Nestling Langkawi 'high-flyers'...

Foto BERNAMA

A touch of Langkawi ‘high-flyers’ was brought to Wisma Bernama this morning with the launch of the 5th Asian Bird Fair (ABF).
Come this November 29 and 30, the legendary island will host the first-ever event in Malaysia organized by Malaysian Nature Society (MNS)  in  collaboration with Tourism Malaysia and Bernama.

Land and Development Authority (LADA) is giving its full support as it had planned to develop and promote bird watching as a 'must do' activity for tourists visiting Langkawi.
“We want tourists to stay longer, spend more time (on the island),” said LADA  Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Khalid Ramli at a press conference to launch the ABF at Wisma Bernama.

“There were 3.41 million tourists who visited Langkawi last year. Besides beautiful beaches, we must have ‘iconic products’ to entice the tourists. Some of the plans include having more trees as part of conserving the nature,” he said.

LADA has listed five sites as the Langkawi Interesting Birding Area (Liba) in conjunction with ABF.

"Even though birds can be seen everywhere in Langkawi, this five areas - Kilim, Pantai Cenang, Datai, Pulau Tuba and Gunung Machichang - are where tourists can find many species of birds in a bigger group," he said.
LADA is also planning a contest to propose names for the national bird as a value added product for the event.
MNS vice president, Henry Goh said the two-day event aimed at promoting the protection of birds and their habitats would encourage bird watching and other ecotourism activities.
Nature enthusiast Irshad Mobarak felt bird watching was more than a hobby as it also promoted nature conservation and quality of life.
"Bird watching is just not about the birds, it is about the rainforest and natural habitat that the birds are living in. Protecting birds is protecting the rainforest and protecting the rainforest is actually protecting our quality of life," he said.
The ABF is an annual event founded by several organizations from Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.

It aims to promote the protection of birds and their habitats, encourage bird watching and other ecotourism activities.

The six founding organizations take turns to host the ABF starting with the Wild Bird Club of the Phillipines (Davao, 2010), Chinese Wild Bird Federation (Tainan, 2011), Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (Bangpoo,2012) and The Wild Bird society of Taipei (Taipei, 2013).

-- BERNAMA