|
19th March, 2010
KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Peter Pang En Yin has called for specific zones to be made for the commercial farming of swiftlets in the state.
While acknowledging that swiftlet farming is a lucrative industry, he stressed that steps must be taken to ensure it does not bring about negative impact on the environment and the people.
He added that the swiftlet farmers must also bear in mind that local authorities in the state do not allow them to carry out their activities in commercial buildings or shoplots in townships as well as urban areas simply because these are gazetted for residential, commercial, industrial and tourism purposes.
Pang who is also the Youth and Sports Minister thus advised those in the industry to be patient and wait for the tabling and endorsement of the Swiftlet Industry Guideline (SIG) by the Federal Cabinet.
”With the SIG, the local authorities will be able to determine the zones allowed for swiflet farming and those in the industry will have a set of regulations to follow,” he said.
He said this in response to a recent statement by the Sabah Swiftlet House and Bird’s Nest Industry Association (Swifin) president, George Ng, that the SIG was reported to have the full support of the health, agriculture and agro-based industries, as well as the Housing and Local Government Ministry.
It was supposed to have been tabled in the Federal Cabinet meeting at the end of last month but has now been deferred.
The SIG, if accepted, will give the industry a much needed framework to operate in a sustainable manner and will put Malaysia ahead of leading bird’s nest producers like Indonesia and Thailand, said Ng.
The guideline would also provide the framework to regulate the industry in a holistic way such as licensing, sampling, production and export of the swiftlet bird’s nest abroad, particularly to China, he added.
Pang who is also the Karamunting assemblyman stressed that he was fully aware of the development in the industry and that he had nothing against the industry in general.
He however cautioned that allowing swiftlet farming in industrial or densely populated areas could result in negative impact on health, business and safety.
“We all know how valuable birds’ nest are and this can trigger an increase in criminal activities in the towns or industrial areas where swiftlet farming is allowed,” he said adding that people would also be worried about the impact on human health from the droppings and be disturbed by the noise caused by the birds.
Pang who is also KOSAN Chairman then related that the government agency too had experienced some setbacks as a result of a swiftlet farm in an industrial area in Sandakan.
KOSAN, according to him, had rented four shoplots on the ground floor in an industrial zone in Sandakan to expand its production line and at the same time provide jobs for about 80 jobless youths in the district.
“The management had to abandon its plans there after realising that the upper floors were occupied by a swiftlet farmer and wanted to avoid any health risks to its employees,” he said.
In response to Ng’s claim that the industry could help boost the property prices in Sabah, Pang said he was not convinced by the statement and he instead believed that swiftlet farming could cause the opposite effect.
“Zoning an area for swiflet farming is enough to create a negative chain of events where property owners are forced to dispose their properties while tenants move away,” he contended.
The area for human occupation will be taken over by birds and in extreme cases, may even cause a whole township to be deserted, he claimed.
Pang also argued that a clean and healthy environment is very important for the state’s tourism industry and tourists may feel uneasy if the places they visit have health risk because of the swiflet farming activities.
“We do not want to see swiftlet houses next to our hotels, our seafood restaurants and our shopping malls,” he stressed and said swiftlet farmers should not fall prey to agents or advisors in the industry but should wait for the guideline to be drawn up and also to consult the local authorities accordingly before venturing into the business.
|
