Article: Combined primate protection plan helps boost orang utan population

KUCHING: The combined conservation efforts of Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesian authorities have helped to boost the orang utan population in Borneo.

Sarawak Forestry Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Len Talif Salleh said the three authorities had provided specific habitats for the orang utan, which is a protected species.

He said there were an estimated 2,000 orang utans in Sarawak, most of them found in the totally protected areas of Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary and the Batang Ai National Park.

“Sarawak Forestry is carrying out a survey to determine the number of orang utan in the state,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after opening a seminar to discuss the findings of a scientific expedition at Lanjak Entimau in June last year.

The 160,000ha Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary was constituted primarily to protect the orang utans.

The sanctuary is linked to the Betung Kerimun National Park across the border in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and together, they form a trans-boundary biodiversity conservation area.

Len Talif, who is also Sarawak forestry director, said the authorities had stepped up enforcement to check on poaching of orang utans and other wildlife in Lanjak Entimau and other national parks.

He refuted western non-governmental organisation allegations that logging and land clearing activities for plantation projects in Sarawak had destroyed the habitat of the orang utans.

Len Talif said the habitats were safeguarded in totally protected areas.

On news reports that turtle eggs, which are banned from being sold or consumed in Sarawak, were served at a dinner here last Saturday, Len Talif said he had yet to receive the report on the investigation into the case.

He said action would be taken against the party concerned if there was wrongdoing.

“There is no way that the turtle eggs served were from Sarawak,” he said, adding that he believed the eggs were smuggled from a neighbouring country.

Len Talif said the Sarawak Forestry had seized turtle eggs on sale at wet markets here and in the border town of Serikin.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation: 5th March 2009