KUCHING: The State government will embark on a five-year collaborative undertaking between Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) and the Hornbill Research Foundation (HRF) of Thailand in effort to study and protect the hornbill habitat in the state.
According to the Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg who was represented by the Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, the programme will ride on the RIMBA (Research for Intensified Management of Bio-rich Areas) Sarawak platform and will include the studies on hornbill population and many others.
“Conservation is a challenging and daunting task to undertake and it is therefore important that conservation efforts need to be holistic, well-oriented and strategically thought out.
“For that reason, the State government has resolved to address the main threat to the survival of many wildlife species, namely the loss of habitat, and the Sarawak government has set a target to establish at least 1 million hectares of Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) by 2020.
“We have so far constituted 941,000 hectares of land and water territories as TPAs and t the rate we are going, we are confident that we would be able to achieve this target on time,” said Johari whose text of speech was read by Tengah during the opening ceremony of the 7th International Hornbill Conference held at Riverside Hotel, here yesterday.
Johari also said that while it is important to have substantial forest cover, there is a need to also ensure that forest conditions are ideal for the wildlife species including hornbills to proliferate.
“Thus, another threat that we would need to focus in is ‘forest fragmentation’ which could also contribute to the loss of species due to inability to adapt and survive in the fragmented forest conditions.
“The State in view of this has embarked on the creation of Trans-boundary Conservation Areas (TBCA) as a key component of the Heart of Borneo (HoB) Project in 2017, Malaysia, together with Republic of Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam has declared its commitment to conserve and protect one of the most diverse natural ecosystem on earth and the largest contiguous tropical rainforests in South Asia,” Johari said.
He also pointed out that Sarawak’s contribution to the HoB initiative will be its policy on sustainable forest management, nature conservation through the establishment of TPAs and planning and development of new socio-economic projects to benefit the rural communities, all of which will contribute to conservation and sustainable development.
Johari said currently, Sarawak has designated 2.1 million hectares as Heart of Borneo area.
“The HoB area will be expanded and at the same time we will gazette more areas as TPAs and ensure land use in the HoB area are sustainably managed to provide a contiguous network of wildlife corridor transversing Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan.
“Apart from that, another notable conservation programme is RIMBA Sarawak undertaken by SFC and this major international Research and Development (R&D) programme is the embodiment of the State’s open door policy which welcomes both Malaysian and internationally renowned scientists and institutions to conduct their R&D works on biodiversity conservation in our forest, especially with TPAs,” said Johari, adding the State government has allocated a special funding of RM10.4 million to facilitate the implementation of projects on this RIMBA platform.
He also called for the public and the local communities commitment to support the conservation effort.
“If everyone of us does our small bit, the accumulative effort could be far-reaching,” he said.
Citing an example from the Piasau Camp in Miri, Johari said the area was initially destined to be converted into a commercial and residential area complex.
However, he said, when the people of Miri requested for it to be reserved for the conservation of hornbills, the State government acceded.
“Now have the Piasau Nature Reserve, a green lung in the city of Miri and the pride and joy of Miri residents,” he said.
He also thanked the SFC for putting their efforts in organising the conference.
Also present were Deputy State Secretary (Rural Transformation) Datu Jaul Samion, SFC chief executive officer Wong Ting Chun, president of HRF of Thailand Dr. Woraphat Arthayuki and other distinguished guests.
