CANOPY:

As one looks up into the canopy at Kepong, it's hard to believe that none of this was here 90 years ago. Here the crowns of Malayan camphor trees ( Dryobalanops aromatica ) form a puzzlelike pattern in the canopy as their leaves stretch away from the leaves of other camphors, a phenomenon known as canopy shyness....[More]

CANOPY:

As one looks up into the canopy at Kepong, it's hard to believe that none of this was here 90 years ago. Here the crowns of Malayan camphor trees (Dryobalanops aromatica) form a puzzlelike pattern in the canopy as their leaves stretch away from the leaves of other camphors, a phenomenon known as canopy shyness. This species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.   [Less] [Link to this slide]

DEFORESTATION:

In the early 1920s much of the Kepong site now protected by the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) was either denuded for tin mines or converted to terraces for vegetable farming ( shown )....[More]

DEFORESTATION:

In the early 1920s much of the Kepong site now protected by the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) was either denuded for tin mines or converted to terraces for vegetable farming (shown). In 1926 F. W. Foxworthy, the first forest research officer at Kepong and an American by birth, began work on a forest nursery and an experimental plantation that was huge in scale.   [Less] [Link to this slide]

Abdul Rahman Kassim is one of the many researchers at FRIM working toward improving Malaysian forestry science as well as learning about the ecology and regeneration of the rainforests. 

CASCADE:

Water splashes over a small cascade in the rainforest regeneration experiment at Kepong in Malaysia. Here is perhaps the only place in the world that has a nearly 90-year-old experiment showing what happens when you attempt to restore a tropical rainforest from scratch....[More]

CASCADE:

Water splashes over a small cascade in the rainforest regeneration experiment at Kepong in Malaysia. Here is perhaps the only place in the world that has a nearly 90-year-old experiment showing what happens when you attempt to restore a tropical rainforest from scratch. Know-how gleaned from it could be invaluable in helping restore rainforest biodiversity in the most speedy and efficient way.   [Less] [Link to this slide]

LEAF LITTER:

Ecological forces are hard at work in leaf litter crawling with insects. The FRIM site at Kepong is helping to determine the amount of carbon held in Malaysian rainforests—required by the United Nations's program to create a paying market for reducing deforestation emissions, known as REDD....[More]

LEAF LITTER:

Ecological forces are hard at work in leaf litter crawling with insects. The FRIM site at Kepong is helping to determine the amount of carbon held in Malaysian rainforests—required by the United Nations's program to create a paying market for reducing deforestation emissions, known as REDD. The scientists have been comparing Kepong forest carbon content data gathered via satellite with measurements taken by researchers on the ground. The idea is to create baseline data so they can then use satellite images alone in other more remote regions of Malaysian lowland rainforest to determine carbon content for REDD.   [Less] [Link to this slide]

KERUING TRAIL:

View of the forest along the Keruing Trail at FRIM. Researchers at the Kepong experiment have learned that by altering the arrangements and ratios of seedlings they can more rapidly regenerate mature forest....[More]

KERUING TRAIL:

View of the forest along the Keruing Trail at FRIM. Researchers at the Kepong experiment have learned that by altering the arrangements and ratios of seedlings they can more rapidly regenerate mature forest. They have also found that by enriching the natural rainforest regeneration process, they can get climax species to dominate faster than what would be the case under natural conditions. The Kepong experiment is also showing them what kinds of plants and animals will return on their own. They have learned that artificial rehabilitation in tropical forest is possible—particularly through the "enrichment planting" of key nurse species—but the process of restoring the site to the climax stages of vegetation will be very slow.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

FRUIT:

Fallen fruit of the terap tree ( Artocarpus elasticus ) in the leaf litter at Kepong. "Nature does a lot of the work to restore degraded sites by itself, but how long the forest will take to return to its original condition is difficult to ascertain," says FRIM director general, Abdul Latif Mohmod....[More]

FRUIT:

Fallen fruit of the terap tree (Artocarpus elasticus) in the leaf litter at Kepong. "Nature does a lot of the work to restore degraded sites by itself, but how long the forest will take to return to its original condition is difficult to ascertain," says FRIM director general, Abdul Latif Mohmod. It could be up to 1,000 years from now or 16 to 17 generations, the experts say.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

BAMBOO:

Many commercially important species, such as this type of bamboo ( Gigantochloa thoii ), are cultivated at FRIM. The plantation experiment was set in motion by the British colonial government of Malaya and was intended to help make the best use of the colony's timber resources....[More]

BAMBOO:

Many commercially important species, such as this type of bamboo (Gigantochloa thoii), are cultivated at FRIM. The plantation experiment was set in motion by the British colonial government of Malaya and was intended to help make the best use of the colony's timber resources. It was also important in the development of rubber plantations that had spread across the region. Although the institute still has a forestry focus, the impetus is now on sustainable forestry and other aspects, including conservation and ethnobotany.   [Less] [Link to this slide]

WALKWAY:

The canopy walkway, which is a major tourist attraction at FRIM today. In 2009 FRIM was awarded the status of a National Natural Heritage Site....[More]

WALKWAY:

The canopy walkway, which is a major tourist attraction at FRIM today. In 2009 FRIM was awarded the status of a National Natural Heritage Site. The ultimate goal is that Kepong will be awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO—the institute now plans to achieve that by putting in place a comprehensive conservation management plan.   [Less] [Link to this slide]