(KAMPUS JENGKA)

BIO330

REPORT ON:
FIELDTRIP TO KENONG RIMBA PARK, KUALA LIPIS, PAHANG

DATE:
26TH - 28TH AUGUST 2016

BY:
NABILAH HANUM MUSTAFA

(2014451998)

SYARIFAH ATASSYA SYED OTHMAN

(2014838652)

CLASS:
AS120 5C
1.0 INTRODUCTION

Figure 1.1: Signboard at Kenong Rimba Park with Kesong Mountain as background

Kenong Rimba Park is located at the fringe of Taman Negara on its eastern and northern
boundaries. This green precinct covers a sprawling 128 square kilometers of Pahang's
tropical rainforest. Kenong Rimba Park is home to pockets of limestone caves, which have
become the destination of spelunking enthusiasts. The crystal clear waters that flow through
the park and high cascading waterfalls are exotic backdrops to a large array of flora and
fauna.

On 26th August until 28th August 2016 (3 days and 2 nights) a group of 55 students, 3
lecturers and 2 lab assistants went for a fieldtrip at Kenong Rimba Park. This fieldtrip aims
to provide an inquiry field experience for Diploma in Science students to explore the
geographical landforms, features, art forms and biodiversity of a natural environment at
Kenong Rimba Park. By interacting with the physical environment, students will be able to
better visualize, comprehend and apply what they have learnt in the classroom during the
inquiry-based approach for the fields of ecology.
 The objectives of this fieldtrip are to acquire useful application of the “inquiry based
learning approach” where data and information are converted into useful knowledge –
developing a case study of various natural landforms in Kenong Rimba Park e.g. Gua
Harimau, Gua Hijau and etc. Next, to collect specific examples that will substantiate generic
explanations of processes and landforms in physical geography. Then, to create an
appreciation towards nature and the last but not least, to foster strong bonds of friendship
and camaraderie among students and lecturers.

Day 1 (First Day)

The tentative of this fieldtrip started on August 26 (Friday), which we need to gather
at Medan Selera, Kompleks Tok Gajah at 0900 hours. Around 1030 hours we made our way
to Kenong Rimba Park by bus. At 1230 hours the buses stopped at a mosque in Kuala Lipis
to perform Jumaat prayer (for the men), Zohor prayer and eating lunch. We continue our
journey at 1430 hours and safely arrived at Felda Kechau. Next, we need to ride 4x4 wheels
drive around 45 minutes to get into Kenong Rimba Park. After we arrived at the destination
around 1615 hours, we were free to do our own activities while waiting to be able to check-
in into the chalets. The groups who were scheduled to cook for the dinner took their part and
prepared the dinner at the provided kitchen. At 1700 hours, the participants got their chalets’
keys and took their rest after a tiring journey. Our first activity started at 2100 hours which
was Safety Briefing by the tour guide, Encik Sirajuddin. At 2130 hours, we went for a night
walk to find insects. The activity for this particular day was ended at 2300 hours when
participants went back to their chalets and had a complete rest.

Day 2

On August 27, at 0615 hours we started our day with Fajr’ prayer and had our
breakfast at 0700 hours. Then, we warmed up our bodies as we need to go for a long walk
throughout the jungle for caves visiting which were Gua Tangkup, Gua Telahup and Gua
Batu Tangga. The visit ended around 1230 hours and we had our lunch, perform our prayers
and had a rest before we visit the next cave which was Gua Purba at 1430 hours. The visit to
Gua Purba which took almost three and a half hours (return) was the last rough activity for
the day. Therefore, we ate our dinner, had shower, performed our prayers and had a rest
before having our discussion at 2100 hours. In the discussion between the participants and
the tour guides, we had sharing session and question and answer session. The discussion
ended at 2230 hours and we had our rest.

Day 3 (Last Day)

On August 28, as usual, we performed our Fajr’ prayer at 0615 hours and had our
breakfast at 0700 hours. Then, we warmed up our bodies before we went for an expedition
to Kesong Mountain to visit Gua Hijau, Gua Buta and Gua Gajah. To reach those
destinations, we need to hike the mountain and it was a challenging activity ever for those
who do not have the experiences in hiking activity. All safety measures were taken and the
participants were all safely returned. The expedition ended around 1215 hours and we had
our lunch, packed our belongings and performed our prayers before going back to UiTM
Jengka. At 1400 hours, we checked-out from the chalets and gathered at the front entrance
and waited for our 4x4 wheel drives to arrive. At 1430 hours, we ride our trucks to reach the
main road and continue our journey back to UiTM Jengka at 1515 hours. At 1700 hours, we
arrived in Jerantut and had our meal until 1800 hours. We safely arrived at UiTM Jengka
around 1845 hours and said our goodbye.
1.0 BODY

2.1 ECOSYSTEM – TROPICAL RAINFOREST

Malaysia's tropical rainforest. What comes to mind? Giant trees, lush green foliage,
tigers, elephants, and lots of wild, dangerous animals. But there is much more to it than
just that. In the humidity and confusion of the thick forest, one can easily overlook the
smaller, harmless and just as important inhabitants. Flying lizards, insect-eating plants,
the most foul smelling flower on earth - the rafflesia, swooping squirrels, timid
mousedeer, dung beetles, lantern bugs, bats, the slow Loris', a variety of birds, primates
and many more that exist in this complex piece of land. With a little bit of time and
patience their presence and beauty will eventually unfurl itself to their seekers.

Kenong Rimba Park is a rare find. Much of Malaysia's lowland forests have been or
are in the midst of being cleared for urban development and palm oil plantations.
However, there are several splotches of primary jungle that has been retained for the
specific purpose of fauna and flora research like those preserved at the Krau Reserve in
Pahang and Endau-Rompin National Park that borders Johore and Pahang. Krau Reserve
is strictly kept for research purposes and only a small section of Endau-Rompin is
accessible to the public whilst Kenong Rimba, a well-preserved lowland forest reserve,
on the other hand, is open to everyone.

2.2 CAVES

The park boasts of a complex network of caves, each with its own unique geological
formation and fascinating legend. The most beautiful is Gua Batu Tinggi the habitat of a
variety of captivatingly lovely orchids species. It is also the home to some beautiful birds
and is perfect for nature lovers and bird-watchers.

Another notable cave is Gua Batu Tangga, whose rock formation bears an uncanny
resemblance to a flight of stairs. Other caves include, Gua Batu Tangkup and Gua Batu
Telahup. Within the interior of Kesong Mountain are several attractive caves which
include Gua Kesong, Gua Hijau, Gua Buta and Gua Harimau. All these names are
probably derived from the unique geological formations making up the caves, suggesting
an intriguing set of fascinating legends.

2.3 FLORA AND FAUNA

Kenong Rimba Park is dominated by lowland forests and riverine vegetation. Epiphytic
vegetation such as ferns & wild orchids are abundant here, also lofty tualang tree
(kompassia excelsa). Also in abundance is the gigantic ficus tree or pokok ara, which is
popularly featured in many local folklore, proverbs and rhymes. A profusion of pink and
white water lilies floating on scattered water bodies around the park adds to the
enchantment.

Elephants, tapirs, leopards and deers are found in small numbers. Smaller mammals
such as porcupines, mousedeers, flying foxes, and river otters are easier to notice along
the jungle trails. However, like in any other parts of the Tropical Rain Forest, these
animals are easier heard than sighted, all due to the very dense vegetations.
 Pokok Gapis Petai Jawa

Daun Kapal Terbang Pokok Lekir

Pokok Rambai Tikus Pokok Ipoh

Bats Centipede scorpion

2.4 THREAT TO ECOSYSTEM

There were many threats to ecosystem in Kenong Rimba Park for examples fishing,
littering of rubbish, construction and visitors. These activities may harm the ecosystem.

Firstly, fishing was one of threat to ecosystem in Kenong Rimba Park. This
activity would lead to habitat destruction especially lake habitats such as fishes. People
often put extreme pressure on dominant predator species such as tuna. When the number
of these predators decreased, the lesser predators that they consumed grew in number
which then puts pressure on the species further down the food chain.

Next, the most important reason why Kenong Rimba Park being threatened was
because of visitors that came to the park. People whom visited Kenong Rimba Park
usually did not aware with the effect from the activities that they did such as open-
burning, hunting and so on. Open burning would lead to air pollution, while hunting
would migrate to animal death. The visitors also made noise during in the park which
could disturb the wildlife habitats in the forest.

For examples, chalet and public toilet were kind of construction that exist in the
park. Even though the construction activities were good for making the park more
convenience but at the same time it may also lead to habitats destruction and disturb their
homes. This also would cause the wild animals such as elephants to find a new placed for
them to stay. Additionally, construction caused the deforestation to occur and would lead
to global warming as the trees need to be cut down for building.

Lastly, threated to ecosystem in Kenong Rimba Park was littering of rubbish

everywhere. There were many plastics and papers around the park. This may lead to land
pollution due to the chemicals that contained in the plastics which took long time to be
degraded. The food waste that been threw away into the river caused the water pollution
to occur. The river habitats would expose to death if this continuously happened and it
also affect health to those who use the water as drinking water. Growth of plants also
would be declined yet the land and water sources had been polluted.
2.5 EFFORT OF CONSERVATION AT KENONG RIMBA PARK.

It was important to maintain and ensure the ecosystem was protected from being harmful
by human activities to give comfort to all habitats include plants and animals. Examples
of activities which can affect an ecosystem are fishing, construction, littering rubbish,
visitors and deforestation. There are many ways to reduce these effects of activities.

Fishing was one area in which human activity could have massive effects on the
ecosystem. To ensure either ocean, lake or river habitats from being threatened, we
should not overfishing especially in area which the fishes that already known to deaths. In
this case, we might also put pressure to the other species that were not related. Besides,
we should use fresh bait such as using an earthworm instead of using any chemical bait to
attract the fishes to prevent the quality of water being polluted.

One easy way to combat deforestation was to plant a tree. By replaced the trees
that had been cut down for purpose, ecosystem would balance it carbon cycle and oxygen
supplied to atmosphere did not become an issue anymore. Besides, deforestation could be
reduced with ‘go paperless’ which mean the amount of trees being cut down would be
decreased. We also could practice recycled and bought recycled products in daily life to
lessen the deforestation activity and not forgotten to eat vegetarian meals as often as
possible.

Next, to handle with many visitors that came into this park, we supposedly limited
the number of visitors that entered Kenong Rimba Park at one time. If we brought a huge
number of people into this park, probability the ecosystem would more easily exposed to
many types of threat, instead of avoiding the harmful activities, we might added the
pressure to the park and affected the nature. We need to remind the visitors to not do
anything that could kill the habitats either plants or insects and not to open burning as
pleasure.

Although constructions were needed to provide the Kenong Rimba Park with
various types of facilities especially for visitors, we must not across over the limits until
we need to cut down extra trees to build new building. Besides, we could put signboard to
 tell people not to run any construction in Kenong Rimba Park if there was no requirement
of facilities. Besides, we could reserve the Kenong Rimba Park as area that free from
constructions and road systems so that the ecosystem would be safe from illegal activities
by irresponsible people.

Last but not least, by providing recycled dustbins we could conserve the littering
of rubbish problem. However, certain people still not aware with this problem even
though we always remind them about this, so to avoid this problem became one of the
reasons that gave threat to ecosystem we need to prohibit visitors from bringing any food
from outside especially snacks or candies into the park. This effort at least could lessen
the people from throwing away rubbish as they wish.

3.0 CONCLUSION

3.1 OPINION ABOUT KENONG RIMBA PARK

In our opinions, Kenong Rimba Park was a kind of tropical rainforest that had least of
threat to ecosystem and suitable to explore for purposed of study. We could find different
types of flora and fauna which could not find in UiTM Pahang. Besides, we got an
oppurtunity to know various types of caves and habitats that live in the tropical rainforest.

The location of Kenong Rimba Park was deep down in the forest and far from a
city. Kenong Rimba Park was not polluted because the air and the water were truly
refreshing due to absence of factories and so on. There was no waste product such as
toxic had been spilled into the river just like in the city. The air also was not polluted by
carbon monoxide that released from vehicles because there were no vehicles allowed in
that area.

There were many types of caves that could attract outsider and making Kenong
Rimba Park popular among tourists whom like to explore beauty of nature. By limiting
the used of electricity during the night, we would not attract the wild animals that live in
the forest came towards us. This was good for visitors’ safety that spent the nights in the
park.

During the night, it was so cold and we could see many types of insects such as
mammoths, grasshoppers and crickets from the smallest to biggest one. We found that the
environment of Kenong Rimba Park was suitable for these insects to survive. The soil
also was suitable for plants growth and this could be seen when we discovered that there
were many plants that typically hard to find could be found in the forest.

However, the temperature in Kenong Rimba Park was quite hot because there was
construction occured for example, the chalets. Decreasing in trees will cause the
temperature to be high because the filter of carbon dioxide and oxygen supplied to
environment was decreasing.

3.2 SUGGESTION ON KENONG RIMBA PARK

We suggest that we should adding more track within the forest to allow visitors explore
in many sides. Besides, the new track also may be useful if there is emergency case
happen during in the forest. Meanwhile, by adding new track we can discover more
interesting about what is in the forest.

Next, we may suggest to put electric gates around the chalet to ensure visitors’
safety is truly secure especially during the night because we do not know what will
happen when we are sleeping. Besides, we think the chalets must add more protection for
example door and windows locks because while we are on the trip, we get the chalet
without window lock and it is easily to open from outside.

Other than that, we suggest to put the dustbin into the chalet because it is quite
difficult during middle of night for us to throw away the rubbish if the dustbin is at
outside the chalet and not to forget to provide the plastic bags. The dustbin also need to
provide in the all places in the park to avoid people littering the rubbish as they wish.
 We think if bicycles are provided in the Kenong Rimba Park, it may be much
interesting. We already observe the track is suitable for bicycles to be used unless if we
want to explore the cave that locates at the top of hill. The bicycles will not cause any
pollution to the environment, while it gives new experience to those who never cycles in
the forest.

Lastly, we suggest to improve the old bridge to the new one as to ensure the
safety of visitors that come to the park and suggest to change the colour of building to
green colour just like the environment.