The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Oil palm industry may get a boost
- Elephants in Kinabatangan fitted with tracking collars
- School hoping to raise RM100,000
| Oil palm industry may get a boost Posted: 19 Jun 2013 04:28 PM PDT TAWAU: The state government will look at further incentivising the oil palm industry for its economic potentials to be fully unleashed. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Raymond Tan said the industry, while already well-established in the upstream (plantation) sector, required to break new grounds in the downstream sector involving value adding on crude palm oil and biomass. "Rewarding risk takers, recognising pioneers and industry leaders who dare to thread where others won't are some of the things my ministry (of industrial development) will think about," he said after visiting Malaysia's first pilot plant for producing bio ethanol from empty fruit branches (EFB). The plant belongs to the Teck Guan Group. The visit was made on the sideline of 4th Palmex Malaysia and Conference on New Opportunities in Biomass Downstream here from June 11 to 13. Teck Guan's chief executive Datuk Hong Ngit Ming briefed the minister and his entourage on the company's ambition in tapping the future potential of bio ethanol as a material for high value biochemicals which "will not be for a number more years". Tan, who is also Minister of Industrial Development, also heard how Sabah cocoa planters led the country in new approaches to increasing yield and control pests, but missed out on optimising on its position as Malaysia's top cocoa producer because the industry did not go downstream. He commended Teck Guan for its enthusiasm and industry leadership in resource optimisation not only in extracting bio ethanol from EFB, but also trapping methane gas from its mill effluent to produce energy to power its mills and fire its sizable brick factory. He was taken on a tour of the brick factory which used to be fired by burning palm kernel shells. The resultant acidic smoke resulted in corrosion, a costly maintenance issue which was eliminated by switching to firing with energy from processed methane. "I am aware that many oil palm mills are producing their own power requirements, but the Teck Guan example shows there is much, much more that can be done with oil palm biomass and waste materials. "The value adding on biomass makes good business because it makes money, creates jobs and protects the environment," he added. |
| Elephants in Kinabatangan fitted with tracking collars Posted: 19 Jun 2013 05:15 PM PDT KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife researchers are hoping to learn more about the habits of Bornean elephants in the lower Kinabatangan regions in Sabah's east coast by collaring another five of the pachyderms. The tracking of the additional five female and one male elephant would help researchers better manage plans for the creatures, said Malaysian PhD student Nurzhafarina Othman, who led the collaring exercise jointly with Sabah Wildlife Rescue Unit veterinarian Dr Diana Ramirez. "The main purpose of collaring is to collect additional movement data from different individuals to facilitate the management of the Bornean elephants in Kinabatangan and also to determine the social associations among females using GPS points, especially highly related females, an important component of my PhD," added Nurzhafarina. The collaring of the five elephants was carried out between June 4 and 6 near the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) research facility in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS). The exercise was part of a collaborative project between the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), NGO HUTAN and DGFC with funding from the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund of US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mohamed Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Elephant Family, Houston Zoo and Columbus Zoo. DGFC director Dr Benoit Goosens said the collaring of the five elephants in three days was an extraordinary feat as such operations were difficult. Apart from the Wildlife Rescue Unit, the collaring operation also involved the River Keeper Unit and DGFC staff. Dr Ramirez said the collaring involved three females which they named Ita, Bell and Tess, and a 30-40-year-old bull elephant called Sejati. Another female elephant called Putut which was initially tagged in 2011 was re-collared in the operation. Nurzhafarina said locating the elephants in the wildlife sanctuary was a high-tech effort involving the use of satellite global positioning system (GPS) and even cell phone text messaging. "To find the elephants in the forest, we were communicating via text messaging with Goosens, my supervisor, who from his office in Kota Kinabalu was providing real-time GPS positions of Aqeela, Puteri and Liun, three females from the same herd that were collared back in 2010, 2011 and 2012," she explained. |
| School hoping to raise RM100,000 Posted: 19 Jun 2013 05:15 PM PDT BATU PAHAT: SJK (C) Kong Nan in Parit Raja hopes to raise RM100,000 for its new building fund. The Chinese primary school board of governors chairman Teo Yew Chuan said the school was short of the amount for the project which costs RM1.2mil. He said the project to build a three-storey building comprising 10 classrooms, a canteen, library and activity rooms started end of last year. "The building is 80% completed and scheduled to be ready by mid-July. "We hope members of public will donate generously. "We have raised RM200,000 so far," he said at the school. Teo said the Education Ministry had allocated RM800,000 for the project, while former Sri Gading MP Datuk Mohamad Aziz presented RM80,000 for the school. Headmistress Tan Ah Noi said the school, established in 1937, had 12 classrooms. "Those classrooms can only be used as normal classrooms and there are no more rooms for other academic and curricular activities such as science room and music room. "We hope the Parents and Teacher Association will help to raise the remaining fund," she said. Tan added that with the new classrooms, the school could accommodate more students. The school now has 318 pupils, whereby 30% of them are Malays, she said. |
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