Saturday, September 15, 2012

Prince William andwife to visit Danum Valley Saturday


KOTA KINABALU, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- With a world class ecosystem with about 125 species of mammals, over 300 birds, 72 reptiles and 56 amphibians, the Danum
Valley Conservation Area (DVCA) is truly a wild wonderland that one should not miss.

 Located in the southeastern part of Sabah, dubbed the Land Below the Wind, Danum Valley Conservation Area, covering an area of 43,800 hectares, is one of the last strongholds of undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest.

Danum Valley Conservation Area, which is the state's class 1 (protection) forest reserve, with tree species numbering over 200 per hectare, is also among the oldest and richest rainforest in the world.
"The beauty of the Danum Valley lies in the intricacy of this absolutely fabulous pristine rainforest," says Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin.

He said Danum Valley Conservation Area is one of the top three rainforest research centres in the world and is older than Amazon rainforest which is about 60 million years old.
These majestic forest with trees reaching over 60m tall provide a vital refuge to some of Sabah's most endangered wildlife such as orangutan, Sumatran rhino, Proboscis monkey and Asian elephant, as well as birds.

"The main attraction of course is its undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest. That's why the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit this place over the weekend to personally savour the beauty of the Danum Valley Conservation Area. This is an honour for Sabah," he told Bernama, here today.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to visit the Royal Society's South East Asia Rainforest Research programme (SEARRP) in Danum Valley on Saturday.

Tengku Zainal said Danum Valley is also an important advanced research centre with more than 300 studies/research projects completed so far.

Most of the research are collaborative efforts between Malaysian and scientists from overseas and mostly based on long-term research programmes initiated in 1984 between Danum Valley Management Committee and The Royal Society, United Kingdom under its South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP), and these studies have contributed to the understanding of tropical forests.

"Many graduates from bachelors, masters to doctoral and post-doctoral levels including from Cambridge and Oxford universities have done their rainforest research in Danum Valley," he said adding that the rainforest preserves many flora and fauna species found only in Borneo.

Long-term research activities being carried out at Danum Valley are hydrological and geomorphological Studies, Climatic Monitoring Studies, Forest Dynamics Studies, Sabah Biodiversity Experiment (SBE) and Rhino – Orangutan Research Programmes.

Other research includes Entomology, Lepidoptera (butterfly/moth), Coleoptera (beetles), Isoptera (termites) and bird studies.

As for the Sabah government's conservation policy, Tengku Zainal said the state's approach has been identified as one of the best conservation policies in the world.

He said more than 50 per cent of Sabah's land is still forested and this showed the government's seriousness in protecting the rainforest through sustainable management of forest.

State Forestry Department Director Datuk Sam Mannan was recently quoted as saying that despite countless acts of random madness in the past, the rainforests have recovered, considerable biological assets remain untouched and only one species, the Sabah Rhino, is found to be close to extinction.

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