The Kota Damansara Community Forest Park (KDCFP) is a secondary forest located in

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. It was part of a defunct Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve gazetted in 1898 which contained of protected

primary forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

. This made it as the oldest forest reserve in

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

. The forest reserve was degazetted a number of times and subsequent development brought down the size of the reserve to a . Logging activities especially has turned the area into a

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

. This results in the abundance of

pioneer plant Pioneer species are hardy species that are the first to colonize barren environments or previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems that have been disrupted, such as by wildfire. Pioneer flora Some lichens grow on rocks without soil, so m ...

s as well as rare species of plant such as Begonia aequilateralis. Despite being a secondary forest, a number of primary forest species such as meranti are observable at the park. Furthermore, KDCFP is a

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

forest typically found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

countries such as Malaysia. The area is a combination of flat land and low elevation hill. The trademark of KDCFP is an

artificial lake A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

. 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.

Current development

Kota Damansara Kota Damansara is an affluent township located in Petaling Jaya, Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. It is a township spread across . It is also a state seat constituency which is sandwiched between Subang and Petaling Jaya. Notable landma ...

is a developing area and there are efforts to develop the area. The local residents and the

Malaysian Nature Society Malaysian Nature Society ( ms, Persatuan Pencinta Alam Malaysia, abbrev: MNS) is the oldest and one of the most prominent environmental not for profit, non-governmental organisations in Malaysia. It was first established, as the Malayan Nature S ...

with aid from the

United Nations Development Program The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

through the Small Grants Program are trying to protect the area from further development projects.

External links

*(Kota Damansara Maps
/ref>) Geo Links for Kota Damansara Forest Park
Selamatkan Hutan Simpan Kota DamansaraClean-Up Program during EARTH DAY 2008

References

Nature conservation in Malaysia Nature sites of Selangor Community-based forestry {{ecology-stub

Current development

See also

External links

References