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Malaysia Wants Mangroves Saved as Tsunami Barrier |
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| MALAYSIA: January 11, 2005 | ||
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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia wants its mangrove forests protected from development, saying they are needed as a natural coastal barrier against tsunamis.
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"Ideally, mangrove forests should not be disturbed as they prevent large waves from encroaching too far inland," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying in local newspapers on Monday. He said coastal projects should be planned so that mangrove trees were not harmed and ordered government agencies to replant mangrove trees felled by last month's devastating tsunami. Some fishing villages along the west coast of Penang island, hit hard by the tsunami, were spared the full force of the wave because it had broken over the mangroves first, newspapers said. The tsunami killed more than 60 people in Malaysia when it crashed ashore in Penang and along the country's northwest coast. At least 156,000 people were killed in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean by the earthquake and tsunami, the most widespread natural disaster in living memory. Conservation group WWF has said governments in the region can help minimise the death and destruction from tsunamis and typhoons by protecting their mangrove forests and coral reefs. "Natural disasters cannot be prevented," said Isabelle Louis, director of WWF International's Asia-Pacific Programme, in a statement posted on the group's Web site. "However, there may be ways to minimise the threat such disasters pose to coastal communities, to facilitate effective reconstruction, and to mitigate the social and ecological vulnerability of high-risk areas."
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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