This has been an extraordinary period for many ordinary Asians.

Since the regional economic collapse which began in Thailand a year and a half ago, the scenario across the entire East Asian region have changed dramatically. Where once unimpeded hope flourished, we now hear stories of dwindling per capita income, doubling of unemployment within a year, children dropping out of schools in alarming numbers, increase in mental illness and spiralling crime rates. What Asia is experiencing now is not confined to any one specific country, but a massive swoop covering a vast region effecting more than 550 million people.

With such social ills resulting from the financial chaos, it is not unexpected to see governments of the day trying to obtain funds (from anywhere they could find) to stem the tide of social deterioration. The rescue of the human realm however, has its corresponding effects.

The result of the urgency to apply funds to minimise social chaos in the human society have reduced or eliminated financial sources entirely for nature conservation purposes. Biodiversity related projects previously relying on private and corporate donors are now left to sustain by themselves.

Institutions and private organizations involved in conservation projects now not only have to worry about dwindling resources, but also human encroachment into marked preservation areas, primarily driven by increasing poverty. The systemic deterioration of the human societal web is currently being felt in the realm of nature, resulting in illegal land clearings in designated forest reserves, illegal burning of secondary forests, unlawful hunting of exotic species, stealing of turtle eggs, and the list goes on.

The "Birds of Sarawak" webshare
This webshare, called "The Birds of Sarawak" is being posted free for  a limited period to all bird lovers all over the world, serving as an eye     opener to the incredible beauty and magnificent diversity of the avian fauna of exotic Sarawak, Malaysia.

The result of 15 years of untiring effort from Australian Richard Gregory-Smith, this annotated checklist is a rare and exotic collection, and the first of its kind to be published on the internet. It documents not only the varied species and its origins, but also its distribution throughout the state.

This webshare was created through the collaboration between the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation (IBEC), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and Malaysia International Multimedia Centre for E-Community Development (MIMCED) as part of a crisis response program to develop creative initiatives to obtain funding for critical conservation projects.

The critical project (identified under this initiative) requiring urgent financial support is the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA), located at the Philippines/Malaysia border. The main funding requirement is on two elements, i.e. conservation efforts and local community education on turtle population preservation. Should these critical elements fail to take off within the next two to three years, it is estimated by the year 2010, leatherback turtles plying within the Sulu and Celebes Sea will be extinct.   Please click here for more details about the Turtle Island Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA) project.

To ward off the impending doom of the sea turtles, we are appealing to the world community, and specifically the birding community, to assist in preserving the magnificent avifauna and marine turtles of Borneo, through subscribing to this webshare. For a once off payment of US$ 10.00, you’ll be able to obtain:

• uninterrupted access to the digital checklist of the "Birds of Sarawak" for two years
• free continuous updates for the entire duration
• exotic bookmarks featuring selected birds from this collection (batches available once in mid 1999 and again in mid 2000).
• updated with quarterly reports of the research, conservation and educational effort to save the sea turtles at TIHPA beginning April 1999, with information on field trips, symposium on "Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation" (15-17 July 1999, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia), ongoing community workshops, printing of educational leaflets, brochures and booklets.

We encourage you to get to know us and the TIHPA project better. You can contact the following for more information on this webshare and the crisis response initiatives:

Prof. Dr Ghazally Ismail
Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation (IBEC)
C/o Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
94300 Kota Samarahan
Sarawak, Malaysia
Tel: 60 82-672 502
Fax: 60 82-672 275
Email: charlie@adm.unimas.my

Mr Lim Kooi Fong
Malaysia International Multimedia Centre for Educational Content Development (MIMCED)
No 10B, 2nd Floor, Jalan SS26/6
47301 Petaling Jaya
Selangor DE, Malaysia
Email: limster@pop.jaring.my