Posted on octubre, 31 2003

Yet another piece of the Kinabatangan wildlife corridor jigsaw puzzle fell into place in August 2003 when Sawit Kinabalu Berhad formalised its decision to reserve 1,260 hectares of its Sungai Pin Estate in Batu Putih for a conservation and reforestation project. The area of logged-over and degraded forests in the lower Kinabatangan floodplain is a narrow strip of riverine forest about half a kilometre wide and stretching about 20 kilometres along the southern bank of the Kinabatangan River at Tanjung Bulat. It represents about 15 per cent of Sawit Kinabalu Berhad’s Sungai Pin Estate.

State-owned Sawit Kinabalu Berhad, in its first ever large-scale undertaking of this nature, will receive technical advice from WWF Malaysia’s Partners for Wetlands Programme. An area of 1,155 hectares will be returned to nature to help secure the habitat of some of the country’s most threatened species. Active reforestation efforts will be focused on a further 105 hectares stretching for 500 metres along the riverbank. Here both Sawit Kinabalu and WWF-Malaysia have begun planting flood resistant native tree species.

WWF-Malaysia’s Partners for Wetlands Programme and the State government are working towards reconnecting the riverine forest along the Lower Kinabatangan Floodplain. At the moment, existing protected areas are fragmented and this impedes the movement of elephants. Riverine forest also contains important food sources for other wildlife.

In a media conference, Abdul Rahim assured that the State and Federal government through the relevant agencies would help and support this endeavour. He said protecting the area and replanting native trees was commendable since wildlife tourism had the potential to become a major income earner for the State.

Salim said the MoU is a testimony to the commitment of Sawit Kinabalu, being in the plantation industry, to achieve a more balanced development of land as well as environmental protection. “The plantation industry has always been subjected to criticisms of being unfriendly to the environment basically due to the fact that we clear jungles and replace them with oil palm,” he said. He hoped that the collaboration with WWF-Malaysia would help shed the negative image of the sector. He added that land development for food production and income-generating economic activities was inevitable. However, Sawit Kinabalu was committed to a holistic approach, adopting appropriate measures where necessary to ensure minimal damage to the environment. This included taking soil and water conservation measures to reduce erosion and pollution of waterways. “We are also making efforts to introduce more organic material for manure, biological control of pests and instituting zero burning for replanting,” said Salim. Dr Davison said that WWF Malaysia welcomed the collaboration, and hoped it would inspire more land developers to emulate the move. 

For more information please contact: 
Justine Vaz 
 Editor, Partners for Wetlands
editor@partnersforwetlands.org