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Save the coral reefs of Pulau Timon Speech - during the debate of 2004 Supplementary Estimates by M Kula Segara (Parliament, Wednesday): Coral reefs generally bring to mind warm climates, colorful fishes and clear waters. For this reason, coral reefs often are referred to as the "rainforests of the oceans."  Exploitation for commercial and tourism caused by development projects has been the gravest threats to the corals. The Department of Fisheries has taken steps to conserve and rehabilitate the country's coral reefs by gaze ting them as marine parks. However the setting up of marine parks can hardly protect coral reefs because the Fisheries Department, under whose purview such parks fall, cannot prevent unbridled coastal development. And as such the proposed RM40mil marina project on Palau Tioman is one of the biggest threats and a reason for a potential loss of the island’s treasured marine heritage.  Quoting Universiti Putra Malaysia’s professor of marine environment Dr.H.M.Ibrahim who served in the National Advisory Council on Marine Parks and Marine Reserves for 10 years that table corals only grew 2cm annually and as such a 5cm table coral was estimated to be at least 1000 years old. By carrying out the proposed marina project what we will face are nothing more than regrets rather than profits. As he Dr.Ibrahim said “No one benefits from the project and the environment and the people are the ones who will eventually pay the price.”   Maintaining and preserving earth's remaining wilderness could be the ultimate bargain as retaining the forests, wetlands and other natural ecosystems are worth far more to human economies than the farm or building land that could replace them. Our duty as people in authority is to protect the state's extraordinary wealth instead of allowing it to be destroyed before our very eyes. Therefore we have to do more, not simply pay lip service.   Economics has traditionally focused on the market. But we have been finding that a lot of what is valuable to humans’ takes place outside of the market. Therefore neglect by the developer of the Tioman marina on the importance of preserving our rainforest of the ocean is going to bring loss to our economy. This action by the developer could cause a great impact on our tourism development as it is destroying on one of our rare and valuable piece of tourist attraction our coral reefs which place as reminders of nature's grandeur and wonder. The authorities and people involved in this project should keep reminding themselves that the environment is to harvest and benefit tourism and thus by carrying projects that destroys our God’s gift of natural beauty would only be detrimental to our country. Throughout the world, corals and coral ecosystems are important for, at least, three reasons. Reefs are the predominant habitat for a great diversity of fish species, where they prove to be irreplaceable source for commercial harvests and recreational opportunities. Harvested corals support a set of important industries, such as tourism. An example as to how important coral reefs are, Timalt and Schmahl (1981) recorded 3,400 or 3,600 visitors annually to each of four patch reefs in the Biscayne National Park. A survey of diving enthusiasts in 1983 by Skin Diver Magazine suggests that 1.2 million divers took 600,000 trips to locations with coral reefs in the continental United States, spending an average of $1,151 per person per trip. In addition, an estimated $268 million is spent by U.S. recreational divers each year on trips to coral reefs in the Caribbean and Hawaii. People around the world are spending millions of dollars in enjoying the beauty of the coral reefs but we being gifted with the beauty are spending millions to destroy them. As said by Dr.Ibrahim,” What is the economic sense of building a marina when there is so much to lose”. In the U.S., Florida coral reefs directly or indirectly generate an estimated $30 million – $50 million annually just within one Monroe County region. These monies come from all the aspects of fishing, diving, education and research. Needless to say, as the pace of ecotourism and marine biology research is steadily accelerating, the economic value of coral reef services is expected to skyrocket. This is an international example of how valuable our coral reefs could be worth. This value is of critical importance to human development because nothing in the sea, and quite possibly on land, rivals coral reefs in biodiversity. All told, the world’s 600,000 square kilometers of reef provide habitat for more than 1 million species of plant and animal. Altogether, the world corals cover only about 368,000 square miles (or 600,000 square kilometers) area roughly the size of Texas and New Mexico combined. Consequently, the distribution of coral reefs is restricted to tropical waters and away from the rivers that have large mouths and muddy bottoms. This survey shows that our country is considered to be among the luckiest to be showered with the natural wealth God has passed us. Therefore instead of destroying we should just preserve as the marina project demonstrates a big threat. Accesses of unbalanced “development” and the inability of indigenous population to educate themselves about its adverse effects is the core reason for the highest death rate of coral reefs. Given the enormous complexity of problems leading to the deterioration of our coral reef community, one inevitably asks where should we begin addressing these problems, and whether it is plausible at all to change the current situation. Therefore we having the duty to maintain the beauty of nature should play our active role of not allowing ignorant developers to dissect Pulau Tioman’s centuries old corals and marine life living in the waters. We should not repeat our mistake of keeping silent when same situation arose in Pulau Redang which now just goes to show how much we have lost due to our ignorance. Therefore we should put a stop or the most have strict control towards developments that could destroy our natural resources. The authorities to start performing tasks to prevent ignorant developers as action speaks louder than words and as I said above we have to do more, not simply pay lip service.   (8/9/2004) * M.Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat