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.

839,477 hectares of Sabah Forests under certification and well-managed

This is the 120 million years old tropical rain forest in Sabah, The Danum Valley

Sabah Chief Minister recently on 28th June 2011 delivered a speech at the 6th Forest Stewardship Council, FSC General Assembly Gala Dinner in Kota Kinbalau.

This is the speech read by Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan. According to the speech, Sabah is well on track towards sustainable forest management. Sabah has approximately 1 million hectares of tropical forests.


2. Sabah is indeed honoured to be chosen as the host for the 6th Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) General Assembly, competing with some of the best in this region. This is a golden opportunity for us here in Sabah to experience and update ourselves on the way the FSC works. It is also the perfect platform for us to share with distinguished members of the FSC and delegates at this Assembly on what we have achieved here in Sabah, particularly in terms of forest management and our efforts in promoting forest certification in the state.


03. Our association with the FSC dates back to over a decade ago following the certification of Deramakot Forest Reserve in July 1997. I am proud to share with you that Deramakot is the first lowland mixed-dipterocarp tropical forest in the world to be certified under the FSC certification scheme. We are very pleased to share with you that 14 years on, this gold standard certification is still in place, making Deramakot the longest certified tropical rainforest in the world.


04. This is indeed a success story for us here in Sabah. It is a fact that our experience with Deramakot now serves as an important catalyst in spreading Sustainable Forest Management practices, which we adopted in 1997, to the state’s 3.6 million hectares of forest reserves. In addition, although maintaining certification is a challenging task as our work at Deramakot has shown, we are committed in moving forward the need to certify other forest reserves in Sabah.


05. Following the implementation of Sustainable Forest Management practices, the way Sabah manages its forests has improved remarkably, particularly in terms of phasing out short term logging licences which did not adhere to sustainability principles. Through new practices, long term forest management plans were designed, reduced impact logging was introduced, and we started protecting High Conservation Value Forests home to diverse wildlife and plants, and which also serve as watersheds. By committing to sustainable ways of logging, Sabah has also been able to safeguard the interests of local communities whose lives depend on the forest.


06. Switching from conventional ways of logging to sustainably harvesting timber was perhaps one of the most difficult decisions that the State Government had to make when the idea was first brought up. We were hugely dependent on timber for revenue, and opting for Sustainable Forest Management meant making sacrifices such as losing short term monetary gains, and doing away with old ways of logging. Time and resources were instead allocated to finding the best ways to harvest timber without negatively impacting the environment and communities. The most practical and pragmatic ways of doing things are continuously addressed as we learn newer things from our experience in sustainably managing forests in Sabah.


07. Despite uncertainties when we embarked on the bold decision to push for a sustainably harvested forest, I am glad that Sabah has passed the litmus test and has proven the naysayers wrong. Sustainable Forest Management is now accepted and the goal of the Sabah Forestry Department to attain full certification for forest reserves by 2014, is starting to bear fruit.


08. To date, we have eight hundred thirty nine thousand four hundred and seventy seven (839,477) hectares of our forest areas under some form of certification. Of this, some three hundred seventy three thousand six hundred and twenty (373,620) hectares are certified as well-managed forests under schemes accredited to the FSC. This includes the recently certified fifty thousand and seventy (50,070) hectare Tangkulap Forest Reserve (FMU17A), and the Ulu Segama and Malua forest reserves covering a total of two hundred forty one thousand and ninety eight (241,098) hectares. The latter is one of our most meaningful initiatives as it will help conserve a habitat for Orang Utans. I would like to congratulate the Sabah Forestry Department Director Datuk Sam Mannan and his team for a job well done.

09. The journey towards placing these areas under certification has not been easy. I must take this opportunity to thank WWF’s Malaysia Forest Trade Network and partners for your support. I was also made to understand that support has been extended to cover another 260 thousand hectares of production forest reserves within the Yayasan Sabah concession, which is also part of the UNDP-GEF project on “Biodiversity Conservation in Multiple-Use Forest Landscape in Sabah.”