Apart from the mangrove estuary, Kuala Gula houses a fishing village, nature resort and bird sanctuary. We headed to the Pusat Konservasi Hidupan Liar or Wild Life Conservation Center in order to get some more informations about the migrating birds. Once there, we discover anoter key point: the danger of extinction of some species. An official rehabilitation program for the endangered milky stork has been put in place.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
This center is focusing on the importance of safeguarding and preserving the mangrove ecosystems and the large numbers of resident and migrant bird species. There, we were said the main reason of their exctinction:
- They're being tracked, shooted and eaten by villagers
- Because of the development and the human pollution, their habitat became smaller, and thus they had nowhere to leave.
Unfortunately, there is nothing much we could do to prevent the villagers from chasing them for their flesh, or to keep them throwing their waste in the estuary. We still hope that in a few years, the government will intervene to make it stop.
Long live the birds!
__ Océane
At first, when you think about Kuala Gula, you may imagine a mangrove forest at the edge of the water. Yet originally, this area was a place of sugar cane production, hence its name Kuala meaning river mouth and Gula meaning sugar.