The versatile and functional 'Simpoh Air'

'Simpoh Air' thickets at Pipit Wetlands in mixed planting

'Simpoh Air' thickets at Kruak Wetlands

Long shot view of 'Simpoh Air' thickets at Pipit Wetlands

'Simpoh Air' thickets at the foreground
Location: Pipit Wetlands

The 'Simpoh Air' or Shrubby dillenia (Dillenia suffructicosa) is grown here in mass planting scheme or thickets.  It has characteristic broad leaves and prodices fruits much-liked by the Sambar deer.  Thus the shrub  is purposely planted to attract the coming of Sambar deers to the park especially during and a few days after every full moon of the month.  They provide cover for many other animals especially those grown near wetlands e.g. monitor lizards, civet cats, squirrels and nesting grounds for birds.  Many insects are attracted to its flowers and birds to its juicy red seeds.  The 'Simpoh Air' grows well on wet grounds as well as dry areas and thus is a versatile and no-maintenance plant.  Grown as thickets, they reduce much maintenance work e.g. grass cutting and thus minimise costs of care of the park yet attract a  diversity of wildlife.  Young leaves of the 'Simpoh Air' can be eaten as salad and older leaves are used as natural wrappers for food.  In other parts of Sarawak, the long straight stems of the plant are used for pepper posts.

A groovy kind of dillenia

Brown-throated Sunbird, female of the species at the Simpoh Air branch
Location : Wetlands between Zone G and Zone A

Female of the Pink-necked Pigeon

A groove of Shrubby Dillenia

Its a beautiful groove of broad leafy thicket.  A natural mass of deep green beauty amidst a jungle surrounding and open grassland where wildlife abound.  It is a groovy kind of landscape, soft green in the foreground and dark green washes at the back.  It's a place where the pigeons, sunbirds and bulbuls visit everyday for the tiny juicy seeds of the Shrubby Dillenia or 'Simpoh Air'. It is of vital importance to keep this groove for the many attractions it provides - fruits and seeds to many species of birds, flowers for insects and small animals.  The young flushes of the dillenia are edible as salad and during nights when the moon is high the Sambar Deer would occasion the pebbled-sized fruits of the dillenia as part of its regular diet.  There are many dillenia grooves at the park that are home for the buzzing wildlife.  And I never stop to learn and appreciate how a little sanctuary we build here has given us so much love for nature and a passion for simple living and happiness it brings. The falling leaves, November rain, the fresh winds and the walks in the park. Come what, come may.  It's a groovy kind of love.

Yellow-vented Bulbul against the clear blue sky of  November

A pair of Pink-necked Pigeon 

The female of the Brown-throated Sunbird having a mouthful of the red juicy seed of the Shrubby Dillenia.

The Simpoh Air in a mixed natural landscape scenery, interspersed with oil palm trees.
Zone G.

A natural vertical garden

Oil Palm tree ( Elaeis guineensis)  circumvented by various ferns
Location : Kruak Wetlands, Zone B.

Fern, fern, ferns...

 One can easily be enthralled by the beauty of the oil palm tree trunks.  Seen against the morning light one can see how richly endowed it is  with a extensive variety of ephiphytes, shrubs, and even tree species that habitually take root at the rotting cut bases of the oil palm fronds or branches.  A better word to describe this is vertical gardening.  This is because the oil palm tree acts as a green column for the various plants species that successfully attached themselves to it. The plants bio-diversity that thrive on the oil palm tree consists mainly of ephiphytic ferns of the genera Nephroplepsis, Polypodium, Davalia and Pyrrosia, orchids, and the pioneer  plants species like Shrubby Dillenia, Senduduk, Ficus family etc.  Here's some examples of vertical gardens at the park growing naturally.....

Zone B

Zone C

Zone F

A lovely couple of the Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Male Orange-bellied Flowerpecker with diagonistic bright orange rump and belly

Female of the species,, in Malay the bird is called 'Sepah Puteri Bukit'
Didaeum trigonostigma dayaknum

The trick works again.  How would you attract the Orange-bellied Flowerpecker if not for the over-ripe Jackfruit?  So the lovely pair is back again wanting more of the sweet pulp. Their arrival or presence is easily heard by the familiar  short shrilling chirp..sounding like sit...repeated many times.  Today, the both of them posed well for the lenses.  It is my belief that in Sarawak's town landscape there should be planted more fruit trees to attract wildlife.  The current paranoid attention to just ornamental trees is not good for the preservation or conservation of wildlife in urban environment.  Take a lesson from the Orange-bellied flowerpecker.

Female has grey breast and yellow abdomen
Location : Zone C

Clear stream revival, sounds familiar?

Location : Provinsi Carpentaria

Does it sounds familiar?  Clear stream revival! This is the phenomena after every major flash floods that happen in the park.  Follow the stream and you will discover its beauty after it is washed off all the unnecessary debris and murky water that abounds by its sides under normal conditions.  After every torrential rains the stream gets spring cleaned.and refreshed with cleaner water. Because the standards of development at the park are high, the water quality is very good.  In fact, you can bath using the stream water.  The stream is a reflection of life.  The only constant in life is change.  There  are always changes in  contemporary life, the changes are increasing accelerated and becoming more complex.  As the stream flows downriver and into the open sea, it slows down.  It faces friction, conflicts as it lands itself in more level-playing field.  Competition hots up.  What are we to do with life?  Two things I learned today by watching the stream.  Firstly, it is to accept change as part of life and complexity a challenge as we advance in years.  Secondly, what is more important is to understand the direction of change.  By having a good grasp of where we are going we are every ready to face life's complexities and opportunities.  Precisely at this point of writing these words somehow pop out of the blues ...Opportunity awaits the prepared mind.

The forest fringe

Forest fringe of a lowland Dipterocarp forest
Location: Zone C, adjacent to Lada Hill

Red-eyed Bulbul resting
on the fronds of a Nibong palm

 It is vital to keep a forest fringe around the Kambatik park.  This is to enable the continuation of green passageways for the wildlife.  They act as fallback sanctuaries to the park.  In its ecosystem thrives nature's denizens that will want to familiarise themselves to the park.  Some may retreat at night in the forest cover for rest but will soon come out during daylight to scavenge or prey for food at the park.  The forest fringe is a transition landscape and is a site  inhabited or regularly frequented by a rich assortment of wildlife, from ground level to top of canopy, or somewhere in between too.  Most interesting at the park here is the phenomena of the Sambar deer that depend on the forest cover to wander in the night and come out to visit the park areas to enjoy the water from the streams and ponds and to eat some of the cultivated leaves here, chiefly the Tapioca leaves, young leaves of the Cempedak, some Banana species,  grasses and ferns growing on  the oil palm tree trunks.

Plantain Squirrel hunting on the forest fringe

A Monitor Lizard finds temporary comfort on a tall tree trunk on the forest fringe

Plants of botanical interest at the forest fringe
At center is the Staghorn fern

Autumn in Kambatik

Foreground are orange - red flushes of Eugenia oleina, yellow green leaves of the Tabebuia alba with white flowers in the middle ground.
View looking east.

Autumn like colours of the Eugenia oleina flushes
Stretch of road along Zone B

Red flushes of the Ceylon Ironwood tree (Mesua ferrea) at the foreground, with Eugenia oleina flushes in the background
Location : Zone C

Light yellow flushes of the Mango tree at right, mixed with Eugenia oleina flushes at foreground and background.
Location: Zone G

All images taken today - 22 Jan'15

Ecomarketing the Kambatik Park 2015

 The year is coming to a close and I'm thinking of what to do for the Kambatik Park next year.  For one thing it took me a good 3 years already to develop the eco-farm into a nature park.  I have created awareness of the park since last year with continuous blog postings (2013=150 ; 2014= 292 as to date).  So I think the next level is to do some serious ecomarketing of the park.  Marketing is an interesting topic because it enables me to understand what business I'm in (value proposition) by looking inside out (organisational effectiveness) and outside in (customers needs and benefits they buy).  My business value proposition in simple words,  I'm in the business of oil palm farming the ecoway.  But business is again a much misunderstood concept.  The western industrial economics tradition have pushed profits as the main motive.  Though environmental economics come into play, its position as an appendage to industrial economics has its limitations and resulted in ways that are not nature-centric and anthropogenic.  To me business is a social being and also a natural being entity.  This is the perspective or model that I would try to market next year.  Why I have come to this position is because of the variety of ecological experience I had at Kambatik Park.  But more than that , I would like to infuse the aesthetics of living a beautiful life in the Kambatik model of oil palm farming.  This would then answer the questions that always bugs me - how does ecomarketing meet the social needs of my customers (value and benefits they buy) , my needs of an unique individual (self-actualisation values) and the the natural ecosystems needs, per se and the oil palm business it derives sustenance from.  It looks like it's gonna be a real adventure in life next year.  Looking forward to 2015!

Home is where the heart is

A December sky in painted canvas of dark and massive blue clouds.\

 Back in Bintulu.  Looking west I saw a December sky in painted canvas of heavy and massive  dark blue clouds.  They seem to promise more rain tonight.  Walking back from the hills, I walked past many columns of jungle green, islands of botanical interests and a feeling of freedom.  Truly living in the city chokes my being, and makes me yearn the fresh country air, the jungle footpath and an occasional orange dragonfly to greet me along the silent walk.  Here I find my spirit free to roam the landscape.  In my composed mind I say; home is where the heart is.

A walk in the Kambatik park

The two Tiongs waiting for an appointment with me...business as usual

A park of many returns

Malkoha in flight
Location : Paya Point

'Tiger Butterfly'
Location : Provinsi Yellow Palm

 This morning seemed exceptional.  I had a walkabout at the park between 8-9 am  and upon reaching the Paya point  met many surprises.  Firstly, I noticed the flight of the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha as it changed places to a nearby tree. Secondly, it was slightly more than a year ago that the 'Tiger butterfly' visited the oleina flowers here.  Its re-appearance was spent sometime at the flowers of a creeper in the wet and swampy area of  Paya point.  Unfortunately its wings were badly damaged and the real beauty of why I call it the 'Tiger Butterfly' was not clearly illustrated.  However, please go to this link to see the true beauty of this butterfly among the list of pictures here... The Black -headed Bulbul after missing in action for quite sometime decided to show itself too at the same location.  The striking yellow body contrasted with the forest greenery.  Climbing up the Cempedak Hill, I was greeted by the Yellow-vented Bulbul, a female Green Pigeon and a male Chestnut-breasted Malkoha.  Today's brief walkabout was comforting because it re-inforced confidence in me on the planting plan of the park with its linkages of forested or green passageways allowing for the return of many birds and butterflies to the park.

Black-headed Bulbul
Location: Provinsi Yellow Palm

Female Green Pigeon

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha - male of the species
Location : Cempedak Hill, Zone G

Sustaining the forest beyond

Cultivation of oil palm (as means) to sustain the rainforest ecology built around the existing original lowland dipterocarp forest eco-systems.
View of Zone G from Zone C, looking south

Botanic Island Two in the background

 There are two M's that can help me make the forest ecology of Kambatik Park a success.  First M is a strong MIND, a will if you care.   Second M  is the MEANS, without which you cannot develop and later maintain a nature park.  The park was fortunate because from its inception the existing preserve of original vegetation was not totally destroyed.  They were isolated and preserved as botanic islands of which there are currently four.  The oil palm cultivation were integrated around the islands , streams, swamps, slopes, roads and hills in order  not to destroy the original land form exceedingly.  Income from the oil palm harvests is the principal means to sustain the operation and maintenance of the forest ecology.  It is important to bear in mind that the real beneficiaries of the park are the wildlife and plants ecological diversity  and we humans need to re-learn to co-exist with them to really benefit from natural world, be it in agricultural productivity, tourism-related business or recreational activities.  Today when I take walks in the park, I feel so much peace with myself for having positively contribute to the  understanding and standing for nature.  The Kambatik Park is a first step in my journey to really take care of nature by seeing beyond the trees.

Plain areas as fallback positions in time of flash floods due to torrential rains

Natural and man-made forest eco-system integration

Eastern Crimson Sunbird brave itself to come out of the jungle to search for food on the cultivated garden areas of the park

Mormon butterfly in the Botanic Island Two

A walk in the park is the simplest means to commune with nature