Sabah on track to expand TPAs by 30 per cent within a decade: Musa

0

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is on track to expand the size of the totally protected areas (TPAs) to 30 per cent of state’s land mass within a decade, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said.

Musa was pleased to note that to date over 21 per cent of Sabah state land is gazetted as TPAs, arguably the best in Malaysia and the region.

“This percentage exceeds the International Union for Conservation of Nature target of 10 per cent and even the Convention on Biological Diversity targets 17 per cent of various type of ecosystems,” he said.

Musa was speaking at the opening of the International Conference on Bridging Heart of Borneo (HoB) Landscapes and Beyond through Healthy Watershed Corridors and Sabah’s Ramsar Conference here, today.

Also present were Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre (TRCRC) Bhd Advisor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, TRCRC Bhd Chairman Tun Jeanne Abdullah and Sabah Forest Department (SFD) Director Datuk Sam Mannan.

Musa reiterated that the state government, through SFD, was committed to the HoB initiative and, had in fact, designated about four million hectares of the state’s landmass, comprising important inland and highland forest ecosystems.

“The initiative is very much in line with the mission of the state’s forest resources in accordance with the principle of sustainable forest management, incorporating biodiversity conservation,” he added.

He said another contribution towards the success of Sabah’s effort in conservation was the Ramsar Convention on Wetland, with six Ramsar sites in Malaysia and the Lower Kinabatangan-Segama Wetland in Sabah was the largest, covering three forest reserves.

The two-day conference, being attended by local and international participants will cover the South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme and introduction of the Certified Sustainable Palm Oil jurisdictional approach -BERNAMA