World Heritage Status to Benefit Carnivore Survival in Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Joint Press Release from Sabah Wildlife Department, International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN and Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.


Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia 23rd June 2011: The Sabah State Government is taking steps to secure Maliau Basin, Danum Valley and Imbak Canyon in perpetuity by applying for joint World Heritage status for all three Conservation Areas.

“The reason behind this is simple, we want to protect our forests so no future corrupted politician can take it away,” stated Datuk Masidi Manjun, who disclosed the decision of the State Cabinet at the opening of Part II of the 1st Borneo Carnivore Symposium (BCS) held at Shangri-la's Rasa Ria Resort on 23rd June 2011.

Masidi, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Tourism, also stressed that it is crucial to protect Sabah’s forest and wildlife to benefit future generations and ensure its position as a tourism destination.

“Eventually, tourism will be the number one earner for Sabah and people will come from all over the world to see Sabah’s nature and it makes business sense to protect our jungles,” said Masidi.

In his speech, Masidi addressed delegates representing 15 countries and comprising scientists, conservationists and representatives from Government agencies coming together during the one week long Symposium to work towards the future survival of Borneo’s 23 carnivore species.

According to scientists at the BCS, the areas being put forth by the State Government are also home to the very mysterious and endangered species of carnivores such as the Borneo Bay Cat (Pardofelis badia) and Hose’s Civet (Diplogale hosei).

“The Borneo Bay Cat is found only in Borneo and has been recorded by camera traps as being in Danum Valley at relatively high frequency compared to other areas in Sabah,” said Andrew Hearn of Oxford University’s WildCRU.

The first photograph in the wild of the Borneo Bay Cat was taken only in 2002 in Mulu National Park in Sarawak.

Meanwhile, another elusive carnivore, the Hose’s Civet was not found during any camera trap surveys in the lowland of Eastern Sabah including Danum Valley, but was found instead only in Maliau Basin, which is the most “eastern” record of this species.

“This highlights the fact that it is probably found in low densities and supports the notion that it is restricted to the highland forest of Borneo,” added Dr Jerrold L. Belant, Chair of the IUCN/SSC Small Carnivore Specialist Group who presented the introduction to Bornean carnivores during the opening ceremony.

This in turn, points to the fact that it is crucial to protect different types of forest that support different communities of both wildlife and plant life diversity.

“Maliau Basin, Danum Valley and Imbak Canyon are part of the larger contiguous forest concession area belonging to the Sabah Foundation. This area as a whole is vital because it has different types of forest types such as lowland and highland and supports a number of different species,” elaborated Dr. Laurentius Ambu, the Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD).

Ambu said any change of forest landscape within this Sabah Foundation area has to take into account such factors and provide for corridors and setting aside of High Value Forests such as those of Maliau Basin, Danum Valley and Imbak Canyon.

“The extremely high conservation value of this three areas cannot be maintained without thought being put into having buffers and corridors to connect them should the Sabah Foundation clear parts of its concession areas for monoculture such as oil palm,” cautioned Ambu.

The Symposium was organised by the SWD, IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Cat, Small Carnivores & Otter Specialist Groups and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research from Germany.
Funding and support was provided by a dedicated group of partners and sponsors; Benta Wawasan Sdn.Bhd., British Ecological Society, Chester Zoo / North England Zoological Society, The Clouded Leopard Project, Columbus Zoo, Flora Blossom Sdn. Bhd., Houston Zoo, Karl Mayer Foundation, KTS Plantation Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia Airlines, Nashville Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Shared Earth Foundation, The UsitawiNetwork, Wild Cat Club, WWF – Germany, WWF – Malaysia.

Malaysian Prime Minister visits Maliau Basin, Sabah - 29th January 2011

Maliau Basin located deepn in the interior of Sabah is one of the world's premier ecological centres.

The Basin derives its name because of its mystery and unique basin shaped at 1,900 metres above sea-level, with its own skies and cloud formations.

Hence, earning the nickname - The Lost World.

Here, one can experience wonders of nature including countless flora and fauna species as well as boasting one of the highest density of waterfalls ever found in one place.

On the morning of Saturday, January 29th, 2011, history was made when Maliau Basin was visited by Malaysia's number one, the Prime Minister himself, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak.
















During his visit to Maliau Basin, the Premier said Malaysia is very keen to list Sabah's Lost World, the Maliau Basin as a world heritage site.

In endorsing the state government's proposal, Najib said a World Heritage listing by UNESCO would bring immediate world attention and interest in the 58,400-hectare untouched tropical rainforest, just slightly smaller then Singapore.

He said the heritage listing of Mount Kinabalu National Park, George Town, Gunung Mulu National Park and Malacca had seen a jump in worldwide interest in such areas of natural or historical importance.

However, he said there was a lot of work to be done to obtain such a World Heritage status as the government and various had to meet with various guidelines to be able to meet the requirements of Unesco in listing it as a world heritage site.

“I would support the Chief Minister in getting this place listed as a world heritage site," he told reporters after becoming the first Prime Minister to step foot in the Maliau Basin where he opened the Maliau Basin Studies Centre and also launched the study of the Stability of Altered Forest Eco-Systems (SAFE) conducted by Royal Socieity of UK and sponsored by Sime Darby Foundation, that is set to become the world’s largest ecological experiment.

Najib said that Maliau Basin was becoming an integral part of an ecological experiment in an area that contained rare flora and fauna, including six types of pitcher plants and more then 80 species of orchids and endangered wildlife, from rhinocerous to orang utans.

''Only about 25% of Maliau Basin has been explored. From four major expeditions between 1986 to 2005, we learned it has the greatest number of waterfalls any where in Malaysia.

“About 40 of them, in all, including the famous seven-tiered Maliau Falls and Sabah's only ox-bow lake called Lake Linumunsut."

However, he said conservation required funding and hoped the private sector, local and international, could play a significant role in sustaining and extending Malaysia's conservation efforts.

''This will be crucial in making Maliau Basin Studies Centre a premier facility for tropical rainforest, research and scientific discovery in the region," he added.

In Maliau Basin, Datuk Seri Najib also said certain Western critics of Malaysia’s oil palm industry were taking a narrow view of the issue when they ignore the benefits of the industry to those who depend on it for their livelihood.

“The critics fail to understand we have a responsibility to our people who depend on oil palm and this does not include smallholders and companies.

“Compared to others, we are doing better in sustainable development and preservation of the environment,”.

Earlier in his speech, he said the SAFE project was important as it was in line with Malaysia’s commitment to conservation and will help address many issues the world is facing, especially climate change, as a result of deforestation.

“This project will make a major contribution to understanding how biodiversity can be protected and maintained in our plantations.

“It will also assess how to balance the economic benefits of the oil palm industry with the need for environmental conservation and sustainable development,” he added.

Najib said that, to date, there has been no definitive study on the quantifiable impact of deforestation on wildlife, water quality, nutrient cycle and soil stability.

“At best, what we have are educated guesses which are not sufficient to make important decisions that could affect our environment.”

Najib said the project will help address the issue of deforestation and the impact of oil palm plantations properly.

“We need long-term, large scale ecological experiments like SAFE to give us concrete answers that can help guide any modifications in the way oil palm plantations are operated.”

The Maliau Basin Studies Centre and the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project is a 10-year study costing RM 30 million is sponsored by Sime Darby and is undertaken by the Royal Society’s South-East Asia Rainforest Research Programme and is set to become the world’s largest ecological experiment.

Perdana Menteri Malaysia lawat Maliau Basin, Sabah, 29 January 2011

Satu catatan sejarah terpahat dalam sejarah pemuliharaan alam sekitar dan alam semulajadi di negara ini apabila pemimpin nombor satu negara, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, turun padang sendiri melawat Maliau Basin, satu daripada pusat perlindungan ekologi terbesar dan terkenal di dunia.

Maliau Basin seluas 588 kilometer persegi (seperti keluasan Singapura), terletak di pedalaman Sabah antara Keningau dan Tawau dan diwartakan sebagai kawasan perlindungan pada 1981 oleh Yayasan Sabah dan diwartakan pada 1997 oleh Sidang Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah.

Maliau Basin dianggap misteri dan unik kerana bentuknya seperti basin iaitu melengkung ke bawah seperti mangkuk dan mempunyai awan sendiri di kawasan tinggi 1,900 meter dari paras laut.

Lembangan Maliau atau Maliau Basin berbentuk umpama sebuah mangkuk gergasi yang tergantung pada ketinggian antara 1,500 hingga 1,900m dari paras laut - menjadikannya tidak mungkin boleh didiami manusia dan oleh itu tidak diterokai.

Atas sebab itu, Maliau Basin digelar the Lost World atau Dunia Terasing atau Dunia yang hilang dan Dunia Yang Tersembunyi.






















Maliau Basin juga dikenali sebagai kawasan memiliki paling banyak Air Terjun di Malaysia, atau juga di dunia.

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak melawat Maliau Basin pada pagi Sabtu 29 Januari 2011 dengan menaiki helikopter dari Tawau sebelum berlepas pulang ke Kuala Lumpur pada sebelah tengahari dan bergegas pula ke Abu Dhabi, Emiriyah Arab Bersatu untuk lawatan kerja ke negara itu.

Di Maliau, Perdana Menteri berkata, Malaysia mempunyai rekod prestasi yang baik dalam bidang pembangunan lestari, berbanding negara lain, walaupun ada pihak tertentu di peringkat global mempunyai perspektif negatif terhadap amalan dalam aktiviti perusahaan minyak sawit negara ini.

Kata beliau, sebagai sebuah negara, sudah sewajarnya wujud keperluan bagi Malaysia untuk menggunakan tanah bagi tujuan pembangunan, tetapi kerajaan menggubal dasar tertentu untuk memastikan wujud keseimbangan daripada segi keperluan menjaga kepentingan rakyat dan memulihara kawasan hutan.

"Kita perlu sediakan ruang untuk membolehkan rakyat Malaysia menikmati kehidupan lebih baik, tapi pada masa yang sama, kawasan yang dimajukan untuk penanaman kelapa sawit perlu dibangunkan secara lestari. Malah, ada kawasan di mana pembangunan dan pembalakan langsung tidak dibenarkan, seperti Lembangan Maliau dan Lembah Danum dan kawasan tadahan air.

"Jika kita bandingkan dengan prestasi negara lain, rekod prestasi kita lebih baik daripada kebanyakan mereka...setelah mereka musnahkan sumber hutan mereka, kini mereka meninjau ke sana sini dan cuba menuding jari kepada kita, sedangkan merekalah sebenarnya yang menjadi punca masalah,” kata beliau kepada pemberita di Maliau Basin dalam sidang media selepas merasmikan Pusat Kajian Lembangan Maliau (MBSC) dan Projek SAFE (Kestabilan Ekosistem Hutan Yang Ubah) di Kawasan Pemuliharaan Lembangan Maliau pada 29 Januari 2011.

Najib berkata demikian apabila diminta mengulas anggapan sesetengah pihak, terutama di Eropah kononnya Malaysia tidak bertindak secukupnya untuk manambah baik amalan dalam industri minyak sawitnya untuk meningkatkan pembangunan secara lestari.

MBSC terletak di Kawasan Pemuliharaan Lembangan Maliau seluas kira-kira 58,840 hektar dan merupakan Hutan Simpan Kelas I (Perlindungan) di bawah pengurusan Yayasan Sabah.

Terletak kira-kira tiga jam setengah perjalanan dari Keningau atau bandar Tawau, Lembangan Maliau juga dikenali sebagai “Dunia Tersembunyi Sabah”, yang mendapat nama itu kerana bentuknya umpama sebuah mangkuk gergasi yang tergantung pada ketinggian antara 1,500 hingga 1,900m dari paras laut - menjadikannya tidak mungkin boleh didiami manusia dan oleh itu tidak diterokai.

MBSC, yang mempunyai keluasan 18 hektar, bertindak sebagai ibu pejabat bagi kawasan pemuliharaan dengan fungsi utamanya menyediakan venue serta kemudahan untuk penyelidik dan mereka yang menyertai program pembelajaran tentang alam semula jadi serta peserta kursus.

Pusat kajian itu lahir daripada kerjasama antara kerajaan Malaysia dan Denmark bagi menjamin Lembangan Maliau sentiasa dipulihara, dengan perbelanjaan mewujudkan prasarana di situ sebahagian besarnya dibiayai Yayasan Sabah, manakala Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development (DANCED) menyediakan bantuan teknikal serta dana untuk menghasilkan reka bentuk seni bina pusat itu, sebuah makmal dan khidmat perundingan untuk mendapatkan bekalan tenaga yang mampu memulihara kelestarian alam sekitar.

IKEA pula menyumbangkan dana untuk membina bilik pembelajaran, asrama, paparan interpretasi pendidikan alam sekitar, pembinaan denai, jambatan kanopi, menara tinjau, jambatan gantung dan kem satelit.

Sementara itu, mengulas lanjut dalam sidang medianya di Maliau Basin, Perdana Meneri berkata Kerajaan akan berusaha supaya Lembangan Maliau di sini mendapat pengiktirafan sebagai Tapak Warisan dunia.

Perdana Menteri berkata, pengiktirafan daripada Pertubuhan Pendidikan, Saintifik dan Kebudayaan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNESCO) akan menarik minat dari seluruh dunia terhadap lembangan itu.

Beliau sebelum itu melancarkan Pusat Pengajian Lembangan Maliau di kawasan konservasi Lembangan Maliau di sini dan memberi respons kepada cadangan Ketua Menteri Sabah, Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Najib berkata Malaysia, yang merupakan anggota lembaga pengarah Unesco, akan mengemukakan presentasi kepada agensi PBB itu.

"Sudah tentulah sebaik sahaja disenaraikan sebagai Tapak Warisan Dunia, minat dari seluruh dunia akan meningkat dengan mendadak,” katanya.

Najib mengambil beberapa tempat di Georgetown, Pulau Pinang; Melaka dan Gua Mulu di Sarawak sebagai contoh tapak yang banyak mendapat manfaat daripada pengiktirafan Unesco itu.

Beliau berkata pengiktirafan itu bagaimanapun tidak boleh diperoleh sekelip mata.

"Ada proses yang perlu kita lalui, tetapi mudah-mudahan kita akan berjaya menyenaraikannya (Lembangan Malian Basin sebagai Tapak Warisan Dunia),” katanya.

Musa, ketika berucap sebelum itu, berkata kerajaan negeri akan meneruskan usaha untuk memulihara Lembangan Maliau sebuah destinasi kegemaran pencinta alam.

Ketika lawatan seharinya ke Maliau Basin, Datuk Seri Najib turut melancarkan projek Kestabilan Pengubahan Ekosistem Hutan (SAFE) yang beliau sifatkan sebagai kajian terbesar seumpamanya mengenai ekologi.

Perdana Menteri berkata, projek SAFE berobjektif membantu melindungi ekosistem hutan hujan dan memulihara biodiversiti dalam konteks pengeluaran pertanian.

Beliau menyifatkan pelancaran projek itu di Lembangan Maliau di sini sebagai amat bersejarah kerana projek itu “akan menyediakan asas bagi kajian 10 tahun mengenai impak pengubahsuaian hutan.”

Ini membabitkan akibat pembalakan, penanaman semula kawasan hutan dan pemecahan kawasan hutan ke atas fungsi dan peranan hutan hujan tropika, katanya.

Projek itu adalah usahasama antara Yayasan Sime Darby dan Royal Society of SEARRP, Program Penyelidikan Hutan Hujan Asia Tenggara.

Yayasan itu akan menyuntik RM30 juta ke dalam projek itu, dengan penyelidikan berpusat di Pusat Kajian Lembangan Maliau.

Najib berkata, Lembangan Maliau, dikenali sebagai Sabah’s Lost World yang kaya dengan pelbagai spesies flora dan fauna, merupakan kawasan yang sempurna bagi projek itu.

Beliau berkata penyelidikan itu amat penting bagi mendapatkan pengetahuan mengenai sistem yang perlu diwujudkan untuk melindungi hutan hujan tropika di Malaysia.

"Penyelidikan ini akan menyumbang kepada pemahaman mengenai bagaimana biodiversiti boleh dilindungi dan dikekalkan dalam aktiviti perladangan.

"Ia juga akan menilai bagaimana untuk mengseimbangkan manfaat ekonomi daripada industri kelapa sawit dengan keperluan pemuliharaan alam sekitar dan pembangunan lestari,” katanya.

Pasukan penyelidikan diketuai Dr Rob Ewers dari Imperial College of the United Kingdom dan Dr Glen Reynolds dari Royal Society of SEARRP, dan akan termasuk saintis dari Universiti Oxford, Universiti Cambridge, Universiti Stanford, Universiti Zurich dan Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Hidup Maliau Basin..!!!