- The state will open a Department of National Parks and Wildlife by January of next year, and is in the process of creating several new protected areas that encompass all of its orangutan habitat.
- The new department’s responsibilities will include managing and conserving wildlife, creating new totally protected areas (TPAs), and halting illegal hunting and the sale of bushmeat.
- Since July 2016, Sarawak has gazetted a total area of 903,769 hectares (more than 2.2 million acres) comprising 43 national parks, 14 natural reserves, and six wildlife sanctuaries, and is in the process of creating another 31 new TPAs with a combined area of 451,819 hectares (more than 1.1 million acres).
Sarawak is making good on last year’s pledge by Chief Minister Adenan Satem to prioritize the protection of Sarawak’s tropical forests and the orangutans that inhabit them.
The Malaysian state on the island of Borneo will open a Department of National Parks and Wildlife by January of next year, and is in the process of creating several new protected areas that encompass all of its orangutan habitat.
The Malay Mail reports that, according to State Forestry Department director Sapuan Ahamad, the department’s structure and organization have been prepared and will be presented to the government for formal approval.
The new department’s responsibilities will include managing and conserving wildlife, creating new totally protected areas (TPAs), and halting illegal hunting and the sale of bushmeat. “It will in particular look after the orang utan and the growing threat to humans from crocodiles threatened by food shortage and increasingly polluted rivers,” Sapuan said.
He added that, since July 2016, Sarawak has gazetted a total area of 903,769 hectares (more than 2.2 million acres) comprising 43 national parks, 14 natural reserves, and six wildlife sanctuaries, and is currently in the process of creating another 31 new TPAs with a combined area of 451,819 hectares (more than 1.1 million acres).
Sapuan also noted that orangutan populations in the state of Sarawak have increased, according to reports from the Wildlife Conservation Society. “We have some 1,600 of the primates living in the Orang Utan Sanctuary in Lanjak Entimau (some 200,000 hectares of natural habitat), besides those in Ulu Sebuyau and Sedilu,” he said.
The Borneo Post reported last month that all orangutan habitats in Sarawak — Batang Ai National Park, Ulu Sebuyau National Park, Sedilu National Park, and Lanjak Entimau Wild Life Sanctuary — have now been designated as TPAs.
Oil palm cultivation has become a major threat to the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia over the past several years, but the Sarawak state government plans to ensure that virgin jungle and TPAs are not cleared for oil palm, per the Borneo Post. Currently, some 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of Sarawak is planted with oil palm. Permits for new oil palm cultivation will only be issued in areas that have already been logged, areas planted with other crops, or on Native Customary Rights land.
Environmentalists and conservationists who work in Sarawak were quick to applaud the move by the state government to create new protected areas and an official department to oversee management of forest and wildlife conservation.
Jettie Word, director of the Borneo Project, said that establishing a national parks and wildlife department is a move in the right direction, but that its success will depend on how the department is managed and whether it works together with indigenous communities that live in or near conservation zones. “For any significant work to be done, rural communities must be actively included in the conversation, and indigenous land rights need to be strengthened along with the creation of new protected areas,” she told Mongabay.
Annina Aeberli of the Bruno Manser Fund said she interprets the creation of a Department of National Parks and Wildlife as a sign that conservation will be given more weight by Sarawak in the future. “The creation of an independent body looking after and protecting Sarawak’s forests and wildlife is a move into the right direction,” Aeberli said.
Like Jettie Word, Aeberli also highlighted the importance of the Sarawak government working in collaboration with indigenous communities:
“The new department will hopefully have enough resources and the support of the Forestry Department to pursue its goal of conservation. It is important, however, that the new department will also take the rights and needs of the indigenous peoples into account when establishing new protected areas. Local communities should be included throughout the implementation and management of every project.”
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