It also supports more than 40 species of forest trees.
BUKIT Lima Forest Park in Sibu is one of Pang Chui Hua’s favourite spots for exercise.
The semi-retired insurance manager, who lives about 4km away, walks and jogs at this urban park twice a week, sometimes alone and other times with friends.
Residents like Pang often enjoy short trekking, jogging, or nature-watching along the jungle trail.
“I will be there once or twice a week. I usually walk a full length of about 5km at a leisurely pace, which takes me about 90 minutes,” said Pang.
He has his reasons for choosing the park to stay active.
“It’s a pretty good place. The atmosphere is cool. There is a lot of fresh air here as it is surrounded by trees and vegetation,” he declared.
Pang, 64, said he sometimes sees monkeys in the tall trees. Midin (wild fern) grows in abundance, but the authorities have stopped people from plucking them.
He noted that the park is under-utilised and called on local authorities to organise more activities to promote it.
“More people in Sibu need to exercise. More health awareness campaigns can be held to get people to exercise, not only in this park but other community parks in town,” he suggested.
Retiree Chua Ching Ming started going to the park about a month ago.
“I do light jogging four times a week, usually at 2.30pm and finishing at 4pm, covering a distance of 7km,” he said.
In just a month, Chua has fallen in love with the park due to its fresh air and wildlife.
“At times, I have stumbled upon two to three monkeys on the trail,” he said.
Bukit Lima Forest Park, opened in 2001, is located in the heart of Sibu town, amidst the Kampung Sentosa resettlement area. It is a favourite urban park among the Sibu community, popular for conservation activities and recreational visitors due to its peat swamp forest environment.
The park has jungle trails suitable for forest walks and jogging.
With wooden plank walks of 5.7km in length, visitors can experience the peat swamp forest and enjoy interacting with nature and wildlife.
According to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), the park is home to 39 species of birds, including barbets, babblers, flowerpeckers, broadbills, sunbirds, and bulbuls.
Eight species of mammals can also be found here, including the Malayan weasel, sambar deer, giant squirrel, plantain squirrel, treeshrew, pangolin, slow loris, and long-tailed macaque.
Visitors can also enjoy the park’s facilities, including a children’s playground and a reflexology park with pebble paths for barefoot walking to stimulate various points of the feet.
Several rest shelters are provided along the nature trails.
The park supports more than 40 species of forest trees, most of which are typical peat swamp species. These include the timber species ramin and alan, which were of great economic importance to Sarawak from the 1950s to the 1990s.
In a community project with local company Pansar, SFC has labelled some of the trees along the plank walks, allowing visitors to identify timber, fruit trees, and trees with medicinal uses.
Bukit Lima Forest Park is open from 8am to 5pm daily.
