Malaysia will reforest 4000 ha of forest in Borneo
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
May 7, 2007
Malaysia plans to rehabilitate 4000 hectares (10,000 acres) of damaged forest is Sabah state, on the island of Borneo, reports the Associated Press. The environmental restoration and management plan for the Ulu Semaga-Malua forests will cost $58 million.
The initiative calls for the conservation of 3000 endangered orangutans in Ulu Semaga-Malua. About 13,000 orangutans, or about 20 percent of the world’s wild orangutans, are estimated to live in the state.
Since the 1980s the rainforests of Sabah and Sarawak, a neighboring Malaysian state in Borneo, have been destroyed at some of the highest rates on record, mostly for industrial logging. In recent years, conversion of forest for oil palm plantations has emerged as a new threat to the region’s biodiverse ecosystems.
Earlier this year conservationists finally got some good news when the three governments that share the island of Borneo–Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia–agreed to protect the “Heart of Borneo”, a rugged 220,000 square kilometer (85,000 square mile) area of forest in the center of the island.