Sarawak Plan To Gazette Kuala Lawas As National Park

Bernama 28 Jul 11;

LAWAS, July 28 (Bernama) -- Sarawak plans to gazette a new area made up mainly of water bodies in Kuala Lawas near here as another national park in a move to protect and conserve marine life, State Second Minister of Resource Planning and Management, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said.

He said the proposed national park that features fringe mangrove along the coastline has become a favourite feeding ground for dugongs and green turtles and would play an important role in marine eco-system.

Speaking at the South East Asia Regional Workshop on Dugong here Wednesday night, he said the plan was among the State's commitment to protect and conserve the invaluable heritage and wealth of wildlife.

He said to date, a total of 206,344 hectares of water bodies had been gazetted as totally protected areas to conserve endangered marine species such as sea turtles, marine mammals, sea horses, coral and marine eco-system.

"It is in our greatest interest to constantly improve our current approaches and innovatively transform our assets into legacies that will continue to provide beauty and wonder for generations to come," he added.

Awang Tengah also welcomed the move to organise the workshop here as it had the biggest sea grass beds in Malaysia which stretches along 30 kilometres of beaches.

He said aerial sighting surveys for large marine life that was conducted in 2001, 2007 and 2008 had confirmed the existence of viable dugong population in the area.

-- BERNAMA