MPOGCF Drives Bornean Elephant Corridor Effort With Napier Grass Study

TAWAU, June 26 (Bernama) -- The Napier Pak Chong grass-planting project spearheaded by the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF) to support a wildlife corridor for Bornean elephants in Sabah has shown encouraging progress, with initial monitoring indicating that the animals have begun using a food bank area within the corridor.

Sabah Softwoods Berhad (SSB) sustainability manager Mohd Hafizzul Samutu said further scientific studies were being conducted to verify whether Napier grass had become a preferred food source for Bornean elephants before the project's effectiveness could be conclusively established.

He said the current research focused on Napier Pak Chong grass from Thailand and Taiwan Napier grass, both of which have higher nutrient content than local Napier grass.

Mohd Hafizzul said the two varieties were selected based on previous studies involving livestock such as cattle, which showed that they had higher nutritional value, were easy to grow and reproduced rapidly.

“We are studying whether elephants and other wildlife will accept these new grass varieties within the wildlife corridor. We also want to know whether they favour Pak Chong and Taiwan Napier grass over grasses that naturally grow in riparian areas,” he said during a media tour of the Napier Grass Planting Project under the Tawau Wildlife Corridor Strategy at SSB here yesterday.

Mohd Hafizzul said the analysis was crucial to determining whether Napier grass cultivation could attract more large mammals to the wildlife corridor in the Brumas area, thereby reducing their movement into farms and human settlements.

According to him, losses from encroachment into plantation areas previously reached about RM500,000 annually before the wildlife corridor was established, but have now declined to approximately RM5,000 a year.

He added that initial findings of the study were expected within the next two months before being included in the research report.

“Camera and video recordings show that elephants are entering this food bank area. However, faecal analysis is still ongoing to determine whether Napier Pak Chong and Taiwan Napier are present in elephant faeces as proof that the grasses have been consumed,” he said.

The two-year study from 2025 to 2026 is funded by MPOGCF and carried out in collaboration with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), SSB and the Sabah Wildlife Department.

It aims to provide sufficient food resources within a 15-hectare wildlife corridor connecting the Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve and the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, thereby reducing human-elephant conflict caused by habitat loss and limited food availability.

In addition to planting Napier grass as an enrichment crop, the project also involves the installation of satellite collars to monitor the movements of Bornean elephant herds.

--BERNAMA