Recalling our experience of visiting the Beccari Rattan Valley (BRVT) trail last Saturday it got me excited with this historic trail again which is over 100 years old. This trail has the potential of becoming the latest tourist attraction product at Kubah National Park in Matang, Kuching because there are many types of interesting palm plants.
Visitors will be attracted by the various types of palms that can be found along the trail, some of which are larger than usual. Thanks to the state government and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) as well as non -governmental organizations (NGOs) who had been involved in preserving this place for us and future generations. With good facilities provided by the government through the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industries and Performing Arts and SFC, this trail has the potential to attract foreign and local tourists, especially those interested in nature exploration, hiking and jungle activities.
The trail was named after Odoardo Beccari, the well know Italian researcher who started collecting plants at the age of 13. He published his first scientific article at the age of 17 and first arrived in Sarawak at the age of 22. He met Charles Darwin and also James Brooke in Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew of the UK who, by that time, had retired to England. Brooke was keen to foster scientific discovery in Sarawak as a means of showing the world and heeen couraged he encouraged Beccari to visit here, where he arrived on June 19, 1865. Beccari spent 2 years in Borneo and had travelled widely to many parts of Sarawak including Batang Lupar, Tubau, Belaga, Kanowit, Simanggang and also to the Kapuas lakes (DanauSentarum) in Dutch Borneo, to Labuan and Brunei.
Among the collections he had documented were over 4,000 specimens mainly plants, insects, birds and animals as well as publishing his new discoveries in the botanical journal, Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano. In hislifetime, Beccari had published over 150 scientific papers which contributed to his reputation as a world palm specialist with many plants celebrating his name include the palm genus Beccariophoenix and an endemic Bornean durian Durio beccarianus.
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