Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Sabah Parks to empower native communities living in protected rainforests


KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Parks aims to empower native communities living in protected rainforests to manage their natural resources sustainably while protecting the connecting Sabah’s biodiverse landscapes between the Mount Kinabalu World Heritage and the Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve.

“This strategy is part of the initiative in forming community-conserved protected zones by integrating biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of natural resources throughout the Indigenous Community Conservation Areas (ICCA) under Sabah Park’s Kinabalu Ecolinc project,“ said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman.

The plan is to establish ecological linkages connecting the two national parks which are currently separated by state land as well as adopting ICCA approach to protect the forested areas while ensuring that local communities retain the rights to their bio-cultural values and enhance their livelihoods.

Speaking at the officiating ceremony of the 2nd Satoyama Initiativen Regional Workshop on Tuesday, Musa underlined the state government places a high emphasis to ensuring socioeconomic activities adhere to sustainable practices in the use of natural resources.

“Advancing the bio-cultural concept in managing natural resources is one of our strategies under the Sabah Biodiversity Strategy 2012-2022,”he said.

Among those who witnessed the officiating ceremony of the Satoyama Initiative Regional Workshop, include programme director Naoya Tsukamoto, IPSI Secretariat at the UNU-IAS, among others.

The workshop, hosted by the United Nations University for Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), the Secretariat of International Partnership for Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) gathers local and international researchers to discuss strategies on mainstreaming the Satoyama concept of ‘living in harmony with the environment’.

Musa said the theme of the workshop, ”Mainstreaming Concepts and Approaches of Socio Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes in Asia” is an fitting topic and expressed hope expressed hope that participants can exchange views with their international counterparts on applying the Satoyama concepts locally.

.
.