(MY) orang utans corridor

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Tuesday May 16, 2006 - The Star

 

Planting a corridor

 

By MICHAEL CHEANG

 

LOOK! Up there. It's an orang utan, " exclaimed our guide excitedly,

pointing towards trees on the riverbank.

 

After two fruitless boat trips along the Kinabatangan River to catch a

glimpse of wild orang utans, we had finally found one and boy, was it

a moment to savour.

 

I could barely contain my excitement as we sat in our boat watching

the orang utan sit quietly high up in the tree canopy munching on its

favourite fruit, and then swinging gracefully from branch to branch

away from us.

 

It was an unforgettable moment. Even being up close with at least 20

orang utans at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in

Sandakan later could not compare with the euphoric feeling of seeing a

wild orang utan in its natural habitat.

 

Unfortunately, moments like that are in danger of disappearing as the

primate's forested home is being destroyed by human development,

particularly from encroachment of oil palm plantations into forest

reserves.

 

A trip up the Kinabatangan revealed stretches of oil palm plantations

along the banks of the mighty river; some oil palm trees even grow

right on the edge of riverbanks. This does not bode well for wildlife

there as the forest which they reside in shrink with each new

plantation.

 

It is to preserve this wildlife refuge that conservation group World

Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiated the Corridor of Life project

which aims to rehabilitate degraded forests along Sungai Kinabatangan,

to create " forest corridors " linking isolated patches of forests

reserves so that wildlife can move from one to the other.

 

" This is imperative for wild orang utans who spend most of their lives

in tree canopies. It is important to have these 'corridors' for them

to travel from one food source to another, " said Kertijah Abdul Kadir,

WWF reforestation officer who supervises the project.

 

Corridor of Life was launched in 2002 as part of WWF's Partners for

Wetlands project to conserve the Kinabatangan floodplain by bringing

together stakeholders in the agriculture, tourism and government

sectors to address the threats facing Kinabatangan. Its ultimate

objective is to ensure that wildlife, local communities and economic

development thrive and support each other.

 

The project aims to reforest over 115,120ha of land. With forest

corridors in place, wildlife can traverse patches of forest reserves

without intruding into private plantations, thus reducing

human-wildlife conflicts.

 

Theoretically, it all sounds plausible but Kertijah admitted that the

project has a long way to go.

 

" It is a long-term conservation project in which the objective is to

control long-term damage and conserve existing forests. It will be a

long time before we can see visible results. "

 

WWF works to get oil palm companies to provide land for reforestation.

Three corporations have contributed over 1,200ha of riparian forest to

the project so far - Asiatic Development (86ha), Pontian United

Plantations (4ha) and Borneo Samudera (1,200ha). Memorandums of

Understanding (MOU) with WWF are renewed every two years.

 

" Since the reforestation started, there have been less instances of

elephants intruding into estates. We have also seen elephant movements

in the reforested areas, so they are using the corridors, " said

Kertijah.

 

Asiatic Development, the first company to join the Partners for

Wetlands effort in 1999, recently renewed their MOU with WWF.

 

" We know the area has a lot of wildlife such as orang utans, wild

boars, deers, monkeys and elephants, so we were quite happy to join

the Corridor of Life. Such projects should be encouraged because we

really should not have animals trapped in isolated forests, " said

joint chief executive Datuk Baharuddin Musa.

 

" Even before WWF approached us, we had already set aside land for

wildlife sanctuaries. There are also certain areas that we don't use

at all to avoid disrupting movements of animals between our

sanctuaries. "

 

The forest rehabilitation is conducted by companies which own the

land, with technical assistance from WWF initially. Asiatic's land

contribution stretches for 2.5km along Sungai Tenengang Besar, a

Kinabatangan tributary.

 

The company started the programme in 2000, planting 1594 trees.

Unfortunately, three quarters of them died during the annual flood.

 

" We learnt our lesson and planted more water resistant trees after

that. We planted 880 trees in 2001 and this time, all the trees

survived, " said Baharuddin.

 

From 2001 to 2004, the trees were monitored and when they showed

satisfactory growths, tree planting resumed, with the planting of

1,039 trees last year and another 1,039 this year.

 

It is estimated that on top of the RM20,000 that Asiatic spends

annually on tree-planting, the company loses about RM320,000 (about

RM4000 per ha) in profits for sacrificing the land.

 

Nevertheless, Baharuddin said the worthy cause justified the losses.

" We believe in co-existence between humans and animals, and for us,

sacrificing that land for the purpose of preserving wildlife is a

small matter. It is part of our responsibility as a corporation to

minimise the effect of activities on the environment. "

 

He is aware that not every player in the industry can afford such

luxuries. For smaller-scale landowners, every inch of land counts and

convincing them to give up land for conservation would be difficult.

 

" Being a big company, Asiatic can afford not to plant on 86ha but

private smallholders have to maximise their land, so every bit of land

is planted. "

 

Kertijah said getting companies involved is no easy task. " We have a

problem recruiting medium and small landholders. They may not be aware

of regulations and conservation efforts. For this, we sometimes run

workshops for plantation owners.

 

" As smaller players, they have to maximise their profits, so they

would just plant oil palm trees right up to the riverbank, " she said,

adding that State regulations require at least 20m of land between the

edge of a plantation and a river (depending on the width of the

river).

 

At the same time, WWF does not accept just any patch of land for the

project. " We sometimes have to turn down offers of land that have low

value in terms wildlife and bio-diversity conservation, " said

Kertijah.

 

How you can help

 

 

You can help save the orang utan and other endangered animals by

donating just RM1 a day to WWF. All donations are tax-deductible. For

details, call River or Ruby ( 03-7803 3772).

 

Purchase Kogiu and the Banana Tree (RM23 per copy) at WWF-Malaysia

(49, Jalan SS23/15, Taman Sea, 47400 Petaling Jaya). Proceeds from the

sale of this beautifully illustrated bi-lingual book will go to

conservation efforts in Sabah.

 

To learn more about Corridor of Life, go to www.wwfmalaysia.org/PFW.