The proposed DaMaI World Heritage Site in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo consists of three distinct sites. The Maliau Basin is a sweeping, forested crater, so wide that it would take more than 5 hours to walk across and isolated from the world by a jagged rocky rim 1600m high.
To the north of Maliau is Imbak Canyon, “The Green Canyon of Borneo”, brimming with undisturbed lowland rainforest. In the east is the Danum Valley, a vast depression carpeted with prehistoric, virgin forest containing an indigenous burial site.
DaMaI is one of the last intact primary forests in Asia and a critical habitat for endangered megafauna like Bornean elephants, Sunda clouded leopards and Bornean orangutans, as well as all eight species of Bornean hornbills. With hundreds of bird species, some endemic to this area, Danum Valley and Maliau Basin have been designated as Important Bird Areas by BirdLife International.
DaMaI is all the more critical given the devastation that is happening all around it. From 2001 to 2019, Sabah lost 1.60Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 24% decrease in tree cover since 2000, creating 723Mt of CO₂ emissions. DaMaI is Sabah's last great hope.
The overall goal of this project is the protection of biodiversity with the following objectives:
• Objective #1- To support the protection of biodiversity in DaMaI Rainforest Complex. The patrol team will be supported in technological aid such as camera traps (cellular and wildlife) with accessories, basic communication devices, and basic office hardware and software, e.g spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) & QGIS. In addition, transportation to conduct patrolling, e.g 4WDs rental, ranger’s allowances and other essential physical equipment will also be provided, among others. Along with everything mentioned, SET hope to improve the overall command system for all partners in the MoU, to enhance the protection of all protected forest in Sabah, not only DaMaI, in the long run.
Poachers caught on camera trap in DaMaI.
• Objective #2- To enhance the capacity of the dedicated teams and other forest rangers in DaMaI. Under this objective, the patrol team and dedicated officer will be given basic training to implement Global Park Defense (GPD) in DaMaI. The training provided will be focused on technologies, e.g SMART, QGIS, WPSWatch, and EarthRanger. Apart from that, the dedicated officer will be trained to analyze data, to update on project progress to partners during workshop, to produce high-impact reports for stakeholders, and to supervise the patrol team on the ground.
• Objective #3 - To support the efforts in nominating DaMaI Rainforest Complex as a World Heritage Site. This objective is designed to conduct activities that will target the local community and other stakeholders inside the DaMaI landscape. The aim is to improve awareness about the benefits of a World Heritage Site on livelihood sustainability while reducing dependencies on forest resources, e.g bushmeat. In addition, local communities will also be given the opportunity to participate in a program that allows them to visit any of the protected forest reserves under SF, while learning about the environment.
We've been supporting the protection of this last bastion for wildlife in Borneo. Our partners in Sabah, Malaysia recently arrested 15 poachers suspected of hunting illegally in the Danum-Maliau-Imbak (DaMaI) ecosystem. The detainees included security authorities and an ex-politician. The Sabah Forestry Department and the non-governmental Danum Maliau Imbak team conducted a raid on a logging camp, where they detained the suspects and confiscated animal carcasses, firearms, and five 4WD vehicles. An investigation by the Sabah Wildlife Department is ongoing.
Meat and weapons confiscated during the arrest.
Global Conservation recently helped Sabah Environmental Trust and the Yayasan Sabah Group purchase 6 ATVs and 8 trail cameras to assist with their patrolling and enforcement efforts in DaMaI.
“We are thankful for the vehicle donation. As the name implies, ATVs are designed to handle a wider variety of terrain than most other vehicles, thus enabling Yayasan Sabah Group to conduct substantial intensive and extensive patrolling activities in our conservation areas,” Datuk Haji Gulamhaidar, Director of Yayasan Sabah, said. “Each conservation area is allocated with two units of ATV which comes fully equipped with the latest technology in aiding patrolling activities deep inside our conservation areas while improving communication in preventing poaching activities.”
2021 in Numbers
- 609.6 km patrolled on foot
- 57,893 km patrolled by vehicle
- 30 arrests
- 1 warning given to encroachers with fishing equipment
- 54 weapons and snares confiscated
- 12 wildlife carcasses confiscated
- 59 live animals confiscated
Wildlife captured on camera trap in DaMaI.
Upcoming activities:
- Basic First-Aid training
- SMART refresher training
- Study visit for rangers
- Installation and maintenance of surveillance cameras
- Patrolling to conduct monitoring and enforcement
Rangers receiving new equipment.
New trail cameras.
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