Ruben Sario, The Star 9 Sep 09;
KOTA KINABALU: One of the biggest tropical forest research projects in the world is set to take off in Sabah next year.
The project, Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE), would be jointly carried out with Britain’s Royal Society and the state Forestry Department.
It would, among others, look at the ecological stability of fragmented forests of different sizes and their suitability to support various types of wildlife.
“This is among the elements of professionalism being introduced in the management of forests, including those under Yayasan Sabah,” department director Datuk Sam Mannan said yesterday.
He added that other efforts included imposing reduced impact logging (RIL) for all timber harvesting in natural forest management areas beginning next year.
Mannan said the department was also introducing a high-tech approach in keeping track of log movements from the jungle to the processing mills by using the radio frequency identification system.
Under the present state government, more Yayasan Sabah concession areas had been set aside for conservation efforts including 241,000ha, about 10 times the size of Penang island, he said.
Mannan said the state government was progressively increasing its totally protected forests beginning with the Danum Valley covering an area of nearly 44,000ha in 1995 to the Maliau Basin, in- volving an area of nearly 59,000ha in 1997.
Other Yayasan Sabah areas that are protected from this year are Nurod Urod in Kalabakan totalling 1,705ha and Imbak Canyon covering an area of some 16,750ha.
