The Gunung Kinabalu National Park is in danger of losing its Unesco bestowed World Heritage status, if its flora and fauna keep disappearing either through human activities or choked up by foreign weeds. Kinabalu is the first site to get the UN status in Malaysia.

It is learnt that a Unesco World Heritage Site Committee has cautioned Sabah Parks authorities that many native species are under immediate threat from the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) as the weed spreads uncontrollably and overwhelms them.

dianchi lake china 090904 weeds "We know this (the dandelion threat) can affect the world heritage status of Kinabalu Park," admitted Terrestrial Park Manager of Sabah Parks, Maipol Spait. "We have (put in) a continuous internal programme to combat the threat."

The dandelion was first noticed recently in Panar Laban by Unesco. Sabah Parks then found them at the helipad, Rainbow Station, RTM Station, Mesilau, Layang Layang and all the built-up areas in Kinabalu, according to Maipol as quoted in the local media.

The Sabah Parks Department is accountable to Unesco for Kinabalu Park. Now, it has to report on a regular basis to the UN body on the measures taken to halt further damage and keep the weed in check.

And the only way to tackle the problem is through an army of volunteers uprooting the dandelions on a regular basis.

This is a backbreaking job as it demands pulling out the weeds by hand before digging out the roots. Too, the volunteers have to endure the biting mountain cold and sunburn from a cloudless sky.

Sabah Parks has pledged to waive climbing permits payments for volunteers and free transportation. But they have to pay for their own overnight accommodation at the park.

Containing threat

Still, several interest groups have pledged to help contain the threat. They include the North Borneo Herb Growers Association (NBHGA), the No Boundary Adventure Team (Nobat), the Pharmaceutical Services Department, the Health Department, the Sabah Government Pensioners Association, the State Library, Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, the Navy, and the Mesilau Nature Resort, among others.

edible swallow birds nest in sarawak 290509 01 "Personally, I didn't know that the dandelion was a threat until recently. Now, there's greater awareness," said Mesilau Assistant Manager Freddie Jude. "Our staff will be asked to root out all dandelion around the resort to ensure that there is no takeover. We will also participate in programmes organised by Sabah Parks to root out the dandelion elsewhere in the Kinabalu Park area."

The North Borneo Herb Growers Association, made up of mostly pensioners, has chipped in by sponsoring Nobat consisting of young climbers.

"We feel good that we are doing something to preserve the World Heritage Status of Mount Kinabalu," said pharmacist C. V. Chin, a NBHGA member. "In fact, as a pharmacist, I am interested in the dandelion which has many medicinal and nutritional qualities."

It is not known whether any native species have been displaced by the dandelion in the Kinabalu Park. The Sabah Park authorities can't confirm this.

Kinabalu lovers have recorded their observations for the benefit of would-be volunteers and the park authorities.

Cascading effect

"We (NBHGA) can't see many of the Kinabalu Butter Cup, native to the park, anymore especially in Laban Rata and Layang Layang where there is a profusion of the dandelion," said Chin.

"We have also noticed that raspberries are less than in previous years."

Microbiologist Jaistin Tamin adds: "The orange raspberry plants are dying where they are surrounded by dandelions.

We are not sure whether this is due to toxins released into the soil by the dandelions, or strangled the roots of the raspberry plants or whether it competed for nutrients with the latter and other plants."

sungai bantang labis forest reserve logging 120107 trees Tamin hopes Sabah Parks will look into the observations since the local ecosystem would be affected by what's happening to native shrubs and fruit trees local.

"When the dandelion chokes the Kinabalu Butter Cup and the raspberry plants, who knows what insects that feed on it might also die out and this affects the big birds that prey on them," said Tamin.

Sabah Parks has permitted him to set up a 6m x 6m study grid at 770 meters to observe the processes in the local ecosystem in the presence of the dandelions.

He hopes to identify critically affected areas and enlist the voluntary services of park porters, guides and rangers to control flowering by nipping the buds before they bloom.

Chin, a scientist at heart, is against wasting dandelion plants that have been uprooted as the roots make for good coffee minus the caffeine; the leaves can be used as tea. They can also be turned into wine, which is supposed to be good for the liver and kidneys.

Pharmacies stock dandelion capsules which claim to be good for the liver, gall bladder, kidney and bladder problems.

Chin had dandelion plants from Kinabalu analysed recently by a Professor Yeoh of the Kuala Lumpur-based International Medical University (IMU).

The professor "found some good effects on the liver" but warned that the true and false dandelions were both equally invasive.

Valuable side to dandelion

It appears that true dandelions have all the good medicinal qualities but false dandelions need further research. No further specimens can be sent to the IMU from Kinabalu ,however, without the necessary export and import permits which are difficult to obtain as Sabah Parks wants all dandelions rooted out in Kinabalu destroyed.

According to Chin, most of the dandelions in the Kinabalu Park are the false variety i.e. with branches on stems unlike the true ones which have one stem with no branches.

It's a mystery how the dandelion, native to northern temperate zones, first invaded Kinabalu. Sabah Parks believes that climbers from either Japan or Europe brought in the seeds, unknowingly it is said, either in their boots or bags.

According to Wikipedia, Mount Kinabalu and its surroundings are among the most important biological sites in the world, with over 600 species of ferns, 326 species of birds, and 100 mammalian species. Among them are the gigantic Rafflesia plants and the orangutan.

Significantly, Mount Kinabalu is well-known worldwide for its tremendous botanical and biological species biodiversity, with high levels of endemism (i.e. species which are found only within Kinabalu Park and not anywhere else in the world).

As examples, it has one of the world's richest orchid flora with over 800 species, over 600 species of ferns (more than the whole of Africa's 500 species) of which 50 are found nowhere else, and is the richest place in the world for the Nepenthes insectivorous pitcher plants (five of the 13 are found nowhere else on earth) which reach spectacular proportions (the largest in the world being the endemic Nepenthes rajah).