SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2001
Sarawak - Disappearing forest icons
By Catharine Goh
Sarawak, which has amongst the highest number of animal species for an area of its size anywhere in the world, is well-known as the "Land of the Hornbills".
The Niah Caves are home to the dwindling swiftlets. Photos: Catharine Goh
Viper snakes are a protected species.
A mother Orang Utan and her young.
Sarawak State bird, the Kenyalang is fast disappearing.
But sadly Sarawak's state bird, the Kenyalang or rhinoceros hornbills have indeed become rare due to hunting for their feathers and meat.
In fact Malaysia's biggest state on Borneo island is rapidly developing with its economy growing by 6.6 percent per year from 1980 to 1990.
This has brought enormous benefits to the people in both town and rural areas but such rapid changes also have wider impact especially on the wildlife.
Here are the statistics. Apart from the beloved hornbill the number of nesting marine turtles at Satang and Talang Talang islands have declined by 95 per cent between 1950 and 1987.
Swiftlets nesting in Niah caves dropped by 91 per cent between 1935 and 1993 while oriental darters, once common in riverine and lake areas are now found only in tiny numbers in one or two sites in Sarawak.
At present only less than a thousand proboscis monkeys remained with the range of the orang-utan shrinking greatly to a small population in Lanjak-Entimau/Batang Ai and Ulu Sebuyau.
The Sumatran rhinoceros or banteng (tembadau) has become extinct with the last definite recorded sighting in 1987.
According to Elizabeth L. Bennett of the Sarawak Forest Department, many wildlife species are facing extinction due to excessive hunting and habitat loss, especially in the coastal areas.
She said the clearing of forest for the spread of towns, industry, agriculture and aquaculture had been blamed for the depletion.
The level of hunting had also increased dramatically in recent years, contributing to the decline of about 185 mammal species, 166 snake species, 104 lizard and 113 amphibian species found in Sarawak.
Other factors included an increase in access to formerly remote forests due to logging or other roads, use of shotguns and other modern technology and a great rise in trade in wild meat.
This was in stark contrast to the early 1980s, when it was difficult to buy wild meat in Kuching except in a few specialised restaurants and occassionally in the Sunday market.
By the early 1990s wildlife meat was widely sold throughout the state and at least 1,000 tonnes were being traded every year, she revealed.
Recognising that wildlife, which was declining alarmingly, was important to the state, the state government had collaborated with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society to come up with the Sarawak Wildlife Masterplan.
As a result of the masterplan's recommendation, two new ordinances namely the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 and the National Parks and Nature Reserves Ordinance 1998 were passed.
Elizabeth said these were aimed at conserving all wildlife species in the state while allowing rural people to continue to hunt for their own subsistence where needed.
"For example, the law allowed restricted number of shotgun cartidges to be purchased by subsistence hunters to obtain food but not allowing extra for hunting for sport and commercial trade and tightening up on the existing policy not to issue any new shotgun licences, she said.
She added Sarawak was the first tropical forest country in the world to have taken the bold step of banning all commercial sales of wildlife to tackle the unsustainable trade in wildlife and other animal products.
"Not only will this help to conserve Sarawak's Wildlife for future generations but it is also providing a model to which other tropical countries are increasingly turning as an example," she remarked.
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