12Sep

3.9 million hectares of Sabah land earmarked for forest reserve

SANDAKAN: Over 50 per cent or 3.9 million hectares of land in Sabah have been earmarked for forest reserves and wildlife conservation areas, said Sabah Forestry Department chief conservator, Mashor Mohd Jaini. He said the success of the tropical rainforest protection and conservation programme in the state was due to the forest, wildlife conservation and parks enactments. “Through sustainable forest management policies, sufficient land area could be reserved and managed for conservation,” he said at the closing of the Environmental Education Course for Teachers here today. According to Mashor, the state government had also decided that 30 per cent of the tropical rainforest area in the state would be gazetted as fully protected area by 2025. He said in the last two years, totally protected areas covered almost 1.9 million hectares or 25 per cent of the total area of Sabah which was equivalent to 18 times the size of the state of Penang. Mashor added that the Deramakot Forest Reserve was a fine example of a natural reserve which had been certified well managed by an international certification body, the Forest Sterwardship Council Standard' in 1997. In addition, he said, the country's largest Ramsar site covering an area of 78,000 hectares is situated in Kinabatangan. However, he said there were also challenges facing sustainable forest management, among them low returns, high cost of forest conservation, illegal occupation and farming on forest reserve land. Thirty-one teachers from 28 secondary schools in the state attended the six-day course initiated by the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sepilok. — BERNAMA   Source: New Straits Times
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12Sep

A home for oath stone at last

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s historical oath stone will be open to the public on Malaysia Day at its new home at the Muzium Warisan Keningau. The stone, which had been relocated several times over the years to make way for development, is now permanently placed at the heritage museum. Opening it to visitors on Sept 16 is significant for the symbol that bears the bill of guarantees assuring Sabahans of their rights upon the formation of Malaysia. On Sunday, the relocation was held amid a full customary ritual that started with shamans (or bobohizans in the native Kadazandusun term) conducting prayers and chants along with the sacrificing of livestock including male buffaloes and white chickens.
After that, the lead shaman Muri Kulim and some 1,000 of his escorts marched from where the oath stone was at the Keningau District Secretariat Office all the way to the mu­seum.
The ceremony was officiated by Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister’s political secretary Raymond Ahuar. Keningau district officer Yusop Osman said RM1.025mil was spent on the effort to restore and relocate the stone. “The relocation was done according to native Kadazandusun and Murut customary beliefs and rituals, just like the way it was done when the stone was first put up on Aug 31, 1964,” he said. The then federal labour minister Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam offi­ciated the placing of the oath stone, witnessed, among others, by the Sabah chief minister at that time Tun Fuad Stephens and Dusun community leader Datuk G.S. Sundang, who was formerly Sabah deputy chief minister. There had been some controversies surrounding the oath stone previously, including natives finding “copies” of the stone in several parts of Keningau, 71km south of here. Three years ago, there was another controversy when it was found that the words “Kerajaan Malaysia Jamin” (Malaysian government guarantees) were missing from the plaque. It remains a mystery as to where and when the original was changed but the then Bingkor assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan had given the government a plaque, which he claimed to be the original. It has been handed over to the museum for safekeeping. The Keningau Oath Stone is important to not only Sabahans but also Malaysia as it serves to assure the Sabahans that their rights to religious freedom, land, culture and customs, among others, are guaranteed even after Sabah, together with Sarawak and Singapore, joined Malaya to form Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963. Source: The Star Online
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12Sep

Singapore, Sabah to further strengthen economic ties

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 8 — Singapore says it wants to continue to strengthen economic, trade and investment ties with Sabah especially in tourism, technical and vocational education as well as property development. Its Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is on the second day of his three-day working visit to Sabah, said the matter was discussed with Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal. “I’m very happy to be here in Kota Kinabalu and also to be discussing further cooperation between Singapore and Sabah. We discussed a number of things on how we can work more closely together. “Both (Singapore and Sabah) have an interest in more economic ties, trade and investment and also in tourism particularly. I think (tourism) that’s a wonderful product that Sabah has. Many Singaporeans have already come and visited (Sabah). “We hope that we are able to increase that and perhaps investment in tourism,” he said at a press conference here today. Teo said Sabah has a variety of attractive tourism destinations including in Sandakan, Tawau and Semporna in the east coast. He also invited Mohd Shafie to make an official visit to the island republic to discuss in further detail cooperation between the two sides. Meanwhile, Mohd Shafie said the two leaders also discussed the launch of direct flights from Singapore to Sabah’s east coast, adding the state will send a team to the island republic to explore ways to develop its technical and vocational education. “We can learn a lot from Singapore and how we can advance on this,” he said. — Bernama   Source: Malay Mail
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07Sep

Sabah benefits from Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape project

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has benefitted tremendously from the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape Project. Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Junz Wong described the initiative, which was a Coral Triangle (CTI) project jointly implemented by partners from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines as an avenue to provide opportunities for regional learning exchanges. “The Seascape model provides guidance for the Coral Triangle countries in establishing and managing large marine, trans-boundary ecosystems such as seascapes,” Junz said in his speech read by his political secretary Rakam Sijim at the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape Project Regional and National Closing Event on Thursday. He pointed out the project had also given a positive impact on the preservation of the Tun Mustapha Park (TMP), which was established on May 19, 2016 and is also the largest marine park in Malaysia, covering 898,762.76 hectares. “The Integrated Management Plan of the TMP is focused on bringing together relevant stakeholders to manage the park. With the support of the Sulu Sulawesi Seascape Project, Sabah Parks had implemented several preparatory activities working towards the establishment of a collaborative approach to manage the TMP. “One of the key achievements is the formation of a multi-agency enforcement committee called the Tun Mustapha Park Collaborative Enforcement Committee (TMP-CEC),” he added. He pointed out that Sabah shares many valuable resources in the Sulu-Sulawesi seas, particularly the species that are migratory or fish stocks that straddle the state’s borders such as groupers, tunas and small pelagic. Designated as a priority seascape under the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reef Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) by the six member countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste), the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape serves as a geographic focus of investments, actions, conservation and climate change related results under the CTI-CFF Regional Plan of Action (RPOA). Among those present in the event were Sulu-Sulawesi Project director Franca Sprong, the Economic Councillor to the German Embassy of Kuala Lumpur Jens Brinckmann, Sabah Parks director Dr Jamili Nais and Sabah Fisheries Department director Dr Ahemad Sade.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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07Sep

RM8 billion expected from Sabah’s tourism industry this year

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s tourism industry is expected to contribute RM8 billion in tourism receipts this year, said Deputy Chief Minister Christina Liew. Liew, who is also the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, said tourist arrivals to the State had been shown a steady growth from 3.4 million in 2013 to 3.7 million in 2017, with an increase in revenue contribution from RM6.35 billion to RM7.8 billion in the same period. “For 2018, we are looking at RM8 billion in tourism receipts.” For the first half of 2018, she said tourist arrivals into Sabah was registered at 1.892 million compared to 1.796 million for the same period last year, which marked an increase of 96,026 or 5.35 per cent. “International arrivals made up 16.57 per cent of this increase, with China market as the largest contributor to the increase foreign arrivals.” To further boost the tourism industry in Sabah, Liew said her ministry would continue its effort to attract more tourists from Asian countries, especially China, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as to increase the share of the European market. Liew stated that in her speech, which was delivered by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datu Rosmadi Datu Sulai, when launching the Seminar on Development of Sustainable Tourism in the Rural Areas of Sabah organized by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) Sabah in collaboration with the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) here yesterday. She said the ministry also planned to develop and promote other tourist destinations, especially in the east coast of Sabah including Tawau, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Sandakan to bring about more holistic approach to tourism development in Sabah. She said the east coast towns had not been performing well in the past due to security and safety reasons. Nonetheless, Liew said the situation in the east coast area had improved tremendously with new strategic measures put in place to boost the security of the coastal areas and the close cooperation between Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia in border security surveillance. She said many areas with potential for tourism development in the east coast towns could be turned into tourism destinations to cater to the increasing numbers of tourists arriving in Sabah. On another note, she emphasized on the need for Sabah to keep up with the advancement of technology in this digital and artificial intelligence (AI) era in order to remain competitive in the tourism industry and be on par with other destinations in the region. She said the tremendous growth in tourism sectors globally, including Sabah, was due to the strong market support and the advancement of digital technologies and AI. With the click of the internet, she said holiday seekers could access information about destinations, transportation, tour packages and accommodation. She stressed that the trend of going cashless and paying by payment apps for tourists from more technically advanced countries in the Asian region such as South Korea, China and Taiwan would become a normal feature in the tourism sector in the very near future. “Many tourism related business operators in Sabah are already embracing this mode of payment.” Also present were IDS Sabah chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, IDS Sabah senior associate director Jenny Liaw and STB general manager Suzaini Datuk Sabdin Ghani.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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