What's in Imbak Canyon?

22 September 2012 | last updated at 11:47PM

By OLIVIA MIWIL | news@nst.com.my 

CONSERVATION: Yayasan Sabah leads efforts to find out what's in the pristine forest and draw up plans to protect the site

KOTA KINABALU: THE launching of the Imbak Canyon Conservation Area management plan by the end of next year will see comprehensive conservation efforts and the setting up of more research centres at the nation's last pristine forest reserve.

Yayasan Sabah, on behalf of the state government, had also engaged the state Wildlife and Forestry Departments, World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Sabah Parks in the process of materialising the Imbak Canyon management plan.

Yayasan Sabah conservation and environmental management division group manager Dr Waidi Sinun said the group was on the right track in collecting data on the biodiversity at Imbak.

Located in Kinabatangan and about five hours' drive from here, Imbak Canyon lies between two other conservation areas -- the Danum Valley and Maliau Basin.

It is part of the Sungai Pinangah Forest Reserve, where the state government had gazetted it as a Class I (Protection) Forest Reserve in 2009.

Speaking at the forum on Imbak Canyon Wildlife Survey 2012 Findings here yesterday, Waidi said the main objective of the latest survey was to create a baseline wildlife database, which in turn would be crucial in developing the management plan.

"The three earlier expeditions only managed to explore a small part of the canyon. It would probably take several scientific expeditions to unveil what lies there.

"With only 10 per cent of Sabah land mass under protected area management, it is important that more effort is put towards the full protection of pristine areas. Therefore, we are working towards the Imbak Canyon management plan as we need to understand the resources there. Otherwise, we will just be managing blindly the 30,000ha conservation area."

The earlier scientific expeditions in the area were conducted in 2000, 2004 and 2010.

In the most recent expedition in July, Yayasan Sabah had sent more than 100 researchers to survey the canyon and its surroundings for two weeks.

The survey, which covered almost 80,000ha of the canyon and its surroundings, had surveyed the accessibility to the areas to be conserved, collected extra data on wildlife and documented the communities living there.

About RM200,000 was spent on logistics and food during the expedition.

Last year, corporate partner Petronas contributed RM6 million for the group's conservation work for three years. This included creating awareness through education and outreach programmes, Waidi added.