600 species of flora saved from Bakun

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KUCHING: Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) has saved 600 species of flora from the Bakun Hydro project site.

PAMPERED: Taib looking at an enlargement of the book cover featuring an orang utan after unveiling it. With him are (from left) Awang Tengah, Hanifah and Masing.

This comprises 76 family types, 184 genus and 349 species while for fauna the corporation has rescued a total of 65 species that includes 27 types of mammals and 38 types of birds.

SFC chairman Datu Dr Yusoff Hanifah said the rescue operation was an effort under its Wildlife Monitoring and Rescue Operations (WiMOR) that involved cross-divisional experts from the corporation  conducting the survey, research and collection of species of flora and fauna from the pre- to post-impoundment stages.

“Sarawak Forestry’s involvement in this project is based on a co-management concept with Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd,” he said, adding the main role of SFC was to assist the company with technical support for the rescue efforts and data collection.

Hanifah was speaking at the corporation’s annual dinner held at a hotel on Friday night. Among those attending was Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Hanifah told the diners that the corporation had conducted conservation activities to protect the amazing wealth of natural resources in the state.

“As for conservation efforts, the year 2010 has been a well coordinated year as our projects have advanced to greater levels, providing better efforts and outcomes in our activities,” he said.

Hanifah cited the corporation’s conservation projects that include seagrass monitoring at Kuala Lawas and Marine Turtle project at Tanjung Datu National Park. Both projects had been successfully implemented to benefit sea turtles, dugongs, dolphins and other marine wildlife.

“Apart from this, our project in Kuala Lawas is also one of our many accomplishments of 2010 as it is an attempt to transform Kuala Lawas into a gazetted national park where various R&D on Lawas waters can be conducted,” he said.

This acted as a centre for information and bio-marine studies for the Fisheries Department of Brunei and Sabah Parks.

On the corporation’s efforts to educate the public on the importance of conservation of natural resources, Hanifah said the corporation’s education programmes were receiving their support.

“Their engagement with us is evident in our conservation programmes such as the Orang Utan Adoption, Heart to Heart with Orang Utan and Turtle Adoption.”

“All of these programmes have received contribution and participation from individuals and corporations from all over the world,” he said.

Hanifah announced that the corporation’s Orang Utan Adoption programme had caught the attention of the AmBank Group, the first local bank involved in the programme, which has agreed to contribute of RM100,000.

“To date, we have received a total RM605,000 from the corporation’s adoption of orang utans. We urge other corporate companies to support and contribute to orang utan conservation in Sarawak,” he said.

After delivering his speech, Taib launched a book titled ‘Sweethearts of Sarawak’ which is the corporation’s latest initiative to promote the importance of conserving orang utans among the public.

After the book’s launch, Taib, who is also the Minister of Planning and Resource Management, received mock cheques for RM100,000 from AmBank Group chairman Datuk Azman Hashim and RM30,000 from Cellmark AB, a Sweden-based marketing company for the Orang Utan Adoption programme.

Others present were Land Development Minister Dato Sri Dr James Jemut Masing, Second Planning and Resource Management Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan and SFC managing director cum CEO Datu Len Talif Salleh.