(MY) - Action to gazette Kinabatangan sanctuary in Sabah

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Tuesday July 26, 2005 - The Star

 

 

PM’s call triggers action to gazette Kinabatangan sanctuary

 

BY MUGUNTAN VANAR

 

KOTA KINABALU: One call was all it took after six years to hasten the

process of gazetting the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.

 

A concerned Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was on his way to South

Africa, took time off to telephone Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman to enquire

about the sanctuary.

 

The Prime Minister had read articles on the sanctuary in The Star, which

reported that several villagers in Sukau and Bilit had asked him to

intervene and help conserve the area.

 

“The Prime Minister called me up over The Star report and I explained to him

that the gazetting of the sanctuary under the wildlife conservation

enactment was going on,” said Musa.

 

He also informed Abdullah that officers from the Wildlife Department had the

powers to catch anyone suspected of endangering the environment within the

proposed sanctuary.

 

Musa said the state Cabinet would be discussing the gazetting of the

26,000ha sanctuary on Aug 3.

 

He said the Forestry Department and Land and Survey Department were working

on the technical aspects of the gazette under the Wildlife Conservation

Enactment.

 

“I think it is in the process of being gazetted. It won’t take long,” Musa

said after receiving RM5mil in dividends from the state-owned Warisan Harta.

 

 

STRIPPED: The barren land along the road leading to Kampung Sukau in

Kinabatangan, Sabah. Villagers along the Kinabatangan River estimate that at

least 20% of the proposed sanctuary had been cleared over the last four

years.

The Star highlighted yesterday the risk facing the 100-million-year-old

forest that has been only gazetted as a bird sanctuary under the state land

ordinance since 2002.

 

Villagers along the Kinabatangan river estimated that 20% of the proposed

sanctuary had been cleared in the last four years, threatening the flora and

fauna, including endangered animal species Borneo pygmy elephants, probocis

monkeys, orang utans and hornbills.

 

Asked how long it will take to convert the bird sanctuary to a corridor for

wildlife, Musa said as far he was concern the state government has given the

instruction for the sanctuary to be gazetted.

 

To a question if any group or company were trying to block the move to

gazette the sanctuary, he said:

 

“I don’t think so.

 

“Once the government and the Cabinet have made a decision, nobody can block

it.”

 

As to why some oil palm plantations have planted crops right to the banks of

the Kinabatangan river, he said, there could be state land given to the

plantation companies previously and “we cannot disturb them because its

already given to them.”

 

He said the companies were allowed to cut trees to plant oil palm with the

approval of the relevant authorities.

 

On the existence of selective logging of certain tree species within the

sanctuary and land clearing close to the sanctuary, he said no logging was

allowed to take place in the area.

 

“But, I have to admit that there are illegal loggers there. We are trying to

do our best to catch them,” he said.

 

Some villagers had been felling Keruing and Kapur timber species for the

purposes of building a lodge in Sukau, a tourist attraction.

 

When told that sand dredging was being carried out in the Kinabatangan

river, Musa said: “That one I don’t know, we will have to check on it. I

will ask the district office.”

 

He then instructed State Secretary Datuk K.Y. Mustafa to check reports of

sand dredging activity in the areas.

 

A journalist from The Star who was in Sukau last week saw large barges

filled with river sand sailing through the Kinabatangan river after 7pm.

 

Villagers said the dredging had been going on at the Ulu Kinabatangan area

since early this year and the sand was for a seaside housing project in

Sandakan.

 

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