KOTA KINABALU, March 1 — Sabah is facing a major stumbling block in its Kinabatangan “Corridor of Life” wildlife conservation project as landowners in the highly cultivable region are unwilling to give up their plots for conservation purposes.
Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said that it would take time to iron out the land issues to allow the state to proceed with the forest corridor, which seeks to connect fragmented forest patches and mangrove swamps to upland forests where wildlife habitat will be more secure in the long term.
“The intention is still there but it is easier said than done. We have to pass through a lot of land and it is not easy to convince people to give up land.
“We get some land through donations but some refuse to sell their land. That is what is holding us back on the corridor plan,” he said after a book launch here yesterday.
Masidi said the state was not keen, however, to use the Land Acquisition Act to compel the landowners to give up or sell their land as they do not want to upset any party.
“We want them to be partners in conservation but they won’t be good partners if we force them to sell their land. We want it to be as amicable as possible, through friendly persuasion.
“The other option is land acquisition but buying land is not cheap and we hope to avoid this. We feel the best situation is when the people feel they have ownership of the programme, so that they are willing to help and want to contribute to the success of the programme.
“We are not giving up. Sooner or later, the owners will see the logic in the corridor,” he said.
The land surrounding the 560 kilometre Kinabatangan river is abundant with flora and fauna but the ecologically rich area has for decades been cleared for logging activities, other cash crops, and more recently, for oil palm cultivation.
Wildlife in the area, including endemic species like the orangutan, elephants and rhinoceros have suffered major habitat loss and are forced into degraded and isolated pockets of forest.
The government’s vision is to turn the floodplains into a “corridor of life”, which includes the forest corridor, a floodplain that supports the local community through sustainable social economic practises and good management of the resource-rich area.
Masidi said it was a catch-22 situation where the government had to juggle between meeting the people’s need to make a living through agriculture and leaving ample but sufficient land for conservation.
Meanwhile, Danau Girang field centre director Benoit Goossens, said that plans to construct a new bridge in the Sukau area within the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary would jeopardise the long-term survival of the wildlife population in the region by building a bottleneck and disturbing its natural habitat.
The bridge, which reportedly is expected to connect the western river bank to the Sukau village on the East and the road would connect Sukau to Litang and Tomanggong, over 40 kilometres away to the south-east, to stimulate economic activities but has come under scrutiny from conservation groups.
Masidi said that he was aware of the environment effects and that the Works Department had put in a counter proposal for the bridge, which would be discussed at the state Cabinet level.
