WWF-Malaysia would like to respond to the recent news reports on an eco-friendly shrimp farming project at Setiu, Terengganu.

WWF-Malaysia finds it perplexing that Blue Archipelago Bhd (BAB) considers their project as eco-friendly and sustainable. In our view, a project that is sited in an environmentally sensitive area cannot be considered sustainable or eco-friendly and we further very much doubt that any credible international certification body would view it as such either.

WWF-Malaysia will elaborate on the elements that make this project unsustainable.

1. The Setiu Local Plan has identified this area as being environmentally sensitive due to the presence of the gelam tree forests, one of the most severely threatened freshwater ecosystems in Malaysia. A total of the 700 ha of the 1,000 ha project will be located on Gelam forest, meaning to say that a substantial part of this Gelam forest will be cleared to accommodate this project.

BAB appears to justify the siting of the project on the basis that the area in question is no longer pristine forest land. BAB has clearly failed to consider or appreciate the other vital ecological functions of Gelam forests for example, flood mitigation.

More importantly, the National Physical Plan identifies all wetland areas which include Gelam forests, as Environmentally Sensitive Area Rank 1, meaning development or agricultural activities are not allowed.

2. Due to water for the shrimp ponds being sourced directly from the sea, the effluent from the shrimp ponds will be high in salt content. This effluent, to be discharged into Sungai Chaluk will threaten the crucial habitat for the critically endangered river and painted terrapins and the entire river ecosystem.

The proposed mitigation measure to have a sedimentation pond to treat the effluent will not lower the salt content. Additionally, another threat looms. In the event of a virus outbreak in the shrimp ponds, the effluent containing the virus too will be channelled into Sungai Chaluk, resulting in a devastating impact to the smaller aqua-culture operators downstream of the Sungai Chaluk.

WWF-Malaysia supports sustainable aqua-culture projects and also shares the vision that Malaysia positions herself as a pioneer in the sustainable seafood industry. However, the destruction of valuable ecosystems and actions impacting already critically endangered species is hardly a step in the right direction towards sustainability.

The writer is executive director/CEO, WWF-Malaysia.