Totally protected areas to be connected by wildlife corridor – Forest Dept director
BINTULU: Bukit Mina, Bukit Sarang and Binyo Penyilam with a total area of 40,331 hectares will be connected to an integrated wildlife corridor to be er facilitate the Sarawak government’s restoration and conservation efforts.
Forest Department Sarawak director Hamden Mohammad said at the moment, the link between the wildlife in these three totally protected areas seemed disconnected and there was a need to set up a wildlife corridor to enable the wildlife to move around between the three areas.
Bukit Mina is a wildlife corridor virtually connecting to the existing large conservation areas, namely the proposed Nature Reserve Bukit Sarang Conservation area in the southwest and Binyo Penyilam Conservation area in south-east within the area of Licence for Planted Forests (LPF) 0043.
The area acts as a natural barrier in the plantation to prevent spread of fire and diseases, wildlife corridor for rare, threatened or endangered wildlife species for shelter and to find food, and habitat to several rare and endemic flora and fauna.
“The total area for the wildlife corridor about 40,331 hectares is quite big, it shows that the state government is very concerned not only for the people but also the wildlife.
“Today (Monday) we kick off our symbolic restoration programme by planting 1,000 trees ranging from Belian, Engkabang, Meranti Sarang Punai, Keruing and Binatoh species at the surrounding area of Bukit Mina Field Station and along the wildlife corridor,” he said during a press conference a er taking part in the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) programme at Bukit Mina Field Station yesterday.
This year, Hamden pointed out, approximately 2,000 seedlings of Engkabang and Meranti Sarang Punai had been planted in various sites within the wildlife corridor.
He said Forest Department Sarawak together with Sarawak Planted Forest Sdn Bhd and GP Pusaka would work together to achieve the target of se ing up indigenous tree species nursery to provide consistent number of seedlings for the programme, and to plant approximately 200 hectares per year with at least 5,000 seedlings of mixed indigenous species consisting of timber and fruit trees.
“The objectives of this project are to enrich and restore degraded areas in LPF0043; to ensure the effective regeneration and ecological restoration of native ecosystem and threatened species especially in conservation area; to restore health of ecosystem and increase flow of ecosystem service; and to increase tree cover in denuded buffer zones of rivers and streams through natural regeneration and tree planting.”
“This area is important to conserve environmental features of geological, hydrological and climatic importance. In line with conservation, the area can also be a potential area for ecotourism and wildlife research purposes,” he added.
At the moment, he said the Forest Department has insufficient information on the resources of flora and fauna in the wildlife corridor, thus welcomed everybody especially scientists, students and researchers from all over the world to come and do their research at the existing research stations in the areas.
Hamden said with more information, they can come up with much better and proper planning for conservation and restoration activities.
Earlier in his speech, he said FLR is being widely promoted as a solution to the global loss and degradation of the world’s forests and as a contribution to sustainable development through restoring the ecological, social and economic values and functionalities of degraded landscapes.
This FLR, he said, was well supported by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Open when he officially declared a public forum on ‘Forest Landscape Restoration in Sarawak’ in 2017 with the participation of all the stakeholders.
As a follow-up event, the Chief Minister launched the FLR on June 15 this year at Sabal Agroforestry Centre with the signing of memorandums of understanding (MoU) with Shell and symbolic handing over of planting materials to GP Pusaka representing the private sector, Education Department representing the higher education institutions and local communities.
“This year 2019 is more meaningful to Forest Department Sarawak as we are celebrating our 100th anniversary,” he said.
Among those present were Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) general manager Hashim Bojet, deputy director of Forest Department Jack Liam, Sarawak Planted Forest Sdn Bhd general manager Paul Valentine, GP Pusaka Sdn Bhd senior general manager Ling Chii Huo, Sarawak Forestry Corporation regional manager Endela Tipot and Tchin Boon Ling a representative from Sarawak Timber Association and heads of divisional and regional forest offices.