Breeding nuisance

Penang’s Georgetown, overlooking the Strait of Malacca, is proud of its Unesco World Heritage status gained less than three years ago.

But the much coveted title could be at risk because a significant number of shophouses in the historic heart of the Malaysian island capital have been turned into lucrative breeding spaces for birds, cultivated for nests that are made into soup.

Georgetown, with its cornucopia of Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and European colonial architecture, has gained the nickname “City of Birds”, for the tens of thousands of swiftlets being bred. Breeders, who pay high rents for the premises, are turning the houses into dark, damp spaces, similar to the birds’ natural cave habitats.

Bird’s nest soup is a centuries-old delicacy thought to have medicinal benefits, and is in great demand in restaurants in mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia, fetching high prices. Breeding exists alongside carefully restored family homes and businesses including guest houses, cafés, restaurants and galleries.

The UN cultural organisation is worried the practice is endangering the decorative shophouses that are a key feature of the town’s heritage.

“It is an issue of concern. The number of swiftlet houses and the deterioration of the fabric is worrying,” says Feng Jing, acting chief for Asia Pacific at Unesco World Heritage Centre in Paris. “Georgetown could lose its heritage status if the authorities do not comply with requirements.”

Much will depend on a Unesco review of the situation in June, says Jing. The city authorities say there are now just more than 100 bird farms among the colourful rows of town houses, according to Unesco. Progress has been slow. The number is down from 128 before Georgetown received the title in 2008, along with Malacca, another historic city in the strait.

“We accepted the situation then but had expected the Malaysian authorities to take faster action,” adds Jing.

Professor Zuraina Majid, heritage commissioner at Malaysia’s national heritage department, says the authorities are dealing with the bird houses. “We are monitoring the situation and following a plan to decrease the numbers so that by 2013 all swiftlet houses will banned,” she says.

The aim is to relocate the birds to agricultural areas that are more suitable for such activities, allowing time for the young to fly the nest. Some of the breeders who rent or buy the shophouses operate illegally without breeding licences, and rent on a residential or standard commercial basis but then change the use, she adds.

Swiftlets, unlike most birds, do not make nests from twigs and feathers but through interweaving strands of saliva into a boat shape, which then hardens.

A walk through the core of the historic centre of the port city, which was under British colonial rule, does not immediately reveal its feathered inhabitants. Most of the bird houses in the shophouse rows have peeling, dilapidated facades with blocked windows, often with makeshift entry and exit holes in the facade, damaging the fabric of the building.

There is also another telltale clue. “The farmers initially attract the birds into the houses through recorded birdsong. They leave nothing to chance,” says Joann Khaw, a World Heritage guide from Georgetown. She is concerned the “bird droppings and the dank condition of the interiors will erode the fabric of neighbouring houses”.

There is also a potential health risk of bird droppings spreading disease. Many families, including Khaw’s, have moved out of the centrally located town houses to the suburbs in recent years as the gentrification process began and rents increased.

The shophouses played a significant role in Georgetown becoming a World Heritage site. In many ways their architecture tells the story of the city. The early styles, which date back to the 1800s, have evolved over the years from simple facades to elaborate detail reflecting Chinese, Malay and, later, European influences such as art deco.

Decorative pilasters, animal and flower motifs, glazed tiles and louvre shutters show off the wealth of the Chinese traders and shopkeepers who settled in the port city in the 19th century. Although the decorative detail varies, most of the town houses were designed with living quarters behind or above the shop with internal courtyards open to the sky for light and ventilation, narrow fronts, deep interiors and covered walkways that offer shade.

Rents and purchase prices for Georgetown shophouses vary enormously, says Jason Teoh at Henry Butcher, an international asset consultant and estate agent in Georgetown.

A two-storey shophouse “in habitable condition but needing improvement” costs from about M$1m (£200,000). Renting a similar property ranges from between M$3,000 and M$5,000 a month, while yields on shophouse rentals are between 3 per cent and 4 per cent. Renovated two-storey houses can fetch about M$2m.

“Rents and prices increased recently since Georgetown got the World Heritage boost but the biggest increase was in 2000 after the repeal of the rent control act,” says Teoh.

Penang worked hard to gain its heritage status, which attracts tourists to the city. “Gaining a World Heritage status is one thing but managing it is something else,” says Jing. Solving the problem of the swiftlet farms “needs enforcement”, according to Khaw. But to police the activity is labour intensive and expensive.

Georgetown is not just about shophouses. Its architectural fascination also lies in beautifully restored Chinese mansions, exquisite Hindu and Chinese temples, Muslim mosques and craftsmen’s quarters. But to risk losing a vital part of the city to an urban bird population would be bad news indeed.

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Medicinal qualities fuel trade in key ingredient

Restaurants in China and Hong Kong just can’t get enough birds’ nests for the expensive, centuries-old Chinese delicacy of bird’s nest soup, which can command prices from $30 to $100 a dish.

Keen to meet demand in Asia, people in Malaysia and Indonesia are piling into the lucrative business of farming swiftlets, whose nests are the essential ingredient for the soup.

The swiftlets make their nests with saliva, laboriously shaping the threads into a nest. Once the young have flown the nest, bird breeders collect and clean them before selling them on to restaurants where chicken broth and a range of ingredients are added to turn them into a thick jellylike soup.

Originally thought to have been invented for a Chinese emperor, the soup is reputed to have medicinal benefits, such as boosting the immune system, the libido and longevity, rejuvenating the skin and even relieving asthma.

Prohibitively high prices have encouraged some western restaurants to use noodles as an alternative.

Nests of good quality and consistency are said to fetch anything between $400 and $3,000 a kilo and such lucrative prices are tempting novice breeders to cash in on the trade by turning town houses into dark, dank, cave-like interiors similar to their natural habitat.