KUCHING: The Sarawak government intends to create more protected areas with over 1 million hectares of terrestrial areas and over 1.6 million hectares of marine landscape.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said with this, Sarawak will have the largest protected area system in Malaysia, under the category of National Parks, Nature Reserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
He said, in the early 1990s, there were two important conservation events in Sarawak, the first of which was the International Tropical Timber Organisation’s (ITTO) mission to determine the extent of logging that could be harvested in the state to ensure its sustainability in the long term.
Secondly the formulation of a Master Plan for Wildlife in Sarawak, which was to upgrade the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 as well as the National Parks and Nature Reserves Ordinance.
“At that time, Sarawak had less than 15 protected areas, consisting of 10 National Parks and three Wildlife Parks (around 300,000 hectares). At that time, there were no Nature Reserves or Marine Protected Areas.
“In the last 25 years, protected areas on land and in the marine landscape have grown to more than 2.1 million hectares,” he said.
He said this in his speech delivered by Deputy Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datuk Len Talif Salleh at the Joint Meeting of the International Primatology Association – Malaysian Primatology Association 2023 (IPS-MPS 23) at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK), here, yesterday.
“Now we have 67 protected areas on land and in the sea, the land protected area is now approximately 870,000 hectares (over 1,000 times larger than Singapore), while our marine park covers more than 1.2 million hectares.
“We want to have more than 1 million hectares of land under totally protected areas (TPA).
“The latest protected area is Bukit Siol Nature Reserve in Kuching,” he added.
In addition, the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) is creating more protected areas as well as carrying out enforcement patrols and arresting individuals who carry out illegal wildlife trade to protect the habitats in the state.
Abang Johari said the introduction of new technologies, concepts, needs, and data collection has increased the importance of capacity building in Sarawak’s conservation efforts.
He hoped through training programmes and workshops like IPS-MPS, staff will be empowered with the necessary expertise.
“Over the past three years, IPS-MPS brought together an estimated total of 700 primatologists, researchers, scientists, students and experts from various fields, united by their passion to conserve the extraordinary primates that share our planet.
“This conference aims to foster knowledge exchange, collaboration, and innovative solutions that contribute to the conservation of primates and their habitats around the world,” he said.
The conference by the International Primatology Society (IPS) and the Malaysian Primatology Society (MPS) is jointly organised with the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC).
The event is supported by the Malaysian Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) and Sarawak Business Events (BESarawak).
Conference partners are Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Accelerated Program for Excellence (APEX) and the School of Biological Sciences (SBS), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).
