Malaysia: Contractors to restore degraded forest in Sabah

Muguntan Vanar The Star 5 Dec 11;

KOTA KINABALU: The Forestry Department is stepping up its efforts to rehabilitate degraded forest in Sabah's Ulu-Segama Malua forest reserve to save the orang utan.

The department awarded reforestation contracts to four contractors to rehabilitate some 800ha of the degraded forest in the state's east coast.

The area would be replanted with indigenous tree species and wild fruit trees within a year, Sabah forestry director Datuk Sam Mannan said yesterday.

He said the area was part of the 2,400ha to be restored jointly by WWF-Malaysia and the department.

In 2007, the northern Ulu Segama area was found to have a large population of orang utan.

Mannan said the orang utan were entrapped in a poor secondary logged forest environment, with limited sources of food and shelter.

He said the objective of the programme was to improve the forest's condition.

“In the years to come, the forest will regenerate rapidly to provide fruits and nesting sites for the orang utan population and ensure their survival,” he added.

WWF-Malaysia forest restoration manager Joseph Gasis said by nature the orang utan built their sleeping nest each night and only sleep at one per night.

He noted that without sufficient food and suitable trees for building nests, the orang utan would need to travel long distances, and ultimately become extinct.