Orang utan population up by 20% in Sabah’s protected forests

 

KOTA KINABALU: Orang utan population within totally protected areas has increased by over 20 percent in Sabah's lower Kinabatangan since the first census was done seven years ago.

The number of orang utans orang-utans living within totally protected areas (TPA) increased from 38 percent to 60 percent, an orang utan conservationist Dr. Marc Ancrenaz said.

Dr Ancrenaz, who is co-director of the HUTAN Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme (HUTAN-KOCP), said the increasing population reflected a commitment by all, especially the state government, to protect more forest areas.

However, he did not disclose the number of orang utans within the totally protected forest areas.

The Sabah Forestry Department had recently increased the areas deemed totally protected forest reserves to help further in the conservation of orang utans and other species such as the Borneo pygmy elephant, Sunda clouded leopard, Sunbear, and hornbills and others.

“The recent areas regazetted as Class I (totally protected forest reserve) are lowland forests which are favoured for agriculture development. But the state government has shown that they value the environmental security in the long term by making them TPAs instead of going for short term profits,” Dr Ancrenaz, a wildlife veterinarian who has been working on wildlife issues in Sabah since 1998.

However, the biggest issue for orang-utan conservation in Sabah remains the problem of isolation and fragmentation of protected forests, primotologist Dr. Isabelle Lackman, who is a co-director HUTAN KOCP said in a statement.

“While the Kinabatangan has been protected by the Sabah Wildlife Department since gazetting in 2005, the Sanctuary is very broken up with some protected forests being totally isolated and this is not healthy for the long term survival of orang utan in the area,” Lackman explained.

“Our studies have shown that we need to reconnect patches of forest to ensure that we have a viable orang utan population for the future and this can be achieved by reconnecting these forest either by having patches of forest that orang utans can travel through or a contiguous corridor of forest,” Lackman added.

She felt that all planned and future conversion of even small forest patches needs to be stopped to ensure the viability of the long-term survival of the orang utan population in the lower Kinabatangan.

 

Read More

440,00 hectares of damaged forests restored

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has restored 440,000 hectares of forests which include damaged and fragmented forests.
State Forestry director Datuk Sam Mannan said the restoration was over 10 years and it has been successful due to political stability.
“The projects involved a lot of money and people. We are giving the natives projects on commercial contract basis to culture the seeds, raising seedlings, replanting and so on.
“So indirectly if two individuals from a household work in the projects, they are literally out of poverty.
Also in the process, we managed to create ‘Kampong Towkeys’, the entrepreneurs who get the contracts, all they need are ‘parangs’ and hardworking people,” he told a press conference in conjunction with the International Conference on HOB yesterday.
Sam said that with the total investment of RM50 million on restoration projects alone, HOB managed to contribute in poverty eradication.
He said HOB is about sustainable development which encompasses every aspect of sustainability such as social, economic, and environmental sides of it.
According to him, cooperation from other parties like agriculture industries is needed for the programme to work effectively.
He said under HOB, logging activities which caused the most damage are being regulated by increasing the standard of practice with Reduced Impact Logging Harvesting technique.
“This started from zero to being compulsory for all naturally managed licensed areas in Sabah.
“The practice is not only the highest in Malaysia but the highest in the tropical world, and I’m not exaggerating on that,” he added.
Sam also commended the good commitments given by other partner countries namely Brunei and Indonesia which share the Island of Borneo.
He said although HOB is considered Sabah’s brainchild, Brunei and Indonesia especially with its vast area are very vital partners.
“We’ve been doing restoration works for many years, so when HOB came along, it fits nicely with what we’re doing. We work really with our partners by having trilateral meetings every year, we visit and learn from each other.
“I’d like to note WWF’s roles in providing expertise, coordinating the programmes and many more, so WWF is part of this programme,” said Sam.
HOB is a declaration signed by Borneo’s three countries Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, in commitment to conserve and manage the biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural resources within the HOB in a sustainable way.
Present at the press conference was Deputy Chief Minister, cum Minister of Resource Development and Information Technology, Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai.

Read More

Sabah Government Will Not Tolerate Insults To Cultural Heritage, Says Musa

"Mengomot" cutting of the padi

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- The Sabah government will not tolerate insults to cultural heritage, says Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
"I am compelled to publicly criticise the ignorant and irresponsible parties behind the blog post that has insulted the Sumazau dance that is very much a part of Sabah's rich cultural heritage."We in Sabah are proud of our cultural diversity. We are home to 32 different ethnic groups, each with its own unique identity. Though different from each other and with different backgrounds and religious beliefs, there has always been above it all, respect," he said in a statement, here, today.Musa said every culture had its own identity, steeped in tradition and history, and the Sumazau was no different as the dance had its own distinctive meaning."It is also for all occasions and for everybody. Modern day Sabah is known around the world as a vibrant melting pot of cultures."Our people are peace loving and harmonious. Many families, my own included, have members that are of different races and religions.We are like one big family here in Sabah," he said.As chief minister tasked with the responsibility of leading the state, Musa said his administration "works hard to ensure this precious peace and racial harmony is protected and safeguarded"."Such preservation is vital to developing Sabah and steering our homeland to a brighter future for our children."I join the outrage voiced by the people of Sabah against any slur to our culture by irresponsible parties with selfish or malicious agendas," he said.Musa said the state government would not tolerate such disrespect "for our cultural values, and those who have no respect for our cultural values are not welcome here".-- BERNAMA

Source: News online Bernama

Read More

‘More forest reserves under Musa rule’

Regional Forum on Ecosystems connectivity and Corridor within the Heart of  Borneo in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Forestry Department, while acknowledging rampant illegal logging of itsforest, has rushed to the defence of Chief Minister Musa Aman who is facing investigations in four countries over allegations of money laundering amounting to S$38 trillion.

The money includes a US$90 million “nest egg” purportedly derived from widescale deforestation activities in Sabah.

Earlier today the Swiss government reportedly said that it was ready to freeze Musa’s accounts in Switzerland if the Malaysian authority made a request for legal assistance.

Lashing out at critics, Forestry Department director Sam Manan said the allegation were “unfounded” and “politically motivated”.

“We have reason to believe the unfounded allegations are politically motivated and not motivated by love for the environment.

“It is hoped that those who have made these unfounded allegations realise the enormity of misinforming the world and in the process, hurting our conservation efforts,” he said.

On the US$90 million “nest egg”, Manan said if indeed the allegations were true, it would mean that not less that one million m3 of timber have been illegally felled.

“That represents plundering of at least 20,000 hectres (50,000 acres) of well-stocked forest. This scale of logging, if true, would represent 50% of the timber produced from natural forest in 2011 or about 30% of Sabah’s timber production in 2010.

“The Forestry Department acknowledges that illegal felling does exist in Sabah but no way near the scale and extent as allegedly reported.

“The allegations are therefore baseless and made with bad intention [mal fide] to discredit the sacrifices made by the state government to achieve good forest governance and SFM [sustainable forest management] in the shortest time possible, despite the economic financial and social challenges.

“The public should discard the reports as malicious and harmful… they frustrate the state’s forest management reform,” he said in a statement.

Records transparent

According to Manan, under Musa’s leadership, SFM had improved by leaps and bounds.

He said short-term licences that caused tremendous damage to the environment were being drastically phased out.

“Sabah’s forest management credibility is now at its highest. We have an open-book philosophy whereby, logging and forest management areas are all open to third party and NGO scrutiny.

“The good, the bad and the ugly are laid bare with the intention of improving standards and practices on the ground.

“Even the planned drop in forest revenue [about RM150 million a year today as opposed to RM500 million to RM1 billion in the past], is also a deliberate strategy to ensure that the forests are given a chance to recover,” he said.

Manan also pointed out that since Musa took the reins of the government, the totally protected area (TPAS) reserves in Sabah had increased.

Currently, TPAS is reaching 1.3 million hectares or about 20% of Sabah’s total land area, exceeding even the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) standard of 10%.

“The latest addition is the wildlife corridor linking Maliau Basin, Imbak Canyon to Danum/Ulu Segama and the re-classification of Ulu Segama (130,000ha) to total protected status.

“Under Musa, we have seen the greatest extent of TPAS expansion in the history of Sabah, despite the enormous opportunity cost of conservation,” Manan said.

Global accreditations

He also said that despite the widespread allegations of illegal deforestation, Sabah was still receiving international acreditation.

“The enormity of the alleged extent of illegal felling [1 million m3] could not have escaped the attention of the world.

“A well-stocked forest of 20,000ha badly logged because of illegal felling would have been easily detected by satellites and attracted the attention of NGOs, environmentalists and the communities living nearby.

“No way could such acts be committed and passed without notice.

“Also, if 50% of the annual production of timber from Sabah was alleged to be illegal, world markets especially sensitive ones like Europe, North America and Japan would have long ago stopped buying timber from Sabah.

“The enormous economic and financial implications would have been harmful to the state as a whole.

“This never occurred because the alleged large-scale illegal logging never happen,” he said, adding that Sabah’s long-term licences have been subjected to third-party auditing (independent audit) since 2010.

He pointed out that under the Ma|aysia-ECTLAS Timber Legality Assurance Programme, the independent auditors would have detected any large-scale illegal felling,

Manan said currently at least 800,000ha of Sabah’s forests are partially or fully certified under various internationally recognised system such as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), MTCS (Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme) and PEFC (Pan European Forest Scheme).

He said this included the 250,000ha of fully certified and 150,000ha of partially certified forest areas under the Sabah Foundation.

“Many more forest areas are being earmarked for certification as Sabah has set 2014 as the year for all long-term licensed areas to be fully certified.

“The process of certification means independent third party is on the ground auditing to assess credibility.

“If such allegations were true, why does Sabah continue to attract the attention of certifying bodies and NGOs, who want to be our partners and to assist us in obtaining veritable and certifiable good governance?” Manan asked.

Read More

'Halt' order to Forestry

Tenom: The Forestry Department has been directed to stop the re-delineation of the forest reserve boundary here with immediate effect.

In this respect, the people who are facing problems due to the exercise need not have to worry, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Musa said the matter came to his attention from the respective elected representatives here following complaints from the people.

Opening the Tenom and Pensiangan Umno delegates meeting at Dewan Datuk Seri Panglima Antanom, Saturday, Musa who is also Sabah Umno Chief, said as for the Imahit Forest Reserve issue, the Government would try to find the best solution once the matter had been decided in the High Court.

He also defended the State Government's method of giving land to the people through Communal Titles, which assured that the original people in the village would have land to develop.

He said the opposition's claim that the Government was grabbing the people's land was totally untrue and done purposely to poison the minds of the people.

Read More : http://www.dailyexpress.com

Read More