Miri Aereals, some you see, some you don't

And you thought the view was bad from the ground. These pictures were taken only a couple of weeks back on my return flight from Kuala Lumpur. All around Lambir NP you see systematic clearing of forests into terraces for what I suspect in the end will be planted with palm oil ... shocking! Don't recall seeing destruction of such scale when I first flew in here in 1990, still remembered someone on the same flight mumbling "Oh, my god ... it's all jungle!". Much has been cleared since.

These rampant clearing goes right to the coast up to the edge of the beach, they probably try growing them on the beach too if they can. Someone mumbled something about not clearing prime forests for plantations not long ago, but nobody cares what this guy thinks anyway. Looser!

One can imagine what would happen during the landas season or even during the occasional heavy rains we have here in Miri. The entire coast turns teh-tarik! We saw that firsthand during our beachwalk between Bungai and Tusan, 5500 hectares was just cleared there recently for a similar scheme.

How does this affect visibility in the water I wonder? All along the coast between Miri and Similajau, we have quite extensive complex of corals which are favs of local divers. The Miri-Sibuti Marine Park is not that far away from land. Gazetted and all.

I figure if we don't mind scraping up entire sections of our coasts for deep sea ports and polluting our air and seas with carcinogens, this we'd do with not so much as a blink! Sigh!