Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Tabin Wildlife Reserve's concept may be extended to safeguard forest reserves

Kota Kinabalu: The Forestry Department may adopt the concept practised in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve (TWR) as a strategic measure to safeguard the nearly 300,000 hectares of forest reserves in the East Coast from illegal activities that could affect the conservation of their bio-diversity.

The State Government has agreed to expand the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) principles pioneered in the Deramakot Forest Reserve to cover the forest reserves comprising the Ulu Segama Reserve (203,080ha), Malua Forest Reserve (33,969ha) and Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve (51,118ha).

Disclosing this, its Director Sam Mannan said the department has noted that the sustainable forest principles in TWR could be applied on the three forest reserve areas for better protection from trespassers and illegal loggers.

"We see that the concept practised in TWR is a good example where the reserve area is well protected from illegal activities.

"It is the presence of environmental experts, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), tourism companies and active participation from the community that work hand-in-hand to conserve and protect the area.

"Hence, we may consider taking on the concept in the nearly 300,000ha of forest reserve," he told Daily Express recently.

"I believe with the pooling of our base people and the inputs from the long term licensee, Sabah Foundation (YS) as well as experts from NGOs in our forest management team, we can do it.

"We may also involve the community particularly the villagers in the planning process of conserving the area as they would be our ears and eyes for any illegal activities in the forest reserve area, as what is practised effectively in the TWR," he said.

As for increasing the manpower to guard the area, he said, the department will study the plan properly, as they are more concerned about quality than quantity. Presently, the department has 1,200 staff consisting of 800 officers while the rest are from clerical and support services.

"We have identified the best people to do the work in the reserve area and they would implement the same work of managing the forests that they have been doing in the Deramakot Reserve. They do nothing else but manage the forest.

"We will also send in people from other districts on task force basis to do particular work like inventory in the area for one year. We will get assistance from all interested parties like HUTAN (French NGO), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), to help us especially in rendering their expertise on identification of wildlife aspects in the reserve," he said.

In applying the SFM policy on the forest reserve especially in Ulu Segama that has a large number of orang-utan in Sabah, Sam said such planning would involve a lot of money.

He said they have yet to ascertain the amount because it would depend on what they plan to do.

For Deramakot, he said, they have been spending RM5 million a year on 50,000ha. So, for the nearly 300,000ha forest reserve, he calculated that approximately RM30 million a year is needed for the management and conservation of the three forest reserves.

"We have an added advantage whereby YS will also come in with their resources.

"We also want to see funds coming in from all over the world to help us with this conservation effort because in the end, we are protecting the said reserve area not just for ourselves, but the whole world is going to benefit, too," he said.

He said they would also apply for funds from the Federal authorities to implement SFM concept in the identified reserve area as it is in line with national policy.

Source: Daily Express

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