10-year action plans to manage wildlife in Sabah
KOTA KINABALU: The Sunda clouded leopard, proboscis monkey and Bornean banteng 10year action plans are now on the final lap of implementation.
Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Christina Liew has called on the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), with the assistance of the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) to prepare a cabinet paper so that it can be tabled at the next State Assembly sitting which in November.
She added that the three action plans would provide guidelines and a structure for the management of wildlife in Sabah.
She was speaking at the soft launch of the action plans held at the Hilton Hotel yesterday.
Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) director Augustine Tuuga said they hoped the plans would be approved by the cabinet and officially launched by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal before the end of the year.
Augustine said that the Chief Minister's support towards the three plans would give a boost to the conservation of the three endangered species.
SWD, with the assistance of DGFC, produced the 10-year action plans for the Sunda clouded leopard, the proboscis monkey and the Bornean banteng, following years of gathering biological and ecological information on the three totally protected species in Sabah.
Meanwhile, DGFC director Dr Benoit Goosens said that there were possibly around 500 bantengs left in Sabah, with 100 individuals probably in Kulamba and others scattered throughout Sabah.
He said that there were also 40 individuals in the west coast of Sabah.
“They would probably be extinct in a few years,” he said.
Benoit also said that Sabah has about 750 Sunda clouded leopards left in the wild and 6,000 or less proboscis monkeys.
He explained that the threats facing the endangered animals were the degradation of their habitat, citing the shrimp farming in Pitas as an example of how the degradation of riparian and mangrove forests had impacted on the proboscis monkeys at the area.
Forest fragmentation, human development and infrastructure including road construction were also adversely impacting on these animals, he said.
He urged the government to work with the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the construction of roads that cut through forests such as the Kota Kinabalu to Kudat since these roads would lead to road kills (of the wildlife).
He cited that the biggest issues affecting the wildlife concerned were poaching and snaring activities.
Benoit called for increased patrols and for the hiring and training of crime analysts who would provide information on the ground and lead to the capture of perpetrators of wildlife crimes.
He also urged for the implementation of the zero snaring policy even within plantations.
At the same time, the director also urged for the setting up of an endangered species conservation unit.
Yayasan Sime Darby's governing council member, Caroline Christine Russell said that Yayasan Sime Darby had invested close to RM4 million over the past seven years for the projects.
She said that the aim was that data collected from state-wide surveys would be used to propose state-wide strategies on the conservation and management of the three endangered species in Sabah -- the proboscis monkey, the Sunda clouded leopard and the Bornean banteng.
Also present at the event was Yayasan Sime Darby Chief Executive Officer Yatela Zainal Abidin.