Dried bird's nests at a shop off Port Klang, west of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images
George Town, the capital of Malaysia's Penang state, is a city of two tales: on one side there's a multimillion-dollar edible bird's-nest industry, on the other there are the residents who say the industry is out of control, posing a health risk and threatening the city's Unesco World Heritage status."The site no longer belongs to us, but to the world. We should use this recognition as a catalyst to make the George Town world heritage site a livable city," said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, general manager of the George Town World Heritage Office.
Residents are concerned that the Unesco listing, bestowed in 2008 and celebrated last month with a four-week-long festival, could be jeopardised by the swiftlet breeders who use George Town's traditional shophouses as homes for the birds before harvesting the nests, which can fetch more than $1,500 a kilogram.
The Malaysian Swiftlet Farmers Association said in 2005 that 10% of George Town's 4,000 houses had been converted to swiftlet farms, but informal counts suggest the number may be much higher today.
"Swiftlets' natural environment is a cave. When you bring swiftlets to town areas, you must create the environment to attract them. This natural habitat is not suitable for shophouses," Sharif said.
Malaysia is the world's third-largest producer of edible bird nests, with an industry that makes in excess of $450m a year, mostly through exports to China, where the nests are regarded as a medicinal delicacy. Critics say the converted buildings become irreparably damaged. The breeding spaces are kept moist, often by leaving large containers of water, potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes, a further cause for concern.
Rebecca Duckett, a council member of the Penang Heritage Trust, fought for two years to evict a swiftlet farmer who was illegally occupying two flats in a building next to her home. "There was a system of big plastic tubs, full of excrement, and hose pipes that dribbled to the point where steel beams below had completely rusted," she said.
But it isn't just residents who want swiftlet farming out of George Town. Raymond Loo, of Penang estate agents Prima Harta, says potential buyers are reluctant to live on streets where swiftlet farmers operate. "They cause damage by sound pollution and also the bird droppings. Usually bird-nest houses are not well kept. It's very easy to attract termites. Most of the swift houses I have visited have this problem."
Local people complain about loudspeakers set up by farmers to play bird calls and attract the swiftlets, while the racket when the birds leave in the morning and return in the evening is another gripe.
Opponents are up against businessmen who had been profiting from the bird's-nest trade for years before George Town's heritage listing. Jannette Lee, Penang branch manager of Crystal Swiftlets, a supplier of swiftlet farming equipment, said a compromise needed to be reached.
"Bird's-nest trading has existed for many years. Talking about the farming itself, it has just got hot in the last 12 years. I wouldn't say it's a business, but it's an investment."
She added: "If you're looking at the angle of heritage itself, people may have concerns that the facades of houses have been damaged. The concerns are valid, but provided that the swiftlet farmers are responsible, there should be no problems."
Lee says that properly enforced regulations would defuse the tension, but successive state governments have neither cracked down nor found a middle road. The government issued its Guidelines for the Application of Premise Licences for Swiftlet Farming Businesses in 2005, outlining how swiftlet farming is permitted in legally gazetted commercial areas. A moratorium on new licences for swiftlet farms was then imposed in 2008 and extended three times, but new farms continued to sprout up around George Town regardless of the regulations.
Last month the federal government released its long-awaited Swiftlet Industry Guidelines, which the Penang state authorities are now considering how to implement.
The guidelines state that swiftlet houses should be located at least 50 metres from "fully residential buildings" and that heritage buildings should be subject to conditions drawn up by relevant authorities.
Meanwhile, swiftlet farmers in Penang say that if the government decides to move them out of urban George Town they must be compensated. One breeder, who asked that his name not be printed, says the fact that farmers had relied on the industry for years could not be overlooked.
"Getting the government to chase out all the swift breeders will destroy the livelihoods of a lot of people. Swiftlets have been here for a long time," he said.
"The government has been slow to act. There have been so many new houses built that if they ever put their foot down, there would be all kinds of problems."
Dr Kenneth Khoo, secretary general of the Small- and Medium-Sized Industries Association of Penang, said disgruntled residents had to meet the breeders halfway.
"I feel swiftlet farming should be allowed to continue to exist on the condition that those farms established prior to 2008, before the heritage listing, should be allowed to stay. Those formed after shouldn't be operating," he said.
"It's not fair to say that Penang now has heritage status and therefore all of them, despite following these guidelines, should now move out." This potential cut-off would affect about 70 swiftlet houses, he said.
0 green notes:
Post a Comment