Proboscis monkeys losing habitat to palm oil plantations

The Star 10 Dec 11;

KINABATANGAN: Sabah’s proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) population is declining due to habitat loss as riparian forests are continually destroyed to plant oil palm while mangrove areas are reclaimed for development.

“Proboscis monkeys, or monyet Belanda as they are more commonly known in Malay, are declining in numbers because we have plantations planting oil palm all the way down to the river banks.

“In areas closer to towns, we have also seen their habitat being lost as the mangrove areas they occupy are reclaimed and built upon,” said a very concerned director of the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), Dr Laurentius Ambu, in a press statement

“To make matters worse, only an estimated 15% are living within protected areas, which means preventing the conversion of non-protected areas is also crucial.

“The palm oil industry does not have to plant all the way down to the river edge.

“They should leave the riparian forests that border waterways with a buffer of preferably 1km for wildlife and also as a measure to protect our waterways, as the water is also used for human consumption,” he said.

“The state government is committed to reforestation and we are working closely with community groups, NGOs and even private companies, but the palm oil industry on the whole has been very slow to replant riparian areas although they talk a lot about it.”

He also vented his frustration at seeing areas that are unsuitable for oil palm plantations due to semi-annual flooding being planted with the crop and then destroyed by floods.

“These marginalised land, which you see in the Lower Kinabatangan, particularly areas close or adjacent to Lots 3 and 6 of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, should be replanted by palm oil companies with native species of trees that survive floods instead of just being abandoned and the soil washed out into the river during flooding,” he said.

The SWD estimates there are only 6,000 proboscis monkeys left, with five viable populations in Sabah.

“We have one population on the West Coast, one in the South and three on the East Coast including the Lower Kinabatangan where the palm oil industry has had a dramatic effect on a variety of Sabah wildlife, including this large-nosed monkey,” said Laurentius.

Monitoring carried out by the NGO HUTAN under the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Programme (KOCP) from 2008 to 2010 along a 15km stretch along the Lower Kinabatangan found the area losing 10% of the proboscis monkey population each year.

A similar pattern has been observed in the vicinity of SWD’s Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC).

“This is why we have been continuously pushing for forest corridors, particularly along riparian areas. They are crucial not just for primates, but all wildlife, particularly in the Lower Kinabatangan, which is heavily broken up between protected and non-protected areas.

“The proboscis monkey is at direct risk when riparian areas are lost as they are mainly confined to riversides within swamp, mangrove and lowland forests.

“These same forest types are also the most threatened, not only in Sabah, but within the whole of Borneo, which is the only place they are found in the wild.

“The only way to stop this decline and to ensure the survival of the eco-tourism industry that also benefits the local community is to stop all forest conversions even if it is a small area and continue with the various tree-planting projects,” he added.

Like the orang utan, the proboscis monkey has been listed as endangered since 2000 under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

The Red List also puts the figure for proboscis monkeys in Sarawak at 1,000 individuals.

This means Sabah, besides being the stronghold of the Malaysian orang utan population, is also the stronghold for the proboscis monkey population — Bernama.