It is a great challenge to move those birds from their current home, town areas, to a new home.
This will be one of the biggest challenges of all the Local Council once the Garis Panduan Perumahan Walet come into force.
I was invited to sit with the Council recently and I am very happy that the new guideline will be made available for all swiftlet farmers and all the local councils.
The biggest task will be how to relocate these wild birds from town areas to a gazetted land area?
Will these birds moved?
How to make them moved?
The "Garis Panduan" allows a minimum of 3 years for BH owners to comply and I am sure there will be lots of objections from the swiftlet farming communities in the Country.
Have this been done before?
The idea is very good but how do we do it in a manner that will not disturb the bird's colonies and at the same time will make the BH owners agrees with all the measures that the Local Council will take?
Today I received an invitation letter from Kedah State to attend a briefing to the Chief Minister and his Town Planners above the subject matter.
I am very sure there is a very good opportunities to let them know my personal views and perhaps voice my concern over the BH owners income.
Theoretically it can be done but practically it have never been done.
My biggest concern is the fate of all those young birds during the moving operations. I cannot allow the "Mukah Tregedy" repeat itself. I am very sure that if the same tragedy is repeated our whole bird nest indutries in Malaysia will be black listed and we stand to loose billion of dollars.
The cost to move to a new site will be substantial.
The owner do not have any skill in this operation. Likewise no local council or their staff do have any ideas or experiences to handle this kind of task.
I planned to attend this meeting and prepare some materials so that the council will have some ideas on swiftlets behaviours, characteristics and their normal life cycle.
I have some suggessions to stop those annoying sounds.
If they wanted to move they need to come out with a suitable alternatives so that it will not be a huge burden to the current BH owners and are practical.
They need to consider providing the best alternatives to all those affected and ensure that high skill people are given the tasks to move the colonies.
Those who have some ideas please write to me as soon as you have them.
I need to get my paper ready by 3rd Feb 2009
4 comments:
Hi Harry, my thought is BH relocation will never can be done. Due it cost the farmer a great lost which easily more then 500k minimum to over million of farmer hard earn money, unless government compensate for farmer loses. Just ask back question to the council, what if they them self are the farmer and authority are going close up their BH/investment without any compensation.
Since you always invited for these discussion, please help deliver swiftlet farmer difficulty to council. We/farmer always willing to cooperate only if no risk for our investment that had been invested.
I agree with william.
Guarantee the loss and compensate at a reasonable / acceptable rate e.g. perhaps 5 % for 10 years going down the road
Every case should be considered on its own merit. In places where the swiflets are already plentiful and prospering well, perhaps it's better to resettle the residents rather than the birds.
For those in the town, unless they are causing a lot of problem or annoyance, they should be allowed to stay.
Swiftlets are not chickens. They cannot be relocated by lorry-loads. If they do not like the place you choose for them, they will not fly there, let alone stay there. Hence the idea of relocation is more likely to fail than to succeed.
I hope the authority will consider carefully before they act. A wrong move can send the whole industry to the gallows.
It is a worrying and disastrous proposal ! Pls do not let this happen !
Pls recall why swiftlets farming was initiated in towns. It is because of all those abandoned and derelict shophouses. By 'moving' BHs away from towns is going to turn the towns into ghost towns again and many other reasons too! Pls give a deep thought !
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