Hi, my name is Rashid. I am a forester by profession. I am the type of person who gets paid in caring and managing the forests for posterity -- a job that deals with ensuring that the trees and the soil are cared for so as to produce timber, regulate a continuous flow of water required for human use and consumption; ensuring that the birds, fishes, and wildlife that we love to see flying, swimming and living freely as we might want to see them as they were 65 million years ago; sharing a constant supply of fresh uncontaminated air for breathing; and managing the timber and non-timber industries so that the country's economy progresses unimpeded. I had spent few years of my younger days in various jobs -- tinkering in the forestry research and development work, trying out my skills on land surveying, GIS, cartographic mapping and indulging in all those enjoyable field outings. I am currently working on a project to manage the peat swamp forests of Klias Peninsula, located in the Beaufort District of Sabah Malaysia.
The job in Klias requires me to study the ecology of the peat swamps and the human interactions on the peat swamp ecosystems. It focuses on understanding the land-use impact on the peat swamp forest ecosystems. As a team-player involved in the multi-disciplinary study, my role is quite straight-forward. Among others, I need to link the intricate web of socio-economic activities, especially of the forest-dependent communities living in the vicinity of the forests; explore options for their alternative livelihoods; study the impact of resource use and land development in the surrounding areas on the ecology and hydrology of the ecosystems; and consider potentials for resource development, particularly in promoting the non-timber products and services, such as medicinal uses, and eco-tourism activities.
I hope to be able to synthesise all these management variables collected during the field studies in the coming months. Later on, I plan to formulate action plans and define bio-diversity management strategies with the penultimate aims of producing an integrated management plan. Such a plan is going to be a 'live' plan -- one that will help planners and managers alike to strike a "wise use balance" when they are required to make informed decisions involving the use of the resources among the various sectoral requirements, such as the environmental concerns, the economic interests and the needs of the society. The plan will form a basis for resource management. |
