Development, a ‘double-edged sword’ for wetlands of Bako-Buntal Bay

KUCHING: Located about 40 km northeast of Kuching City is the Bako-Buntal Bay, an expanse of inter-tidal mudflats fringed by mangrove forest with Gunung Santubong lying to the west and Bako National Park on the east.

Residents in the two Malay villages in the area, Kampung Bako and Kampung Buntal, derived their primary income from fishing with increasing participation in tourism activities.

However the proximity of the Bako-Buntal Bay, one of only two project sites in the country undertaken to support the implementation of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) in four Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, to the capital city is like a double-edged sword.

(The other project site considered of global importance as a wintering site for waterbirds is the north central Selangor coast).

Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Kuching branch chairperson Rebecca D’Cruz said the bay has enormous potential for ecotourism, but the human population and infrastructure development in the area applied a constant stress on the site and its natural resources.

“Kampung Bako is the only entry point to the (Bako) National Park and villagers gain significant income from ferrying visitors to and from while several tour companies provide wildlife cruises in the bay area, which offer close-up views of proboscis monkeys, dolphins, crocodiles, fireflies and many bird species.”

She told Bernama this when highlighting the Bako-Buntal Conservation Study, a collaborative effort between the Sarawak State Planning Unit and MNS Kuching.

The cruises covered the nearby Kuching Wetlands National Park, which is Sarawak’s first and only Ramsar Site and the popular sea food destination of Kampung Buntal, with its restaurants lining the sandbar, which is also the high tide roost for shorebirds.

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