Kota Damansara Community Forest Park

Kota Damansara Community Forest Park (KDCFP) is a secondary forest located in the western outskirt of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [Page 1. "A Step Beyond The City". Malaysian Nature Society. 2006. ] It was part of a defunct Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve gazetted in 1898 which contained convert|3900|acre|km2|0 of protected primary forest. [Page 2, 5. "A Step Beyond The City". Malaysian Nature Society. 2006.] This made it as the oldest forest reserve in Peninsular Malaysia. The forest reserve was degazetted a number of times and subsequent development brought down the size of the reserve to a convert|857|acre|km2|1|sing=on.

Logging activities especially has turned the area into a secondary forest. This results in the abundance of pioneer plants as well as exotic species. [Page 8. "A Step Beyond The City". Malaysian Nature Society. 2006.] Despite being a secondary forest, a number of primary forest species such as meranti are observable at the park. Furthermore, KDCFP is a dipterocarp forest typically found in tropical countries such as Malaysia. The area is a combination of flat land and low elevation hill. [Page 5. "A Step Beyond The City". Malaysian Nature Society. 2006.]

The trademark of KDCFP is an artificial lake. The lake was created in early 2000s due to the building of a road that blocked a small stream that flows through the park. This has introduced aquatic flora and fauna attributable to slow-flowing water body to the area. [Page 11. "A Step Beyond The City". Malaysian Nature Society. 2006.]

Current development

Kota Damansara is a developing area and there are efforts to develop the area. [Chun Wai, Wong. "A grave matter". The Star. April 8 2007.] The local residents and the Malaysian Nature Society with aid from the United Nations Development Program through the Small Grants Program are trying to protect the area from further development projects.

External links

*(coord|3.17861|101.591327|region:MY_type:forest_scale:50000|display=title,inline [ [http://wikimapia.org/#lat=3.17861&lon=101.591327&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2 Kota Damansara Maps] ] ) Geo Links for Kota Damansara Forest Park
* [http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=583433&id=9421966961 Selamatkan Hutan Simpan Kota Damansara]
* [http://www.slide.com/r/0Bqg1hP80z-QksNt_eOZMFtzta13n6kI Clean-Up Program during EARTH DAY 2008]

References