KOTA KINABALU: An important milestone has been achieved towards the gazetting of the proposed Tun Mustapha Park (TMP) when an intern steering committee for the TMP was formalised through its first meeting at Le Miridien Hotel on Feb 1.
In the next three years, the intern steering committee and its working groups will work towards an Integrated Management Plan that will achieve the three objectives of the proposed TMP with its first fully collaboratively managed park established through a consultative and participatory process by the various stakeholders of TMP, including the local communities.
“The intention to gazette the proposed Tun Mustapha Park was approved by the Sabah government through a cabinet decision in March 2003.
“The main objectives for the establishment were to conserve biodiversity, to ensure sustainable development and to alleviate poverty in the proposed TMP,” said Augustine Binson of Sabah Parks in a press release yesterday.
Binson said it had received recognition as one of the priority conservation areas under the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas Marine Eco-region and was identified as a priority site under the Coral Triangle Initiative’s Malaysian National Plan of Action.
The Coral Triangle Initiative is a six-country plan to conserve the world’s epicenter for marine biodiversity.
He said activities promoting the gazette of the park agencies, which included the Sabah Parks, Sabah Fisheries Department, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, WWF Malaysia and others are currently on-going.
“The formation of the intern steering committee was first mooted in a stakeholder workshop in April 2009. Sabah Parks, with funding from the USAID Coral Triangle Support Partnership, organized this first meeting to formally establish the TMP’s intern steering committee.
“The TMP steering committee is chaired by the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Suzannah Liaw, with Sabah Parks functioning as the secretariat,” he said.
Binson said the committees which mostly consisted of related stakeholders from the various agencies, ranging from the local authorities, government agencies, universities, relevant societies or bodies, community representatives, as well as NGOs, which are WWF Malaysia and others would provide oversight to six working groups towards establishing an integrated management plan for the proposed Tun Mustapha Park.
The first group is an integrated resources management group led by Sabah Parks, the second is a coastal and deep water fisheries management group led by the Sabah Fisheries Department, the third group is zoning and is led by Universiti Malaysia Sabah, the fourth group is the development of other socio-economic programmes led by the district offices of Kudat, Kota Marudu and Pitas.
The fifth group is the development of an environmental education and public awareness programme led by the Environmental Protection Department and the sixth group formed to look into the legal framework, governance and security issues of TMP, is led by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.