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| Galante and Emban at the photographic exhibition in Kota Kinabalu |
Sabah's forest management practices are getting
international acknowledgement with a Scottish university researcher
saying that it is making a difference in efforts to minimize climate
change.
Michael V. Galante, a PhD student of Edinburgh University said his thesis research showed that Sabah was “leading the chart” in sustainable forests management. He found that the Sabah government was doing great in its forests management, pro-active policy management and was a recommended place if people want to have a clean and great environment to work in. His research was on climate change mitigation through reduced-impact logging and he has been in Sabah for over 10 years. Galante said the impact of logging in the state had taken a charge on the environment with an increase in carbon monoxide. Fortunately, the environment was restored to a balance through the strict state government and the forestry department policies. The environment is protected by introducing the forest certification, guidelines on reduced-impact logging and having sustainable forest management. Meanwhile, Datuk Michael Emban, permanent secretary of Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry said about 60% of land in Sabah was protected. This showed how sincere the state government was in forest and environment conservation, he added.
Michael V. Galante, a PhD student of Edinburgh University said his thesis research showed that Sabah was “leading the chart” in sustainable forests management. He found that the Sabah government was doing great in its forests management, pro-active policy management and was a recommended place if people want to have a clean and great environment to work in. His research was on climate change mitigation through reduced-impact logging and he has been in Sabah for over 10 years. Galante said the impact of logging in the state had taken a charge on the environment with an increase in carbon monoxide. Fortunately, the environment was restored to a balance through the strict state government and the forestry department policies. The environment is protected by introducing the forest certification, guidelines on reduced-impact logging and having sustainable forest management. Meanwhile, Datuk Michael Emban, permanent secretary of Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry said about 60% of land in Sabah was protected. This showed how sincere the state government was in forest and environment conservation, he added.
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Kumpulan Yayasan Sabah (KYS) akan melaksanakan Pelan Pengurusan Strategik Lembangan Maliau kedua bagi tempoh 2013-2022 mulai tahun depan.
Pengarahnya, Tan Sri Datu Khalil Datu Jamalul berkata, ia merupakan kesinambungan kepada pelan pengurusan pertama yang akan berakhir tahun ini sejak mula dilaksanakan pada 2003.
Pelan selama 10 tahun itu turut mendapat kerjasama daripada NEPCon iaitu sebuah organisasi bukan berasaskan keuntungan dari Denmark yang akan membantu dalam aspek pemuliharaan dan pemeliharaan.
Datu Khalil berkata, pencapaian utama dalam pelaksanaan Pelan Pengurusan Strategik Lembangan Maliau 2003-2012 adalah termasuk pengiktirafan Imbak Kanyon di utara Lembangan Maliau dengan keluasan 300 kilometer persegi sebagai Hutan Simpan Kelas Satu kedua yang dilindungi sepenuhnya.
Seluas 588.5 kilometer persegi, Lembangan Maliau diwartakan sebagai kawasan konservasi pada 1981 dan dalam sidang Dewan Undangan Negeri 1997, Kabinet negeri bersetuju menjadikannya Hutan Simpan Kelas Satu yang pertama di Sabah.
Datu Khalil berkata, bagi menjayakan Pelan Pengurusan Strategik Lembangan Maliau, pihaknya turut menerima dana berjumlah RM1.2 juta daripada Yayasan Amal Aage Jensen V. dari Denmark.
The Heart of Borneo (HoB) atau Jantung Borneo dalam terjemahan yang dibuat secara literal, terletak dari utara di timur Malaysia di negeri Sabah hingga ke barat-daya Borneo, kira-kira 220 kilometer persegi (85 batu persegi) yang membentuk sepertiga daripada pulau ketiga besar dunia ini.
The Heart of Borneo (HoB) runs from the north of the east Malaysian state of Sabah down to the south-west of Borneo, some 220 sq kms (85 sq miles) that form about a third of the world’s third largest island. Here are South-East Asia’s last swathes of virgin jungle. Shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, here is where the superlatives start. It has the tallest rainforests in the world and the largest of many things in the wild; the most endangered plant life and animals such as the orang-utans, sun bears, pygmy elephants and Sumatran rhinoceros. And it has the most fragmented forests. Keeping them for all eternity costs lots of money. The daunting task for the three countries is finding the cash.
At a forum on the HoB in Kota Kinabalu on October 26 and 27, Sabah told its gritty story of conserving rainforests that occupy slightly more than half its size: almost 4m hectares that form all the northern part of the Heart. It has done all it can in balancing sustainable forestry and conservation at great sacrifice. Forest revenue, once the leader, has fallen sharply over the last 20 years. From a high of slightly more than 2 billion ringgit ($588m) in 1988, it dropped more than four folds to 446.5m ringgit last year. It is now in 4th place behind tourism, palm oil and petroleum. Tourism gave the state 4 billion ringgit last year.
The Deramakot forest reserve in the Heart of Sabah is the world’s first certified South-East Asian tropical forest of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). But it has been a long and arduous process for Deramakot in sustainable forest management (SFM). After 20 years of forest rehabilitation and low-impact logging to produce small volume of high quality and high priced timber products, it is expected to turn in its first meagre profit of 2.8m ringgit this year. The SFM cost to Deramakot which covers 55,083 hectares is a staggering 91.6m ringgit. Under this model, 4,000 hectares are conserved while the rest are replanted with tropical timber trees and logged. Sabah aims to have all commercial forests certified by FSC by 2014.
In August, Chief Minister Musa Aman walked the talk by putting aside 22,000 hectares, about the size of Penang island, of primary forests for protection in the Heart. This has raised the forest protection figure to 1.2m hectares, leaving 2.7m hectares of other forests for commercial use – logging and agriculture. And this is where the heartaches begin.
The Deramakot experiment is bad business, but good for conservation. “Can society wait 20 years all the time to see a return on investment?” Sam Mannan, the director of Sabah forestry department, asks. “Forest management suffers because it is inherently long term and it spans generations. You may be lucky to see the fruit of your labour.”
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