Trouble in paradise: Langkawi struggles to hold onto Unesco geopark status
Having won Unesco geopark status, Langkawi is struggling to hold on to it, as the negative effects of tourism take their toll on the Malaysian archipelago's beauty. Words and pictures by Leisa Tyler
It's a little after 10am when Eric Sinnaya and I set off on Langkawi's Kilim River. The water, made deep green and glassy by the sun, gently ripples as the blue and white wooden dinghy slices through it. Mangrove trees, their blackened roots like the frames of old-fashioned hoop skirts, crowd the riverbank. Beyond, clusters of limestone outcrops gather along the horizon, their sheer sides sprouting rare white orchids and Cycas clivicola trees, which nestle into cracks in the rocks and feed off rain residue.
Pulling over to the side of the river, Sinnaya, chairman of the Malaysian Nature Society, explains how the mangroves work as a team to filter salt from the water. A breeding ground for fish, mangrove forests "regenerate the sea", he says. The riverbank, exposed with the lowered tide, is covered with mudskippers, amphibious fish that live at the interface between land and water. Together with male fiddler crabs - small, brightly coloured crustaceans with one claw vastly bigger than their body - they are busy scuttling around freshly sewn mangrove spears that have recently been dropped by the overhanging trees.
Sinnaya has brought me into the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park to explain its importance to Langkawi, a main island clustered with 103 others off the far northwestern tip of Malaysia. Once a hideaway for pirates rampaging in the Andaman Sea, these days Langkawi - or to give it its official name, Langkawi the Jewel of Kedah - is better known for its tourists, who come to linger on its fresh white beaches, indulge in its duty-free booze and explore its exquisite nature.
And therein lies a problem.