Arkitrek

One month after my last visit, I arrived on Mantanani and was delighted to see the site strewn with impeccable driftwood logs. Albi and his team had scoured the coast and dragged their choice finds through the sea back to the camp site.

Some of the logs still lay tethered at the high water line while others where being diligently planed smooth to resemble nothing like driftwood.

My romantic dreams of water weathered, silvered and twisted timbers would have to be adjusted, another casualty of the cultural conditioning that dictates that anything wild, vernacular and peasant is not compatible with a modern developed nation.

It also took a long while to get around this problem at Borneo Rainforest Lodge. On that job I now have an understanding with the contractor to specify ‘moy liang’ – literally meaning ‘not nice’ in Cantonese.

The success in the use of drifwood logs however, is not in their appearance, but in that we have managed to avoid using posts made out of wonderful and scarce belian wood (see my earlier post).

Belian does not drift, it sinks – and so we can be sure that any timber washed up on the beach will not be belian and therefore would not last as long as belian when stuck in the ground.

To get around this I proposed keeping the post above ground level by bolting it to a steel bracket on a concrete pad. The villagers liked this so much that they wanted to do the rest of the buildings with them.

This would have been great, except that I had plans for the other buildings to use whopping chunks of driftwood instead of foundations.

Albi objected to this on the grounds that all the nice bits of driftwood were earmarked by people and that we’d used up his personal supply on the posts.

I explained that it didn’t matter what they look like as long as they’re heavy and not too badly munched by borers.
“The villagers will laugh at us for using that wood” Albi protested.
I told him to blame it on the white people and then he too could laugh.

The point of trying to use driftwood is that we reduce the transportation of concrete supplies to the island. This is a formiddable headache when all aggregate must be bagged and lugged by hand on and off a small boat. It’s dangerous too if the boatman is tempted to overload with the low volume but heavy cargo.

Whether our builders will find this convenience to be worth the sacrifice of having people laughing at your buildings remains to be seen!

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We can always come up with wonderful ideas for sustainable buildings but if the locals can’t build and maintain it then it’s not sustainable.

Camps International are building a camp on Pulau Mantanani, a coral island off the northwest coast of Borneo.

Their other two camps in Borneo, at Tinangol and Kipouvo were designed and built entirely by the local communities. This was possible because at Tinangol the camp (a traditional longhouse) was already built and at Kipouvo they wanted a homestay modeled on ‘standard’ village housing.

Mantanani was different because the brief was more specific and there was no precedent to follow. Arkitrek was asked to interpret Camp International’s brief and communicate this to the Albi, the village headman and construction manager.

After a long and linguistically challenging day we were all best buddies with the villagers and had learned much. For example, I should have known by now that the Malay for ‘ridge plate’ was ‘kuda kuda’ which literally translates (with a bit of comedic license) as ‘horsey horsey’.

Another harder lesson affected my sustainable design intentions. Although the brief was for very simple buildings, I had identified two areas where I was going to try to push some sustainable design agenda:

1. Not to use Belian Posts
2. To use Rainwater Harvesting

At the end of our day with the Albi I had abandoned the first principle and put the second on hold.

Belian is a hardwood species indigenous to Borneo. It is much denser than water and it is the only timber that will last more than two years if stuck in the ground. Most traditional stilt houses use belian posts. There are not many belian trees left and most of what is available comes from spurious sources.

My alternative proposal to use coconut trunks met with a barrage of chin scratching and tooth sucking. “it’s not durable” “you can’t put it in the ground” “the centre goes soft” “cannot”. Was the unanimous advice.

I was prepared for this and had researched details to get around all these issues but as I launched into an explaination I felt my language faltering, not from lack of vocabulary but lack of confidence.

It dawned on me. Steel flitch plates and cunning nail-free joints were not going to cut it at this point in time. The first priority was to get a camp manager’s house built and the best way to get this done quickly is to let the villagers build it using their own technology.

On the water issue I was more inclined to argue.
“why don’t you collect rainwater?” I asked Albi
“why would you do that when you can pump it out of the ground?” he queried back
“one day it might stop coming out of the ground” I suggested
“oh no! never, it’s always been there” he asserted

And so I left it at that for the time being but at the back of my mind something is nagging.

“Pulau Mabul is in big trouble” an environmental scientist friend confided to me recently. Mabul is a low lying coral island off the East coast of Sabah. It is popular with divers and also home to local Bajau fishermen. The populations of both are growing and most of their water comes from wells.

The issue is that water is pumped out of the wells and the waste discharged into the sea. This causes the freshwater aquifer under the island to shrink and the salt water to encroach. On Mabul the salinity has increased to the extent that vegetation is not regenerating.

Once the vegetation goes the island would be exposted to erosion and in the worst case become no more than a sand bar.

The solution is not to take more than can be replaced by rainwater and to return the (treated) waste water to the centre of the island, rather than throwing it away into the sea.

On Mabul I am told that the demand has already exceeded it’s supply to the extent that without depopulating the island, the only solution is to pipe or ship in fresh water from the mainland.

On Mantanani there may still be time to manage the balance sustainably and this will be a focus for future trips.

Having reached an amiable agreement on the design and construction of the camp manager’s house we left the island satisfied but with an exciting edge of suspense. On our return would the house look anything like we expected?

above photos by Bob Hartley

photo by Ian Hall

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He held the mud crab still with his bare feet whilst deftly tying up the claws with a length of pink raffia. Job done, the fisherman tossed his catch into a bucket. On our request the second fisherman sorted us out half a dozen choice crabs and a bargain was done. Our two boats parted company and we left the fishermen to their work.

Sungai Sedili Kecil is not on the tourist track but that’s why I was there as a guest of Wild Asia. Our job was to assess the community based eco-tourism tourism potential of this proposed Ramsar Site.

Back on the river the boat turns off the main channel and noses between aerial roots and under fallen branches. With the noise of the outboard motor muted the mangrove forest sounds come to life – an arhythmic tangle of pops and clacks of bivalves and the cheerful whistle of a mangrove blue flycatcher.

We pause for shore leave and our guide Mahadan (the head of SISEK – Sedili ecotourism committee) grubs around in the mud for some lokan – or clams. Shucked on the spot, only Dennis accepts the offer of seafood as fresh as it comes.

A rare characteristic of Sedili Kecil is that it has preserved intact a transition between intertidal and fresh water swamp forest. As the mangroves fall behind we find a new harvest for our dinner – the sea coconut, or fruit of the nipah palm.

The leaves of this palm are also prized for traditional roofing thatch and the trunks are useful for kelong (fish traps) and can be split and used as floor boards.

I dip my hand into the water and taste it. It’s fresh and there is no dry land in site. Behind the submerged nipah is the inundated swamp forest, here dominated by Barringtonia conoidea, the young leaves of which are traditionally used as a vegetable.

A commotion in the branches attracts Irshad’s attention and we kill the motor. At first I thought it was just a macaque but it turns out to be much more exciting – a white handed gibbon and a first time sighting for me.

Meanwhile Dennis is getting excited about the fish. Plunging his net under a mat of water weed he retreives a handful of tiny flapping species of Betta. Some of the species in this family are endemic to Malaysia and vulnerable to extinction. Sedili may be an important refuge.

Our journey upriver is halted where the open water becomes overgrown with pandanus. This peculiar plant is sometimes known as screw pine after the way the serrated leaf spikes corkscrew off the trunk.

Reluctantly we drift back downstream with the current and I fantasize that the swamp stretches for miles and miles. Unfortunately I’ve looked on google earth and seen the reality of encroaching oil palm plantations.

The river widens and four huge pipes rudely interrupt the scene. Behind them the forest is clear cut for aquaculture ponds. Some houses come into view and with all the mangroves gone the river bank is open to erosion.

We pass a boat fishing for freshwater lobster and shortly after that our friends tying up crabs. They favour the side that is still forested.

Back in a shabby and overpriced motel we contemplate our findings. For me the boat journey was fascinating but it was rather slow paced and with nothing dramatic. It is also surrounded by rather degraded ecosytems. I found it hard to see how Sedili Kecil could be marketed for eco-tourism.

The secret I learned, is in the storytelling and this was why Wild Asia had invited Irshad Mobarak, Langkawi’s best loved naturalist to join us.

“There is certainly a better product here than anything we have in Langkawi” announced Irshad. His enthusiasm had been building all day and what you are reading is part journal and part Irshad’s vision for how to present Sedili Kecil to eco-tourists; a carefully orchestrated journey through specialised ecosytems with diversions into sustainable uses, community interaction, ecology, conservation and of course lunch.

Dennis Yong, best known as an ornitholigist tour guide, took a more pragmatic view. There are no exciting rare birds, no charismatic mammals and the accommodation is crap. Would he bring guests here? Probably not.

Dr Reza Azmi, founder of Wild Asia suggested a compromise, “perhaps what we are looking at here is more environmental education focused?”. Student groups would be less fussy about their accommodation and the story would have an impressionable audience.

Late in the afternoon the sun’s heat is fading and it’s time to visit the beach. Irshad immediately sets off to investigate tidal pools while Dennis and I search for Malaysian Plover.

This shorebird is threatened throughout it’s range by coastal development, particularly just above the high tide line where it scoops a shallow nest out of the sand. We are lucky to see a pair foraging back and forth on the sand, amused by their cartoon-like outstretched head sideways dash after prey.

In our last activity we join some villagers harvesting cockles and take turns learning how to detect buried shellfish by dragging a steel rake through the sand. Our pockets bulging with dinner we walk up the beach accompanied by the cackling hoots of a family of oriental pied hornbills.

If the eco-tourism potential is now clear to me, it may take longer for the locals to catch on. Many would not even consider nature conservation as a respectable means to earn a living. Hopefully by building capacity within the community, starting with young nature guides, the locals can begin to value nature for its own sake. All the props are there; the gradated ecosytems with their specialised plants and wildlife, it just needs insight and enthusiasm to write the plot and direct the cast.

More about Sg. Sedili Kecil from Wetlands International.

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Energy efficiency isn’t normally a consideration in building Malaysian homes, which is why it came as no surprise that the first good example I have found was built by Expats who called their home Cooltek.

Harry and Stephanie Boswell decided that retirement in the tropics was more appealing than in the UK. They moved to Melaka in Malaysia, bringing everything with them including a brand new Toyota Prius and their environmentally friendly philosophy.

The brief for Cooltek was simple. It must be air-conditioned to give respite from the heat and humidity and therefore it must be air sealed (to control humidity) and insulated (to control loss of coolth).

Cooltek would also use passive design principles to further increase efficiency and would minimise materials quantities to reduce embodied energy.

My first impression was of a bungalow obviously designed by an engineer. It is a neatly packaged white box that has more in common with kitchen appliances than architecture.

To my pleasant surprise, the interior belied the exterior. About half of the habitable footprint is taken up by an open plan lounge with excellent natural lighting and no fixed furniture.

While Harry rolled a couple of chairs up to a table Stephanie brewed a cuppa using a mobile plug-in kitchen unit. Together we discussed the design features of Cooltek.

(All construction photos courtesy of Harry and Stephanie Boswell)

The first problem they had was encouraging the engineer to design a lightweight house that would reduce embodied energy. Their second problem was finding a builder who could build load bearing aerated concrete block walls.

The floor is insulated with polyurethane foam. As cold air tends to sink, more ‘coolth’ is lost through the floor than anywhere else. The white aluminium ceiling is air sealed and also helps reflect daylight into the home. The roof space is insulated with mineral wool to reduce thermal gain from the sun.

Windows are double glazed and imported from the UK. I think we can excuse their travel carbon footprint on grounds of their potential for promoting energy efficient design. Windows are only put on the north and south elevations and protected by a recess and large overhang. This means they are only briefly exposed to the heating effect of the sun. The flat reflective soffit also helps bounce daylight into the building.

Details feel engineered, minimal and elegant. Reminds me of a comment by a washing machine engineer friend of mine who maintains that “elegance is strength”. Frameless sandblasted glass doors which do not reach the floor are rational too – They allow that expensively conditioned air to go further and also help remind you when you’ve left the lights on.

Fresh air is ducted into the house through an underground chamber pre-cooling the air to about 27ºC. This is 6-8 ºC cooler than average daytime temperatures meaning that the air conditioner has less work to do.

Solar water heaters (left) are a no-brainer in the tropics if you like hot showers. Also installed are photo-voltaic panels (PV) which need an inverter (right) before connecting to the main. There is a meter to measure output. PV still only makes economic sense if, like in this case, you have grant assistance.

Finally here is the evil and delicious air-conditioner. The photo doesn’t really convey that this is the dog’s nuts, an efficient unit which uses the eminently more environmentally friendly refrigerant known as R410A. On the right are some delightful steps made out of half-round ceramic gutter liners, an inventive finishing touch.

In conclusion, Cooltek is a textbook example of a low energy house, embodying best practice in passive and active design. Of course performance could be increased further but all the basic principles are there. This is a great achievement.

Importantly the building doesn’t rest on completion. Built-in sensors and meters continually collect data on weather, internal environment and energy use. This data will help argue the case for more such buildings.

This performance monitoring has been supported by IEN consultants from KL who also host the official Cooltek homepage.

My only critique is a subjective one; that it’s an unconventional choice for an Expat to move to the tropics from a cold country and chose not to enjoy year round outdoor living.

My approach would have been to aim for the best of both worlds, seal and insulate your bedrooms and study perhaps, while leaving kitchen and dining space open to the sweet air. You pays your money you takes your choice.

Harry and Stephanie should be applauded, not only for building an iconoclastic home but also for freely sharing their expertise so that others might follow.

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Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and carbon credits sound like a good idea but I’m not sure how much they benefit rainforest conservation.

Behind my suspicion lies a concept that I have been aware of for a while but only recently learned that it has a name – ‘additionality’.

It’s a new jargon term which hasn’t yet made it into the dictionary. In understanding what it means I was lucky to meet a chap called Mike Packer who patiently and concisely explained things to me.

Mike is the founder of a company called ArborCarb which specialises in ecosystem services certification so he should know about these things.

By Mike’s definition; additionality in the context of carbon finance is “when the carbon benefits of the project would not have happened if the project had not been implemented”.

In other words, carbon credits are relative to the ‘business as usual’ scenario.

Perverse Carbon Credits

If business as usual is conventional logging, then carbon emissions could be reduced, for example by switching to FSC certified logging. In the world of carbon finance, this reduction of potential emissions can be converted into a carbon credit for sale on international markets.

Although this helps make reduced impact logging more viable, it also creates the absurd possibility of carbon credits for logging primary forest.

On the other hand, additionality fails to provide economic incentive for rainforest conservation. If business as usual is conserving primary rainforests, then no carbon benefits can happen by sticking with rainforest conservation.

This defeats the purpose of PES if you consider that this purpose is to make trees worth more alive than dead. Intact ecosystems rather than degraded ones.

The only way that the current carbon market can value living trees is through Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Additionality is provided here because business as usual is deforestation or degradation.

This point is picked up in an article by Katoomba Group which says “Some argue that countries with low rates of deforestation should be rewarded to avoid creating a perverse incentive for these countries to increase deforestation in order to then qualify for REDD incentives. However, in order to maintain the environmental integrity of a REDD policy, credits can only be generated by additional reductions in emissions from deforestation, and these countries would have to be rewarded through other means.”

Biodiversity Conservation Certificates

Other ecosystem services may also be dependent on additionality. For example the Malua Biobank.

If this project did not go ahead the ‘business as usual’ scenario is leaving an area of degraded forest to recover naturally (over an unrealistic timeframe – economically) or converting it to plantation. By putting money into forest rehabilitation it is hoped that biodiversity can be restored more quickly – additionality.

The economic principles behind Malua Biobank are that investors will realise gains on the value of their certificates as biodiversity increases over time. This is still a voluntary market and sales are targeted mostly at companies that want to offset damage to ecosystems or simply want good environmental PR.

Of the criticisms of Malua Biobank:

One is that they are also planning to sell carbon certificates which may be seen by some as double selling the same resource.

Another is that it comes after a regime of environmentally disastrous logging practices. Third party investment in rehabilitation effectively excuses the logging companies from their obligation to pay the environmental cost of their operations.

The latter is also akin to double selling; you sell the logs, then you sell the biodiversity/carbon certificates for rehabilitation. Have your cake and eat it!

Scepticism about PES

My scepticism for PES, particulary carbon credits is that they don’t seem to provide enough incentive to avoid degrading the forest in the first place. Most are based on the assumption that deforestation or degradation has happened or is going to happen anyway.

I understand that this has been done in light of the reality of logging and plantations and the need to encourage these industries to be more sustainable. The result however could be losing sight of the fundamental principle of conserving forest for the benefit that it provides.

The baseline has been shifted so that PES are generated in relation to destruction rather than conservation.

The result of this baseline shift is a scenario in which a forest is being considered for REDD, which as we have seen relies on the additionality of avoiding deforestation in favour of conservation. Up steps FSC which says that in this case, “FSC Certification should be a prerequisite for a carbon finance initiative”.

Suddenly you have a forestry certificate when you should have an ‘avoided forestry’ or conservation certificate.

I think that the reason for this is that we lack the ability to verify the benefits of conservation.

The closest tool we have which can audit additionality, permanence and leakage in a forestry scenario is a system like FSC. It’s like trying to prune your roses with a chainsaw

Mike Packer is working on a complete ecosystem service certificate which offers hope of a more suitable tool which is not dependent on additionality. The pilot projects under discussion mostly involve rehabilitation of degraded or fragmented forest but I understand that once proven they could be applied to intact forests.

The ArborCarb certificate relies on science that identifies, evaluates and sells (to suitable customers) all of the services provided by an ecosystem. Significantly these certificates are not for sale as an offset product, which will help tackle the leakage problem. i.e. when land protected/rehabilitated in one area indirectly or directly causes degradation in another. The holistic approach also means that ecosystem services are less susceptible to double selling.

By removing the need to demonstrate additionality, the ArborCarb approach may be able to provide the ‘other means’ of rewarding countries with low rates of deforestation that I mentioned above.

Until we can achieve this I fear that it will be difficult to resist temptation; such as in Indonesia which this week reneged on a moratorium against planting oil palm on former peat swamp forest. Commentators see this as either a ploy to benefit industry ahead of elections or perhaps a ruse to increase potential earnings under future REDD projects. Or perhaps both?

The positive bit

Meanwhile most of the conservationists that I know support PES projects such as the Malua Biobank. They have chosen to be lenient on the history and controversy of Malua because the project represents an innovative experiment that may lead to a new model for engagement between industry and conservation.

‘At the very least even if the project only succeeds in putting a ring fence around 30,000ha of forest and prevents it’s conversion to plantation, then it will have been a success’ comments a friend of mine.

Sabah was at the vanguard of carbon finance 15years ago with the Infapro Project. Now it is pioneering biodiversity conservation certificates and could soon be leading the way in implementation of ecosystem services certificates which are not burdened with the tyranny of additionality.

More on ArborCarb at the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests

More on Malua Biobank from Katoomba

More on Malua Biobank from Mongabay

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