Sean Augustin New Straits Times 27 Jul 10;
SANDAKAN: Oil palm companies have been urged to secure the Kinabatangan-Segama wetlands Ramsar site here under the Bornean Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conservation (BBEC) programme.
BBEC is a joint endeavour of Sabah agencies, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, non-governmental organisations and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which provides technical and financial assistance.
JICA's chief adviser Motohiro Hasegawa said the 78,803ha site offers the opportunity for plantation owners to help conserve the environment without affecting the industry's returns.
A win-win situation, he said, could be achieved with the introduction of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certificate.
The Ramsar convention is an international treaty on wetlands adopted in Ramsar, Iran in 1971 for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
RSPO is a non-profit association that unites stakeholders to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.
"To be certified with RSPO means one must follow the criteria including the management of pollutants.
"Our Ramsar site may be affected by oil palm plantations and mills located around Sungai Kinabatangan," he said.
A majority of oil palm plantations in the area are not RSPO certified although Hasegawa said a 10-year management plan for the Ramsar site is in the pipeline.
"Hopefully by then all the plantations and mills will have RSPO certificates," he said.
The Ramsar site is surrounded by oil palm plantations and Hasegawa is worried about its sediments and mill effluent within the river basin. These are probably the two main threats to the ecosystem.
He said Sabah had an excellent opportunity to become an international model of biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, especially in the Ramsar site.
Protection of a Ramsar site will, Hasegawa explained, provide tangible and intangible benefits.
Among the tangible benefits include securing breeding grounds for marine life such as fish, prawns and crabs which can economically benefit the locals. It will also help promote eco-tourism as birds, monkeys, elephants and mangroves can lure many tourists to Kinabatangan.
Intangible benefits include providing research opportunities on wildlife and their habitats apart from keeping the environment intact for future generations.
Read more: Green role for oil palm firms http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/13saramsar/Article#ixzz0urC8dWIF
