Sarawak to be more ape-friendly

KUCHING: The Sarawak Government will embark on an orang utan-led environmental policy, promises Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem.

Aside from not approving any new logging licences and approvals for plantations, the ape-friendly policy should lead to there being more totally-protected and communal conservation areas at newly-found orang utan habitats.

Adenan, in a taped speech presented at the Great Apes Survival Partnership (Grasp) meeting in Kota Kinabalu yesterday, said the Batang Ai and Lajak-Entimau protected areas that border West Kalimantan, Indonesia, would likely be expanded based on new sightings.

The Chief Minister, who in the recording described himself as an “amateur naturalist” and a fan of BBC documentary maker Sir David Attenborough, pledged to “make decisions that are in the favour of nature”.

“I am very concerned about the state of our orang utans and other mammals in Borneo. I am a naturalist by inclination and have made concrete decisions with regard to conservation of our natural resources, especially with regard to fauna,” Adenan said during the Grasp South-East Asia meeting.

“With regard to orang utans, we have happily discovered a few more areas of habitat. In fact, over and above the present ones at the Batang Ai and Lanjak Entimau landscape, they have discovered quite a few more in nearby areas. We will preserve those.”

Adenan said the state would totally prohibit commercial dealings in known orang utan habitats.

His speech was contained within the keynote address of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Malaysia director, Dr Melvin Gumal.

Gumal told The Star that he was convinced that Adenan’s pledge around orang utans was one of the strongest made in the world.

“This is really good news because it means, from now on, wherever orang utans are found in non-protected areas, the consideration to conserve will be real.

“It also means non-consumptive activities such as eco-tourism would be prioritised. We already know there are new plans that consider these alternatives,” Gumal said.

Portions of Batang Ai are currently in a national park, while the Lanjak Entimau area is a wildlife sanctuary.

Joint public-private survey findings that ended in May last year have uncovered the existence of about 200 orang utans in and around Ulu Sungai Menyang, which is south of the existing protected areas.

The boundaries of Batang Ai National Park could also be widened westwards, where two other surveys have shown an estimated over 120 orang utans.

In a report in The Star a year ago, illegal logging was detected by indigenous communities living near the national park and staff of an international hotel chain that operates a five-star resort in the area. The report led to swift enforcement.

In March this year, the Sarawak Government announced a revised target of creating 1.5 million hectares of totally protected areas, which is slightly above 10% of the state’s landmass.

In the pipeline are some 20 new national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, including extensions on current ones like Kubah National Park, home to some of the world’s smallest frogs.

Earlier in the speech, Adenan also said a new scheme would welcome more foreign researchers and scientists into Sarawak.