Riverbank patrol is launched
Published on: Tuesday, October 13, 2015
SUKAU:
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Preventing future destruction of riparian forest reserves along the Kinabatangan will now be sure and swift – thanks to the launch of the Kinabatangan Corridor of Life Riparian Boat Patrol, here, Monday in collaboration with the State Forestry Department and KITA."It's better to prevent rather than to cure," said Forestry Director Datuk Sam Mannan, after returning from a boat patrol ride to a tree planting session at a damaged riparian area.The Department and 14-member KITA (association of resort owners) struck the historic deal following the shock illegal felling and open burning of a swathe of prime wildlife riverbank forest in the heart of Sukau in June and July.ADVERTISEMENT "Restoration is very expensive, and there is no surety of success. You have to keep maintaining for three to four years and there are other things that can go wrong like severeflooding, severe drought, animal attack and issues like that." What's worse is damage to the image and reputation of Sukau and the Kinabatangan that may cause tourists to bad talk the destination and spread the word of mouth far and wide, Mannan said. Mannan singled out Daily Express for its recent expose which led to the formation of the unit. ADVERTISEMENT Under the deal, the Department will provide the boat, recruit, train and empower the rangers, run the daily patrolling operations, provide the infrastructures while KITA will pay the salaries and possibly allowances of the boat rangers."We'll train them on the basics of enforcement, investigation , detection and they must know the law – what is legal and what is illegal. They must be able to communicate fast, how to get reinforcement, how to strategise , all these things which will take some time but because they are recruited from Kinabatangan, it means they are already familiar with the local situation," said Mannan. "We want to have a focus, we don't want our people to be involved in too many activities. We want them to focus on the riparian from the bridge to Abai, if not further and hopefully within a week we can dissect the whole stretch and we are setting the standard operation procedure (SOP), we are training these people and we are also empowering them."KITA President Alexander Yee said he was "supremely happy" over the riparian boat patrol deal and described it as a "milestone". "Through this Unit we hope we can prevent the illegal clearance of riparian reserves along the Kinabatangan. "KiTA was first created as a loose group of 5-6 operators in 2008 mainly to give us a voice and to implement measures to protect the Lower Kinbatangan," Yee said. "Today, KiTA consists of 14 members who between them employ about 450 staff and of these, 80pc are locals from Kinabatangan," he added. "As proof that we have stayed true to our founding objectives to protect Lower Kinabatangan, the Association implemented a self-imposed Conservation Levy whereby members contribute RM10 for every visitor that stayed at the respective lodges and because of this KiTA now has the funds to support this riparian boat patrol over the next five years, besides money used in tree planting in Kg Bilit, medical outreach in Kg Sukau and Bilit, the setting up of tabung eshan in Kg Lohan, Kg Bilit, etc," Yee asserted. "In April, we sponsored the construction of a security post to Esscom in Kg Abai, which took six months," Yee said.Should the patrol spot any encroachment, they would alert the Kinabatangan District Forest Office that would in turn contact other relevant authorities, which include the Land and Survey, Wildlife, Environment Protection, Drainage and Irrigation and the federal Environment departments.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The 560km-long Kinabatangan River is home to endangered species such as the Borneo pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, orang utan, hornbills, clouded leopards, sun bears and Sumatran rhinoceros.The 26,103ha Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in the east is said to be home to an estimated 13,000 orang utan and 1,100 Borneo pygmy elephants.