“This whale might have been separated from its group while looking for food along the Malacca Straits. This may explain why it ended up off Pontian.

“It was having trouble returning to its pod due to the low tide at that time. This led to it suffering emotional distress which can cause organ damage,” Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) officer Mohd Tamimi Ali Ahmad said when met after the whale’s carcass was towed back to the Batu Pahat Fisheries Department jetty here yesterday (February 10).

A post-mortem to identify the cause of death will be carried out on the 12m-long, 15-tonne adult male mammal.

“The carcass that was found along the river mouth of Sungai Sarang Buaya here is of the same animal found in Pontian earlier.

“We need about a week to obtain the results of the post-mortem.

“Once it is complete, its meat and organs will be destroyed while the skeleton would be placed at the FRI headquarters at Dungun in Terengganu,” he said.

The highly-endangered Sei or Baleen Whale is the third-largest whale after the Blue Whale and the Fin Whale.

“The Sei Whale is a common animal that can be found in Malaysian waters as the area is within their migratory route,” he said.

Over the last 10 years, Mohd Tamimi said, there have been similar cases of beached species, including at Carey Island in Selangor and Pahang.

“It is not only whales that have been found beached, but also dugongs and dolphins.

“I hope people will keep the sea clean for the sake of such animals,” he said.

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency Batu Pahat enforcement chief Lieutenant Commander Maritime Muhammad Zulkarnain Abdullah said the animal had swam more than 90 nautical miles from Pantai Rambah in Pontian to its final destination at Sungai Sarang Buaya here.

During those seven years, he returned to this national park many times. Yet every time he arrived, he was amazed by the beauty of the area and its valuable biodiversity.

“This place is amazing… It has some of the largest amounts of biodiversity I’ve ever seen. It’s one of the most important hotspots in biodiversity in Southeast Asia,” he said.

The Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park is the core of the huge Lang Biang Biosphere Reserve, which was recognised as a world biosphere reserve in June last year.

It is among 20 new sites that have been added to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves of the International Co-ordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).

These additions were made by the Council during its 27th session held in Paris from June 8 to 12.

The MAB Programme is an intergovernmental scientific programme set up by UNESCO in the early 1970s with the aim of improving interactions between people and their natural environments on a global scale. Biosphere reserves are places for learning about sustainable development, while reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with the sustainable use of natural resources. New reserves are designated each year by the International Co-ordinating Council of the Programme.

UNESCO recognition has increased the number of world biosphere reserves in Vietnam to nine, though this is the first world biosphere reserve in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

Pham Sanh Chau, general secretary of the Vietnam National UNESCO Committee, stated that setting aside the reserve was UNESCO’s acknowledgement of Vietnam’s contributions to international treaties on the environment and bio-diversity conservation issues signed by the country.

Rare and endangered

The Lang Biang Reserve covers an area of 275,439ha to the north of Lam Dong Province, with its core area of 56,000ha encompassing Bi Doup-Nui Ba National Park. An 86,000ha buffer zone, in which human settlements are permitted, surrounds the reserve.

The remaining 118,000ha include the wide transitional area covering parts of Da Lat City, Lac Duong, Lam Ha, Duc Trong and Don Duong districts.

The Lang Biang biosphere reserve’s core area, which is a national centre for biodiversity protection, is home to more than 2,000 flora species and nearly 400 fauna species, of which 153 species are named in Vietnam’s Red Book and 154 are included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The World Wildlife Fund regarded the area as a first priority in its preservation programme for the southern part of the Truong Son Mountain Range.

Vice Chairman of the Lam Dong People’s Committee Pham S said this was an area with great potential for scientific research, eco-tourism and education.

He hopes the area will see rapid growth in tourism in the future, similar to Trang An in Ninh Binh Province and Son Doong Cave in Quang Binh Province.

“This area is more interesting than eight other biosphere reserves in Vietnam, thanks to its perfect location and important value,” he added.

It is located in the famed Da Lat city at the highest altitude, compared to the country’s 8 other biosphere reserves, with Bidoup peak measuring 2,287m high in Da Nhim Village. The highest Bidoup peak is known as the Roof of the Central Highlands.

Moreover, it has been highly praised by tourists and experts due to its biodiversity, special natural landscapes with high mountains and beautiful waterfalls, and its rich culture displayed by local inhabitants from different ethnic groups.

Do Van Ngoc, vice director of Bidoup – Nui Ba National Park, has noted that Lang Biang is closely connected with the rich culture of the Central Highlands region and the gong culture. The area of the gong culture was recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005.

Opportunities await

Pham S said he hoped that UNESCO’s recognition would help Lam Dong carry out its strategy for sustainable development through preserving and developing the values of ecosystems of the Lang Biang biosphere reserve.

It is also expected to turn Da Lat into a tourism centre, and an international research centre of tropical forests, while continue to promote its development of high tech agriculture production, with key products being vegetables, flowers and other organic agricultural products.

Dr Le Van Huong, director of Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, added, “UNESCO’s recognition creates great opportunity for sustainable development for Lam Dong Province and Da Lat city, in particular for its local inhabitants, many of whom are ethnic minorities. Moreover, the area will attract more tourists to Da Lat. They will enjoy wonderful areas for sightseeing and working.”

To attract more tourists to the area and improve the livelihoods of the local community, residents will be trained to take part in the region’s tourism projects. The five-year project, which has been carried out by Lam Dong authorities and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which began late last year, aiming to enhance the national capacity for sustainable natural resource management by focusing on forests, biodiversity and people who depend upon these natural resources for their livelihoods.

The project seeks to generate revenues for the local community to reduce their dependence on the forest’s resources. Many local inhabitants have only relied on forest resources to make their livings.

Local residents will learn to dance to the music of the gong and weave brocades. Also, residents will be trained to better communicate with customers and to become tour guides escorting visitors to the Thien Thai waterfall, Langbiang mountain, Bidoup national park, the isolated village of Dung Ia Jieng, the only village lying at the heart of the Bidoup national park, and to visit members of the Co Ho Cil ethnic group.

These new policies are designed to help local residents learn how to protect the environment and earn their living from it.

Key to forest protection

Since 2003, many classes were opened at Lam Dong province’s college, and for high school students, to teach about environmental protection, while observing and researching animal life and plants in the Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park.

Also, beginning a few years ago, local residents in Lam Dong province were handed the key to protecting their forest.

More than 8,000 households have signed contracts with the Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park and Da Nhim Protected Watershed Forest to provide environmental protection services. Each household receives about VND20 million a year, or roughly US$800, depending on how much land they have been allocated.

The government’s new policy, entitled “payment for forest ecosystem services” aims to compensate farmers, in return for patrolling assigned forest areas to prevent logging, hunting, and other illegal activities. Many farmers are now also patrolling forests. However, this compensation only meets less than half of their families’ daily needs, so participants still have to supplement this by growing coffee or providing labour for other households.

According to a recent research project undertaken by the JICA Bidoup-Nui Ba, nearly 79 per cent of local inhabitants living in the core areas and buffer area of the Bidoup- Nui Ba national park are ethnic minority groups. Some 87 per cent of their revenues come from agriculture. However, not many of these residents live well solely on agriculture, because the agricultural land is limited to less than 1ha, and they use backwards farming techniques to grow coffee varieties that are in less demand.

Therefore, many local inhabitants have to live on harvesting forest resources.

Further, due to low educational standards, a lack of awareness about the protection of nature, and the environment of the local ethnic minorities around the National Park, many fail to protect the environment.

Further, residents continue to participate in illegal activities, such as clearing forests to create agricultural land, logging, and hunting animals. Officials also note that such activities inadvertently cause forest fires.

These illegal activities directly threaten forest conservation and biodiversity at the national park and create challenges to the Lang Biang biosphere reserve.

Pham S considers UNESCO’s recognition to be a challenge and it has become a force for greater efforts to develop and protect the wildlife reserve.

“The country and Lam Dong Province face big challenges, such as the challenge in maintaining the main functions of a biosphere reserve. They include conservation functions, a development function and a logistics function,” he remarked.

As he explained, conservation functions mean contributing to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species, and genetic variations. Development functions refer to fostering economic and human development that is socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable.

Logistics functions involve providing support for research, monitoring, education and information exchanges related to local, national, and global issues of conservation and development.

Steps for preservation

Pham S is committed to carrying out projects to effectively manage and conserve the Lang Biang biosphere reserve, under the motto of the ICC MAB.

He emphasised the need to develop and preserve the site, focusing on international co-operation and human resources, as well as elevating the image of Lam Dong among international friends through tourism.

“We are designing a number of action plans, including the establishment of a management board and a technical project supported by the Japanese Government,” he said.

“Lang Biang will strengthen its connections with domestic and international nature reserve networks in a bid to exchange expertise to perform more effective conservation work,” he said.

Sharing Pham S’s ideas, Dr Le Van Huong, director of Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, said it was very important to preserve the biodiversity, while maintaining the balance between local development and sustainable development of the natural environment.

“After UNESCO’s recognition, I believe that it has become very important to preserve the ecosystem sustainability of the biosphere reserve. We want to preserve this area to develop it, while taking care of the local inhabitants living in this area,” he said.

“We have asked the provincial People’s Committee to create a management forum, where scientists, authorities and local inhabitants can share their opinions and thoughts about ways to develop and preserve the area,” said Huong.

“I also believe that it is important to increase public awareness about their rights and responsibilities when taking part in the development and preservation of the area.”

According to Huong, through the use of media publications, it is important to encourage the public, students and tourists to understand the value of forests, rare and precious flora and fauna and the benefits of protecting forests and development, as well as the preservation of natural resources, promoting community participation and the protection of natural resources in the country’s development.

The 275,000ha Lang Biang biosphere reserve, which mainly lies in Lam Dong Province, is also connected to three important areas, including the Phuoc Binh National Park in the east, the Truong Sinh National Park in the northwest, and the Hon Ba natural reserve in the northeast.

“Together, they form a huge area and a unique place in Vietnam, with primeval forests making up more than 300,000ha,” he said.

Meanwhile, Professor Brandon Buckley said he believed the key to actually preserving and conserving this area is through research and education.

“We should teach people through research projects, making them interested in preserving the area,” he said. “We encourage the involvement of the local population in the work we do.”

“During our annual field school at the national park, we combine research that we do with teaching people from the international community to care about the reserve when they come.”

The UNESCO recognition and the efforts of local authorities to preserve the area are expected to attract more tourists to the biosphere reserve.

Nguyen Luong Minh, director of Bidoup Nui Ba Ecotourism and Education Center, said the number of tourists coming to the national park increases each year. In 2014, 6,800 tourists visited this area, marking an increase of 31 per cent over 2013. In 2015, 7,800 tourists arrived, which was an increase of 114 per cent over 2014, of which 30 per cent were international tourists and 50 per cent were Vietnamese students.

It is expected the area will attract one million tourists by 2020.

Currently the principal deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Marciel has also been ambassador to Indonesia and served in Vietnam, the Philippines, Brazil and Turkey.

Obama nominated Marciel to be his next envoy to Myanmar in October. His confirmation vote had been briefly delayed by concerns that the administration might ease sanctions before the country’s human rights situation improved.

– Reuters

In today’s press release summarising Singapore’s safety and security situation in 2015, MHA said law and order in the country continued to be favourable.

Although there was a slight increase in crime from the previous year due to a sharp rise in online crime – a trend since 2013 – almost all other crime classes registered a fall.

For instance, housebreaking and related crimes dropped to their lowest levels in 20 years, while the number of unlicensed moneylending harrassment cases continued to decline.

The drug situation was also stable and there was a decrease in fire incidents, with fire fatalities remaining low. On the road safety front, the drop in fatalities from road traffic accidents was tempered by a slight increase in the number of injuries.

MHA, however, highlighted four trends of concern: the spike in online crime; a continued rise in new drug abusers especially those aged 30; an increase in the number of arrested harbourers and employers of immigration offenders; as well as how the unauthorised change of use of premises and illegal fire safety works continue to cause the highest number of fire safety violations.

It also warned that Singapore still faces various threats, chief among them terrorism.

The Home Team is ready to respond decisively in the event of a terrorist attack, MHA said, but the public also plays a major role by being alert to potential dangers and warning signs of terrorism.

“We must stay united if a terrorist attack were to happen, and be able to recover as one people,” MHA added.

“The Bangladeshis will be allowed to work in the service, manufacturing and construction sectors, instead of being confined to the plantation sector, as is the current practice.

The new agreement to bring in the workers will be signed within a month.

The “G2G (Government-to-Government) Plus” deal will recognise Bangladesh as a “source country”, which would enable Bangladeshi women to be employed in Malaysia.

The victim, who was believed to have been working at a seafood restaurant in Paramount Garden here for several months, had used a glass shard to slash his neck.

Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Zani Che Din said the man was found near a gym at a shopping mall near Mutiara Damansara at about 7.30pm on Tuesday night.

He was identified as Kyaw Lin Htike from Mudon, Myanmar.

KSPI chairman Said Iqbal said the government had let Chinese investors bring thousands of unskilled workers to the nation, but had not shown the same flexibility to other foreign investors who had long been running businesses in Indonesia.

“We want the government to prevent Chinese investors from taking unskilled workers and protect the existing upstream industry in Indonesia,” Iqbal said on Monday as quoted by Tempo.co.

With the recent layoffs at a number of foreign companies in Indonesia, including Japan’s electronic manufacturer PT Toshiba, Iqbal said the reason was not the high demand for increased wages from workers, but was instead due to the weakening of people’s purchasing power that created implications for the drastic slump of electronic product sales.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) told The Straits Times that in 2014, when there were 150,000 technology professionals working in Singapore, about 15,000 vacancies could not be filled.

By next year, another 15,000 specialists may be required as fields such as cyber security, data analytics and application development clamour for more professionals, the IDA said. This means that Singapore may find itself short of nearly 30,000 information technology professionals.

Small and medium-sized enterprises said they are already struggling to find IT specialists.

Singapore-based mobile development firm BST Consulting, for example, has more than 100 developers in five cities around Asia, working remotely for the company, but only seven in Singapore.

Its chief executive Paddy Tan has been battling the big boys for this limited talent. “We are fighting for the same pool. Even fresh graduates can pick and choose because there is a shortage of such people.”

He said the crunch will worsen as companies such as Google go on a hiring drive here to recruit software engineers.

Industry players said schools here have not been churning out enough IT graduates and sometimes they have been taught outdated skills.

“When fresh graduates come to us, the coding languages they know have already been phased out,” said Darren Lee, managing director of Web-design company Fixx Digital.

The crunch has pushed up salaries across the board. A developer with five years’ experience can earn S$7,500 (US$5,300), while a fresh graduate can earn S$3,000 (US$2,100) or more. Still, there are not enough local job applicants.

Out of every 20 applications Lee receives, 19 are from foreigners. He has hired two Indonesians and three Malaysians and relocated them to Singapore.

“The supply is so short that we can’t afford to be selective. And we have to pay these inflated salaries,” he said.

The IDA is trying to ease the crunch. Its assistant chief executive Khoong Hock Yun said: “We work with companies to open up more opportunities (for them) to accept a greater number of polytechnic graduates.”

Several full-time diploma and degree programmes in business analytics were launched in recent years, in anticipation of the demand, he said.

“The IDA is ramping up its programmes to focus on these key growth areas, by training fresh and mid-career industry professionals to help them acquire the skill sets,” said Khoong.

But Tan of BST pointed out that training students now will not help firms in the short term, as it will take at least three to four years before these students graduate.

A spokesman for the Smart Nation Programme Office said Singaporeans can tap the SkillsFuture scheme to pick up the skills.

The spokesman added that human capital was a key part of the Smart Nation journey and building it up could open many opportunities for Singaporeans. “With the global digital revolution, talent is in short supply everywhere, not just in Singapore.”

Under the plan, total public investment need for the period is estimated at nearly 11 trillion dong (US$495 million), equal to 75.6 per cent of the amount spent from 2011 to 2015.

More than 8.7 trillion dong ($391.5 million) from the proposed amount will be sourced from the State budget, some 950 billion dong ($42.75 million) from Government bonds and approximately 1.288 trillion dong ($57.96 million) from foreign fund.

The mid-term investment will focus on building facilities for education-training and science-technology establishments to assist them in switching to the self-control financing mechanism.

According to the ministry’s statistics, it was assigned to manage the spending of almost 1.6 trillion dong ($72 million) from the State for 38 public projects, six of which have become operational.

Meanwhile, the ministry mobilised some $17.5 million in four projects from the United Nations and the government of Japan, Germany and Republic of Korea.

The survey collected the data between 2011 and 2015 and found that 23 percent of the total number of Lao students studying abroad chose to study business administration and/or law.

This was followed by social science and information and communication while health and social welfare represented 10 percent of the total figure.

Education and teacher training, along with science, production, construction and art represented about 9 percent of the total figure.

Subjects with the smallest number of students studying abroad included services; transport and defence which made up only 1 percent of the total figure while agriculture, forestry and fisheries and veterinary medicine represented only 3 percent of the figure.

Laos will continue to face challenges in relation to having more skilled people in some sectors but lacking skilled human resources in other sectors.

A senior official from the Ministry of Education and Sports’ Student Affairs Department Bounxom Khemmanyvanh told Vientiane Times last week that “Our main challenge is that we produce human resources based on scholarships given by foreign countries and other international organisations.”

“We have not yet produced human resources based on the development needs of our country because we have yet to invest our capital in sending students to study overseas in sectors we need.”

Bounxom said the sectors which require development and skilled resources include engineering, technology, agriculture and railways.

Every year, Lao people win scholarships to study bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees as well as attend training abroad to further sharpen their knowledge and skills.

In 2015, some 5,260 students went to study and attend training in 25 countries abroad, of which 2,151 were women.

Bounxom was unable to confirm the issue in regards to where students work after their graduation. “What I know is that many students work with the government while some others work with international organisations or launch their own businesses,” he said.

“We are developing a programme to identify which jobs students intend to pursue after graduation abroad and see whether they work in the areas they studied or in other areas.”

There are five forms of scholarship programmes given to Lao students to study abroad. The first are those given in the form of government cooperation projects between Laos and foreign countries.

The second are those given through the support of international organisations. The third are those offered through bilateral cooperation between government sectors of Laos and foreign countries.

Meanwhile the fourth includes scholarships given by education foundations and the fifth group includes those who fund their own studies abroad.