We, Malaysian should be proud of our country being the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil. The annual export quota for palm oil will be raised to 3 million tonnes from 2 million as part of government efforts to help reduce growing palm oil stocks. Hence, hundreds of acres of forest will be converted into palm oil estate.This action has certainly affected our wetland which provide broad range of wild and cultivated food sources such as fish (including shellfish), certain mammals, plants (rice, seaweeds, a range of leafy vegetables, fruits, and nuts, etc.), reptiles, amphibians. I am indeed concerned and hope all these activities are done with minimal destruction or with serious consideration towards the preservation of this beautiful creation and the ecological role.

Herman and his team were invited to take part in a survey on one of the largest wetland which will soon  be converted to palm oil estate in Johor. His task is to identify and list type of fishes that lives in this river system. Thank God I was invited as his guest this time and perhaps it may be the last field trip to this place. I drove about 400km from my office in Bukit Jalil in my recent acquired Saab 900 classic that evening, and drove back on the next day evening after the trip. It was tiring but the trip was well worth.

The FRIM team join our group too, the experts were geared up with their tools to prepare for the journey.

A perfect tool to collect leaves and branches.

Our team reactions in the journey.

This was our lunch.

The journey started off from mangrove, heading toward fresh water river and ultimately ended at black water river. Praise The Lord for the good weather, it was a heavy downpour the day before and the water level was high leaving me no chance to see my beloved species of Crytocoryne just yet!

Nypa fruticans are abundant at mangrove territory.

Nypa fruticans, known as the Attap Palm have many uses, among them are leaves used as roof material, the flower cluster can be tapped before it blooms to yield its sweet, edible sap collected to produce a local alcoholic beverage called Tuba. The young fruits are usually served in delicious dessert  and etc…

With Oncosperma tigillarium a.k.a. Nibong at the background.

Barringtonia asiatica a.k.a. Putats are poisonous tree.

White Handed Gibbon or Hylobates lar is rated by IUCN as Endangered (EN), considered to be very high risk of extinction in the wild, but their footsteps are found along the river.
Lar gibbon, like any other gibbons belongs to the family of apes instead of monkey, are often hunted for their meat and the young are captured as pets. However, their biggest enemy are the greedy humans who are infrastructure developers who rob them of their habitat.

Sorry for the poor quality shots, I was short of a long range zoom len.

To me, the most impressive discovery is the wild Betta Tomi which is what  ICNU listed as Vulnerable (VU) in the risk of going extinction in the wild. These Beta Tomi are found abundantly here, almost every scopes of sign of betta was B.Tomi. Every now and then in the  journey we stop at certain spots for fishing, Betta Tomi was our number one target.

Full gallery of betta tomi can be found here.

Other interesting floras found along the river bank.

Mayaca, I never seen such a huge population of Mayaca myself, clumps after clumps all along and blooming with white flowers.

Cabomba furcata with flowers.

Here we came to a division of black and fresh water rivers, we were disappointed to see the destruction of the forest but we have to accept the fact that developments are important to our country too. But somehow we need to find the balance between both and how FRIM, NMS and all mankind can make a difference.

Making way for Palm oil cultivation…..Sigh

We were surprised to see the water so clear that we could see through it. The clusters of Mayacas  appear like corals in black water.

We caught few more Betta Tomi in this region before we decided to turn back. By that time, I still had not manage to see any of the crypts, but I  was still praying for God’s intervention to allow them to appear before me in this journey.

Praise The Lord for His grace, for we found not only Cryptocoryne Purpurea but the blooming one, and for the first time we found C. cordata together with C.Purpurea in this area.

We found this lovely couple.

C. cordata.

Full gallery of C. purpurea Johor here.