By Jaswinder Kler 
An aerial view of the land in question which has ox bow lakes that can be used for eco-tourism programmes carried out by the local community.
KOTA KINABALU: Ten plots of lowland forest critical for the movement of endangered wildlife will soon be gazetted as part of the fragmented Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
Totalling 132.19 hectares (326.7 acres), the land titles were today handed to the Sabah Wildlife Department to create natural forested corridors for Borneo Pygmy Elephants, Orang Utans and other wildlife pushed into pockets of protected areas and cut off by agricultural estates and settlements.
The international community raised funds via the United Kingdom based World Land Trust (WLT) for the largest land parcel, the 89.8 hectare (222 acres) forest purchased from an oil palm company close to Kampung Bilit, with the Sabah State Government meeting a shortfall in the price.
Conversion to agriculture for this piece of forested area would have ended hope of creating a corridor for wildlife, especially elephants, to move between lots three and five of the Sanctuary.
A nearby oxbow lake is an important fishing ground and is used for eco-tourism programmes carried out by the local community.
The nine other pieces of land totalling 49.39 hectares in Sukau, downstream of Bilit, were bought from individual title holders, through funds from The Shared Earth Foundation and Abraham Foundation, both of the United States.
Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP) partnered with several organisations including IUCN National Committee of The Netherlands (IUCN NL), the Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry and the Lands and Surveys Department to secure the lands.
LEAP Executive Director Cynthia Ong presented the titles on behalf of partners and donors to Sabah Wildlife Department Director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu at the Heart of Borneo International Conference at the Magellan Sutera Resort, here today.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman witnessed the handing over of titles.
Ong said it was becoming more urgent to move Government and the private sector into gear to support efforts to reconnect forests in the 26,000 hectare Sanctuary divided into 10 lots, and which exists alongside mainly oil palm estates.
“There is deep commitment from people who live far away from Sabah, and their financial support has brought us to this point. On behalf of our partners, we thank donors, and we extend our gratitude to the Sabah Government for meeting the shortfall in cost of one of the lands.
“We also encourage land owners and players in the oil palm industry to voluntarily give up land in critical areas so that these can be turned into corridors, not just within the Kinabatangan landscape, but also in other parts of Sabah,” Ong said.
She said the Lower Kinabatangan region is home to some of the world’s most loved wildlife, yet the long term survival of these species face threats due to isolated forests and bottlenecks that clog the Sanctuary gazetted in 2005, long after oil palm had taken over the landscape.
“The acquisition of land will allow wildlife to move from one part of the sanctuary to another, reducing risks associated with in-breeding and other issues such as food supply,” she said in a statement.
Ambu said the Sabah Wildlife Department is consistently pushing for the creation of forest corridors in the Lower Kinabatangan which is heavily broken up between protected and non-protected areas.
“We thank the international community for their commitment and for helping us in our efforts. What we need urgently now as well is the preservation of riparian reserves along the Kinabatangan River, which oil palm plantations seem not to respect. These are land pockets that do not need to be purchased, but rather are protected by law to be left alone.
“We hope NGOs can maintain pressure and look into ways to work with the plantation sector, government and relevant departments to ensure that illegally occupied riparian reserves are returned and with that, create corridors for wildlife to move freely along the Sanctuary and other river systems in Sabah,” Ambu said.
Meanwhile, Sir David Attenborough, Patron of the World Land Trust, said: “Every bit of rainforest that is chopped down is less space for the Orang Utans. Their numbers have been reduced very seriously over the past decade and we must do all we can to reverse this devastation.
“I fully support the World Land Trust in its bid to save the forests that are left, to ensure that species such as the Orang Utans, the Borneo Pygmy Elephant and other critically endangered species are not lost forever,” Attenborough said.
World Land Trust was previously also involved in securing the 272 hectares of Kretam-Kulamba corridor, which is now a Wildlife Forest Reserve.
IUCN NL Small Grants for the Purchase of Nature Programme Coordinator Marc Hoogeslag said: “Ever since the start of our land purchase programme in 2001, we have rarely seen such a classic example of how the acquisition of a relatively small area can contribute such strong conservation of endangered species’ habitats.”