NEWS OF TODAY

ACCORD ON NEED FOR FOREST CORRIDORS
Daily Express (Thursday, January 12, 2012)
Larry Ralon
KOTA KINABALU : Four main issues, namely landscape connectivity, responsible eco-tourism, zero killing / poaching and setting up to alliances, were discussed through the two-day Sabah wildlife conservation colloquium (SWCC) 2012 which ended Wednesday.

State Wildlife Department Director Dr Laurentius Ambu said for the first issue on landscape connectivity (corridors, riparian, reserves, plantations) there was consensus among the colloquium attendants that maintenance of forest corridors in plantation landscapes is important and if such corridors no longer exist to re-establish them where this possible.

“It is however recognized that corridor establishment is expensive and challenging and it needs to be done is concert with other management tools.” He said presenting a summary of these issues at the closing of the SWCC 2012 at Le Meridien here.

He said translocation of wildlife is also difficult and rarely a preferred option, thus significant study is needed to better understand and implement translocation.

“One example that was mentioned is the corridor that would re-establish a link from Kinabatangan through Batu Putih to Deramakot, which hopefully can reduce the high density of elephants in the Lower Kinabatangan “he said.

Ambu said in sabah in legislation with regard to corridors needs to be clarified because there are often discrepancies between legal set-aside obligations and what is stated in land title.

“A more generic point that was raised was the lack of a shared platform for all relevant stakeholders to plan and implement integrated land use management. These discussions are held within silos but there is no effective integration. Good oil palm companies are calling for the development of such a forum ], and they assume that once this integrated panning is happening more companies will follow leading to overall improved landscape-level management,” he said.

On the responsible eco-tourism, he said there was limited discussion on this topic, but one important point that was raised is that wildlife watching guidelines should be provided by the wildlife department and tourism ministry with standard operational procedures (incl. minimum viewing distance; contact with animals etc).

For the zero killing/ poaching, he said zero killing cannot be achieved but what should be strived for is zero tolerance to wildlife killing.

“If companies would make it clear to their staff that they would be fired if found to be illegally killing, this could be a highly effective tool to reduce wildlife losses. It was commented however that this needs to be species-specific, I.e. protected species only, only, not all species…a lot of measures to reduce killing of protected species are already part of certification requirements,” he said.

The discussion did not result in a clear conclusion about what actually needs to be done, he said, adding that a final strong request was made for the oil palm industry to officially support a zero tolerance to killing of protected wildlife.

“In reply, the Malaysian palm oil Council (MPOC) said that they have already met many NGO demands and made significant contributions to conservation,” he said.

He said in principle the MPOC supports the idea but the continuous public criticism of the oil palm industry retards change and MPOC suggests it needs time to internally discuss and develop such a policy.

On the setting up of alliances (monitoring, fund raising etc), he said the Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bora) was discussed as an example of focused collaboration between the government, NGOs and the private sector, with specific attention to the funding of this programme.

He said the Bora alliance provides an example for similar alliances that need to be developed, as called for in the orang utan and elephant state action plans.