01. Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara, Selangor.

_

Dubbed as the richest state in Malaysia, there is no short of land here in Selangor, yet most 'developments' tend to stir with indigenous territories or what's left of an untouched ecosystem, demanding for legal rights over one's ancestral land. This is an ethnobotanical documentation of selected forest plants of the primary peat swamp forest — Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve — one of the remaining lowland forests that still stands the course of time, held by its indigenous guardians, the Temuan people. A constant uproar clouds over the Orang Asli villages in Kuala Langat, in efforts to defend their customary land and a 7000 year-old forest. Tensions rose before the first lockdown was implemented in March 2020, and solidarity efforts from Selangorians grew throughout the year — condemning the state government's desire to degazette and deforest a large part of the land for a mixed development project.

One of the villages, Kampung Busut Baru, is a product of a resettlement scheme to make way for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) back in the 90s. Samsul Senin, a Temuan recalls being relocated to Kuala Langat when he was just a young boy and told us that his community was not granted access to water and electricity until much later in the early 2000. He remembers following his parents to forage and hunt in the forest, of what is now only a meagre 958 hectares from its original size of over 7000 hectares.

Peatlands such as Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara are major carbon sinks as it serves as an accumulator of organic matter and locks away carbon as it has been for thousands of years. Its naturally high water-table is an important regulator of water flows in the region, minimizing flood risks and drought. A disastrous fate might lie ahead for not only the Temuan people, but also neighbouring communities if the plan to degazette and develop the forest reserve remains in the pipeline — spelling another ecological catastrophe and human displacement.

Latest updates on the regazettement of the forest reserve here.