#5 - Walking Through Nature/ Villages

My walk continues to another village called Meligan. This village is about two hours drive from Sipitang. It is almost in the middle of Sipitang and Long Pasia. These village populated by about 1000 people. Quite a big numbers but yes it is. This village have their own primary school, health clinic, pre-school, public hall and also SIB church. The main ethnic in this village is Murut Tagal. I impress with this village because it is very clean. As we walk through the village, there were no rubbish along the road. It was totally clean. Thumbs up to the leader of the community in this village. That is why we plan to have this village as a host for the up coming ****, okay i almost reveal it here but i need to keep it secret though. I will share after the event happen.

My friend and i continues with our interviews from door to door. As long as there is people and the house is open, we tried to have conversation with them. It is really not an easy task to be done because both of us were new to the people in this village. We just approach them and if we have luck then maybe they will agree to be interviewed. We did not get many people but enough with the data. But then, we were attracted by the movements of the blue bird flying in the air and then perch on the fruit tree nearby one of the house. The bird keep on doing it for at least twice. As we get closer to it, it was a flycatcher but not sure what is the species. As we get closer, i can get about five shots and this is two of it. 

Just stand still for about a minute while my friend and i captured his/her
photos. I am not sure if this is male or female. I don't have my birds field
guide book. Yai! I wish i have one. I only have the pocket guide book. 

When he/she notice of our movements, the he/she flew away but still
i can capture him/her. After this he/she flew away till we can not him/her
anymore. Anyway, it was great to captured his/her photos that day. 

Here is an info about this species that i get from Global Species website:

The Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina) is an Old World flycatcher found in the Indian subcontinent, especially in the Lower Himalaya. It is named after its distinctive shade of copper-sulphate blue and has a dark patch between the eyes and above the bill base. The adult males are intense blue on all areas of the body, except for the black eye-patch and grey vent. Adult females and sub-adults are lighter blue. In Sundaland, it can be found in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. 

So, that is about our little friend that we discover that day. Quite an interesting discoveries even though that is not the main purpose of our visit. But still, the love of the NATURE will always keep us alert and aware of anything related to our MOTHER NATURE. So, before i end this post, let's share two of my favorite view in this village. Of course the hanging bridge and the peaceful river. Till then!

Every time i visit this village, i will always wanted to let
my feet step on this hanging bridge.  

The river is so nice to see. The view is outstanding. It was so clean okay.
I hope the villagers will keep it clean since they will launch a Tagal System
for this river somewhere in June. 

#4 - Walking Through Nature/ Villages

Hey guys! Quite a while i did not share my adventure with my dear mother nature right? Actually last week i have a trip to one of the rural area called Ulu Padas area within Sipitang District. Can i consider walking in those villages also close to nature? I may say, yes because these villages is adjacent to a very amazing and beautiful forested areas. So called Mother Nature.

Location of Long Pasia. Credit to Google Maps.

The first village we visited was Long Pasia. It is situated in Sabah, Malaysia, its geographical coordinates are 4° 23' 0" North, 115° 44' 0" East. This village is beautiful. If you not agreed with me, see this photo below. 

Village view from entrance of the village. 

What do we do at this beautiful village? Actually we are doing survey on herbal usage and hunting practices. It is quite interesting findings and it will be useful for our next programme. I will not elaborate further on that. What i want to share here is some of our findings on the herbal and animals that these people hunt. 

Not all of them use herbs as their traditional cures anymore after religion and clinic is built in the village. There are only two or three elderly people still practicing it. They are not really interested and aware of this practice/ traditional knowledge will disappear when these elderly people leaving them behind. 

One of the herbs that traditionally use to cure sickness. 

When comes to the hunting activities, people in this area really need protein from wild meat such as bearded pig, Sambar dear and barking deer. There is also human-animal conflict occurs such as this little fella. 

Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)

This fella was killed because he disturbed villages chicken coop. He killed the chicks but then not eating them. This makes the owner of the chickens mad and killed him. Pity little fella. Actually i am not sure if it is the true story because, adjacent to this village is a vast, huge forested areas. Is there human activities that makes this fella enter their village? That is still a questions in my mind. Not only this wild cat but another things that happen in this village is they love to have young animals as their pets. Such as this bearded pig.

Sub-adult bearded pig (Sus barbatus)

So, that is my sharing or my walking to this village last week. Quite an interesting experienced and information right? I was happy because i have this chances but then, i am a little bit sad because these people not practicing sustainable hunting. There are excessive hunting activities in this village. I do hope our awareness programme will help them to start sustainable hunting practice. Till then guys!

Earth Day 2011

Do you ever heard of Earth Day? Earth Hour was celebrated on 26th March and i did wrote a post about it even do some campaign about it too. So, for today i want to do some campaign about the Earth Day 2011. It will be fall on 22 April 2011. But, on the same day will be a Good Friday for Christian all over the world too.

Earth Day Movement History as adapted from Earth Day Network:

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land.

As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. "It was a gamble," Gaylord recalled, "but it worked."

So, it is always, when something happen, then action will take place to make things better. Better world to live in. If you want to read more about the history of this movements or any other info about Earth Day, just visit the website Earth Day Network. Who knows you will be able to do something when you visit this site.

Oh ya... coincidently i found GLEE also promoting Earth Day 2011 for FOX. They shares their thought on Earth Day too.

So  how about us? What can we do to support this movement. To stop climate change and global warming.

It is all up to our actions. Till then! 

WORLD WATER DAY - 22 MARCH 2011

I supposed to promote this campaign a while ago but i forgot about this world wide event. To promote awareness is one of my agenda using this blog, but i forgot. Just a little reminder about this event, i would like to share a little bit info about it today.

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. Here are lists of WWD celebration with each year theme since 1994.

• 2010 -- Clean Water For a Healthy World
• 2009 -- Shared Water - Shared Opportunities
• 2008 -- International Year of Sanitation
• 2007 -- Coping with Water Scarcity
• 2006 -- Water and Culture
• 2005 -- Water for Life 2005 - 2015
• 2004 -- Water and Disasters
• 2003 -- Water for the Future
• 2002 -- Water for Development
• 2001 -- Water for Health - Taking Charge
• 2000 -- Water for the 21st Century
• 1999 -- Everyone Lives Downstream
• 1998 -- Groundwater - The Invisible Resource
• 1997 -- The Worlds Water - Is there Enough
• 1996 -- Water for Thirsty Cities
• 1995 -- Women and Water
• 1994 -- Caring for Our Water Resources is Everyone's Business

The main event for World Water Day 2011 was celebrated at Cape Town from 20th - 22nd March 2011. The African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) is pleased to join UN-HABITAT and UN-Water in co-organizing the official World Water Day 2011 event. Ceremonies was hosted by the Government of South Africa at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Here is a bit of World Water Day 2011:

• This is the first time in human history that most of the world's population live in cities: 3.3 billion people ...and the urban landscape continues to grow.
• 38% of the growth is represented by expanding slums, while the city populations are increasing faster than city infrastructure can adapt.
• The objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.
• This year theme, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenges of urban water management.

To read more and find more information about this year WWD event, do visit this site World Water Day 2011. Most of the info that i shared here also i get from this site. Happy Reading and let's support this campaign. Hope i can do something about this event too for next year. Till then!

Be Alert

Taken at Muaya Waterfall, Sipitang

Youth Mini Project -- Takakura Home Method Composting

Currently i am working on mini project for my youth. This mini project is something that related to living green, i may say. Since last year is the year that we did quite a few environmental education programme. This year seems to be a little bit slow. So then i was thinking hard (sort of..hehehe..) on what is the next project to be done. World Environment Day will be fall on 5th June 2011 but we still did not plan anything for this year celebration. Therefore, i hope this mini project will become a starting point.

Owh! I forgot that we just working together with Agriculture Department on the Green Earth Programme. That is a starting point and this mini project is the next step to the WED 2011 (okay, i am just assuming it.. no plan yet actually..). See, i am start to mumbling again. Let me just go straight to my story.

Do you ever heard of TAKAKURA HOME METHOD Composting? Wanna know more of this method? Just GOOGLE it using the Takakura Home Method Composting keyword and you will find many articles about it.

Actually, during Environmental Awareness Workshop for youth in March last year, one of our invited facilitator from Sabah Nature Club did a demo on this method. However, after that demo we did not implement or do an experiment on it. I may say that, it was my fault because i did not do a follow-up programme with my youth. Since that was happen last year, i will try my best to work it out this year! Wish me luck guys!

This coming Saturday, we will do a demo again for our youth and i hope this time we can produce an organic fertilizer from this composting. So, i will update it after we finish with the demo this coming Saturday. Wait for my update ya! Till then!