Inside KePKAS

The fragmentation of the forest habitats is one of the key challenges to ensure the survival of the Bornean elephants in Sabah. The ‘Melapi elephant corridor’ in Sukau has proven that even a strip of land 50 meters wide makes a difference to facilitate the migration of the Bornean elephant herds in Lower Kinabatangan.

The conservation project, led by Raymond Alfred, the head of Conservation and Research, Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT), explained that the corridor was established in August 2011 which is a collaboration between the Sabah Wildlife Department and Borneo Conservation Trust, together with their partners Syarikat Yu Kwang Development Sdn. Bhd. and Proboscis Lodge Bukit Melapi.

The Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) is a non-profit NGO established in 2006 and was incorporated under the Trustee’s Ordinance 1951, Cap. 148 (Sabah).

BCT relies wholly on funds and grants that is provided by individuals and corporations, to enable it to implement conservation and research works.

The establishment of the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) was first mooted as an unprecedented Malaysia-Japanese effort to re-acquire the important alienated lands in the wetlands and riverine forests in order to allow the movements of Bornean elephants and orang utans, the flagship species of Sabah.

“We are very happy to know that the elephants are now able to pass through the land using this corridor to migrate from one key habitat to another, when previously it was a very narrow bottleneck,” said Alfred.

“This collaborative effort is an example where the private sector can work with us and the NGOs. We welcome the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with companies and organisations keen to play an active role in supporting and contributing to Sabah’s wildlife conservation initiatives,” said Dr Laurentius N. Ambu, the director of the Sabah Wildlife Department.

“With the re-establishment of this corridor, the potential human and elephant conflict in the villages and plantations is also reduced,” concluded Ambu.

This week, students from the Nihon University Japan, planted more than 100 trees within this corridor to facilitate the movement of the orang utans within the fragmented habitat in the future.

The activities of the students were coordinated by Borneo Conservation Trust Japan (BCT-Japan).

With continuous diligent effort in the next three years, a forest canopy could be eventually established in the area.

Source: Borneo Post

Despite extensive landscape changes in the past, including the introduction of agriculture to reverse the over-dependence on timber, some 60 per cent of Sabah still remains under forest cover, State Forestry Department Director Datuk Sam Mannan said. The rate of deforestation between 1970 and 2010 was about 0.5 per cent a year, with its height being between 1990 and 2000 during the oil palm cultivation boom, which unfortunately also saw a direct correlation between the number of Orang Utans being sent to the rehabilitation centre in Sepilok, he said.

"Fortunately, what is most important is the fact that we did not discard the forest reserve system that we inherited. If anything, we expanded it.

"About four million hectares of Sabah remain under forest reserves, parks and wildlife sanctuaries," he said when briefing the Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who visited the department's Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) in Sepilok, Saturday.

Mannan said despite "acts of random madness of the past," rainforests have managed to recover, with biological assets largely intact, and no record of any species going extinct so far.

"The closest to extinction is the Sabah Rhino which we are trying to save through captive breeding," he added.

He also said the RDC, launched in 2007, is developed to meet objective of creating awareness on conservation and the environment as well as to promote ecotourism and recreation, education and research and development.

Mannan said the total development cost for the centre has exceeded RM25 million and approximately RM10 million spent under the 10th Malaysia Plan to further develop its facilities.

Source: Daily Express