KOTA KINABALU - Sabah is quickly emerging as a frontrunner in the Asean region in research efforts into the rainforest canopy, described as one of the last unexplored frontiers on earth for scientists, The Star reported.
The state now has two canopy walkways located about 30m above ground at Poring in the pristine Kinabalu Park and a 100m canopy flux tower in the Danum Valley. The state is now hoping to be selected as one of five locations in the world for the proposed World Forest Observatories (WFO), a towering canopy crane to be set up in the middle of the forest.
"Being part of the WFO network will enable us to explore the economic potential of non-timber forest products from canopy and canopy-based eco-tourism," Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat said recently.
Opening a canopy training programme for the Asean region at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Chong said that WFO would be part of the initial phases for the establishment of a global canopy-based conservation network.
The three-year canopy training programme will involve groups of scientists, students, conservationists and forest managers from around Asean undergoing two weeks of training in climbing trees using ropes and conducting canopy studies.
Chong, the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, said the training provided by the British-based Global Canopy Programme (GCP) was crucial as the forest canopy was the most threatened and least explored habitat on earth.
"An important function of the canopy is its influence on global climate," he said, adding that forest canopies intercept 25 per cent of precipitation over 45 million hectares of land surface.
Chong said 90 per cent of the earth's biomass interfaces with the atmosphere through forest canopies that were the richest in terms of biodiversity.
UMS vice chancellor Datuk Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin said the university would be the first institute of higher learning in Malaysia to have the capacity for scientific research in forest canopies and train others in Asean to do the same.
He said a canopy training syllabus and manual were being developed and these would serve as the basis of modules to be included in UMS academic training programmes soon.
Also present were UMS Tropical Biology and Conservation Institute director Datin Dr Maryati Mohamed and Prof Roger Kitching of GCP.
Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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