The city landscapers of this moderately paced city has taken great pains in beautifying the protocol roads, say 50% done. However this concern for roadside landscaping does not seem to invade into private housing estates, government buildings or institutional areas especially schools and federal institutional buildings compounds. What is surprising is that the kind of landscaping practised here does not promote bio-diversity and sustainable wildlife thresholds.
Let me explain briefly here. Urban landscapes should be viewed in a larger ecological perspective. Our towns were once jungle areas cleared to make way for human habitation, infrastructural development and industrial land uses. As the town or city expands, the 'kampungs' become a `fringe' zone of greenery. From the kampung limit to the heart of the city, there is hardly any green corridor that connects the two elements. This I feel particularly lacking or shall I say absent from cities like Kuching and Miri. To stimulate, preserve and promote wildlife and bio-diversity, green corridors from the kampung fringes should flow into urban scapes. This network of green corridors will assume green structural architectures for nature to creep back into urban life.
This idea sounds revolutionary. Yes , it does. This is in stark contrast to the present practices of only making national parks as biodiversity `museums' pieces, scattered all over Sarawak. The new ecological ethos should be to bring nature and bio-diversity back into urban living as a first step to making its way into future eco-cities. I think this can be done in newer and up and coming cities like Bintulu and Mukah. For other older towns and cities like Miri, Sibu and Kuching, the town administrators and planners need to have an overall turntable thinking for this to happen. The saving grace for Sarawak generally is that there is limitless greenery over its landscapes and terrains as one journeys from Kuching to Miri by air.
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| The Satok flyover. Bougainvillea used to break concrete jungle |
