Climate change – Sabah Insights

After 10 years, a grandiose playground for the super-rich remains in limbo

An artist’s impression of the Tanjung Aru Eco Development project.

It was to have rivaled Bali. But Sabah’s grandiose multi-billion-ringgit playground for the super-rich at Tanjung Aru beach never took off. The two-km long beach is reputed to be one of the world’s best offering spectacular sunrise and sunset. Launched by former chief minister Musa Aman in 2013 during a ground-breaking ceremony, the project has stalled because of objections from the public and environmentalists over a massive land reclamation plan, sales of the reclaimed land, and doubts over public access to the beach. And after 10 years, the project remains in limbo as the vagaries of politics have dampened investors’ interest. Now chief minister Hajiji Noor has given the Tanjung Aru Eco Development (TAED) which would have then cost RM7.1 billion a glimmer of hope.

Continue reading →

Sabah’s newly named state butterfly is threatened by a double whammy

Despite its discovery 131 years ago, little is known of the rare and mysterious Kinabalu or Borneo Birdwing butterfly (Troides Andromache) which is struggling for survival. Its population is not known. But there may be about 5,000 of them left in the foothills of Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia’s tallest at 4,095 metres, according to Stephen Sutton, 85, a British entomologist. He has been at the fore front of the butterfly research project supported by the Kota Kinabalu Rotary Club that started six years ago and culminated in the Sabah government naming the giant birdwing its state butterfly on October 2. It is a belated attempt to save it from extinction. Wildlife officials say many of them have been wiped out by deforestation. But the butterfly now faces a new threat – climate change.

Continue reading “Rare Kinabalu Birdwing struggles for survival” →

Tag: Climate change

Hajiji’s TAED dilemma

Rare Kinabalu Birdwing struggles for survival