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Ekspedisi ini amat sesuai
bagi pengunjung yang ingin menikmati keindahan alam semulajadi. Anda boleh menyewa bot dengan harga
yang berpatutan untuk mengelilingi pulau-pulau berhampiran seperti
Pulau Telur, Pulau Bidan dan Pulau Songsong.

Kesempatan
ini, boleh
digunakan untuk menyusuri Sungai Merbok yang bersih disamping
mempunyai hutan paya bakau yang belum tercemar. Hutan paya bakau
yang terletak di sepanjang Sungai Merbok merupakan salah satu hutan
paya bakau yang tercantik di Asia Tenggara dan mengandungi lebih
dari 100 spesis paya bakau.
Diharap program ini mampu
memberi kesedaran tentang kepentingan penjagaan alam sekitar agar
khazanah ini dapat dipelihara untuk generasi akan datang.
NOTA
RINGKAS MENGENAI KEINDAHAN HUTAN PAYA LAUT
HUTAN
SIMPAN MERBOK
DARIPADA
: PEJABAT
HUTAN DAERAH KEDAH TENGAH
|
Pemandangan
Pokok- pokok Bakau Di Sepanjang Sungai Merbok |
Introduction Peninsular
Malaysia still have substantial areas underb mangroves totaling
101,877 ha. The mangroves are found in all states ranging from 20.0
ha in Perlis to 43,502 ha in Perak. Mangroves
area in Kedah cover only 0.85% of the total land area in the states.
The biggest mangroves forest is in Merbok Forest Reserve while the
other areas of mangroves forest are located in Pulau Langkawi.
 |
Anak-anak Pokok
Bakau |
Merbok
Forest Reserve These
are the most extensive and best mangroves on mainland Kedah and
comprise 4,037 ha. of mangroves and about 1,000 ha of waterway. The
areas were gazetted as forest reserve in 1951. In
the pursuance of development, mangroves like ather natural habitats
are not spared and have been reduced in size over the years (Table 1). However of late the threats to the preservation of mangroves
are somehow much reduced due to the better understanding of
importance and functioning of the mangroves especially among the
land administrator and policy maker. The
Resources Flora Mangroves
botanists have divided mangrove vegetation into three broad
categories: exclusive, non-exclusive and associate.
"Exclusive" mangroves are those vegetation that are found
only within the mangroves habitat covered by tides, i.e between low
water levels of neap and high water levels of spring tides.
Meanwhile, the "non-exclusive" species are those
vegetation that have some role and importance in the mangroves
habitat but their existence are not restricted to the mangroves
habitat alone. Additionally, they are not able to form conspicuous
elements of the vegetation and rarely form pure communities. The
"associate" mangrove vegetation, on the other hand
are those that can be found elsewhere and not retricted to the
proximity of mangrove though it occurs primarily in transitional
vegetation either land-ward or sea-ward of the exclusive mangroves.
Detailed vegetation surveys have been done on the Merbok Forest
Reserve ( Ong et a1.1980) and a complete list of two classes of
mangroves vegetation ( exclusive and non-exclusive) are recorded. Fauna Data
on fauna are most comprehensive for the Merbok Forest Reserve (
Gregory-Smith, 1993 ) which deals mainly with the bird . A total of 80 birds species is listed with 15 species under the
category of "mainly mangroves dependent". In
another study (Noske, 1993), 48 species of birds were recorded from
Merbok Forest Reserve . Among
the mammals recorded at the site are three species of monkeys:
Long-tailed macaque (Macaca Fasicularis), the Dusky (Presbytis
Obscura) and Silvered (P. Cristata) Leaf-Monkeys; platain squirrels
(Callosciurus Notatus) and others ( possibly Lura Perspicillata
) The
fish fauna has been listed by Khoo (1989); consisting aimost 50
species of finfish and shellfish. Forestry The
management plan on the Merbok Forest Reserve is based on 30 years
rotation with the annual coupe of 100 ha. The mangroves have been
successfully managed more or less sustainably for the extraction of
poles for the production of charcoal. Fishing The
common fishing activities conducted inside the Merbok mangroves are
crab trapping, net trapping and shellfish harvesting. There is also
floating cage aquaculture carried out at some parts of waterways. Eco-Tourism Eco-tourism
in mangroves has great potential and should be taken advantage of
Boardwalk will be constructed in Kompartment 10. Scientific
Research and Education A
lecturer with LESTARI, University Kebangsaan Malaysia and Research
Officer from Institut Penyelidikan Perikanan together with scientish
from Forest and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan had chosen
Merbok Forest Reserve for their study. Compartment
18 has been set aside for education, while Compartment 11 as seed
stand. Conclusion From
an ecological point of view Merbok mangroves is an extremely high
biodiversity ecosystem ( Ong & Gong, 1990 ). It would rank
amongst the floristically diverse of any mangroves ecosystem in the
world. The management of Merbok Forest Reserve has been such that
this diversity has been more or less maintain but the current
conversion of mangrove area to aquaculture and other development
programmes are a serious threat to the high species diversity. Table
1 : Merbok Forest Reserve
| Compartment |
Area
( ha ) |
Remarks |
| 1 |
184.81 |
Excised
25.19 |
| 2 |
211.10 |
|
| 3 |
114.10 |
|
| 4 |
157.40 |
|
| 5 |
296.10 |
Excised
20.00 |
| 6 |
140.00 |
|
| 7 |
155.40 |
|
| 8 |
112.50 |
|
| 9 |
365.00 |
|
| 10 |
121.40 |
|
| 11 |
251.30 |
|
| 12 |
174.40 |
|
| 13 |
|
Excised
182.10 |
| 14 |
|
Excised
132.30 |
| 15 |
|
Excised
306.80 |
| 16 |
|
Excised
309.60 |
| 17 |
478.80 |
|
| 18 |
299.10 |
|
| 19 |
3,061.01 |
|
| Total |
3,061.01 |
975.99 |
|