Guest guest Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 Saturday August 18, 2007-The Star Sabah identifies orang utan zone KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has designated the entire Ulu Segama dan Malua forest reserves, covering an area of about 240,000ha, for an orang utan conservation programme. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the move showed the state's commitment to preserve the state's wildlife and forest. He dismissed claims that orang utan in the state were being threatened by the clearing of forests for the development of the oil palm sector. " We don't kill orang utans which are an important part of our tourism industry. Killing them is tantamount to killing tourism. And we won't do that, " said Masidi at the opening the Organisation of Asia Pacific News Agencies (Oana) Workshop On Sustainable Forest Management on behalf of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman here on Tuesday. He said there might be incidents of orang utan being killed by poachers but the situation was under control. Masidi further said that Sabah was identifying areas that could be turned into a " forest corridor " in efforts to increase the number of Sumatran rhinoceros. The corridor, he said, could be located in the Segama forest reserve, Maliau and Tabin forest reserve. " They are saying that the rhinos are not multiplying because the male and female rhinos don't have the opportunity to meet each other, " he said. Sabah is home to between 50 and 120 of the endangered rhinoceros. Representatives attending the three-day workshop were Oana members such as Xinhua of China, Kyodo (Japan), Yonhap (South Korea), Vietnam News Agency, RIA Novosti (Russia) and Antara (Indonesia). The event was organised by Bernama. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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