Malaysia: Proboscis monkeys still under threat

Roy Goh New Straits Times 3 Feb 12;

Best method to stabilise the population decrease of the species is to connect pockets of fragmented forests and allow them to continue attracting tourists

THE effort to connect pockets of forests fragmented by agricultural activities needs to be stepped up to increase the population of proboscis monkeys in Sabah.

It has been described as the best method to stabilise the population decrease of the species, which can only be found on the island of Borneo, and allow it to continue attracting tourists from all over the world.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Dr Laurentius Ambu said for over a decade now, there had been many conservation initiatives implemented to reconnect fragmented forests and reforestation projects to boost habitat loss.

Laurentius pointed out, however, that the effort is not enough and more needed to be done, including re-establishment of large strips of riparian forests along rivers and its tributaries where there are large concentrations of proboscis monkeys.

Researchers and conservationists in Sabah, Kalimantan and the United Kingdom have shown that proboscis monkey populations throughout Borneo may experience population decline by becoming highly-fragmented and unstable if nothing is done to stop their habitat degradation and to reconnect isolated populations.

The study, carried out by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), Cardiff University and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), Oxford Brookes University and researchers from Indonesia was recently published in the scientific journal Endangered Species Research.

Co-author of the paper, Dr Benoit Goossens, who is also the DGFC director, revealed that 85 per cent of the 6,000-odd proboscis monkey population in Sabah were found outside fully protected areas.

"Proboscis monkeys are mainly confined to peat and freshwater swamp forests, mangrove forests, and lowland dipterocarp (riverine) forests, habitats which are the most threatened ones in Borneo due to logging and conversion of land for agriculture," he said.

Lead author of the research, Danica Stark of Cardiff University, said in Sabah, the proboscis monkey population in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary was used as a benchmark for the study.

"The conservation strategies evaluated in our study were eliminating hunting, eliminating fires, eliminating deforestation, reducing deforestation, implementing reforestation programmes and reconnecting sub-populations.

"Our model used current population surveys and predicted a decrease of about 1,000 individuals within the next 50 years, about 20 individuals per year in the Lower Kinabatangan area and scenarios with the greatest improvement on each population were reconnecting the population through forest corridors," concluded Stark.