MoU aims to promote conservation projects

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Sapuan (second left) and WCS director Melvin T Gumal exchange MoU documents.

Sapuan (second left) and WCS director Melvin T Gumal exchange MoU documents.

KUCHING: The Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote and implement conservation projects and activities in various protected areas through scientific research, conservation education, information sharing and capacity building.

Forest Department director Sapuan Ahmad said the MoU aimed to provide technical expertise and administration services to WCS for the development and implementation of conservation activities in protected areas.

WCS will provide technical experts, advice and assistance for the development and implementation of conservation activities in protected areas, carry out research concerning wildlife and assist in preparing implementation plans for research and conservation activities concerning specific wildlife species and habitat.

“There has been a long working history between FDS and WCS since the 1959, when a letter from New York came to Sarawak Forest Department on the survey of orangutans in Sarawak,” Sapuan told a press conference.

“This MoU formalises all our work with WCS on orangutans and in 2015, it constitutes 4.5 decades of a wonderful working relationship.”

He said the department also worked with WCS on the Wildlife Master Plan Policy for Sarawak in the mid-1990s and more recently on the orangutan strategic action plan in 2010.

In addition, possible long-term collaboration activities that FDS and WCS are working on include the United Nations

Global Environment Facility projects and research activities on orangutans, he added.