In March 2020, a group of experts, includ­ing Wen Tian Shi from the Parosphromenus Project met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to draw up an action plan for endan­gered Peat Swamp fishes in Malaysia. The meet­ing was hosted by Monash Uni­ver­sity Malaysia and Global Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre, facil­i­tated by Mike Baltzer from Shoal www​.shoal​con​ser​va​tion​.org.

The meet­ing was designed to sup­port the ambi­tions of the Parosphromenus Project and will con­tribute to the plan of the IUCN Asian Species Action Pro­gramme to pre­pare an action plan for all crit­i­cally Endan­gered fresh­wa­ter fish species in Malaysia. The high num­ber of threat­ened fish species found in the dimin­ish­ing peat swamp forests in SE Asia is of the high­est concern.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, the team dis­cussed which species should be included, the habi­tats these species rely on and the actions required to save them from extinc­tion. A plan has been drafted and will be worked on fur­ther as more infor­ma­tion is obtained. The next step is to design and fund the most urgent projects. The three most urgent projects are all tar­geted at sites where Parospromenus species are found in Penin­sula Malaysia.

The team also noted that more infor­ma­tion is required on the sta­tus and dis­tri­b­u­tion of peat swamp and threat­ened species in Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo).

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact Mike Baltzer at Shoal mike@shoal.org.uk

1. Went­ian Shi sam­pling at the North Selan­gor Peat Swamp For­est Reserve
2. Two of the experts, Nurhay­ati Has­san and Ella Michael Dosi, exam­in­ing sam­ples at the North Selan­gor Peat Swamp For­est Reserve
3. Peat swamp habi­tat at the North Selan­gor Peat Swamp For­est Reserve
4. Meet­ing dis­cus­sion at Monash Uni­ver­sity Malaysia