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17th July, 2008
KOTA KINABALU: Orang utan (OU) literally translating into English as “People of the Forest”, are “umbrella” species for the conservation of the tropical forests of Sabah.
Recently, Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Nayan Ambu explained that, “because OU requires large areas of good quality habitat…ensuring their conservation in the wild would ultimately mean that the myriad of other species that share the ecosystem – including Proboscis Monkeys, Bornean Elephants, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Malayan Sunbear to name but a few – will also be protected.”
The recent news articles that starkly revealed that the majority of the isolated OU in the Kinabatangan area will go extinct in less than 50 years if nothing is done is indeed true.
For this very reason, the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) a state-mandated tax-exempt NGO established in 2006, and promoted by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Environment was incorporated under the Trustee’s Ordinance 1951 to deal with the pressing needs to preserve the habitat and the migration route of Borneo’s most endangered wildlife along the Kinabatangan and the Segama Rivers.
This migration route referred to as BCT Green Corridor is part and parcel of BCT’s mission. As a first token step, BCT has purchased a 5-acre land in the Kinabatangan area to connect this corridor, supported by funds from Japanese individuals.
The Sabah Wildlife Department is the founding member with an ex-officio position as Trustee/Secretary of BCT.
BCT is a private vehicle of the Sabah Wildlife Department, and works closely with other conservation partners: Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Parks, Agriculture Department, Sabah, Veterinary Services & Animal Husbandry, Environment Protection Department, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Bornean Biodiversity & Ecosystem Conservation (BBEC), HUTAN, Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Bursa Malaysia, all of which is to help enhance conservation, biodiversity and sustainability. At the same time, it also raise awareness to deal with the continuing challenges concerning our conservation efforts for the benefits of wildlife and the environment, including restoring Malaysia’s image in the oil palm industry.
In recent years, Sabah Oil Palm Plantation companies have been accused of being insensitive to the existence and the well-being of the highly endangered large mammals of Borneo, such as the OU, Sumatran Rhino, Bornean Elephant and Probocis Monkey.
As a result of this negative portrayal of the industry, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), responsible for the national marketing and promotion of oil palm products worldwide, has taken a serious interest and affirmative action to environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation and wildlife preservation. Towards this end and on behalf of the Malaysian palm oil industries, it had established the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund (MPOWCF).
BCT has been commissioned by MPOC to undertake a survey of the OU population in Sabah including those residing within oil palm plantations. BCT’s Chief Executive Officer, Cyril Pinso explained on the need to have a survey. “Once we understand a specie conservation (or threat) status, then we know how to move forward. Our joint studies will help identify which species are threatened, where they occur, and what threatens their survival. With that knowledge, we find ways to act that can begin to reverse the population decline.”
Pinso informed that the survey is in collaboration with the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project (KOCP), a conservation project operated by the private NGO called HUTAN, which is based in Kinabatangan Sabah, and has been working towards the conservation of the OU in Sabah since 1998.
Pinso said that through this survey, BCT is prompted to report some initial new findings. “The new findings report that the OU are surviving in pockets of forest within the Oil Palm Plantations, and further it is possible for the OU to travel and live within the Oil Palm plantation. This initial finding is part of the effort to realize our goal towards creating a contiguous forest within the landscape and thus will benefit a wider range for wildlife habitat and movement.”
In addition, the recent signing of a Tripartite Agreement between BCT, MPOC and Bursa Malaysia at the recently concluded International Palm Oil Sustainable Conference (IPOSC) at Kota Kinabalu in April 2008 is “timely and applauded”.
Further conservation measures undertaken through this networking would be to ensure that Oil Palm Plantations are doing their part in ensuring that the building up of good wildlife corridor in the Kinabatangan/Segama areas, planting fruit trees as food sources for wildlife, re-stocking the river reserves with trees species helps increase biodiversity and food sources for these animals.
Pinso further elaborated that “Such voluntary and self-imposed policies represent a matured approach to resolving the negative perception of the oil palm industry, and how such conservation measures be further improved and appreciated to support endangered wildlife species. This will go down well with the global palm oil market and enhances positively Malaysia’s Oil Palm products world wide, and in part fulfill its corporate social responsibility (CSR) and governance profiling them further as green investments.”
This affirmative step forward is a step in the right direction to save these “pockets” of OU, and lends support to the Proposed Biodiversity and Restoration of River Reserves as well as lands above 20% slope of an oil palm plantation by planting native and fruit trees.
“This should be made a national policy directive, and requires the highest decision makers including the Federal and State agencies, selected companies, the likes of Sime Darby, IOI, KLK, FELDA, etc., coordinated by MPOC, and ably assisted by BCT at the Sabah level,” he said.
Finally, a deliberate and well funded Community Outreach Program (COP), which is to instill upon the various stakeholders: shareholders, directors, management, staff (both local and foreign workers) and the public to accept and embrace the co-existence of OU as very much a part and parcel of an oil palm plantation ecosystem.
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