Its conservation director, Henry Chan, said Sabah was on the right track and it is a world leader in terms of conservation.
“Sabah has a policy to turn 30% of its land as protected areas, having all forest reserves certified and having all oil palm plantations certified according to the requirements of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).”
He said 26% of state land was currently gazetted as protected areas.
“There’s 4% more to go … a lot of people are looking to Sabah now,” he told reporters after a courtesy call on Chief Minister Shafie Apdal at his office here today. The team was led by WWF Malaysia chairman Tungku Ali Redhauddin Muhriz.
Chan said the WWF was working with the state government to ensure its wildlife — such as elephants, orangutans and turtles, among others — were protected.
He said WWF was saddened by elephant deaths in Sabah but the pertinent issue is to look for solutions.
“So we are working with authorities, like the Sabah wildlife and forestry departments as well as private companies, to collar these elephants. They can be tracked by satellite.
“We have already collared 13 elephants. Their movements are tracked every four hours and we will share this information with oil palm companies,” he said, adding that the WWF had discussed the setting up of wildlife corridors with oil palm plantations.
Chan heaped praise on one company — Sabah Softwood — for setting aside 1,000ha of its land to create such corridors from the Kalumpang to the Segama forest reserves.
He said the company previously faced almost half-a-million ringgit in losses but that this had been significantly reduced to RM20,000 a year after initiatives with WWF and other agencies.
“Last year, it only suffered damages of between RM2,000 and RM3,000.”
Chan said efforts to raise awareness levels among villagers and plantation smallholders had also been carried out.
“We must involve these smallholders and villagers in our project, which is called the Living Landscape. In Tawau, we have formed a cooperative with smallholders and village folk,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said a recent survey found that there were about 11,000 orangutans in the wild in Sabah now, adding this was considered to be a stable population living in forests of Sabah.
Chan also said WWF-Malaysia will be meeting Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador soon to discuss the proposed wildlife crime bureau for a more coordinated effort among the various agencies.
He said the bureau will need to link with international enforcement bodies like Interpol.
He said WWF is also working with authorities in China, Laos, Vietnam and Africa to address wildlife trade.
WWF was also coordinating with the marine authorities and Sabah Parks to address the issue of fish-bombings and sustainable tourism, he said.
Chan said they had placed two hydrophones in Semporna waters to detect blasts in the water.
“This is to show the authorities how serious the problem is. We detected 1,115 blasts over a six-month period. The ability to detect these blasts will help to deter bombings.”
He hoped the data collected would encourage state authorities to place more hydrophones in their waters.