Embedded-type tracking device for orangutans in Sabah

A new tracking device that can be embedded into the orangutan is revolutionising the way the animals are tracked and will soon help researchers understand how to help the primates survive in the jungles of Sabah.

The Tabin Orangutan Project (TOP), which is co-managed by Orangutan Appeal UK, a United Kingdom-based non-governmental organisation, and the Sabah Wildlife Department, is the first in the world to use the embedded-type tracking device on the orangutan.

Previous attempts to track orangutan with collars and other tracking devices were not successful because the animals were adept at removing them.

File photo dated Oct 24, 2009 shows an orangutan making its way across a rope at the Sepilok Orangutan Reserve near Sandakan. Previous attempts to track orangutan with collars and other tracking devices were not successful because the animals removed them. AP

Each device cost RM1,454 and has enough power in its battery to last a few years. Data had been collected using the devices since 2010, said primatologist James Robins, who heads TOP. Robins is currently tracking eight orangutan and half of them are females.

“One of our orangutan just gave birth a few weeks ago and we are now tracking both mother and child. Both are doing well.”

He said there was a misconception that conservation work was over the moment captured or displaced orangutan were rehabilitated and released into the wild.

“Nobody knows what happens to them after that because it is hard to follow them. This is the purpose of this study,” he said.

The data collected will be used to publish a series of papers, which would discuss everything from their feeding to ranging behaviours.

This will then serve as a blueprint for forestry and wildlife departments in countries with orangutan populations to rehabilitate the primates. Robins said the team tracked the released orangutan every day as they roamed the jungle.

“Currently, all eight of our orangutan have been implanted with the tracking device. We follow them from 5.30am, when they leave their nest, until they make a new nest for the night around 6.30pm, before we return to camp.”

He said the orangutan had lost much of their habitat to deforestation. The food quality in Tabin, which is a secondary forest, was also less nutritious.

“It’s all about their diet. Food like ginger and rattan do not give enough energy since these animals spend the entire day foraging.”

It was estimated that there were now about 1,400 orangutan in Tabin and 11,000 in the whole of Sabah. Robins said Sabah had a stable environment for the orangutan compared with other countries.

“If I were an orangutan, I would want to be in Sabah.”

Most of the deforestation in Sabah had happened in the past, he added.

Before man began encroaching on the forests, Robins said there could have been hundreds of thousands of orangutan in Borneo.

He said one way to ensure that orangutan populations grew was to join the pockets of forest in Sabah into a central forest spine. This would allow the orangutan to roam throughout the state and breed, allowing better genetic diversity.

“It will be the biggest factor in increasing population growth.”

Four-wheel-drive vehicle manufacturer Land Rover, which is part of the Sime Darby Group, had played a big role in helping Robins.

They used their own “Approved Permit” to import a Land Rover Defender donated by Orangutan Appeal UK for TOP to use in Sabah.

Land Rover also donated RM16,500 to TOP for its research.

Land Rover managing director Syed Mudzhar Syed Ali said the sponsorship was given to assist in logistics and tracking exercises involving the orangutan.

Speaking to journalists in Tabin last week, he said the company was committed to helping ensure the survival of the orangutan.

“Land Rover is returning to the Tabin reserve after our first visit last year, when our donation was used for the construction of an extension to the research base.

“Our return this time around is further testament of Land Rover’s commitment and concern for wildlife conservation in this country. This initiative also allows us to raise the level of awareness on this protected species and the importance of creating an environment that enables their continued existence for centuries to come.”

The orangutan is one of nine animals under the Sime Darby Group conservation efforts carried out through its foundation, Yayasan Sime Darby. Syed Mudzhar said last year, the company brought in its customers from Sabah to visit Tabin.

“In the future, we are looking at bringing in our customers from across the country to visit Tabin. We are hoping that our high profile customers will help spread the message of orangutan conservation.”

Source: Borneo Bulletin

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Sufficient foods for elephants in Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve

Bornean elephant (example)

A cooperative study which carried out by the Sabah Wildlife Department and a non-governmental organisation at various locations in the state has found a forest reserve in eastern Sabah that could be a suitable place to conserve the Bornean elephants.

The conservation and research programme head of the Borneo Conservation Trust, Raymond Alfred said the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve was found to have enough food sources for the animals. Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve is adjacent to Deramakot Forest Reserve to the west and Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary to the east. According to him, this was due to the positive result from sustainable forest management implemented by the government in the area over the past years. The food sources are estimated sufficient for 290 to 310 elephants at Segaliud Lokan. Alfred added that this could also benefit the orang utans, with the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve recording the highest density of the primates in Sabah. Meanwhile, Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu praised the management of KTS Plantations for taking the serious initiative in wildlife monitoring programme, especially the Bornean Elephant and Orang-utan in Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve. He said sustainable forest management through restoration efforts as well as reduced impact logging measures would go a long way towards the conservation measures of these creatures.

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Rehabilitation programme rehabilitated 35 orang utan in Malaysia since 1995

Orang utan

Thirty-five orang utans have been rehabilitated at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort's Nature Reserve conservation centre of Malaysia since its inception in 1995.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Dr Laurentius Ambu said the rehabilitation programme was complementary efforts conducted by the department's Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sandakan. These orang utans spend their first two parts of the rehabilitation programme at the resort's nature reserve before being sent back to Sepilok for the their last part of  programme. A veterinarian on 24-hour call is available at the Sepilok centre because the rehabilitation programme is being strictly supervised. Medical checks were also done on all the orang utans in Rasa Ria, he added. The programme which undertaken at the resort's nature reserve is although much smaller in scale compared to Sepilok, has given opportunity for the public and schoolchildren to experience first-hand the rehabilitation process. Representatives from NGOs who have attended the recent conservation workshop were als pleased with the conservation efforts.

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Orang utan population up by 20% in Sabah’s protected forests

KOTA KINABALU: Orang utan population within totally protected areas has increased by over 20 percent in Sabah's lower Kinabatangan since the first census was done seven years ago.

The number of orang utans orang-utans living within totally protected areas (TPA) increased from 38 percent to 60 percent, an orang utan conservationist Dr. Marc Ancrenaz said.

Dr Ancrenaz, who is co-director of the HUTAN Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme (HUTAN-KOCP), said the increasing population reflected a commitment by all, especially the state government, to protect more forest areas.

However, he did not disclose the number of orang utans within the totally protected forest areas.

The Sabah Forestry Department had recently increased the areas deemed totally protected forest reserves to help further in the conservation of orang utans and other species such as the Borneo pygmy elephant, Sunda clouded leopard, Sunbear, and hornbills and others.

“The recent areas regazetted as Class I (totally protected forest reserve) are lowland forests which are favoured for agriculture development. But the state government has shown that they value the environmental security in the long term by making them TPAs instead of going for short term profits,” Dr Ancrenaz, a wildlife veterinarian who has been working on wildlife issues in Sabah since 1998.

However, the biggest issue for orang-utan conservation in Sabah remains the problem of isolation and fragmentation of protected forests, primotologist Dr. Isabelle Lackman, who is a co-director HUTAN KOCP said in a statement.

“While the Kinabatangan has been protected by the Sabah Wildlife Department since gazetting in 2005, the Sanctuary is very broken up with some protected forests being totally isolated and this is not healthy for the long term survival of orang utan in the area,” Lackman explained.

“Our studies have shown that we need to reconnect patches of forest to ensure that we have a viable orang utan population for the future and this can be achieved by reconnecting these forest either by having patches of forest that orang utans can travel through or a contiguous corridor of forest,” Lackman added.

She felt that all planned and future conversion of even small forest patches needs to be stopped to ensure the viability of the long-term survival of the orang utan population in the lower Kinabatangan. 

Source: The Star

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Experts: Orang Utan decline began 2,000 years ago

KOTA KINABALU: The decline in Borneo’s orang utan population is not just due to recent deforestation but a phenomenon that could have started over 2,000 years ago, a research found.

A scientific paper published in the PLOS ONE journal by a team of experts found that the Borneo orang utan began experiencing a major demographic decline between 200 and 2,000 years ago based on samples collected in six different sites in Sabah and Kalimantan.

This was the main conclusion by the team, which comprised scientists from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Cincia (IGC) in Portugal, the Anthropological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, the CNRS in France, Cardiff University in Britain and the Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah.

“The recent loss of habitat and its dramatic fragmentation have affected the patterns of genetic variability and differentiation among the remaining populations of orang utan and increased the extinction risk of the most isolated ones,” said Dr Reeta Sharma, who is from IGC, the lead author of the paper.

“We used orang utan samples collected in six different study sites in Sabah (Kinabatangan and Danum Valley) and Kalimantan, and genetic markers to identify signals of population decline,” said Dr Sharma.

Dr Benoit Goossens, who is Danau Girang director and a co-author, said the dating of the decline varied across sites but was always within the 200 and 2,000-year period.

“This suggests that in some sites at least, orang utan populations were affected by demographic events (like climate change and arrival of modern humans) that started much before the recent human impact on environment in Borneo,” he added.

The recent finding complemented those published in 2006 on the Kinabatangan population and underscored the need to expand conservation measures suggested under the Orang Utan Action Plan.

This included the protection of private lands to connect the existing protected forest lots, the establishment of corridors, wildlife monitoring and law enforcement, added Dr Goossens.

Source: The Star

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Most of Bornean orang-utans live outside protected areas

KOTA KINABALU: A recent study published in the scientific journal PLoS One by researchers working in Malaysia and Indonesia shows that about 80 per cent of the Bornean orang-utans live outside protected areas.

Using data collected over 21 years by 24 different teams from Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan the paper provides an overview of the orang-utan situation for Borneo as a whole.

“This analysis shows that the vast majority of orang-utan populations are found outside of the network of protected forests in Borneo,” said Dr  Serge Wich, the lead author of this article entitled “Understanding the Impacts of Land-Use Policies on a Threatened Species: Is There a Future for the Bornean Orang-utan?”

“Protected forests remain essential for conserving orang-utan in Borneo but most of these protected forests are found in highlands and in mountains and not in the lowland forests that are the favourite habitat of the orang-utans. The lowlands are also the prime areas selected for timber extraction and later further developed for agriculture such as oil palm,” stated Wich.

“In Sabah, the recent gazettement under Class I Virgin Jungle Forest Reserves of the lowland forests of Segama by the Sabah Forestry Department means that more than 60 per cent of the orang-utan population is now protected in Sabah. This is a huge improvement for orang-utan conservation in the State compared to the early 2000’s when only 30 per cent of the orang-utans in Sabah were living in protected forests,” said Dr Marc Ancrenaz, co-director of HUTAN and one of the leading authors of the paper.

With the biggest percentage of orang-utans being found in timber concession areas, the researchers emphasise the importance of good management in such concessions.

“These results also show that good logging practices in commercial forests exploited for timber is key for orang-utan survival. The fact that in Sabah, the Forestry Department has declared that all timber concession areas should be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) by the end of 2014 is good news for orang-utans,¡± added Ancrenaz.  Since November 2011, Sabah has five of Malaysia’s six timber concession areas under FSC certification, which includes reduced-impact logging and enforces a zero killing policy.

According to Ancrenaz, FSC certified forest provides economic benefit to land owners while ensuring the survival of wildlife such as the orang-utan.

Meanwhile for Borneo as a whole, the expansion of industrial tree plantations, oil palm plantations and other types of forest conversion into remaining orang-utan habitat will lead to the extinction of thousands of orang-utans throughout populations areas within the island. Such expansion according to the authors of this study should be halted as it infringes laws on species protection.

At the closing ceremony of the recent Sabah Orang-utan Conservation Dialogue held in Kota Kinabalu, Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun proposed a moratorium for oil palm expansion within the lower Kinabatangan in order to save the orang-utan population there from extinction.

A similar proposal was done at the end of the Heart of Borneo conference to stop any new agricultural development within the boundaries of Heart of Borneo. The future lies on increased yield productivity, and not on further agriculture expansion.

Source: Borneo Post

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Wildlife Conservation In Managed Forests – International Cooperation

On Monday, 7th February 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU) was  signed between  the State Government of Sabah (Malaysia), represented by the Sabah Forestry Department (SFD) and the Leibniz  Institute  for  Zoo  and Wildlife Research  (IZW)  of Germany.  This MoU will  pave  the  road  to continue  an  already  successful  collaboration  of  the  IZW,  an  internationally  renowned  wildlife research  institute, with  the  SFD by  assisting  the  SFD  in  their efforts  to monitor  the biodiversity  in Forest Management Units (FMUs) in Sabah.

Wildlife  conservation beyond borders of parks or other  fully protected  areas  is paramount  for  the effective and comprehensive conservation of biodiversity  in  the  landscapes of Sabah. Forests are a key habitat  in Sabah, since more than half of Sabah’s area  is covered by  them. As most  forests are commercially  used  for  the  production  of  timber,  a  sustainable management  of  these  forests  is  of great  importance  to ensure  the  long-term conservation of  some of  the most  threatened species  in Sabah, such as the SundaClouded Leopard.

During the signing, Datuk Sam Mannan, Director of the SFD, pointed out that the collaboration with the  IZW has proven  to be  impressively  successful during  the  last years and  that he  is very pleased that this collaboration will now be continued and expanded in the near future. The results obtained during previous  studies by  the  IZW  in FMUs  included pioneering  findings  such as  the  first  film of a SundaClouded Leopard released in spring 2010, or the rediscovery in Sabah of the Hairy-Nosed Otter – previously thought extinct – after a gap of more than 100 years.

“The research by the IZW assisted us to show how diverse some of our FMUs are” mentioned Datuk Sam Mannan during the signing of the MoU. “We know that there are orang-utans or elephants living in  our  forests  but  our  knowledge  about  other,  highly  threatened  wildlife  species  such  as  the endangered Otter Civet was very limited. With their research the IZW showed us that these species occur  in  our  forests  and  how  to  find  them.”  Previous  studies  of  the  IZW  mainly  focussed  on Deramakot Forest Reserve and its neighbouring FMUs; the new MoU paves the way to expand these efforts to other FMUs in the coming years.

Heribert  Hofer,  Director  of  the  IZW,  added  “the  biological  richness  of  Sabah’s  forests  is  a  great treasure  and  a  heritage  of  worldwide  importance.  It  is  therefore  an  important  responsibility  to manage  these  forests  in  a  sustainable  way.  Therefore,  up-to-date  scientific  research  and  wildlife surveys are important to understand the needs of threatened species. Knowing and appreciating the diversity of these forests will help to protect their richness for the benefit of all.”

Earlier  in  November  2010,  the  IZW  signed  anMoU  with  the  Sabah  Wildlife  Department  (SWD), agreeing  on  close  collaboration  on  research  and  conservation  of  Sabah’s wildlife,  particularly  the highly endangered Sabah Rhino. The MoU with the SFD now expands the research efforts of the IZW to FMUs. “Very little is known about the ecology of wildlife species in Sabah’s forests and how they respond to timber extraction. Such research is of a very high practical value because the appropriate management and protection of wildlife species requires such knowledge” Heribert Hofer added.

By  2014  the  SFD  aims  to  have  all  FMUs  in  Sabah  certified  for  Sustainable  Forest Management. Wildlife monitoring and the conservation of the forest’s biodiversity is one of the main components of  sustainability and  therefore  the  SFD  is optimistic  that  this  collaboration with  the  IZW will  assist their efforts to reach this goal. 

Source: Sabah Forestry Department

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Orangutan Conservation gets a Boost

KOTA KINABALU: Orangutan conservation and research is given a boost with the setting up of the Sabah Orangutan Conservation Alliance (SOCA).

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the SOCA would coordinate orangutan conservation and research efforts in Sabah, implement and monitor the Orangutan Action Plan, advise the government on orangutan conservation issues, share information on orangutans and promote orangutan conservation in Sabah by raising awareness nationally and globally.

“We will prepare a cabinet paper on the setting up of SOCA and we will bring it to the utmost attention of the State Cabinet. We hope that SOCA can be rapidly established,” he said at an orangutan conservation dialogue at Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort in Tuaran.    More than 80 participants were invited to discuss the implementation of the strategies and objectives highlighted in the Orangutan Action Plan 2012-2016 launched last January and set up the SOCA.

The Sabah Wildlife Department organised the dialogue.

“We recognised that the time for conversation was over, that it was time for conservation,” said Ambu.

“It is time for the oil palm industry to acknowledge that there are problems and take the necessary measures to address the issues of forest fragmentation and clearings of riparian forests in Sabah, as well as orangutan killings currently happening in palm oil estates in Kalimantan,” stressed Ambu.

He pointed out the problems in the Kinabatangan were also addressed.

“We have identified approaches to maintain viable wildlife populations in the Kinabatangan. Orangutans are also found outside protected forests in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain. Our recent analysis of satellite images have shown that 25,000 ha of such forests still remain.

“If we want to secure the orangutan population in Kinabatangan we cannot afford to lose another hectare of forest. We asked the government to call for a moratorium on forest conversion in the Kinabatangan and to recreate forest connection in areas where riparian forests have been converted,” added Ambu.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun gave his support for rehabilitation and protection of riparian reserves in his speech at the closing ceremony.

“River reserves are strictly not to be used for any plantation development. Maybe many plantation owners did not know that riparian reserves are protected and must remain under natural forest. These reserves must be rehabilitated and if
they had been encroached on, actions will be taken,” stressed Masidi.

Also addressing a zero tolerance of wildlife killings in oil palm plantations, Masidi said: “I would like to call the plantation owners to sign an agreement adopting a zero tolerance of wildlife (and especially orangutans) killings in their respective estates.

Orangutans are totally protected in Sabah and anyone killing one must be prosecuted.”

Source : Borneo Post

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Zero Tolerance No Kill Policy

Sabah Wildlife Department Director Laurentius regrets that a forecast of possibly up to 300 orangutan deaths due to forest fragmentation had been twisted by certain western NGOs to claim that such a number were deliberately killed, adding that data from the study in Ulu Kinabatangan done 3 years ago was not read correctly and certainly blown out of proportion by certain quarters. He said at the Forum on the Findings of Imbak Canyon 2012 Wildlife Survey here. He further said that the land use issue was being taken as an excuse that the orangutan killings in Sabah were because of the oil palm plantation activities. He said the issue of " zero tolerance no kill policy " is already part of the law in the State especially when it comes to near extinction species. Regarding the land use issue, he said 30% of the land in Sabah is dedicated to agricultural purposes where the rest would be used for other purposes such as forest reserve, crop plantation, township and others; only 19% of the landmass in Sabah being used for oil palm plantation.

Source: Daily Express

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Protect the Orang utan

 Orang utan is classified as endangered animal as its numbers are degrading due to their habitat being destroyed, fragmented and poaching. According to a wildlife study, orang utans need large swaths of forests for them to survive.

The findings by Malaysian, British and Swiss researchers stating that high-quality natural forests are most preferable by the orang utans. To allow the orang utan to disperse naturally, a sufficient network of high-quality natural forest and dispersal corridors must be restored across Borneo and Sumatra.

Our unique wildlife and biodiversity are our natural heritage, and we owe it to ourselves not to deny our future generations these privileges and environmental treasures that we now enjoy. Therefore, Sabah is set to intensify its green effort and bring more value to its conservation efforts in the state.

Sabah had always been proactive in its task to monitor wildlife and to enforce laws against wildlife poachers and killers. For instance, the Ulu Segama - Malua project which covering some 240,000ha of production forest reserves is designated for natural forest management and orang utan conservation.

The Federal Government is also ready to help Sabah in its conservation of orang utan by financially assisting the state to acquire land between areas planted with oil palm. According to the Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, the one of the way to help this conservation is by buying parcels of land, largely owned by oil palm plantations, to be used as forest corridors.

Meanwhile, the 35 year State Species Action Plans for the orang utan, elephant and rhinoceros has been launched in Sabah as a platform for better protecton of the 3 flagship species. State government and the plantation industry will collaborate in implementing these Species Action Plans. The plans are part of the nation's continued commitment towards conservation and continuation of its unique flora and fauna.

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Stop the slaughter, save orang utans in Borneo

PETALING JAYA - Malaysian authorities have been urged to help stop the slaughter of orang utans in Borneo.

Environmental groups, who made the call in the wake of reports and photographs of orang utans being shot dead by plantation companies, urged Malaysia to work with Indonesian authorities to stop the killing.

According to a report in Britain's Daily Mail, oil palm plantation managements have resorted to shooting orang utans as part of "pest control" exercises to protect their crops.

This report followed earlier allegations that companies had offered bounties for the heads of orang utans in Borneo after blaming the animals for destroying their young palm trees.

In a phone interview with theSun, Chris Shepherd, the Southeast Asia deputy director of Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said investigations should be carried out and the perpetrators brought to book.

The situation with species like orang utans is becoming more critical and need urgent attention, he said adding that although the quality of law enforcement in this area has improved, illegal killing of wildlife and illegal wildlife trade still go largely unpunished.

"The list of threatened species is getting longer, not shorter," said Shepherd.

"The killing of the orang utans by Malaysian oil palm companies damages the image of the country abroad and needs to be addressed by the Malaysian authorities." said Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Association president N. Surendran.

He urged the government to exercise its power to terminate the licences of plantation companies found to have killed orang utans.

Besides being endangered through such action by planters, orang utan face rapid depletion of their numbers due to rampant land clearing in areas of their natural habitat.

Non-governmental organisation Nature Alert said 300 orang utans have been killed over the last eight years due to expansion efforts by the palm oil industry.

Conservationists say the animals have had to encroach on the plantations because their own habitats have been destroyed.

The action of companies, including Malaysian enterprises, in the alleged "extermination" and burning of forests for the purpose of land clearing for plantations in Kalimantan, across the borders of Sabah and Sarawak have also been highlighted by NGOs.

Although the concern on the Malaysian side of Borneo is more towards the destruction of the animal's habitat, the issue took an intensely grim turn when gruesome photographs of orang utan killings in Kalimantan emerged.

In February, four men including the Malaysian manager of an oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan went on trial for killing orang utans and other endangered primates.

All four were reportedly arrested in November after pictures of them with the slaughtered primates, were circulated by local villagers.

The manager, Phuah Chuan Hun, and his employee Widiantoro allegedly paid two men one million rupiah (RM330) for each orang utan killed and 200,000 rupiah (RM66) for monkeys, AFP had reported.

Malaysian Animal Welfare Society president Shenaaz Khan praised the action taken by the Indonesian authorities which put the four employees of the plantation – including its Malaysian manager – on trial for the killing of orang utans.

She, however, condemned the inaction of the Malaysian government (where the action of plantation companies are concerned).

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme had recently highlighted the dangers to wildlife from forest fires allegedly set by oil palm plantation companies to clear land for planting of crops.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan), responding to the matter, clarified that its jurisdiction under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 is restricted to Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

-thesundaily

Source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=37686:stop-the-slaughter-save-orang-utans-in-borneo&Itemid=2&tmpl=component&print=1

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Japanese children help rescue Sabah wildlife

KINABATANGAN: Schoolchildren in Japan have come to the rescue of endangered and “trapped” wildlife here by donating money to help buy forest land and prevent groups of the species from being isolated from each other.

The rescue of Sabah’s endangered pygmy elephants and orangutans is already paying off with sighting of animals crossing over from one area to another after having been corralled in increasingly smaller areas by the growing presence of plantation and timber companies.

A 6.2-acre plot of land, identified as a key ecological corridor for elephants and orangutans in Lower Kinabatangan, was recently secured by Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) with financial support from Fukuyama Zoo, Japan.

According to Dr Toshinori Tsubouchi, chairman of BCT Japan, funds for the land purchase were donated by schoolchildren from Japan who are keenly aware of the plight of the Bornean elephant through educational talks held by the BCT Japan in their schools.

He said Fukuyama Zoo’s concern over Bornean elephant conservation in Lower Kinabatangan led them to spearhead a fundraising campaign for the land purchase.

Sabah Wildlife Department director, Dr Laurentius Ambu, in a joint statement with BCT, expressed his appreciation to Fukuyama Zoo for its effort and support in securing this “link” to re-connect fragmented forests in the state.

The purchase of the land, he said, was “an achievement and another positive step towards the department’s vision to secure the ecological corridors for the wildlife population”.

This particular plot will allow the migration of elephants from one part of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary to another.

Raymond Alfred, BCT’s head of conservation and research, explained that this concept or model could be duplicated in Sabah as long as corporations know where and how they can contribute.

Vital links

Alfred said that part of BCT’s plan to secure the “links” is to get the participation of the commercial sector such as agricultural developers and product suppliers in conservation efforts. This way, they would know how their contributions are used.

“Through implementation of best management practices and restoration of riparian reserve, we would like to see re-established the vital wildlife corridors linking key habitats and protected areas to the larger forest landscape in Segaliud Lokan, Malua and North Ulu Segama”, he said.

The sighting of an “older” male orangutan using a bridge spanning Sungai Resang in Lower Kinabatangan last month, proves that such structures and corridors are vital links between habitats and populations.

Primate researcher from Kyoto University, Yosuke Otani, who observed the crossing on a bridge made out of used fire hoses from Japan, said it took the primate about 30 seconds to cross over without any difficulty.

The unhindered crossing excited wildlife experts here with Ambu re-emphasising the importance of such corridor in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.

Alfred said that two orangutans were also observed using another crossing built by Hutan and BCT in Sungai Menanggul.

Improving and retaining the existing riparian reserve along the Kinabatangan River will allow species such as elephants and orangutans access to food sources and establish crucial genetic links between populations.

BCT is among a group of organisations racing against time to assist Sabah wildlife authorities improve habitat connectivity for the orangutans in Lower Kinabatangan. It is also hoping to re-establish a long-term biodiversity corridor with the help of land developers such as plantations and timber companies.

Alfred said that BCT is working closely with several major stakeholders to develop a follow-up plan to re-establish a biodiversity corridor from the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary to other continuous forest reserves such as Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve, Malua Forest Reserve and North Ulu Segama (Bukit Piton Protection Forest).

Source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/07/06/japanese-children-help-rescue-sabah-wildlife/

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Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre

By Herman Scholz

History 

 

The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre goes back to a project proposed in 1961 by P F Burgess, then the Deputy Conservator of Forests in North Borneo. The present site of the centre is the Kaibili Forest Reserve, already gazetted as such in 1934.

In 1962, with the backing of the newly formed World Wildlife Fund, the Curator of the Sarawak Museum Tom Harrisson visited Sabah (then North Borneo) and reported that orang utan were rare and threatened with extinction (already then!). Soon afterwards his wife Barbara began collecting young orang utans that were kept as pets. The idea was to train the apes so that they would be able to fend for themselves in the wild.

The Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre was finally established in 1964. The centre falls under the administration of the wildlife section of the Forestry Department which in 1988 was upgraded to a full department under the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development (now Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Environment).

The objectives of the project have expanded in recent years. While orang utan rehabilitation is still the primary goal at Sepilok, present aims include public education on conservation, research and assistance to other endangered species such as captive breeding of the rare and endangered rhinoceros.

Sepilok, renowned for its orangutan rehabilitation project, has stimulated a greater local and international awareness of the protection laws for endangered species, and the centre has resulted in an increase in detection and confiscation of illegally held captive animals.

In Sabah the orang utan is a totally protected animal under the Fauna Conservation Ordinance, 1963.

Visit of the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre

The centre has a reception and information centre, a cafeteria, public washrooms, parking and also offices for wildlife staff, an animal clinic, quarantine area and enclosures for various animals such as the rhinoceros.

The orang utan project is roughly divided into four stages: quarantine, indoor kindergarten or nursery, outdoor nursery, and free roaming forest reserve. The regular visitor will only be allowed to the free roaming forest reserve and most only visits the feeding plat form, easily accessible over boardwalks, at 10 am or 2 pm during the feeding time. This is your best chance at getting a glimpse of this otherwise elusive and in solitude living ape! The centre must not be confused with a zoo though, and although extremely rare there have been instances when even during the feeding time there were no orang utans in sight. After all, the animals are trained to live an independent life in their natural habitat, and look for foods for themselves. During the fruiting season when there is ample food available in the reserve not many or even none at all might come to the platform. But usually there are at least some animals, usually those that have not long ago left the outdoor nursery in favour of a semi-wild life. Mother animals, with their young one in tow (borne at the reserve) can also be observed. The animals know there is nothing to fear from humans at the platform...

The orang utan is not only a highly endangered species, with maybe some 10,000 animals left in Sabah (a hundred years ago there might have been as many as one million!), but also a close cousin of us. In recent years the ape has become Sabah's mascot, and many travellers come to 'the Land Below the Wind' to see them. But how does their future look, with their natural habitat still being 'developed' at an alarmingly fast rate? It is estimated that there are only around 30,000 animals still left in Borneo, and in as little as 50 years this species, so highly adapted and thus highly dependable on its virgin forests habitat might be extinct.

Unlike other monkeys or animals that breed fast and adapt to an environment changed by humans the orang utan only reproduce very slowly and at long intervals: after having lived up to six years with their mother and learned how to live in the forest (and making daily a nest for the night, for example...), it takes another three years to maturity. But in the wild orang utan females usually won't have any offspring until the age of about 14. With an expected life span of around 30-35 years in the wild, a female orang utan normally only produces around four babies! As orang utans live a solitary life and only meet during mating season the increasingly vast tracks of palm oil plantations between inadequately small nature reserves is only one big problem they face. More often than not the natural habitat 'leftovers' such as river reserves are too narrow and don't contain enough fruit trees, for example, to sustain an orang utan. The animal is forced to raid plantations and gardens creating human-animal conflicts on the way, besides being unable to see a mate in an other reserve cut off by plantations, roads or even natural obstacles such as rivers.

I have seen many wild orang utan over the past five years, usually in the area of Sukau. More than five years ago it was virtually impossible to see orang utan there, except with lots of patience, and luck. The sudden change and seeming multitude of orang utan along the Kinabatangan River is an eloquent testimony that natural habitats are dwindling and the apes are forced to settle in the meagre forests along the banks of the rivers, fighting for a space to live, and eventually fighting for foods with other primates. Though the Sabah Government is serious in its conservation efforts concessions for vast development schemes, usually palm oil plantations, are still granted, and Sabah's jungles are now mostly reduced to those in national parks and wildlife reserves. This in the long run might not be sufficient for the survival of this species, though in Sabah we keep our hopes high and wish to ensure that future generations can also observe orang utan - the men of the forest - in the wild. To this end already three major palm oil firms have joined hands with WWF in a project called 'Corridor of Life'. Land earmarked for development is spared and left intact for elephants, orang utan and other animals to roam about freely. 

 

How to Get to Sepilok & Accommodation

It is possible to visit the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in a day tour ex Kota Kinabalu. However, a lot of travelling is involved and I would never suggest it. If you travel all the way to Borneo, take time to visit not only Sepilok, but profit of Sandakan - Sabah's gateway to nature - and also visit the Turtle Island Park, Sukau and Gomantong to name a few. The 'shortest' visit I normally propose is at least 4 days / 3 nights! However, you will still have to get to Sandakan and most commonly this is by air: MH2042 0700-0740 hrs BKI-SDK, and back by MH2065 1730-1810 hrs SDK-BKI (in August 2006 Air Asia will take over this link and flight schedules might change, we will try to update the site by then...). If you go for a day tour these will be your two flights, and you obviously won't need any accommodation. However, if you wish to stay longer but you don't wish to involve a travel agent you find easily accommodation within walking distance from the centre: the Sepilok Jungle Resort and the Sepilok Nature Resort are our first choices. Sandakan has a wide variety of hotels to choose from, and taxis are easily available (ca RM 35 per way). All tour operators in Sabah naturally offer the visit of Sepilok, too. If you are a bit more adventurous and would like to experience Sabah's rainforests we highly recommend Uncle Tan.

Entrance fee to Sepilok is RM 30 per person, which is valid for a full day and one can go for the feeding at 10 am and 2 pm; the forest reserve is also great for trekking along well maintained paths. Since very few visitors do this you are virtually guaranteed to be able to experience the tropical rainforest in pristine and undisturbed conditions. 

Source: http://www.flyingdusun.com/005_Places/053_SOURC.htm

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Sabah first Primatologist

A local Sabahan, Andy Martin Ginal Martin, has become the first fully qualified primatologist in the State. Martin, a research assistant at Sepilok, underwent a two-year course at Oxford Brookes under the full sponsorship of the Orangutan Appeal UK and has already received accreditation from the university.

When interviewed at the Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK cocktail party at Rasa Ria Resort recently, Martin said that as a Sabahan, he felt the education he gained was important to further his expertise in the field.

“For now in Sabah, there is no one doing this private conservation. We are Sabahans, we have the orang utans and we still depend on people from the UK and elsewhere to conduct studies for us,” he said.

He acknowledged the Appeal for their role in making his graduation a reality.

“I wouldn’t be able to do it without their support because financially it was impossible to continue with my study for more than one year in the UK.” 

Martin said among the important things he had learnt from his academic stint is that he needs to look at conservation from the point of view of education.

“We need to send the conservation message to the world because now in Sabah, we have a lot of programmes but educationally, we still need outside experts to explain the knowledge,” he explained.

As a primatologist, he also commented on the survival of the orang utan in Sabah.

He said that he believed the orang utan in Sabah still have a future and it is crucial for everyone to work together and cooperate to accomplish the objectives and researches in the field.

Martin also said that the most urgent need for the survival of the species now is to protect the forest, the habitat and their population in the wild.

“There is also an urgent need to reduce deforestation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sue Sheward, the founder and chairperson of Orangutan Appeal UK, said that it is important for Sabah to have its own people as primatologists.

She commended Martin for his tenacity in continuing with his study despite the disasters that befell upon his family.

“In the midst of it, his family house was razed by fire and his father suffered serious burns and was very ill, but Andy went on.

“He received an extension and was able to complete his degree. We are glad that now he has passed his degree and is the first Sabahan to be a qualified primatologist and I feel he will make a difference,” she said. 

Source: http://kepkas.sabah.gov.my/2012/02/13/first-sabahan-primatologist/

Photo Souce:  http://www.orangutan.org/

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Founder of Orangutan Appeal UK receives British MBE award

Sue Sheward

 

Sue Sheward, the founder and chairperson of the Orangutan Appeal UK, has been included in The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List and was awarded with an MBE for her work in protecting Asia’s endangered primates.

In an interview held during the Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK cocktail party at Rasa Ria Resort here on Monday evening, Sheward said she was overwhelmed when she received a letter from the House of Commons informing her that she had been recommended for the Queen’s Honours List in 2012.

“I thought it can’t be true so I phoned the office to ask them if they sent me the letter. They confirmed, so it wasn’t a joke,” she quipped.

The award for the cause of the orangutan would help open doors across the world, she said, adding that it will definitely open more doors in the UK and Europe.

“I hope it will open more doors here and in Asia,” she said.

She also felt that there was a need to explain to the people on the important work the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and the Appeal are doing.

“Let’s hope that it encourages more people and companies to show their green side,” she said.

Additionally, the award is testimony of her work with the apes of Asia, particularly the orang utan is recognised.

“The orangutan is such an endangered species, it is important worldwide.”

Prior to the knowledge that she has been nominated for the award, Sheward was contemplating retirement.

“But now I can’t. I have to continue to do it,” she said.

Sheward also commented on the European debt crisis and how it is affecting the people’s attitude towards charities since people do not have much money to give away.

“So the level of donation tends not to be so high.”

To generate more fund, Sheward said that they are focusing more on companies and are trying to encourage them to donate to the work of Appeal.

She explained that companies stand to benefit if they donate since they can claim for tax exemption against the donation.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, meanwhile, congratulated Sheward for the recognition accorded upon her for her work in Sabah.

“The fact that she is recognised and honoured shows that what we are doing in Sabah in the conservation of the orangutan is on the right track.

“We always have complaints about how our orangutans are disappearing and how we are not doing enough and that oil palm is killing the orangutans. There has been flying allegations of our conservation efforts but if the British government has honoured her, then we must be doing right. To us, this is an international stamp of approval from the world on what is being done here and for the Appeal,” he said.

Also present at the event was Datuk Mike Steel, the adviser for the Orangutan Appeal UK in Sabah. 

Source: http://kepkas.sabah.gov.my/2012/02/13/founder-of-orangutan-appeal-uk-receives-british-mbe-award/

Photo Source: http://www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk/Mole-Valley-trio-named-New-Year-Honours-List/story-14334608-detail/story.html

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Orang utan need quality forests

The Star/Asia News Network
Sunday, Apr 08, 2012

KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia - A wildlife study has reaffirmed the need for large swaths of forests for the orang utan to survive.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said the findings by Malaysian, British and Swiss researchers were further proof that the orang utan needed high-quality natural forests.

"Ultimately, a sufficient network of high-quality natural forest and dispersal corridors must be restored across Borneo and Sumatra to allow the orang utan to disperse naturally," he said.

"It is a big challenge; governments, industries and NGOs should work hand-in-hand to achieve it."

The study, conducted by researchers from the Institute of Anthropology in Zurich, Switzerland, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Sabah and Cardiff University in Britain, was published in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology recently.

DGFC director Benoit Goosens said the findings showed that the male orang utan would traverse longer distances than the females.

This was based on faecal samples collected from male orang utan at seven sites in Borneo, including Kinabatangan South and North and Danum Valley in Sabah, and two in Sumatra.

"During a previous study published in 2006, a drastic decline in the orang utan population size was discovered, mostly due to habitat loss," said Goosens.

Read more: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2Band%2BTech/Story/A1Story20120408-338264.html 

Green Sabah:  The government and Orang Utans definitely need to work hand in hand to ensure the wildlife protection are successful.

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Orang-utan conservation effort receives shot-in-the-arm

Kota Kinabalu: The State's orang-utan conservation effort received a shot-in-the-arm with the signing of a contract agreement between WWF-Malaysia and AEON Co. (M) Berhad here Monday.

The five-year agreement is to provide for reforestation and rehabilitation of the orang-utan's natural habitat in North Ulu Segama, Lahad Datu.

The forest in this area was severely degraded due to several cycles of logging operations in the past and the frequent occurrence of forest fire, but miraculously the orang-utan which inhabit the area survived despite the ordeal they have had to endure.

The reforestation and rehabilitation effort will involve planting saplings of high trees, middle high trees, low trees and shrubs in approximately 80 hectares of the area over the next five years, with a RM500,000 investment by AEON.

The fast growing tree species to be planted will help restore the connectivity of the forest canopy so that the orang-utan will be free to roam in search of food in all the areas within the area and places to build their nests. The wild fruit trees will be source of food for the orang-utan.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun witnessed the contract agreement signing and exchanging of documents between AEON Managing Director Nagahisa Oyama and WWF-Malaysia CEO Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma in a ceremony held at Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu here.

Thanking AEON for choosing Sabah as a place for it to carry out its corporate social responsibility, Masidi said the project is a recognition to WWF-Malaysia's good work in Sabah apart from being a kind of vote of confidence in the State Government's effort through the Forestry Department to rehabilitate and conserve the forest.

"It is my sincere hope that there will be more corporate organisations like AEON to come over to Sabah and assist us in our effort to not only save the orang-utan but also other species which are in danger of extinction like the rhinoceros and sun bear," he said.

He said the reason is simple, that is, because the forest is being fragmented by the opening up of land that affected their reproduction process, which in turn, contributed to the decline of the animal populations.

"Such an assistance from various quarters there is now light at the end of the tunnelÉin Sabah we are doing the right thing, at the right track, to help these animals to continue surviving for the future generations to appreciate," he said.

For AEON, this is not its first because it has actually been involved in tree-planting activities since 1991 at the JUSCO Malacca branch in Ayer Keroh.

It was called "AEON Hometown Forest Programme" where 50,000 saplings were planted.

AEON Co. Ltd in Japan is the pioneer of AEON Environment Foundation that has been contributing towards greening areas in Sudan and several sites surrounding the Great Wall of China.

"It has always been the company's aspiration to preserve the environment and the orang-utan's habitat in North Ulu SegamaÉwe see the growing importance of conservation measures to protect and nurture a green environment," said Oyama. The project will help foster closer ties between AEON and the local residents, not only as a business venture but also in the hope of educating the locals on the importance of preserving the environment, he said.

AEON in collaboration with WWF-Malaysia hopes to spread the significance and value of rehabilitating the orang-utan's population and looks forward to sustain this project for a long time.

Tree-planting has always been AEON's commitment towards reviving nature, to create a more natural and pleasant environment for the sake of future generations. To date, AEON has planted more than 400,000 saplings throughout Malaysia.

Oyama also said that the need for combined effort between all quarters to conserve nature will become more important within the next 10 years with the anticipated increase in economic development activities in Southeast Asia, which may also have a great impact on the environment.

Dr Dionysius said this restoration effort acknowledges the need to improve the quality of this forest, which will be by putting back the structure of the forest.

WWF-Malaysia feels very encouraged to be able to work with the State Government very closely, he said, adding it is important to conserve nature not only because for the animal and other wildlife but also for humanity itself, because humans also need the forest for survival.

The State Government has gazetted 40,000hectare of land in North Ulu Segama as a Permanent Forest Reserve for habitat conservation and the orang-utan.

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/print.cfm?NewsID=76804

Green Sabah says: Good that WWF will work closely together with the Sabah State Government to conserve Sabah's nature and wildlife. Hope that the Orang Utan Conservation will be continued as it can help protect our wildlife species. 

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Malua Biobank as orangutan conservation

KOTA KINABALU: Results from recent ground and aerial surveys of 34,000 ha of lowland rainforest known as the Malua Biobank in Sabah, reveal the area will be one of the most important refuges for orang-utan in Borneo. 

   Sabah Forestry Department’s Malua Wildlife Unit leader Hadrin Lias led the surveys, and says the orangutan population is benefiting from current conservation activities in Malua Biobank.

  Logging in Malua ceased in 2007 and since then the habitat for orang-utan has remained undisturbed and the area is regularly patrolled.

    Dr Marc Ancrenaz, an international expert on orang-utan, assisted and trained the Malua Wildlife Unit to undertake the surveys and believes that the Malua Biobank supports one of the highest, if not the highest, density of this sub-species (Pongo pygmaeus morio) of orang-utan anywhere in the world.

    “Malua Biobank is critically important for the survival of this subspecies, though all three sub-species of orang-utan in Borneo are endangered due to extensive habitat loss,” Dr Ancrenaz said.

    “For orang-utan to survive in Borneo, it is vitally important to preserve large contiguous blocks of lowland rainforest such as Malua Biobank and the nearby Danum Valley Conservation Area.

      Orang-utan density was shown to be particularly high in eastern Malua. The individuals in this part of the reserve are physically and genetically isolated from the rest of the population due to the presence of the Malua River which cuts across the reserve, which orang-utans are unable to cross.

   In an effort to connect populations, the second of two suspended orang-utan bridges across the Malua River has now been constructed and remote cameras will be installed to record any wildlife movements across the bridges.

       The new orang-utan bridge consists of a lattice of chains that provides the orang-utan hand and footholds to cross the river, mimicking the function of overhanging tree branches in areas where large trees are now absent.

     The orang-utan projects have been possible with financial assistance from the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, which has been very supportive of a number of conservation projects in Malua Biobank.

     Malua Biobank is a pioneering public-private partnership to deploy private sector capital for the restoration and protection of endangered lowland rainforest. The Malua Biobank is a unique joint venture between the Sabah Forestry Department, the Sabah Foundation and the EcoProducts Fund.

   Darius Sarshar, director of New Forests Asia, the company that manages the Malua Biobank, says the recent orang-utan survey results reinforce the significance of the Biobank for threatened species preservation, making it all the more important to secure its future.

    “The purchase of Malua Biodiversity Conservation Certificates by companies or individuals assists the conservation and the restoration of suitable habitat within the Malua Forest for species like the orangutan,” he said.

     The Malua Biobank is currently offering certificates to business, industry and individuals interested in saving the endangered orang-utan as well as other threatened species such as the banteng, pygmy elephants and sun bears that call the Malua Biobank home.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/08/25/malua-biobank-key-area-for-orang-utan-conservation-latest/

Green Sabah Says: Hopefully with the Malua Biodiversity Conservation Certificates that can be purchased will be able to help improve the conservation and restorations of the habitat for the endangered animal species.

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