More reason to bar forest reserve access
Published on: Sunday, March 21, 2021
Our report on Thursday, March 18.
IN reference to “Cops, ex-MP among 15 poachers held” (DE March 18). Sabah Environmental Trust would like to put on record its appreciation and commend the efforts of the members of Sabah Forestry Department-PROTECT team together with members from DaMaI-Maliau team in arresting the culprits, and the case being handed to Sabah Wildlife Department for further action.
Such efforts need to be intensified as these poachers had entered a forest reserve without a permit and were caught with carcasses of five sambar deer at Vivadaya logging camp in Sapulut Forest Reserve on 14th March.
The arrest of such high-profile individual and several policemen inside a forest reserve with a high powered pumpgun and home-made guns (bakakuk) together with carcasses of sambar deer is something of grave concern.
We looked upon policy makers and enforcement personnel as those having authority to uphold the rule of law but, instead, breaking the very basic things that they should uphold.
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While a fair and transparent investigation is expected to be conducted, it is essential that the culprits be brought to justice to face the crimes that they committed under the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 199, instead of an out-of-court settlement.
Sabah Environmental Trust (SET) has been collaborating with the state government since October 2017 on DaMaI Initiative – Patrolling (Enforcement and Monitoring) in a million hectare DaMaI Rainforest Complex.
The Initiative was established under the MoU agreement between the Sabah State Government (through Sabah Forestry Department) and Yayasan Sabah Group to focus on strengthening the protection and management of three large conservation areas (Danum Valley, Maliau Basin and Imbak Canyon).
Part of the objectives of the MoU are to establish the Global Park Defence (GPD) deployment by building the capacity of rangers to perform the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) patrol, equipping them with essential equipment and establishing proper technological support (via establishment of surveillance cameras) as advance alerting system.
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On another note, the issue of entering a forest reserve without a permit is to be addressed soonest possible by the State Government, as I have already highlighted the issue in my article “Time To Ban Access To Sabah’s forest reserves” dated 7th March in Daily Express (page 12).
The weaknesses of Section 20(1)(c)(i) need to be corrected and to apply for the establishment of all forest reserves as “closed” forest under Section 42(1)(a)(ii) of the Forest Enactment 1968.
This can be established by the Minister responsible for the matter and need to be done without further delay.
Dr. Rahimatsah Amat
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Chief Executive Officer