| Save our seahorses Date: 8 Aug 2007 (The Star Online) By: S. M. MOHD IDRIS IT IS indeed a shame to learn of the silence by the Federal and Johor state departments of environment to pleas from people worldwide and local environmentalists to save the seahorses from development at the Sungai Pulai estuary in Pontian, Johor. The proposed chemical industries estate to be built on 913ha of cleared mangrove area is a matter of grave concern. The development is also expected to house heavy industries with a chemical incinerator and facilities to process toxic and hazardous waste. Mangroves provide important habitat for wildlife and maintain the health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Broad-scale clearing can undermine sensitive, unique or fragmented ecosystems, even those some distance from the cleared land. Clearing of the inter-tidal wetland ecosystem will result in loss of nursery habitats and the removal of filters for sediments, nutrient and pesticide runoff. As humans alter the mangrove ecosystems to meet their needs, they affect the habitats of the communities of living things that interact with one another. They run the risk of disappearing even before we can recognise the full extent of their presence. The seahorses have been overlooked, and no study has explored the impact of man on these ecologically important species. The loss of the mangrove habitat could destabilise the food chain, leading to the destruction of a lot of other species due to their inter-dependency. The advent of a looming crisis has not fully dawned upon the authorities. As it is, there seems to be a lack of political will in halting a mushrooming chemical industrial estate. The clearance of a large tract of mangrove area must be reconsidered, and among the factors to be taken into consideration are whether the long-term benefits will balance the loss suffered by the destruction of this pristine mangrove area with ecological effects on the whole environment; whether the cost of rehabilitation after such damage will be smaller or greater than the profits obtained; and whether the local people will benefit more directly than if this area is maintained intact. The ecological crisis is thus still viewed and approached from the angle of human self-interest and not from those of feeling of responsibility for the well being of the ecosystem. Malaysia cannot afford to lose its highly endangered, demure, and vulnerable seahorse population. Already heavily traded for the aquarium and traditional medicine trade, they are also exploited by souvenir makers. SAM urges the Federal and Johor governments to put off development plans for the clearance of mangrove areas at the Pulai River estuary in Johor. Instead, an integrated coastal management plan should be seriously implemented with participation from policy makers, biologists, business entrepreneurs, local communities and NGOs to come out with effective management plans encompassing the whole estuary. S. M. MOHD IDRIS, President, Sahabat Alam Malaysia. | 
