Into the wild in the city

SURROUNDED by highways and increasingly dense development in an area of Kuala Lumpur bordering Petaling Jaya in Selangor, the University of Malaya (UM) sits right smack in the city — a relatively green campus with groups of buildings clustered in various locations on its undulating landscape.

Unknown to many, just behind its sports complex lies Rimba Ilmu (Forest of Knowledge) — a tropical botanical garden modelled after a rainforest which occupies an area of 60 hectares managed by the Institute of Biological Sciences under UM’s Faculty of Science.

Partly buffered by old rubber plantings, Rimba Ilmu is an important repository for many types of plants, including conservation collections of rare and endangered plants, and special collections of useful plants and their wild relatives.

Within the garden, the Rimba Project operates.

Founded and headed by ecologist Benjamin Ong in 2014, the initiative is an urban biodiversity conservation under the UM Living Lab Grant Programme that serves as a knowledge/action research platform for the Department of Development and Estate Maintenance to solve sustainability issues relating to its infrastructure and practices in waste management, water and energy management, and greening and biodiversity.

Can we work towards co-existence or is our relationship doomed to end up in pest control?

BENJAMIN ONG

The Rimba Project covers three areas: the first as an internal consulting body advising the Department of Development and Estate Maintenance on best conservation practices; the second, supporting the Rimba Ilmu Botanic Garden in nature education and outreach; and the third, undertaking