I REFER to an opinion piece on The Malaysian Insight, Hurrah for the merbau.

The selection of merbau as the national tree and the ongoing Hutan Kita exhibition at KL Tower could not have come at a better time.

As many parts of this country continues to be choked by smoke from neighbouring Indonesia, we could do with a timely reminder of the importance of forest preservation and protecting our rich biodiversity.

Nothing is more effective to drive home the point of the government’s forests preservation campaign than to see for ourselves what happens if we do not take care of our forests and let them burn – literally.

From life-giving oxygen-producers, large tracts of green lungs turn into smoke machines, disrupting lives, harming public health and hurting the economy.

While most of the smoke originated from hotspots in Indonesia, I believe that had we preserved more forested areas and retained more green lungs in city centres, the effect from the haze could have been mitigated.

The KL Garden City of Lights project that took off to much fanfare years ago, had since been abandoned too.

Be that as it may, I am glad that the Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources had organised the Hutan Kita - Journey Through Our Rainforests exhibition. The exhibition, open to public, is free and showcases the rich biodiversity of our forests.

It was opened by Prime Minister Dr Mahahtir Mohamad and I visited the exhibition with my fellow nature enthusiasts recently. We were struck by how well structured and informative it was.

Visitors had the chance to learn about the different types of forests such as the Kilim Geoforest Park in Langkawi and the 130 million-year-old rainforests in Taman Negara.

There is even a section that simulates the firefly colonies in Kuala Selangor. During our visit, we bumped into Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who brought his children to the exhibition.

As for the ongoing smoke, it is a matter of time before clear blue skies return. But when it does, we tend to forget about the importance of forests preservation until smoke returns next year.

This is why a solid grounding on the importance of forests preservation is important.

When we collectively stand firm on the environment, we can cascade this to the lawmakers and policy makers, who would then have to step up diplomatic efforts to keep the annual haze occurrences to the annals of history. – September 16, 2019.

* Lim Tian Foo reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.