OIL PALM ESTATES MAJOR THREAT TO RAMSAR SITE

By Sakina Mohamed

SANDAKAN (Sabah), July 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has
internationally-recognised wetlands, and the largest one is the 78,000-hectare
Ramsar Site in the east Malaysian state of Sabah.

Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance, designated under the
Ramsar Convention, an international agreement signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971.
It provides for the conservation and good use of wetlands.

The Ramsar site in Sabah covers the Trusan Kinabatangan, Kuala Segama-Maruap
Mangrove Forest Reserve and the Kulamba Wildlife Forest Reserve located at the
lower Kinabatangan-Segama, accounting nearly 60 percent of the remaining
mangrove forests in Malaysia.

Malaysia has employed the help of the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) in protecting the site, which is part of the efforts under the Bornean
Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conservation (BBEC) Programme in Sabah. The
programme is now in Phase II.

JICA helps by providing technical expertise and advice in implementing good
conservation activities. However, BBEC II Chief Advisor Motohiro Hasegawa told
Bernama that a few challenges need to be sorted out or the maintenance of
Sabah's biodiversity-rich Ramsar Site will be an uphill task.


POLLUTION FROM OIL PALM ESTATES

The major threat to the Sabah Ramsar Site is clearly the pollution from oil
palm plantations, says Hasegawa. Other threats, he says, are limited. The Ramsar
site is mostly situated at the lower part of a large river basin, he says, so
unless good conservation activities are imposed in the upper area of this river
basin, the site will be threatened.

He says that the upper areas of the Ramsar site is the Maliau Basin and
Imbak Canyon which are pristine, untouched, forests. However, oil palm mills and
plantations clutter the middle part. And where there are plantations and mills
there are industrial and agricultural wastes, two of the hardest effluents to
treat. None of which bodes well for the protection of our largest wetland.

"There aren't too many pristine forests in Sabah like those in the upper
area of the site, so that part is well-protected.

"But the middle part is completely covered by oil palm plantations. Since
our wetlands are internationally-recognised, we have to conduct awareness
programmes so that oil palm plantations direct their operations toward
conservation," he says.

"Public awareness on the issue is very important."

He says all river basins are now considered conservation areas, so there is
good reason to insist that the oil palm mills located in the middle part of the
basins shift their operation towards conservation.

"We plan to hold the first oil palm plantation conservation workshop in
July," says Hasegawa. "We'll invite them and introduce the latest technology to
treat effluents from oil palm mills, techniques to reduce sediments and so on."
He says control of effluents from mills is probably one of the most difficult
challenges, but if not tackled will result in a bleak future for the Ramsar
site.

"We have an idea to promote the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil)
certification, which we plan to introduce to all plantation and mills within 10
years," he said.

COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE IS THE KEY

A typical problem in the governance of forests and conservation areas is
multiple agencies being in charge without cooperation in governance.

Hasegawa says part of the problem is power imbalance, where some agencies
are given more governing authority than others.

"There are powerful institutions like the Forestry Department in Sabah, and
then there is the Sabah Wildlife Department, which is rather weak.

"If you have strong and weak guys, it's hard to have cooperative
governance," he says.

However, Hasegawa says 20 years of experience tells him that it was a very
common problem not only in Malaysia but in many other countries.

So, what do we need to do? Conservation governance, he says.

Currently, the Forest Department is in charge of an aspect while the
Wildlife Department controls another.

"These actions are fragmented. We have to develop a mechanism to link up
many agencies and together work on a consolidated conservation effort or else
efforts might be wasted and we don't want that.

"We need to link up these efforts and work towards integrated conservation,"
he says.

A closed sector approach is also very important, he says.

"In doing this, third party intervention is very efficient and useful.

"JICA, being outside of the Sabah and Malaysian bureaucracy, has been using
this approach since Phase I of BBEC in 2002. It really helps in linking up the
agencies towards a common purpose," says Hasegawa.

The Sabah Biodiversity Enactment 2000 has helped towards the purpose by
providing a legal path to establish a sole body to oversee and coordinate
state-wide biodiversity conservation.

The body in question is the Biodiversity Council and its secretariat, the
Sabah Biodiversity Centre (SBC), in which JICA has deployed its volunteers to
help with as well.


JICA'S ROLE