WWF : Orangutans are one of the most at-risk wildlife yet

Bukit Piton was once a degraded forest. Thankfully, after years of reforestation efforts spearheaded by WWF-Malaysia and the Sabah Forestry Department, the reserve is now able to support wildlife, especially its orangutan inhabitants.

Many of orangutan's forest homes are in danger of rapid development and conversion of land.

The total projected cost to restore 150 hectares of degraded forests in Sabah, namely Trusan Sugut Class 1 Forest Reserve is approximately RM 3.1 million.

Did you know the orangutan is one of the slowest reproducing species in the world, usually giving birth to just one infant every six to eight years ? This makes them highly prone to extinction as it takes a long time for their population to recover from decline. Thus, saving this critically endangered Bornean Orangutans requires continuous and collaborative efforts.

As a mostly fruit eating species, the orangutan plays a key role in forest regeneration as it disperses seeds which help regenerate more fruit trees. Unfortunately, with illegal logging and deforestation, these agile tree-climbing mammals are living in degraded and isolated patches of forests where food and shelter are limited.

Aside from restoration efforts, another method to address this threat is the building of ecological corridors to facilitate the movement of orangutans and other species between isolated patches of forest to find food, shelter and mates. We have now identified nine ecological corridors requiring connectivity, with at least four being crucial to the orangutan survival in Sabah.

WWF-Malaysia.

Source Salt from a House Who Hasn't Seen Death

This Youtube shares 4 stories of Lord Buddha, I like to elaborate to you one of the story which I particularly like.

During Buddha's time, a woman brought a dead baby and requested Lord Buddha to revive the child.

Buddha said he would do what was necessary, however, he would need a vital ingredient to bring about the resurrection.

Lord Buddha requested the woman to source salt from a house who has never seen death. The woman went through house by house, started with great joy, but to no end she could find such a house.

At the end of the day, she went back kneeling in front of Lord Buddha and said that she understood the lesson - she is not the only person in the world who have suffered the loss of a loved one.

The moral of the story: Everyone has to go through pain in their life - pain, loss, depression are part of life.

Be grateful today and always be compassionate to others and try to understand the pain of others - everybody has problems in life.

The Forest is the Lifeline of the Penans

Penans are categorized into two main groups based on where they live : the Western Penans and the Eastern Penans.

Eastern group : The Penans from Kubaan-Puak Forest Management Unit - they live mainly in Baram and Tutoh regions.

Western group: they live mainly in the Belaga region of Sarawak, Malaysia.

This indigenous people of Sarawak used to live by the following nomadic culture:

• Do not have permanent settlements,
• Do not farm, living mainly by foraging forest resources.

Nevertheless, as of today, only a small group of Penans are nomadic.

Help WWF keep Brumas (our satellite-collared elephant) and her herd safe in Sabah !

Elephants are among the most intelligent creatures on earth and they are able to display remarkable family bonds and social lives. When elephants bump into a familiar herd, they will rejoice with loud trumpets through gestures such as a tilt of the head or flap of the ear.

In 2005, WWF- Malaysia and Sabah Wildlife Deparment set ou on an elephant satellite tracking project to place satellite collars on adult female elephants that are at least six feet tall and weighs approximately one tonne.

Recently, our ranges John Japil and Julian Herman tracked down a magnificent female whom we named “Brumas” after the plantation where we placed a satellite collar on her. I am pleased to report that Brumas and her family were seen enjoying a salad of grass and other tasty plants in a wildlife-friendly oil palm plantation in Brumas, Tawau.

The Borneo elephant is an umbrella species that play important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystem in which they live in. These mega gardeners are excellent seed dispersers that help regenerate our forests. As their diet includes forest fruits, these seeds pass through their digestive system and are deposited far and wide, thereby helping the spread of new plants and tress which serves as food and shelter for other wildlife in the area!

Protect Freshwater Before It is Too Late

In Malaysia, we are fortunate to receive an abundance of rainfall, averaging from 2,000mm to 4,000mm annually. Having plentiful rainfall each year, many of us may not understand or appreciate where the water that flows from our taps really comes from.

Did you know that 97% of all the water on earth is actually salt water ? With only a small proportion of freshwater left, even then 2/3 of that is unavailable for our use because it is frozen in glaciers and ice sheets. As a result, we only have access to about 1% of freshwater and this little amount is all we have to meet the needs of more than 7 billion people on the planet.

Most of our water resources starts its incredible journey in a catchment area long before it reach the water taps in our houses.

A water catchment is an area where water primarily from rainfall is collected by the landscape such as highland forests and hills. It will then feed the water into streams and rivers that flow through the area.

Our highland forests such as Fraser's Hill and Ulu Muda in Peninsual Malaysia and Upper Baleh in Sarawak are some of the prime water catchment areas that play a vital role in supplying clean water to the population within the respective areas.

Borneo Elephants are good seed disperser

Borneo elephants includes their diet to forest fruits. The ingested seeds passed through their digestive system and are deposited far and wide, thereby helping the spread of new plants and trees which serves as food and shelter for other wildlife in the area.

These elephants, found only in Borneo, are shy and generally avoid people as much as possible. they are considered to be more gentle-natured than their Asian cousins in Peninsular Malaysia. As adults, these forest herbivores can eat up to 150 kg of vegetation per day, feeding mostly on palms, grasses and wild bananas. They also love durian and will rool the entire fruit - spikes and all - in mud, then swallow it whole !

The Borneo elephant currently falls under Schedule 1 of Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 which makes it a totally protected animal. Yet, there is still heart-breaking news of elephant deaths every year due to two primary threats which are forest conversions resulting in lost of habitat and human-elephant conflicts.

Kerastase Hair Youth Activator Serum Works !

At my age, I am experiencing proliferation of grey hair and slower hair growth.

I have always not been fond of my hair which is think and coarse.

Recently, my hairstylist introduced me to this seemingly silver bullet - Kerastase DENSIFIQUE SÉRUM JEUNESSE - Hair Youth Activator Serum which claims to be able to help with all my problems - I was skeptical though but I purchased it to try out at the cost of RM 300 per bottle.

After one month, I found it to work wonder.

It is able to promote fast hair growth, somehow reduced grey hair and the best part is it soften my coarse hair.