WWF Malaysia hands over patrolling, enforcement tools to Wildlife Dept

KINABATANGAN: WWF Malaysia on Monday handed over patrolling and enforcement equipment to the state Wildlife Department for patrolling and enforcement work against encroachment and illegal activities within the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary’s (LKWS) protected area covering an area of 26,000 hectares.

The equipment comprised two fibreglass boats, four sets of VHF Radio Communication Centre, computers and GPS units.

The handing over ceremony was held at the wildlife office in Sukau and witnessed by Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

WWF Malaysia has contributed more than RM500,000 including RM100,000 on equipment to the department to step up and enhance conservation work at the Lower Kinabatangan.

The WWF enforcement team has been working closely with wildlife officers over the past three years by patrolling together to protect the sanctuary from people who regularly ventured into these areas to extract logs, clear land for illegal planting activities as well as hunting.

Members of the WWF enforcement team are honorary wildlife wardens who are empowered to arrest and confiscate materials from those who encroached or hunted within the protected areas. “There has been tremendous success thus far.

There is a very visible presence of enforcement in the LKWS area, the level of which was previously not seen,” WWF’s Kinabatangan Corridor of Life (K-CoL) team leader Julia Majail said.

WWF aimed to address over-logging and the degradation of the riverine eco-system that has resulted in habitat fragmentation, human-wildlife conflict, excess sedimentation and flooding, through its K-CoL project.

Under the project, WWF has engaged stakeholders and partners from a variety of important groups, government agencies, oil palm companies as well as tourism operators and local communities.

Sustainable solutions that are beneficial to the environment, people as well as their business are being generated.

One product initiated since K-CoL’s establishment in 2008 is the Kinabatangan-Corridor of Life Tourism Operator Association (KiTA).

Earlier, Masidi launched a KiTA event at the Kampung Bilit community hall in Sukau. WWF Malaysia together with a group of tourism operators in Kinabatangan initiated the formation KiTA as part of efforts to balance eco-tourism and conservation activities at the fragile environment surrounding the Kinabatangan Corridor.

KiTA, comprising tour operators providing eco-tourism services in and around the Lower Kinabatangan area, was established with the aim to promote and implement a globally recognized sustainable tourism industry that is beneficial to the people, planet and at the same time profitable.