The launching was officiated by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok at the opening of two-day Sabah Wildlife Conservation Colloquium (SWCC), jointly organised by Sabah Wildlife Department and Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) together with the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT), Danau Girang Field and HUTAN - Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme, at the Le Meridien, here.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun and Wildlife Director Dr Laurentius Ambu, among others, were present.
Malaysia pledged to maintain 50 per cent of the country's landmass under forest cover at the Rio Convention in 1992 and is still honouring this pledge 20 years on.

"Our unique wildlife and biodiversity are our natural heritage, and we owe it to ourselves not to deny our future generations these privileges and environmental treasures that we now enjoy. This demonstrates Malaysia's commitments on the approach towards sustainable development," Dompok said.

He said the Government in collaboration with the palm oil industry had launched the Malaysia Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund (MPOWCF) in 2006, with the objective of spearheading wildlife and environment conservation efforts in Malaysia.

The MPOWCF was launched with an initial funding of RM20million of which RM10million is a grant from the Government and the balance of RM10million is provided by the palm oil industry.

The fund is administered by the MPOC, which also has the overall responsibility to manage the various conservation projects funded through MPOWCF.

Since its inception, he said MPOWCF has initiated a number of wildlife and biodiversity conservation projects, adding this has contributed to among others the establishment of the country's first Wildlife Rescue Centre in collaboration with the Wildlife Department.

The other projects are the Jungle Patrol Unit in Tangkulap-Pinangah Forest Reserve, inventory of Sabah's Orang-utan population, the Orang-utan Infant Care Unit in Bukit Merah and the satellite tracking and conservation of Bornean Banteng in Sabah.

These initiatives reflected the commitment by the Malaysian palm oil industry to environment conservation and wildlife in the country, he said.

In addition, players in the palm oil industry are chipping in to help Sabah's Borneo pygmy elephants by providing the initial funding to start a sanctuary for the pachyderms.

The Borneo Elephant Wildlife Sanctuary will be a 2,000ha site in the east coast Kinabatangan district, said Dompok.

The sanctuary would be able to accommodate about 20 elephants at any one time, although there are about 100 animals waiting to be rescued.

“BEWS aims to reduce potential human-elephant conflicts and create a controlled public access sanctuary to understand and care for these magnificent animals,” he said.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said the sanctuary was expected to be operational by mid-2012 with an initial RM5mil funding from the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund.
Dompok added that a Japanese NGO was also contributing another RM1.5mil for the setting up of the sanctuary.

Dompok also applauded the strong presence of various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the colloquium, both from the local and international fraternity.

"I am optimistic that Malaysia can work together with the various NGOs in wildlife conservation and environmental protection," he said.

About 250 local and international delegates from a multitude of backgrounds representing government agencies, NGOs, universities, foundation, zoos as well as corporate bodies primarily in the palm oil industry and tourism are taking part in the SWCC 2012. THE END