Sabah Forestry Department keen on more conservation projects with YSD, SDP
LAHAD DATU: Sabah Forestry Department ( SFD) is looking forward to have more collaboration on conservation projects with both Yayasan Sime Darby ( YSD) and Sime Darby Plantation (SDP) Berhad after the success of the 10-year project to reforest and rehabilitate orangutan habitat in Bukit Piton Forest Reserve here.
Forest chief conservator, Datuk Mashor Mohd Jaini said both YSB and SDP showed great determination to rescue the orangutans by rehabilitating about 5,400 hectares of degraded forests as habitat.
“To date, about 387 individual of orangutans are found within this forest reserve compare to 172 individuals (in the past 10 years) “Ten years ago, this scenario would have been a rare occurrence as the forest reserve used to be severely degraded due to poor logging practices and forest fires in 1983 and 1997 , but now, thanks to the initiative to rehabilitate the heavily degraded forest, frequent sightings of orangutan have been reported,” he said.
Mashor said in his speech at the handover ceremony of Sime Darby’s rehabilitation of orangutan habitat in Bukit Piton
Also present at the ceremony were YSD governing council member, Datuk Jeffri Salim Davidson and SDP Upstream chief operating officer Mohamed Helmy Othman Basha.
He added the state government had also put much emphasis on creating wildlife corridors to enable connectivity between Totally Protected Areas ( TPAs) and High Conservation Value ( HCV) areas where the corridors aided the movements of wildlife, including the orangutans.
Meanwhile, apart from rehabilitating the forest, he said SFD was also keen to collaborate with both Sime Darby Foundation and Danau Girang Field Centre in combating wildlife poaching and trafficking in Sabah. — Bernama