not only in Malaysia where snails and other species are at risk from the cement industry. “This is a global issue,” he says. “Wherever in the world limestone occurs it has a special fauna and flora but the problems are especially acute in countries such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the US where you get isolated limestone hills.”

A common problem among cement mining companies, according to Whitten, is that environmental impact assessments they carry out are often of a poor quality and focus on birds and mammals and don’t give enough attention to limestone-associated species. The reports are not made public and cannot be scrutinised independently.

Worse still, Whitten says the cement industry has become fixated with trumpeting the restoration of sites they destroy, rather than taking a rational, proactive landscape approach which would include sustainable management and protection.

“No cement business has ever admitted the scale of the problem,” he says. “They tout their biodiversity pages in their websites and sustainability reports with pictures of ducks and frogs and children enjoying the wetlands created from the hills they remove. They give and receive prizes for their restoration work – but do not acknowledge what is being lost.”

The snail at Lafarge’s quarry was named after the company to make it pay attention to inconspicuous animals. “They would never have taken note of the snail unless the scientists had named it after them,” Whitten says. “Lafarge did not like it ... But the reality is I had been talking with them for 15 years and you get to the point where that discussion gets nowhere. This led Fauna & Flora International to resign from their international biodiversity panel. We are, though, having positive discussions with the local senior management.”

The IUCN’s Red List, the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of plant, animal and fungi species, shows that Plectostoma sciaphilum is one of 901 species of the 76,199 assessed to have become extinct through fishing, logging, mining and agriculture.

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Malaysian endangered limestone snails in The Guardian

The Guardian (UK) 17 Nov 2014 featured some of the world's most threatened species on the IUCN Red List report. Two of these are snails, found on limestone hills in Malaysia, which may be quarried to extinction.

The first is Charopa lafargei , which has Critically Endangered status, and is found at Gunung Kanthan in Perak. This hill is being quarried by Lafarge, after whom the snail was named. I have already posted many blogs about the quarrying of the hill and our fight to save the hill, caves, flora and fauna from destruction/extinction.

The second snail featured is Plectostoma sciaphilum. This is already thought to be extinct. It was known on Bukit Panching, near Kuantan in Pahang. This hill was totally destroyed some years ago, all that remains now is a lake.

See the 2 reports in The Guardian -


IUCNred list of endangered species. Red List: the world's most threatened species –interactive. 

More than 22,000 species feature in conservationists’ ‘under threat’ list. 

The Star on 22 Nov 2014 did a similar piece to The Guardian, "A Malaysian snail goes extinct with 22,000+ other species on the brink".

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See more on endangered snails at Bukit Sagu and Bukit Tenggek.