Tourists find ‘dream land’ at Lahad Datu rainforest lodge
LAHAD DATU: Alice Lin and her entourage of seven people flew all the way from Beijing to Malaysia looking for a nice escapade in a tropical rainforest and found their way to Kawag Danum Rainforest Lodge (KDRL) in Lahad Datu.
After a two-night stay at the remote and tranquil retreat, Lin excitedly admitted that she had found a dreamland.
“It’s very peaceful here and I truly enjoyed it. The surrounding vegetation is very condensed and I saw colorful birds,” she said.
During a guided jungle trekking, Lin and her group showed keen interests in almost everything they encountered, from a tiny cup fungus to frogs, cotton bugs, flying lizard, birds and trees.
The group was fortunate to have come across two Orang Utans and a white mousedeer not far away from the lodge.
They even tasted edible wild fruit called ‘lipasu’, a term used by the local Kadazandusun community, the largest indigenous people in Sabah.
Lin was excited to find a shy Borneon Millipede which had already rolled into a ball and she thought it was a wild chestnut.
Lin is a nature lover and she is a director of Evergreen, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization (NGO) involved in environmental activities.
Evergreen is also a center that conducts ecological and environmental courses for school children and community.
KDRL, about 51 km from Lahad Datu town, is located in a lowland dipterocarp forest inside the buffer zone 11 of the world famous Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA).
It is also part of the Ulu SegamaMalua Forest Reserve, which was gazetted in December 2014 as Class 1 Protection Forest Reserve.
Since starting its operation last year, KDRL has received visitors from around the globe, including from USA, United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Germany, Russia and Canada.
The lodge is equipped with airconditioned deluxe and standard rooms, observation tower and river activities corner.
It also provides adventure activities such as guided jungle trekking, night drive, bird watching, river tubing, river exploration and wildlife sighting.
The Kawag forest is home to eight species of ungulates, particularly the Borneon Pygmy elephants, Tembadau or Banteng and deer. At any month in a year, a herd of elephants could be seen patrolling near the lodge much to the delight of excited visitors.
The sound of Borneon Gibbon is normally recorded in early morning at KDRL, while black hornbill is spotted almost daily at and around the lodge.
Despite being subjected to some disturbance, the forest surrounding KDRL offers an outstandingly biodiversity and among the most interesting and biodiverse forests in Sabah.
The Kawag forest, which contains high conservation value plants species including Shorea symingtonii and Begonia diwoli, is currently growing at a fast rate returning to its former state as the sign of the past disturbances is disappearing.
The rivers in Kawag are clearer and after the rainstorm, the murkiness disappears in a matter of hours, while the forest continues to provide habitat suitable for wild Borneon elephants and Tembadau (Banteng).
During the scientific exploration in the Kawag Forest last year, researchers observed that certain animals thrived in a disturbed forest due to the abundance of food source and the gap that allowed light to penetrate the forest floor.
It was also found out that the forest surrounding has potential for geotourism (tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of the place).
Experts also found that the Kawag Forest area is literally sitting on a 200 million years of crystalline basement, making it a huge potential place for geological heritage site.
Kawag forest is also special in that it is inside the Heart of Borneo (HoB). HoB refers to an area covering Indonesia, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah, specifically the main part of Borneo island where forests are intact.
There is currently an intergovernmental initiative that aims to conserve the biodiversity of the Heart of Borneo for the benefit of the people, who rely upon it through a network of protected areas, sustainable management of forests and other sustainable land uses.
The HoB initiative is a unique governmental-led and NGO supported programme that was initiated by a joint declaration by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia in 2007.
Sabah will be hosting an international conference on “A Decade of Heart of Borneo Initiative, Accomplishment and the Way Forward” at Magellan Sutera in the State capital starting today.
The Mawag forest and Kawag Danum Rainforest Lodge will be featured in the conference.