Sabah remains committed to having 30 per cent total protected area by 2025 - CM

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 9 -- The Sabah government remains committed to expanding its Total Protected Areas (TPAs) under the Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative to cover 30 per cent of the state's landmass by 2025, said Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor.

Officiating the first virtual international conference on “HoB Initiative - Moving Forward in the New Norm” here, Hajiji said currently more than 26 per cent or 1.9 million hectares of Sabah's land area has been gazetted as TPAs under the HoB Initiative.

He said Sabah had achieved significant progress in forest conservation since the inception of the HoB Initiative 14 years ago, with 75 per cent of the 1.9-million-hectare TPAs are located within the Malaysian boundary in Borneo.

“The TPAs expansion target is in line with Sabah's five-year development plan, the Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) 2021-2025 which has included the HoB Initiative in the Green Infrastructure and Sustainability Networks.

“From our concerted efforts, Sabah has maintained 50 per cent of its landmass under forest covers and we have increased forest covers to 65 per cent of which 52 per cent are gazetted as Forest Reserves, Parks and Wildlife Conservation Areas. The HoB Project has restored 2,000 hectares of forest reserves,” he said.

Hajiji said Sabah will be implementing the Integrated Landscape Management of Heart of Borneo Landscapes under the Global Environment Facility- funded, Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Programme, a project that focuses on environmental and land development management.

“The six-year project involves 1.6 million hectares of land within the HoB landscape, costing US$7.3 million (RM30.3 million) to be funded by the Global Environment Facility, under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“Sabah will also be involved in another UNDP-funded programme, the BIOFIN project, on Conservation Finance in the State,” he explained.

According to the Chief Minister, Sabah has engaged with various partners, executing 79 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Memoranda of Agreement in past years, and will add another eight MoUs to the list today.

He said the federal government had channelled RM47 million for the HoB Initiative since 2009, and under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP)  the federal government had also pledged an additional RM13 million, while a total of 22 field outposts had been established to enhance enforcement within Sabah's forest reserves since 2007.

“The Sabah Forestry Department has established an elite tactical team called PROTECT, a special anti-poaching squad to assist in enforcement logistics and the team is working closely with the Royal Malaysia Police in the Khazanah Operation, to check on forest encroachment issues.

“To further strengthen the enforcement, we have engaged with local communities to serve as Honorary Forest Rangers, and today we have 112 of such Rangers from 700 villagers,” he said.

In addition, Hajiji said Sabah had hosted 42 scientific expeditions within the HoB boundary, including having 1,800 local students from 34 schools involved in the HoB awareness programme.

He said these expeditions have yielded several key scientific discoveries, among them, the world’s tallest rainforest trees at the Danum Valley Conservation Area, Lahad Datu, and the discovery of the rare, elusive Bornean endemic Hose’s Langur in Maligan, Sipitang; and that the results from the expeditions will guide the state government in formulating the Conservation Plan particularly in the High Conservation Value areas.

Just like the implementation of the Malaysian Climate Change Action Council (MyCAC) at the federal level to look at climate change issues, he said Sabah too would have its own CAC platform to discuss climate change policies and actions, drive green economic growth, catalyse green technology and low-carbon growth.

“Sabah will carry out carbon trading carefully so that such activities do not affect the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions commitment,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hajiji said this year’s conference will assist the government to gather resources to formulate its third Strategic Plan of Action (SPA) for the initiative.

The SPA first prepared in 2013 will be completed by 2022.

The Chief Minister said he was also glad to see the continuing efforts in research by scientists and writers at HoB which have yielded several publications as evidenced by the publications of two new books by Markus Gubilil entitled “A Checklist of Trees of Sabah – new edition” and “Panduan Bergambar Likofit dan Paku Pakis di Sabah."

-- BERNAMA