FWD: Committed to realising the environment vision

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This article is from thestar.com.my

URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2002/9/8/focus/pkriver & sec=focus

 

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Sunday, September 08, 2002

Committed to realising the environment vision

 

 

<b>Eight months after the launch of the Lower Kinabatangan Vision, a WWF

initiative aimed at conserving yet harnessing the wildlife-rich region in Sabah,

it is painfully obvious that commitment to protect the environment here, as in

many other parts of the world 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de

Janeiro, is still lacking. RUBEN SARIO reports.</b>

 

IT’S 3.30pm and a flotilla of small wooden boats is already noisily buzzing up

Sungai Menanggol, a tributary of the nation's second longest waterway, the

Kinabatangan River.

 

In just 30 minutes, at least 12 of such craft powered by smoky outboard engines

are navigating the tree-lined river that is no more than 30m at its widest.

 

All in, there are more than 100 tourists on the boats and they are in search of

the long-nosed, orange coated proboscis monkeys that have come to be associated

with Borneo's wildlife nearly as much as the orang utans.

 

The crowded river scene is almost a daily sight since the Lower Kinabatangan

region's reputation as the place to watch a variety wildlife, including

elephants, from the comfort of their boats became well known in the tourism

industry.

 

Today, however, there is no sign of the 100 or so animals that, along with the

proboscis monkeys and orang utans, are steadily being crowded into ever

decreasing tracts of the remaining forests in the area.

 

Their absence is a sad reflection of the prevailing pressures on the Lower

Kinabatangan's diverse wildlife, which is literally being squeezed by oil palm

plantations occupying an area of nearly 300,000ha, or about 10 times the size of

Penang island, in this part of Sabah.

 

For some unknown reason, some of these plantations were allocated land right to

the edge of the river. In the absence of any concrete laws requiring them to

establish a riparian reserve or strips of forests along the river, many

plantation managements simply cleared whatever little tracts of jungle there was

left and planted them with oil palm to maximise land use in this area of fertile

alluvial soils.

 

It has been estimated that the average yearly palm oil yield from Kinabatangan

plantations is 36 tonnes per hectare while other areas only average about 20

tonnes.

 

 

 

But the lower Kinabatangan is also known for its seasonal flooding, which

usually destroy seedlings planted in low-lying areas particularly along the

rivers. Floodwaters in 2000 caused oil palm crop damages totalling RM4 million.

 

For the elephants, primates and other wildlife in this area, the

 

 

 

removal of these strips of forests has spelt more loss of their available

habitat.

 

The Sandakan-Lahad Datu highway near Kampung Batu Putih in the Kinabatangan

also cuts across another route that is used by elephants to get to a forested

area nearby. And time appears to be running out for these animals.

 

WWF Malaysia field coordinator Lee Shan Kee who has been studying the

Kinabatangan elephants reckons that the remaining islands of forests may not be

able to support the anticipated increase of animal population in about 10 years.

 

The incidence of elephants damaging crops at oil palm plantations and villages

as they migrate between the remaining forested areas, comprising 10 parcels of

conservation areas and six tracts of forest reserves, is on the rise.

 

The Sabah Wildlife Department at Kota Kinabatangan has been getting an average

of three reports a month of such incidents.

 

Amid such bleak prospects, the WWF through its Partners for Wetlands programme

came up with the Kinabatangan, a Corridor of Life Vision, which was launched by

Chief Minister Datuk Chong Kah Kiat on January 15.

 

The Lower Kinabatangan Vision, as it came to be known, was an initiative to get

all those who had a stake in the area - everyone from the villagers comprising

mainly the Orang Sungei community, plantation owners, tourist lodge operators

and the government - to be involved in the sustainable development of the

region.

 

Among others, it envisions the establishment of a 500m-wide forest corridor

that would stretch from the coastal mangrove swamps downstream to the dry land

forests along both banks of the 560km-long Kinabatangan River.

 

The forest corridor would provide a crucial link for elephants and other

animals between the forest reserves and the parcels of land totalling 26,000ha,

which the state government had designated as the Kinabatangan Wildlife

Sanctuary.

 

The second thrust of the vision is the development of a diverse economy in the

region and a good environmental management of its available “natural capital”,

particularly the water resources.

 

In short, it is all about sustainable development and offering the landowners

(read that as oil palm plantation companies) an opportunity to take part in an

effort that would have given them and their product an “environmentally

friendly” image.

 

Sustainable development was also the buzzword at the first Earth Summit in Rio

de Janeiro in 1992 when world leaders agreed to combat climate change while

protecting plants and animals.

 

But 10 years down the road, it is painfully obvious that very little of what

had been promised has actually been translated into action. And given this track

record, expectations for the second Earth Summit was minimal.

 

Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik put it succinctly:

“Nothing will happen ... just like in 1992.”

 

But the WWF is plugging away to make things happen with the Kinabatangan

Vision, although the real results are still few and far in-between.

 

“There hasn't been much, but whatever has been done is like a little blow to

the chisel,” said WWF Borneo Programme director Dr Geoffrey Davison.

 

Eight months after the launch of the vision, he said he would have liked to see

more specific and concrete commitments from landowners for areas to be set aside

for the wildlife corridor apart from re-forestation plans on sites unsuitable

for cultivation.

 

To date, only about four of the dozens of plantation companies operating in the

Kinabatangan have committed themselves to set aside part of their land for the

forest corridor and the re-forestation scheme.

 

Among them is United Pontian Bhd, which has a 13,000ha oil palm plantation in

Kinabatangan. The company has made a commendable effort of re-foresting 10ha of

2,000ha of its land found unsuitable for cultivation.

 

According to plantation manager Zulkiflee Said, the company is still

experimenting with different tree species that can withstand attacks of leaf

pests, disease and even monkeys apart from the occasional floods.

 

“This something new to us. After all, we are not in the re-forestation

business,” he said.

 

As WWF officials continue to persuade other landowners to share and act on

this vision, land clearing activities along the Kinabatangan continue unabated.

Recently, logs - some as small as 20cm in diameter – were seen stacked at the

bank of Sungai Teneggang Besar, another tributary of the river.

 

Environmental and other concerned groups winced when Dr Lim said recently:

“What do orang utans have to do with palm oil?” They also wonder whether this

view is shared by landowners in the Kinabatangan region.

 

Though Dr Lim was referring to wide anticipation that developed countries would

again link trade with environmental issues in Johannesburg, the fact of the

matter is that oil palm does have a lot to do with orang utans and other

wildlife, particularly in the Kinabatangan.

 

<p>

 

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