Sabah Forestry Department chief conservator Frederick Kugan said the forest at Bundu Tuhan was actually part of the 1,984ha Class 1 Tinompok Forest Reserve gazetted in 1984.
“Sabah will lose 760ha of its totally protected area if this forest is excised out,” he told the FMT when responding to appeals by Bundu Tuhan villagers for that tract of forest to retain its designation as a community conservation area instead of being reverted to being part of the Tinompok Forest Reserve.
Frederick explained that the Tinompok Forest Reserve had been proposed years earlier but was only gazetted as a Class 1 conservation area in 1984.
By then, however, state authorities had approved the Bundu Tuhan Native Residential Reserve in 1983, covering an area of some 1,263ha, he said.
“About 760ha of this native residential reserve falls within or overlaps with the Tinompok Forest Reserve. The remaining area of the native residential reserve was developed for agriculture and other village development,” Frederick added.
He said the 760ha of pristine forest known locally as “hutan winokok” was a crucial water catchment area and had been earmarked to remain as a protected area under the status of a Class 1 forest reserve.
“It was never an issue until recently as the community acknowledged the importance of keeping this 760ha forest protected as it has always been,” Frederick said.
He said the issue of the overlapping of this area was never brought up until recently when the Bundu Tuhan villagers, through an action committee, voiced their desire for the forest to be “excised” out from the Tinompok forest reserve and to be placed under their control.
“We have attempted to resolve the matter amicably whereby the Forestry Department had proposed that the 760ha remained as a forest reserve but with special privileges and admitted rights given to the Bundu Tuhan community based on Section 14 of the Forest Enactment,” Frederick said.
He added that the villagers had rejected the offer and the matter is now with the Secretary of Natural Resources.
Bundu Tuhan village elder Johnny Ghani had voiced concerns about the move to get the villagers to relinquish their management of the 760ha forest which they had been protecting for decades.
He said that the particular tract of forest was not only their source of water but also an “open supermarket” for them where they could harvest food such as wild mushrooms and fruits.
According to Johnny, the villagers had protected the forest through a communal conservation initiative known as “bombon” or “tagal” for decades and were worried that its status could one day change if it was no longer in their hands.