Endangered P. alfredi

[Thomas Beu]

Hi all,
receiving alarming news from Jens Kuehne (Nakhon Si Thammarat) concerning the situation in the Selangor region, I try to reproduce his message (in German) for you in English:
Especially in West Malaysia the situation is annoying. The peats along Selangor river, assumingly the last (known) habitats of P. alfredi, are about to be drained and will be degraded shortly. Thus, in my view, P. alfredi now is the most endangered species of the genus Parosphromenus, even more than P. rubrimontis. If there do not remain some small spots with peat forest and black water (similar to Tanjong malim, Bukit Merah), P. alfredi will disappear in the next time. Fortunately, the Bukit Merah swamp is recovering a little because it’s no longer used as a bog hole for cows. More South near Pekan Nanas, the situation is serious as well. We found one population of P. tweedei in a ditch near Sri Bunian. The stand density was astonishing high. But the oil palms around are 20 years old and will be cut within the next 5 years. I don’t think that the friendly digger operators will carry the fishes out of the biotope before destroying it. In the neighbourhood of this place we found few little rivers, only one containing Paros, but with low stand density.
Thomas (Frankfurt, Germany)

[helene schoubye]

This is not a very uplifting report, but thank you very much for sharing it here.

[Peter Finke]

Thomas, thank you very much for reporting that alarming news to us here. Jens Kühne, as we know him, is a very good specialist of the changing countryside in Thailand, Malaysia and the adjacent countries; snd so this is very important for us to know.
In the original text that you gave me beforehand he told us to collect money in order to buy the endangered land. Well, at first we should know whether the owners (the Malaysian state? or a private owner?) would be ready to sell it, at second we should know how much would the price be.
But the main problem seems to me the fact that it is useless to buy a habitat only. The important surrounding woods and swamps must be included, at least to sufficient an extent, in order to make the habitat sure for the future.
Are there people who could answer these questions?
In principle the opinion “buy” is certainly fully right. But I fear that collecting the money would last some time and then it could be too late.
But I am really interested in the answers to my questions. Are there people who are able to reply?

[faesz sabarudin]

🙂

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