Published on: Thursday, October 30, 2008 |
Sandakan: The Lower Kinabatangan-Segama Wetlands have been officially designated as Sabah's first and Malaysia's largest Ramsar site.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Ramsar Convention secretariat, Dr Nick Davidson, awarded the official certificate to Sabah Biodiversity Centre (SBC) Director Abdul Fatah Amir at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Changwon, Korea, on Tuesday.
This is the 6th Ramsar site in Malaysia, but the new listing will make the area not only Sabah's first Ramsar site but also Malaysia's largest, extending over 78,803 hectares of mangrove forests and peat swamp on Sabah's east coast, says a statement from the Bornean Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conservation (BBEC) Programme Secretariat.
The site comprises three contiguous forest reserves: Trusan Kinabatangan Forest Reserve (40,471ha), Kulamba Wildlife Reserve (20,682ha) and Kuala Maruap and Kuala Segama Forest Reserve (17,650ha).
It is recognised as an internationally important wetland for its good representation of the coastal mangrove forest and rare peat swamp forest containing a number of endangered and threatened species such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, proboscis monkey and Borneo pygmy elephant.
This area is even larger than the total area of the five designated Ramsar sites in Malaysia (55,355ha).
The five are the Kuching Wetlands National Park (Sarawak), Pulau Kukup (Johor), Sungai Pulai (Johor), Tanjung Piai (Johor), and Tasek Bera (Pahang).
The SBC, which was established under the Sabah Biodiversity Council in May, played a pivotal role in the application process to mobilise and coordinate several agencies, including the Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Wildlife Department, Science and Technology Unit and Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
The Ramsar Convention is the informal name of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat.
