Draft Strategic Plan for the Management of Maliau Basin Conservation Area, 2003-2012

Yayasan Sabah Dandida

Management of Maliau Basin Conservation Area Sabah, Malaysia

DRAFT STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF MALIAU BASIN CONSERVATION AREA, 2003-2012

Incorporating a draft Action Plan 2003-2005

30th June 2002

Dr Julian Caldecott Creatura Ltd, Palafox, 4 West End Donhead St Andrew Shaftesbury, Dorset Spy 9DY United Kingdom e-mail: [email protected] DRAFT STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF MALIAU BASIN CONSERVATION AREA, 2003-2012

Incorporating a draft Action Plan 2003-2005

Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Forestry Division, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Ma laysia

Final draft by Julian Caldecott 30th June 2002

Contents list

PARTICIPANTS IN STRATEGIC PLANNING 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8 Location and legal status 8 Management authority 8 Management objectives 8 Purpose and scope of planning 9 Resources to be conserved 9 Threats to the resources 10 Protective measures proposed 10 Enhancing management capacity 11 Education, tourism and public awareness 12 Research and environmental monitoring 13 Implementation programme 14 Management plan review schedule 15 Sustainable financing strategy 15 USE OF TERMS 18 PART ONE - INTRODUCTION, RESOURCES AND THREATS 20 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 20 1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 20 1.2 EXISTING LEGAL AND MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS 22 1.3 CONTEXT OF PLANNING 23 1.4 PURPOSE OF PLANNING 25 1.5 OVERALL MANAGEMENT STRATEGY 26 1.6 SCOPE OF PL ANNING 27 1.7 PROCESS OF PLANNING 28 Chapter 2: RESOURCES 30 2.1 OV ERVIEW 30 2.2 LANDFORM AND GEOLOGY 30 2.3 CLIMATE 32 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 2

2.4 ECOSYSTEMS AND FLORA 32 2.4.1 Soils and forest types 32 2.4.2 Lowland dipterocarp forest 34 2.4.3 Riverine forest 34 2.4.4 Upper dipterocarp forest 34 2.4.5 Agathis forest 35 2.4.6 Heath forest 35 2.4.7 Oak-conifer forest 36 2.4.8 Montane ericaceous or rim forest 36 2.4.9 Aquatic ecosystems 36 2.5 BIODIVERSITY 37 2.5.1 Plants 37 2.5.2 Mammals 37 2.5.3 Birds 38 2.5.4 Other vertebrates 38 2.5.5 Invertebrates 39 2.5.6 Genetic resources 40 2.5.7 Endemism and uniqueness 40 2.5.8 Information and knowledge 40 2.6 INTANGIBLE RESOURCES 41 2.7 COMPARATIVE CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE 42 2.7.1 Integrity of the area 42 2.7.2 Significance of the area 42 2.7.3 Comparative analysis 43 Chapter 3: THREATS 46 3.1 OVERVIEW 46 3.2 STRATEGIC THREATS 46 3.2.1 Forest fires 46 3.2.2 Tree plantations 47 3.2.3 Coal mining 49 3.2.4 Unsustainable tourism 51 3.2.5 Infrastructure 52 3.2.6 Intangible threats 52 3.3 TACTICAL THREATS 53 3.3.1 Illegal logging 53 3.3.2 Farming 53 3.3.3 Hunting 53 3.3.4 Harvesting 54 PART TWO – MANAGING RESOURCES, THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES 55 Chapter 4: PROTECTION 55 4.1 OVERVIEW 55 4.2 PROMOTING LANDSCAPE CONNECTIONS 55 4.3 MANAGING THE BUFFER ZONE 57 4.3.1 Roles of the buffer zone 57 4.3.2 Fire management 57 4.3.3 Community involvement 59 4.3.4 Re-planting native trees 60 4.3.5 Tourism development 60 4.4 TACTICAL PROTECTION 61 4.4.1 Boundaries, bases and patrols 61 4.4.2 Management zones 63 4.4.3 Personnel and equipment 64 4.4.4 Fighting forest fires 65 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 3

4.4.5 Interdicting logging roads 65 Chapter 5: ENHANCING MANAGEMENT CAPACITY 66 5.1 OVERVIEW 66 5.2 LEADERSHIP AND DECENTRALIZATION 66 5.3 STAFF INCENTIVES 67 5.4 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT 68 5.5 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 69 5.6 STAFF JOB DESCRIPTIONS 70 Chapter 6: EDUCATION, TOURISM AND PUBLIC AWARENESS 72 6.1 OVERVIEW 72 6.2 EDUCATION 72 6.3 TOURISM 73 6.3.1 Rationale, constraints and carrying capacity 73 6.3.2 Public access to Maliau Falls 75 6.3.3 Attributes of the MBCA that may attract visitors 76 6.3.4 ‘Knowledge-seekers’ and facilities for them 77 6.3.5 Resident naturalists 79 6.3.6 Pricing and discounting 79 6.3.7 Friends of Maliau 80 6.4 PUBLIC AWARENESS 81 6.5 WEB-SITE DEVELOPMENT 82 Chapter 7: RESEARCH AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING 84 7.1 OVERVIEW 84 7.2 NON-COMMERCIAL OR ‘ACADEMIC’ RESEARCH 84 7.3 COMMERCIAL RESEARCH OR ‘BIOPROSPECTING’ 87 7.3.1 Principles of access and benefit sharing 87 7.3.2 Negotiating partnerships 88 7.3.3 Local participation in biodiversity inventories 89 7.4 BIODIVERSITY INVENTORIES 90 7.5 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING 91 7.5.1 Selection of indicators 91 7.5.2 Local ecosystem health and threat 92 7.5.3 Global environmental conditions 93 Chapter 8: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 94 8.1 OVERVIEW 94 8.2 THE MALIAU BASIN STUDIES CENTRE 94 8.3 ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN MBSC DEVELOPMENT 94 8.4 THE TRAIL SYSTEM 95 8.5 BALANCING DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION 96 8.5.1 Planning and EIA 96 8.5.2 Waste management 97 8.5.3 Sustainable energy 98 PART THREE – IMPLEMENTATION AND SUSTAINABILITY 99 Chapter 9: IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMME 99 9.1 OVERVIEW 99 9.2 CHECK-LIST OF RECOMMENDED ACTIVITIES 100 9.3 PRIORITIES FOR ACTION PLANNING 102 9.4 THE ROLE OF WORK PLANS 103 9.5 MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION 103 9.5.1 Feedback of management information 103 9.5.2 Management plan review schedule 104 Chapter 10: SUSTAINABLE FINANCING STRATEGY 105 10.1 OVERVIEW 105 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 4

10.2 ECOTOURISM 107 10.3 EDUCATIONAL SERVICES 108 10.4 EDUCATIONAL MERCHANDIZING 109 10.5 BIOPROSPECTING 110 10.6 BIODIVERSITY FUTURES TRADING 112 10.7 CARBON STORAGE 113 10.8 GRANTS, SPONSORSHIPS AND PARTNERSHIPS 115 10.9 TRUST FUNDS AND ENDOWMENTS 117 10.10 BUSINESS PLANNING 118 Annexes 122 Annex 1: Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 122 Annex 2: Maps and figures 135 Annex 3: Terms of reference for buffer zone management planning 136 Annex 4: Satellite telecommunications 138 Annex 5: Public awareness and environmental education plan, 2002-2006 143 Annex 6: Memorandum of Understanding with Harvard University Herbarium 151 Annex 7: Principles for bioprospecting partnerships 153 Annex 8: Notes on the World Heritage Site nomination 156 Annex 9: Terms of reference for business planning 158 Bibliography 160 Index 175

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 5

PARTICIPANTS IN STRATEGIC PLANNING

This Strategic Plan was prepared with the guidance of all the institutions belonging to the Maliau Basin Conservation Area Management Committee (see Section 1.2). The following individuals contributed their time and ideas to its development (with apologies for omissions and inaccuracies):

Abdul Hamid Ahmad (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Abdul Latif Mohamed (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) Abdul Rashid Salleh (Yayasan Sabah1) Ainon Salam (EAC) Alim Biun (Sabah Parks) Johan Alexander (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Raymond Alfred (WWFM) David Aloysius (Yayasan Sabah) Laurentius Ambu (Sabah Wildlife Department) Paul Ambun (Sabah Parks) Aminudin Mohamad (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Amnah Rozieyana (Borneo Divers) Mahedi Andau (Sabah Wildlife Department) Arsuhaila Musha (Economic Planning Unit, Putrajaya) Gem Asildo (Yayasan Sabah) Awang Rahim Awang Ali (Yayasan Sabah) Badrul Hisham Kumut (Yayasan Sabah) Siriman Basir (Nabawan District Office) Baton Benjamin (Borneo Eco) Julian Caldecott (Creatura Ltd) Chai Chie Kong (Pan-Borneo Travel) Danny Chew (Borneo Tourism Institute) John Chin (Borneo Eco Tours) Freddie Cho (Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister’s Department) Henry Chok (SEPA/EAC) Adrian Chong (Town Planning Department) Peter L.S. Chong (Yayasan Sabah) Edward Chua (Yayasan Sabah) Darshan Singh (Yayasan Sabah) Geoffrey Davison (WWF Malaysia) Alex Dubgaard (Aarhus University) Michael Emban (Keningau District Office) Cesar Escobidor (Discovery Tours) Peter Feilberg (NEPCon) Robert Francis (Borneo Tourism Institute) Vincent Fung (Sabah Forestry Dept) Jimmy Gabriel (Environmental Conservation Department) Barnabas Gait (Yayasan Sabah) Ailen I. Ganing (ECD) Andrew Garcia (Yayasan Sabah) Charles Garcia (Yayasan Sabah)

1 In this list, the affiliation ‘Yayasan Sabah’ refers to the Sabah Foundation and all of its wholly- owned subsidiaries. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 6

Sintiong Ge let (Sabah Museum) Jikos Gidiman (Yayasan Sabah) Jeffrey Gilimon (Inno Travel) Ricky Gilong (Yayasan Sabah) Tony Greer (Cowie, DANCED consultant) Charles Gulis (Yayasan Sabah) Roger Hammond (Living Earth) Datuk Hamzah Amir (Tawau Municipal Council) Hamzah Tangki (Yayasan Sabah) Carsten Broder Hansen (Albatross, DANCED consultant) Hon Tun Lin (Drainage and Irrigation Department) Stephen Jilimin (Yayasan Sabah) Marcus Jopony (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Rose John Kidi Jontili (Yayasan Sabah) Roslan Junaidi (Sa bah Forestry Department) Jupailin Naiman (Yayasan Sabah) Jamili Nais (Sabah Parks) Omar Kadir (Sabah Society) George H. Kandavu (Sook District Office) Jens Kanstrup (DANCED consultant) Daniel Khiong (Sabah Forestry Department) Annie Kimbian (Yayasan Sabah) Frederick Kugan (Sabah Forestry Department) Badrul Hisham Kumut (Yayasan Sabah) Maklarin Lakim (Sabah Parks) Tony Lamb (independent consultant) Claudia Lasimbang (PACOS) Jenny Lee (Sabah Agriculture Department) Karen Lewis (IBM) Francis Liew (Sabah Parks) Jenny Liaw (Institute for Development Studies) Darline Lim-Hasegawa (Yayasan Sabah) Bubudan O.T. Majalu (District Office Nabawan) Jaffit Majuakim (Sabah Museum) Mary Malangking (Kementarian Pelancongan dan Pembangunan Alam Sekitar) Maryati Mohamed (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Mashita Yusoff (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Frederica Mojilis (Yayasan Sabah) Patricia Mobilik (Yayasan Sabah) Hans Ulrik Skotte Møller (DANCED consultant, CTA) Pedro Moura Costa (Ecosecurities) Gregory Mosigil (Yayasan Sabah) Seiko Mukojima (Pan-Borneo Travel) Justin Mundy (Aon) S.M. Muthu (SEPA) Joseph Naesarajoo Johnny Ng (SEPA) Norhaidah Maral (Yayasan Sabah) Jimmy Omar (Sabah Nature Club, Yayasan Sabah) Robert Ong (Forest Research Centre) Albinus Ongkudon (Yayasan Sabah) Rommella Osmand (MJS Services) Helen Patrick (Yayasan Sabah) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 7

Gideon Peter (Yayasan Sabah) Hubert Petol (Forest Research Centre) Cyril Pinso (Yayasan Sabah) Anthea Phillipps (independent consultant) Erik Prins (DANCED consultant) Susan Pudin (Environmental Conservation Department) Rahim Nik (Forest Research Institute Malaysia) Menno Schilthuizen (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Abdul Rahim Sidek (Natural Resources Office, Chief Minister’s Department) Rahim Sulaiman (Sabah Forestry Department) Rahimatsah Amat (WWFM) Surin Su ksuwan (WWFM) Homathevi Rahman (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Patricia Regis (Kementarian Pelancongan dan Pembangunan Alam Sekitar) Glen Reynolds (Royal Society/Danum Valley Field Centre) Linah Robert (Yayasan Sabah) Matius Sator (District Office Tongod) Saw Leng Guan (FRIM) Thadeus Sibir (Yayasan Sabah) Sidkan Ali (Yayasan Sabah) Jeflus Sinajin (Sabah Forestry Department) Waidi Sinun (Yayasan Sabah) Jadda Suhaimi (Yayasan Sabah) Masturah Sulaiman (Yayasan Sabah) Rahim Sulaiman (Sabah Forestry Dept) Esperanza M. Sulit (Yayasan Sabah) Stephen Sutton (Borneo Books) Carolyn Tan (Town & Regional Planning Department) John Tay (Yayasan Sabah) Kerry ten Kate (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) Albert Teo (Borneo Eco Tours) Selvester Tiongin Tong Tei Sin Felix Tongkul (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Carl Traeholt (DANCED consultant) Augustine Tuuga (Sabah Wildwife Department) Anders Tvevad (DANCED consultant) Trevor Udarbe (Yayasan Sabah) Violeta Vista (Yayasan Sabah) Wendy Wan (Sabah State Economic Planning Unit) Campbell Webb (DANCED consultant) Ivan Webber (Yayasan Sabah) Anna Wong (Sabah Wildlife Department) Yap Sau Wai (INFAPRO) Sylvia Yorath (Yayasan Sabah) Zahra Yaacob (Yayasan Sabah/Borneo Studies Centre) Zakariah Hussein (Universiti Putra Malaysia) Zulhazman Hamzah (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) Zulhimi Mohd Radzi (Perlis State Park) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 8

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Location and legal status

The 588 square km Maliau Basin Conservation Area (MBCA) is centred on about 4o50’ North and 116o65’ East, and is located in central-interior Sabah (Malaysian north Borneo), within the Forestry District of Tawau. The conservation area includes the basin itself and the outer slopes of most of its circumference. It is a Class I (Protection) Forest Reserve, gazetted in 1997 under the Forest Enactment, and is therefore not available for logging or any other form of destructive use. It is surrounded by about 286 sq km of unlogged and 1,044 sq km of logged buffer zone forests, all of which are Class II (Production) Forest Reserves. The MBCA is one of the last major tracts of pristine rain forest not only in Sabah, but in the whole of Malaysia and Borneo.

Management authority

As a Forest Reserve, the MBCA is ultimately the responsibility of the Sabah Forestry Department. The Maliau Basin Conservation Area Forest Rules 1998 established a MBCA Management Committee that comprises the Director of the Forestry Department and representatives of a range of governmental, university and other institutions. The formal role of the Management Committee is to advise the Director of Forestry “on the conservation and protection of the Reserve as a permanent tropical rain forest for the purposes of scientific research, recreation and protection of ecology, environment and climatic condition”. The Management Committee has authority to form partnerships with local or overseas institutions, to advise on proposed developments within the reserve, to decide on proposed research within the reserve, and to appoint a Secretary from among the staff of Yayasan Sabah. The Forest Rules of 1998 delegate to Yayasan Sabah responsibility for the day-to-day management of the MBCA.

Management objectives

Consistent with the MBCA Forest Rules of 1998, the overall management strategy for the MBCA is to save, study, teach about and use sustainably the ecosystems2 and all living things contained within it, with the aim of preserving in perpetuity the natural conditions prevailing there. Specifically, the MBCA Forest Rules require the Management Committee to “plan, co-ordinate, facilitate, monitor and evaluate” the following: · protection of biodiversity in all its forms; · promotion of research on intact ecosystems and on the disturbance and recovery of logged ecosystems; · promotion of education and training in conservation, natural history, ecology, forestry and related sciences; · promotion of appropriate recreation and nature tourism where this does not conflict with other priorities; and · integration of conservation, forestry and nature tourism in and around the reserve to create a model sustainable forest management area.

2 Ecosystem: all the organisms in a particular place and time, all the relationships amongst them (such as predation, pollination, parasitism), and all the physical features of light, heat, moisture, wind and chemistry that affect them. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 9

Policy directions. The management strategy will be implemented through an integrated process supported by effective and adaptive managerial systems based on well-led, well-trained and well-motivated staff using appropriate equipment and infrastructure. Adequate budgets will be needed, but cost recovery and sustainable financing mechanisms shall also be designed to ensure permanence of the conservation system in all foreseeable circumstances.

Purpose and scope of planning

This Strategic Plan 2003-2012 was formulated under the auspices of the YS-DANCED Management of the MBCA Project as an integral part of the management plan for the MBCA. It provides a phased checklist of activities to be implemented over ten years, addressing all issues identified by stakeholders during the planning process, and a draft Action Plan 2003-2005 to address a selection of near-term priorities (Annex 1). Its intended focus was the MBCA itself, but it also examines the many important roles of the buffer zone, and provides terms of reference for preparing a buffer zone management plan. Significant infrastructure developments within the buffer zone were decided upon before this planning exercise began, including the decision on where to locate the Maliau Basin Studies Centre (MBSC), its design, the alignment of access roads, and the location and extent of tourism zones and facilities around the periphery of the area, including the development of a Visitor Reception and Information Centre (VRIC) at the security gate on the Tawau-Keningau road.

Resources to be conserved

The conservation area is named for its most prominent feature, the Maliau Basin, the existence of which was recorded for the first time in 1947, and the first recorded entry was not until 1981. The basin is nearly circular, up to 25 km in diameter, more than 1,000 m deep and is bounded by a rim at 1,500-1,700 m above sea level. The basin’s interior is connected at low altitude with the outside world only through the Maliau Gorge. For these reasons, the basin is popularly known as ‘Sabah’s Lost World’.

In and around the basin are forests comprising 10-12 vegetation types in four main formations native to the Bornean interior, all in a high state of preservation. There is a complex system of rivers with what is probably the world’s densest array of waterfalls, and Sabah’s only natural lake. The total number of species is very high – estimated to be about 240,000 or 38% of Borneo’s entire biota3 - and many of them are endemic to Sabah or to Borneo, or are restricted to the MBCA and Gunung Kinabalu, while about a quarter of the birds and mammals are red-listed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Thus the MBCA is replete with endangered and globally-important biodiversity at all levels from that of genetic resources to that of whole ecosystems. It is located, biologically speaking, in the richest part of the richest tropical island in the world, much of which has elsewhere been deforested. This combination of factors means that the MBCA is of extraordinary importance to the preservation of Bornean, Malaysian and global biodiversity.

Policy directions. MBCA belongs to the foremost rank of Malaysian conservation areas, alongside Taman Negara in Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, Mulu Park in

3 Biota: All of the kinds of organisms that are found in a given area. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 10

Sarawak, and Kinabalu Park and Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, all of which have the maximum possible priority for national and global biodiversity conservation. Consistent with state and national law and policy, and with Malaysia’s international commitments, every effort will be made, therefore, to preserve in perpetuity the natural conditions prevailing within the MBCA.

Threats to the resources

The following threats are thought to be particularly relevant to the future of the MBCA: · Fire, whether starting locally or reaching the area from elsewhere, including the possibility that forest fires could ignite surface coal seams. · Plantations, especially large pulp-wood plantations adjacent to the buffer zone; · Illegal logging in the buffer zone and, possibly, the conservation area itself. · Mining, especially the possibility that, despite the present legal protection, coal mining might be permitted at some future date. · Farming, especially the possibility of gradual encroachment on remaining forests in the general Maliau area. · Hunting, especially of tembadau and rhinoceros but also of other species. · Harvesting, especially of gaharu (Aquilaria or eaglewood) and rattan (climbing palms), but also of other resources. · Tourism, especially the possibility of inappropriate tourism development and infrastructure in and around the basin, and excessive visitation pressures within the basin. · Infrastructure, especially the impact of the rebuilt Tawau to Keningau road, and other possible developments in the area. · Hostility to the MBCA, especially among local people and influential interest groups who would like to use the area in ways other than conservation.

Policy directions. Reviewing issues of land use around the conservation area, Greer (2002) concluded “that the MBCA is under an increasing number of development pressures, most of them invasive in nature and that unless proactive measures are taken, the area in the not so distant future will be under siege”. This siege will be avoided by systematically and continually detecting, understanding, neutralizing and diverting threatening factors at all scales from the local and short-term to the state-wide and long-term. The preferred approach to this will be to build partnerships through research, dialogue and shared responsibility for conflict resolution among informed stakeholders.

Protective measures proposed

The MBCA is set in a broader landscape, where stakeholders exist and decisions are made that profoundly affect its long-term viability. An important consideration is the need to promote biological connectedness between the MBCA-buffer zone complex and more distant forest ecosystems. Another is the need to manage the buffer zone itself in ways that promote the integrity of the MBCA. These both require close cooperation among multiple stakeholders, including all concerned government departments, institutions of local government, NGOs, local communities and FMU holders, both through the medium of the MBCA Management Committee and also through a wide range of direct contacts at the field level.

The third primary consideration is the need to manage the MBCA itself. This will succeed to the extent that the aims, principles and importance of protective Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 11

management are communicated to and understood by the general public and their representatives at the local, state, national and global levels, including an appropriate range of potential donors and investors. It also requires a long-term perspective and the ability to apply innovative and adaptive management strategies while consistently avoiding any action that could do irreversible harm to the MBCA and its ecosystems. Clear boundaries, well-sited bases, suitable equipment and effective patrol routines for protection staff, appropriate management zones and adequate personnel resources will all be needed, along with the relief of certain constraints to managerial performance.

Policy directions. Threats to the MBCA will be neutralized through an integrated process with three main themes that respectively emphasize: · promoting biological connectedness in the landscape surrounding the MBCA, mainly through dialogue between conservation stakeholders and others, so as to avoid conflict between conservation and other land uses; · managing a buffer zone surrounding the MBCA with the involvement of all local stakeholders, so that the use of resources there complements and supports the protection of the conservation area itself; and · protecting the conservation area.

Enhancing management capacity

The 36 staff working for the MBCA are well led and have considerable capacity to implement basic aspects of the Strategic Plan, although training and organizational improvement will be needed to adapt staff capacity to new challenges over time. The managerial system as a whole shows shortcomings in the areas of: (a) staff incentives and opportunities for career development, (b) an over-reliance on the knowledge and skills of a small number of individuals who are potentially transferable to other duties, and (c) an insufficiency of key personnel at headquarters with consequent over- Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 12

burdening of the central executive leadership. Also identified is a need for a more sophisticated capacity to manage large amounts of digital information related to management and research, which will require a specific, detailed planning exercise and targetted investment to achieve.

Policy directions. If the long-term conservation of the MBCA is to be achieved, adaptive managerial systems are needed that are able both to overcome challenges and to use opportunities creatively and effectively. These systems should bring smoothly together key elements of operational planning, budgetary accountability, clear line authority, performance monitoring, staff incentives and knowledge management arrangements. Institutional change, decentralization, staff training and other measures will be needed to ensure that this capacity is developed and maintained.

Education, tourism and public awareness

A unifying idea among these themes is that the MBCA’s ecosystems can be seen as information resources. They are complex and interesting, and learning about them is deeply satisfying to the human mind. Education, tourism and public awareness strategies exploit this in different ways, with an emphasis on teaching, interpretation and communication respectively. People’s lives can be touched by the MBCA either on-site during visits, or in far-away places through books, TV or the Internet. Either way, consciousness can be raised, revenues generated, and conservation advanced.

For tourism development, the fact that tourism within the MBCA is required by law to be secondary to protection, education and research, rules out mass tourism and indicates that ways should be sought to promote harmony and synergism among these aims. This in turn means that management should aim to offer experiences to visitors that are both educational and that promote conservation, while managing visitors so as to minimize their harmful impacts. Thus, tourism access to the MBCA should in principle be quite selective, and the services offered should be quite carefully designed to meet the needs of an appropriate target market. It is suggested here that the most appropriate mission of tourism management within the MBCA would be to sell intellectual stimulation through on-site interpretation. This would be supplemented by providing for people to visit the spectacular scenery of the basin interior, if ways can be found to do so that do not conflict with conservation priorities. Both approaches would be complemented by educational and recreational tourism in the buffer zone and peripheral parts of the MBCA, using especially the Visitor Reception and Information Centre (VRIC) at the security gate, and the Maliau Basin Studies Centre (MBSC) at the mouth of Maliau Gorge, which are now under construction.

For education, the intention is that the MBSC should become an educational resource servicing the schools of western Sabah in the same way that Danum Valley Field Centre will service primarily those of eastern Sabah. In this process, priority will be given to jointly developing, with Danum, a programme to put every teacher in Sabah through a rain forest environmental education course. This will remove a barrier to the use of these educational facilities, which is that most teachers themselves have little idea how to use the rain forest as an educational resource. Beyond this, the strategy for tourism development is fundamentally oriented to the education of all visitors, and includes incentives for use of the MBCA by students at all levels.

A comprehensive, long-term public awareness strategy has been developed by the YS-DANCED project and is summarized in the Strategic Plan. It involves: preparing and distributing printed materials; organizing visits, talks, events, exhibitions and Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 13

permanent displays; undertaking various merchandizing and relationship-maintenance activities (e.g. with the media and tour operators); managing an image library, and developing the www.maliau.org web-site. Many of these activities interface with and reinforce the sustainable financing strategy.

Policy directions. The ecosystems of the MBCA are knowledge resources that can be used to generate various kinds of sustainable benefit flows to Sabah, Malaysia and the world. Processes of education, tourism and public awareness are viewed as fundamentally connected and will be fully integrated with one another. In this approach, education will be used to help create new generations sensitized to the wonders of nature while harvesting revenues from those able to pay for learning experiences; tourism will be used to harvest revenues from visitors eager to learn about rain forest ecosystems; and public awareness will be promoted by systematic marketing and outreach, using materials in all media developed using rain forest knowledge resources, some of them distributed for free and some sold at a profit. These themes strongly reinforce one another, and will be developed together. In all cases, preference will be given to activities that involve minimal risk to the MBCA while yielding maximum benefits – including financial benefits – for conservation.

Research and environmental monitoring

A basic role of the MBCA is as a site for scientific research, and the more that is known about this rich information resource the more interesting it will become and the easier it will be to market and manage. On the other hand, research projects impose costs on management, in terms of their need for staff time, accommodation, laboratory space and other limited resources. Hence, research activities in the MBCA should be guided towards projects that can help meet specific management needs, such as those that enrich knowledge of poorly-known taxonomic groups (e.g. invertebrates, lianas) or those that are known to be vulnerable and important (e.g. ‘flagship’ species like Sumatran rhinos, tembadau, elephants, and orang utans), that clarify key features of population connectedness (e.g. gene flow4, migration), and ecosystem recovery from disturbance. Long-term and participatory studies would be designed to support environmental monitoring, by generating longitudinal datasets that reflect progressive change in key ecological parameters (e.g. forest leaf -flushing, flowering and fruiting at different elevations, and the abundance of wildlife populations at different places over time). This would be supplemented by the collection and interpretation of climatological and hydrological data.

Policy directions. The overall strategy for managing the MBCA is to save, study, teach about and use sustainably the components of biodiversity that occur within it, with the aim of preserving in perpetuity the natural conditions prevailing there. Research is the primary means of studying the resource and generating knowledge on what to teach about it, and how to use it sustainably. Both pure and commercial forms of research are desirable, but procedures are needed for allocating scarce resources with which to support researchers, and to ensure that studies are done on mutually agreed terms with a fair and equitable sharing of benefits. The research agenda also intersects with the need for environmental monitoring, both of ecosystem health and security, and of global environmental trends to which the Maliau Basin’s unique isolation particularly lends itself. Environmental monitoring is vital to preserving

4 Gene flow: the transmission of genetic material through interbreeding among connected populations of wild animals and plants. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 14

ecosystems in perpetuity, since it provides feedback on their health and a check on whether conservation efforts are working.

Implementation programme

Managing the MBCA and developing all its various potentials over the next decade will be a complex and demanding task, requiring considerable investment in numerous activities. In the near term, however, resources are limited, so a selection of activities that ar e considered essential for action planning have been identified, by which it should be possible: · to ensure that key ecosystems are protected; · to maintain facilities, equipment, trails and roads; · to complete the training of staff in key skills; · to obtain at least some revenue and gain experience from tourism; · to facilitate dialogue and agree procedures amongst stakeholders; · to begin and maintain an environmental monitoring programme; · to maintain and further increase public support; and · to undertake certain cost-effective strategic actions (such as submitting a World Heritage Site nomination and commissioning a comprehensive business plan for the sustainable financing strategy outlined in Chapter 10).

This list was further refined and the perspective further shortened in the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1), in which activities are organized into the following four programmes: · Development and Infrastructure , which focusses on construction of the MBSC, the VRIC, and the road between them, as well as providing public access to Maliau Falls, and constructing, repairing and maintaining a range of trails, camps and other facilities within the MBCA. This will create and maintain the basic infrastructure needed for protection, research, education and recreation within the MBCA and parts of the buffer zone. · Human Resource Development and Training, which allows for MBCA staff to take a wide range of courses designed to strengthen their basic capacities and skills in field techniques, visitor management, safety, maintenance, fire-fighting and in a variety of technical areas. · Public Awareness and Environmental Education, which aims to deepen and broaden public appreciation for the MBCA, its living resources and conservation priorities through local outreach, teacher training, production of materials for use at MBSC, VRIC, nature trails, and special events, and by developing the www.maliau.org web-site and a capacity for selling materials through it. · Research and Environmental Monitoring, the purpose of which is to develop a prospectus to clarify research strategy, protocols and procedures, to encourage research activities by outside institutions, to build a capacity for pure and applied research on site, and to develop, organize and maintain an environmental monitoring programme, as well as appropriate databases and library collections.

Protection functions are not specifically programmed because they will be performed continuously by the existing protection staff, although two ranger posts and a fire tower will be built to support them in strategic locations. The major construction activities associated with the MBSC, VRIC and road works will be undertaken not by MBCA staff but by contractors or other sections of the Yayasan Sabah family. Likewise, the British Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 15

NGO Trekforce has agreed to help build suspension bridges and other structures, thus freeing MBCA staff for their routine protective and other duties. Hence the Action Plan 2003-2005 captures a realistic set of activities that can be undertaken without exceeding present capacities, and without compromising the overall safety of the MBCA. These activities will also perform the important function of making it possible to obtain at least some revenue and gain experience from tourism from 2004 onwards. The extent of this, however, will depend on decisions of the MBCA Management Committee in relation to the provision of overnight public access within the MBCA and specifically to Maliau Falls.

Management plan review schedule

A management plan should be considered more of a process than a document, and the process of management should contain numerous feedback loops that allow continuous adaptation and assessment of performance in overcoming various challenges. Nevertheless, it would be desirable to schedule more deliberate reviews at times to examine the ‘big picture’. This need will be met through the preparation of three-year action plans in 2002 (for 2003-2005), 2005 (for 2006-2008), and 2008 (for 2009-2012), and by a complete review of this Strategic Plan in 2012.

Sustainable financing strategy

Development of the MBCA will occur in a challenging fiscal context. This will place a premium on finding ways for it to generate funds by means consistent with its conservation function. The MBCA is in an excellent position to contribute since it contains immense biodiversity and other resources for which there is an increasing international demand. Wit h effective marketing and appropriate development, there is scope for the area to yield significant revenues quite quickly, though not overnight and not without investment. This potential will be multiplied if ways are found to integrate the global market ing of the MBCA with that of other components of Sabah’s conservation area system, especially the Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA). Several of these opportunities are based on global conservation and business practices developed over the past decade that have not yet been fully apprehended within Sabah. A comprehensive business plan will therefore be needed to explain, define and be used as a basis for implementing this financing strategy, and guidelines for preparing this business plan are therefore also included in the Strategic Plan. The opportunities listed in the table have been identified as possible ways for the MBCA to generate funds.

Policy directions. New techniques, technologies and international markets mean that the conservation sector is now capable of achieving and sustaining a primary economic role without necessarily conflicting with conservation aims. Investments will be directed to this end, in full awareness that the diversity and novelty of a financing strategy based on sustainable use of biodiversity will require innovation, experiment and deliberate diversification of business activities and income streams. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 16

Enterprise fields, investments and potential returns in a sustainable financing strategy

Enterprise field Nature of enterprise Nature of investment Potential returns Comments

Ecotourism Charging local and foreign visitors for access and Up-grade Low to moderate Cap on visitor nights per year; services within the conservation area, and accommodation within (US$ 0.35-1.4 investment in facilities of managing the resulting impacts to minimize basin; harden and ease million/year, not different quality relates to conflicts with conservation priorities. trail system; employ including possible target market and charges per resident naturalists. public access to person-night. Maliau Falls).

Educational Example: selling subscriptions to web-cast or International marketing High (US$ 1.0 -5.0 Target market is 60+ million services satellite-broadcast lectures about the rain forest, manager, hardware, million/year). Anglophone school and aimed at the international school and university software, content and university students in several markets. subscriptions hundred thousand educational managers, global institutions. marketing effort.

Educational Example: selling products such as books, International marketing High (US$ 1.0-5.0 Target market is 60+ million merchandizing booklets, magazines, postcards, video CDs and manager, content million/year). Anglophone school and posters about the rain forest through international manager, production university students in several catalogue orders. unit, order fulfillment hundred thousand educational centres, global institutions. marketing effort.

Bioprospecting Developing long-term equitable partnerships with Bioprospecting Low to moderate Balance between up-front groups that undertake commercial research on development manager, (US$ 0.35-1.0 (access) payments, milestone biodiversity. negotiation costs. million/year) in payments and royalties, and medium term; high between cash and in-kind in long term. receipts depends on partnerships. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 17

Enterprise fields, investments and potential returns in a sustainable financing strategy

Biodiversity Selling rights to use the conservation area’s Hardware, software, Low to moderate Low initial investment could futures trading biodiversity resources sustainably in the distant internati onal (loss to US$ 1.0 create a new way to capture future, to investors who expect the value of those advertizing. million on initial biodiversity option, bequest rights to rise in the near future, with price offering of 20,000 and existence values with increments being taxed. Bonds; zero to US$ high publicity value and many 0.02 million/year). other applications.

Carbon storage Obtaining international grants or carbon emission Global marketing effort. Low to moderate Windfall investments are credits for re-planting native trees in the buffer (US$ 0.35-1.0 possible; otherwise used as zone, or for putting the Maliau coal deposits and million/year). grant attractant. forests ‘beyond use’ under legal protection.

Grants, Systematic quest for international grant financing Up-grade Low to moderate Mainly available for specific sponsorships and the recruitment of corporate sponsors and accommodation within (US$ 0.35-1.0 projects, rather than for core and partners for discrete investments, for long-term basin; harden and ease million/year). funding. partnerships relationship building, and for senior staff trail system; employ secondments. resident naturalists.

OVERVIEW US$ 0.5-1.0 Range US$ 3.4- With strong management, million/year, mainly in 14.0 million/year. returns are likely to be contract staff and proportional to investment; marketing costs. possible loss in years 1-2, rising to maximum profitability by year 5.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 18

USE OF TERMS adat traditions (world views, ethics, ancestral domains, behavioural rules) asl above sea level barang portable belongings BDS Biodiversity database system ca circa (‘about’) CER Certified Emission Reduction CDM Clean Development Mechanism CI Conservation International CSR Corporate social responsibility DANCED Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development DVCA Danum Valley Conservation Area DVFC Danum Valley Field Centre e.g. exempli gratia (‘for example’) EIA Environmental impact assessment ENSO El Ni ño-Southern Oscillation EPU Economic Planning Unit et al. et alia (‘and others’) EU European Union ex situ ‘off site’ (outside the place of natural occurrence) FACE Forests Absorbing Carbon-dioxide Emissions (Foundation) FFI Fauna and Flora International FMU Forest Management Unit 4WD Four -wheel drive FRC Forestry Research Centre, Sandakan GEF Global Environment Facility GIS Geographical information system GPS Global positioning system Gunung Mountain ha Hectare (10,000 square metres) HQ Headquarters IBOY International Biodiversity Observation Year ICSB Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd i.e. id est (‘that is’) in situ ‘on site’ (in the place of natural occurrence) inter alia ‘among others’ IPR Intellectual property right IRR Internal rate of return ITTO International Tropical Timber Organization IUCN World Conservation Union (formerly the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Kampung Village (Kg) Kuala River mouth MBCA Maliau Basin Conservation Area MBSC Maliau Basin Studies Centre MIS Management information system NGO Non-governmental (non-profit) organization RBJ Rakyat Berjaya Sdn Bhd Rentis Cleared path or cut line through the forest RM Ringgit Malaysia (equivalent to ca US$ 0.26 in June 2002) RN Resident naturalist Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 19

Sungai River (Sg) SIARO State Internal Affairs and Research Office TNC The Nature Conservancy UK United Kingdom UKM Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Ulu Headwater UMS Universiti Malaysia Sabah UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UPM Universiti Putra Malaysia US$ United States dollar (equivalent to ca RM 3.80 in June 2002) VRIC Visitor Reception and Information Centre VSAT Very small aperture terminal WCS Wildlife Conservation Society WHS World Heritage Site WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization WWF World Wide Fund for Nature Yayasan Foundation YS Yayasan Sabah (Sabah Foundation)

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 20

PART ONE - INTRODUCTION, RESOURCES AND THREATS

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

People have lived in Borneo for at least 40,000 years (Smythies and Davison, 1999), during which time they presumably visited every part of the island. Such visits would have involved hunting, fishing, gathering forest products for food, medicine or ritual, the planting of fruit trees, and the clearing of small farms. Some parts of Borneo have been relatively inaccessible throughout deep history, however, being too far away from the more comfortable lowlands, or too rugged, to attract more than the very occasional adventurer or exile. The Maliau Basin is one area where all the conditions for extremely rare human visitation combine. It is many days’ walk from any river likely to have supported permanent settlements; it is mostly surrounded by steep cliffs at high elevation, where food and water are scarce; and the lower entry routes to the west and south are the furthest from rivers that are likely to have been settled or navigated.

Nevertheless, people have been to the basin often enough in the last few centuries for the local Tagal Muruts to have a name for it – one that means ‘Land of the Giant Staircase’, from its step-like rivers and abundant cascading waterfalls, while in the same dialect maliau means bowl or basin (Phillipps, 2002). These visits were probably motivated by a quest for precious forest products, such as the perfumed wood known as gaharu (Aquilaria or eaglewood), rhinoceros horn, and hornbill ivory, all which have been traded from Borneo to China and elsewhere for centuries (Harrisson, 1956, 1999; Burkill, 1966).

The Maliau Basin was first described in print in 1947, when the Borneo Bulletin reported that the pilot of a light aircraft had narrowly avoided crashing into what turned out to be the cliffs of the basin’s northern rim, which were then uncharted. Geological and soil survey teams passed nearby in the early 1960s and early 1970s, and in 1972 a Forestry Department team reached Lake Linumunsut at the foot of Gunung Lotung, and accomplished some inventory work despite wet weather and ill-health. None of these groups tried to enter the basin, leaving the first recorded attempt to the Forest Botany Group in 1976, which failed in the near-vertical terrain of the northern rim, and their follow-up survey in 1978 concentrated on the area around the lake. In 1980 a Sabah Museum team attempted the western rim, but were turned back by malaria and a lack of supplies.

Helicopters finally allowed recorded access to the basin in 1981, when Yayasan Sabah designated it as a conservation area and dropped off teams on the north rim to dema rcate its boundary and to cut a rentis and put in three helipads, allowing a preliminary survey team to be inserted by helicopter in 1982. The State Cabinet approved conservation area status for Maliau in 1984. By 1986, logging roads had approached to wi thin 10 km of the western side of the basin, allowing a small team to enter the basin on foot to survey the heath forests of the low (ca 1,000 m asl) plateau of the southern interior, and then to ascend Gunung Lutong before leaving the area via Kuala Maliau. Meanwhile in 1986, plans began to be laid for the first major scientific expedition to the interior of the basin, which was undertaken jointly by Yayasan Sabah and WWF Malaysia in 1988 (Marsh, 1989a).

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 21

Another process of importance to the future of Mal iau also began in 1986, with the discovery of a coal seam of minable thickness on the north-west side of the Gunung Lotung escarpment. The presence of coal within the basin was explored further by the geological team of the 1988 expedition (Lim and Tungah Surat, 1989), who at 24 localities in the north-eastern interior found a total of 31 coal seams ranging in thickness from 0.02 to 1.8 metres, with at least five thicker than one metre. The discovery of coal also led to field work over three years by the Exploration Department of BHP -UTAH Minerals International, which documented outcrops of high-quality bituminous coal around most of the perimeter of the basin and particularly in the northern and eastern rim. The total coal resource was estimated at about 215 million tonnes, 72% of it under the eastern and north-eastern part of the rim. The company then applied for a licence to undertake exploration mining with a view to full-scale development of the prospect, leading to a preliminary environmental impact assessment of the proposed activity in 1992 (DPA, 1992). The EIA report concluded that mining and conservation were incompatible uses of the area and presented the State Government with a clear choice between these two alternative futures for the Maliau Basin.

Meanwhile, the pace of research and conservation activity had increased. Raleigh International prepared the site for a research field station and a helipad on the south plateau in 1992, and Camel Trophy participants built the field station in 1993. Raleigh International returned in 1994 to explore the south plateau, and again in 1996 to construct a trail to Gunung Lotung and two helipads. The second major scientific expedition also occurred in 1996, undertaken jointly by Yayasan Sabah, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development (Maryati Mohamed, Waidi Sinun et al., 1998). The government’s decision on whether or not to permit further mineral exploration was made in that context the same year, and went against the mining interest. This was consolidated legally in 1997 when the State Legislative Assembly voted to gazette the whole area as a Class I (Protection) Forest Reserve, to increase its area to 58,840 ha so as to include the outer slopes and Lake Linumunsut, and to excise it from the Yayasan Sabah concession.

An inter-agency Maliau Basin Conservation Area Management Committee was established by law in 1998, to supervise the protection and development of the area, with day-to-day management being undertaken by Yayasan Sabah (see Section 1.2). In that year camps were established in the Tembadau Valley outside the southern rim of the basin, and a security gate and road access constructed to the south. Meanwhile, discussions in the context of an on-going Malaysian-Danish programme of government-to-government environmental co-operation led to the establishment of the three-year Management of Maliau Basin Conservation Area Project (DANCED, 1998; Oh and Gregory, 2001), which is referred to below as the ‘YS-DANCED project’.

This project is being implemented jointly by Yayasan Sabah and a team of technical advisers funded by DANCED and provided through a consortium of Danish consulting firms. It began with an inception phase in late 1999 (Ornis Consult & NEPCon, 1999), and its subsequent history is given in the form of progress reports (Ornis Consult & NEPCon, 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2002), a mid-term review (Development Associates, 2001) and a revised project strategy (Ornis Consult & NEPCon, 2001c). It has supported numerous studies of the biota and broader ecology of the MBCA (see bibliography). It has also sponsored aerial photography of 1,700 square km of the MBCA, its buffer zones, and surrounding areas, and the production of 1:12,000 scale maps based upon them (StoraEnso, 2002). The YS-DANCED project provided Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 22

technical and other support to all aspects of its protection and development, including the process of consultation and writing that led to the preparation of this Strategic Plan.

1.2 EXISTING LEGAL AND MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS

Maliau Basin Conservation Area (MBCA) is a Class I (Protection) Forest Reserve, gazetted with an area of 58,840 ha in a 1997 amendment to the Forests (Constitution of Forest Reserves and Amendment) Enactment of 1984, which in turn amended the Forest Enactment of 1968. Rules governing its management are laid down in the MBCA Forest Rules 1998, which established a Management Committee for the MBCA. With subsequent additions and institutional name-changes, the MBCA Management Committee now comprises the Director of the Sabah Forestry Department and representatives of: · Yayasan Sabah (YS); · Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS); · Ministry of Tourism, Environment, Science and Technology; · Sabah Wildlife Department; · Sabah Parks; · Sabah Museum; · Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM); · Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) ; · Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM); · Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS); · Environmental Conservation Department · Town and Regional Planning Department; · District Office Tongod; · District Office Nabawan; · District Office Keningau; · Tawau Municipal Council ; · Danum Valley Management Committee; and · World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia (Sabah branch).

As a Forest Reserve, the MBCA is ultimately the responsibility of the Sabah Forestry Department, and the formal role of the Management Committee is to advise its Director “on the conservation and protection of the Reserve as a permanent tropical rain forest for the purposes of scientific research, recreation and protection of ecology, environment and climatic condition”. Beyond this, the Management Committee is required to “plan, co-ordinate, facilitate, monitor and evaluate” the following:

· protection of biodiversity in all its forms; · promotion of research on intact ecosystems and on the disturbance and recovery of logged ecosystems; Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 23

· promotion of education and training in conservation, natural history, ecology, forestry and related sciences; · promotion of appropriate recreation and nature tourism where this does not conflict with other priorities; and · integration of conservation, forestry and nature tourism in and around the reserve to create a model sustainable forest management area.

The Management Committee has the authority to form partnerships with local or overseas institutions, to advise on proposed developments within the reserve, to decide on proposed research within the reserve, and to appoint a Secretary from among the staff of Yayasan Sabah. The MBCA Forest Rules of 1998 formally delegate management responsibility to Yayasan Sabah which, in consultation with the Management Committee, may make decisions regarding the organization of management of the reserve, the regulation of access to it, the establishment of facilities within it, and any other matters necessary for its day-to-day management.

Yayasan Sabah has delegated these tasks to its wholly-owned subsidiary company, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd, which also provides the Secretariat of the Management Committee. Innoprise manages the reserve through its Forestry Division, drawing on the resources of its Conservation and Environmental Services and Tourism and Leisure sections, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Rakyat Berjaya Sdn Bhd (RBJ). The management plan, then, is being prepared by Innoprise (with DANCED support) on behalf of Yayasan Sabah, for review by the Management Committee which will advise the Forestry Department as to its suitability. Once approved, it will presumably be implemented by Innoprise on behalf of Yayasan Sabah, with the Management Committee providing strategic oversight and advising the Forestry Department accordingly.

1.3 CONTEXT OF PLANNING

Under the Malaysian Constitution, land use and forest management are exclusively state matters, while wildlife protection, town and regional planning and research are shared responsibilities of the state and federal governments (Braatz, 1992; WWF Malaysia, 1992). Biodiversity is not mentioned in the Constitution, and although ‘protection of wild animals’ and ‘national parks’ are mentioned in the Concurrent List of shared federal and state responsibilities, there is scope for the states to articulate legislation to provide for their specific interest in relation to biodiversity matters. The Federal Government has sought to negotiate the extension of national policies on forestry and biodiversity to the various states, with considerable success in the case of the 11 states of Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. The National Forest Policy of 1978 and 1992, and the National Biodiversity Policy of 1997 are therefore important parts of the context for the Strategic Plan, which is fully consistent with both. Similarly, a number of federal laws apply in Sabah, most relevantly the Environmental Quality Act of 1974, as amended in 1985 and reinforced in state law by the En vironmental Conservation Enactment of 1997. These require environmental impact assessments for development projects adjacent to protected areas and for projects that involve opening up forest areas of 500 ha or more.

Malaysia is one of 12 ‘megadiversity’ countries based on their large number of species and high levels of endemism among vertebrates, swallowtail butterflies and higher plants, which are thought to correlate closely with biodiversity values in other Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 24

taxonomic groups (McNeely et al., 1990; Mit termeier and Werner, 1990). Eighteen areas with an exceptionally high concentration of endemic species and rapid rates of habitat change have been termed “hot-spots” by Myers (1988, 1990), and one of these is northern Borneo which includes the MBCA. This is also part of a globally-recognized centre of plant diversity (WWF and IUCN, 1995), a key area for restricted-range birds (Bibby et al., 1992) and is generally recognized as being of maximum global priority for biodiversity conservation (UNEP, 1995; Cal decott et al., 1996). Malaysia and Sabah are thus key actors in efforts to conserve the world’s biodiversity.

Recognizing its responsibility to participate in these efforts, Malaysia has joined a number of international environmental conventions, includi ng: · Convention on Wetlands of International Significance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention 1971, ratified by Malaysia 1995). Requires countries to protect their wetlands (e.g. peat swamp, mangrove) and to co-operate with other countries to protect wetlands, and lets countries nominate sites to a List of Wetlands of International Importance. · Convention on Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the Paris Convention 1972, ratified by Malaysia 1988). Establishes a list of natural and cultural World Heritage Sites (Kinabalu Park was inscribed on this list in 2002). · Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (the ‘CITES’ or Washington Convention 1973, ratified by Malaysia 1978). Requires countries to issue export and/or import permits for certain listed species and to keep records. Appendix I species may not be traded but can be exchanged for scientific purposes with import and export permits; Appendix II species may be traded with export permits; and Appendix III species are listed by individual countries where they consider trade restrictions to be needed to help protect their own populations of concern. · Convention on Biological Diversity (the Biodiversity Convention 1992, ratified by Malaysia 1994). Establishes a framework for countries to save, study and use biodiversity sustainably, guided by policies, strategies and action plans to be prepared by each country, and to co-operate in protecting each other’s property rights and other interests on the basis of the equitable sharing of costs and benefits. · United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Climate Change Convention 1992, ratified by Malaysia 1994). Requires industrialized countries to stabilize and reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases implicated in global warming and induced climate change. Subsequent Protocols tightened emission limits and deadlines.

In Sabah there are seven categories of forest reserve under the Forest Enactment 1968 and its subsequent amendments, these being as of June 1999: · Class I (Protection, 44 units, 342,216 ha) · Class II (Commercial, 30 units, 2,685,119 ha) · Class III (Domestic, 10 units, 7,355 ha) · Class IV (Amenity, 11 units, 20,767 ha) · Class V (Mangrove, 17 units, 316,024 ha) · Class VI (Virgin Jungle Reserve, 50 units, 90,386 ha) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 25

· Class VII (Wildlife Reserve, 2 units, 132,653 ha).

The Virgin Jungle Reserves (VJRs) are small (median size ca 714 ha) but often important samples of various ecosystem types, and there are two relatively large ones on either side of the Imbak valley to the north of the MBCA that may have a critical role to play in the broader conservation landscape in which Maliau is set. The Protection Forests, VJRs and Wildlife Reserves are joined by Parks (gazetted under the Parks Enactment of 1984), Wildlife Sanctuaries (gazetted under the Wildlife Conservation Enactment of 1997), and Bird Sanctuaries (gazetted under the Land Ordinance of 1962) to create a state-wide system of protected areas. There are also Cultural Reserves gazetted under the Cultural Heritage (Conserva tion) Enactment of 1998, and the MBCA was became one of these on the 19th May 1999, thereby strengthening its protection status. These protected areas are managed through a variety of institutional arrangements that range from a single agency being in charge, as in the parks and bird sanctuaries, to the involvement of multi-sectoral management committees, as at Maliau and Danum.

From the late 1960s into the 1990s, Sabah’s forests were managed in ways that resulted in severe depletion of the state’s timber reserves (Ross, 2001), and they are now virtually exhausted (Mohd Fowzi, 2001; see Annex 2, Figure 3). It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that first Yayasan Sabah, and then the State Cabinet and Legislative Assembly, have consistently chosen to maintain the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley conservation areas in a pristine condition. In response to growing environmental concern and awareness in the state, Sabahan institutions have steadily developed policies, plans and laws to promote the survival of Sabah’s biological resources. In the 1980s and 1990s these initiatives included the Sabah Conservation Strategy, the Yayasan Sabah Concession Long-term Management Plan, and the Forestry Department’s Forest Management Unit strategy, which contributed to developing a more sustainable approach to forest and biodiversity management that is now starting to predominate. This process was matched by the growth in nature- oriented tourism within Sabah, leading to the realization that wildlife and forests could prove very valuable if used in new and non-destructive ways, which was reflected in the Sabah Tourism Masterplan (IDS & TRC, 1996).

Increasing concern with the ecological services of forested land during the 1990s was reflected in the Water Resources Master Plan (Natural Resources Office, 1994) and the Outline Perspective Plan Sabah 1995-2010 (State of Sabah, 1995), and in laws such as the Conservation of Environment Enactment of 1996, the Wildlife Conservation Enactment of 1997, and the Sabah Water Resources Enactment of 1998. The Sabah Biodiversity Enactment of 2000 unambiguously placed the ownership, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity on the long-term agenda of state government interests. The Director of Yayasan Sabah observed in late 2001 that “increasing awareness on the role of forest in maintaining the ecological balance and bio-diversity are prompting us to commit ourselves to sustainable forest management in line with the state government forestry policy” (Khalil, 2001). In this context, it can be seen that the successful management of rare, pristine ecosystems, such as those of the MBCA, is rapidly becoming an issue of unprecedentedly high public pri ority in Sabah.

1.4 PURPOSE OF PLANNING

This Strategic Plan 2003-2012 and Action Plan 2003-2005 are integral parts of the management plan for the MBCA. The former specifies packages of investments at different levels (described as minimal, incremental, and optimal), and provides a Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 26

phased checklist of activities to be implemented under them (Chapter 9). Choices among these packages must be made according to the level of resources available to conservation area managers in future. At the time of planning there was uncertainty over this vital factor, with the financial position of the Yayasan Sabah family deteriorating throughout the period January to June 2002. The impact of this on the Conservation and Environmental Services Section was hard to predict. In preparing the Action Plan 2003-2005, it was assumed that although Yayasan Sabah and the Innoprise Corporation will remain committed to contributing a core of resources for MBCA management indefinitely, funds available would nevertheless be very limited in the near term, and only essential activities were programmed as a result (Annex 1).

On the other hand, not only might the revenue position of the Yayasan Sabah family improve in future, but also the considerable economic value and financial potential s of the MBCA might attract increased public and/or private investment, allowing other priorities of the Strategic Plan to be implemented. In these conditions of uncertainty, the Strategic Plan addresses the full range of management issues and opportunities that were either inherent to the circumstances of the MBCA in the first half of 2002, or that were raised by stakeholders during the planning process.

In more general terms, the aim of writing a management plan for a conservation area is to guide the way in which resources are deployed, purposefully and consistently over time, so as to achieve specific management aims for the area. A management plan should therefore articulate, as clearly, briefly and authoritatively as possible: · an explanation of the importance of the area; · a strategic mission for the people who work on behalf of the conservation area, its living systems and human stakeholders; · an analysis of challenges and opportunities that may influence the operation of the mission; and · a set of policies and strategies for advancing the mission over the 5-10 year lifetime of the management plan, upon which action plans, workplans and budgets can be based.

The strategic portion of a management plan, then is a collective aide mémoire, to which conservation area staff and others can refer to remind themselves of what they are doing and why. Meanwhile, spinning off from the management plan and its implementation process, new ideas and opportunities (which cannot all be anticipated) should lead to additional proposals and projects that will complement and enrich the whole process. These include ideas for responding to new market opportunities and donor agency priorities, for exploiting new niches in response to new technologies and public demands, and for making use of synergies that arise among programmes as they are implemented.

1.5 OVERALL MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Consistent with the MBCA Forest Rules of 1998, the overall management strategy for the MBCA is to save, study, teach about and use sustainably the ecosystems and all living things within it, with the aim of preserving in perpetuity the natural conditions prevailing there. The consequent mission is to implement this strategy through an integrated process supported by effective and adaptive managerial systems based on well-led, well-trained and well-motivated staff using appropriate equipment and Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 27

infrastructure. Adequate budgets will be needed, but cost recovery and sustainable financing mechanisms must also be designed to ensure permanence of the conservation system in all foreseeable circumstances (see Chapter 10).

‘Saving biodiversity’ (Chapter 4) involves everything to do with law enforcement, boundary demarcation and protection, patrolling, and deployment of protective effort according to management zones. This includes the establishment and management of a buffer zone with the aim of insulating the MBCA from fire, hunting, harvesting and other forms of external disturbance.

‘Studying biodiversity’ (Chapter 7) involves everything to do with systematically increasing knowledge about the resource, whether through taxonomic inventories or studies focussed on aspects of local ecology, animal behaviour, population dynamics, biochemistry, genetics, etc., and the management of resulting information in ways that are meaningful to various stakeholder groups. Issues concerning the terms of access, benefit sharing, data security, intellectual and other property rights will need to be addressed.

‘Teaching about biodiversity’ (Chapter 6) involves everything to do with raising public awareness, understanding and enthusiasm for the MBCA at the local, state, national or global level, including all interactions with the media, with educational institutions and with visitors, and including the management of nature trails, interpretative displays, web-sites, publications in any medium, etc.

‘Using biodiversity sustainably’ (Chapter 10) involves everything to do with meeting, without depleting the resource and at an appropriate price, the needs at every level of society for recreation, inspiration, entertainment, information, education, research, ecological and environmental services, and the new products and processes to be uncovered through the interaction of Maliau’s biodiversity information resources with modern technologies (e.g. through bioprospecting). These activities make it possible in principle to achieve reasonable level s of cost recovery and to finance long-term mechanisms aimed at supporting the MBCA sustainably.

‘Effective and adaptive managerial systems’ (Chapter 5) are ones that bring smoothly together key elements of operational planning, budgetary accountability, clear line authority, performance monitoring, staff incentives and knowledge management arrangements. They are supported by a management information system (MIS) that records all significant staff activities and reports their consequences, and by a monitoring system that tracks appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs).

1.6 SCOPE OF PLANNING

The terms of reference for preparing the Strategic Plan (and hence the management plan) were based on the recommendations of the mid-term review of the Management of MBCA Project, as modified by decisions of the Project Steering Committee and constrained by the Maliau Basin Conservation Area Forest Rules of 1998. Consistent with these guidelines, the Strategic Plan aims to present an integrated set of strategies for the protection and study of the MBCA, for its use as an educational resource, and for its limited use as a resource for tourism. In order to comply with the additional mandate to integrate conservation, forestry and nature tourism in and around the MBCA, with the aim of creating a model sustainable forest management area, guidelines are included for preparing a buffer zone management plan. A Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 28

comprehensive plan for buffer zone development will however require additional planning effort in future.

Important infrastructure developments within the buffer zone were decided upon before the planning exercise began in mid-January 2002, and/or were excluded from consideration in the planning process. These include the decision on wh ere to locate the Maliau Basin Studies Centre, the design of that facility, the alignment and development of access roads, the location and extent of tourism zones around the periphery of the area, and the intention to develop visitor reception, information and recreation facilities near the security gate on the Tawau-Keningau road. The management plan can therefore only respond to these existing initiatives, while proposing mitigating measures where necessary.

Clearly expressed by Sabah stakeholders during the planning process was the need to identify sources of funds to support management of the MBCA and its buffer zone. It was noted that the need for funding has the potential to motivate a more forceful approach to revenue-earning than would otherwise be contemplated in an area of this fragility and conservation importance, especially in terms of tourism development within the MBCA. The Strategic Plan therefore also reviews options for obtaining sustainable financing in ways that do not involve significant impacts on the MBCA’s ecosystems.

Several viable and acceptable opportunities exist for developing an integrated sustainable financing strategy, which could feasibly generate funds sufficient to manage the area in perpetuity, while also contributing to state revenues. Several of these opportunities are based on global conservation and business practices developed over the past decade that have not yet been fully apprehended within Sabah. A comprehensive business plan will therefore be needed to explain, define and be used as a basis for implementing this financing strategy, and guidelines for preparing this business plan are therefore also included. Meanwhile, recommendations for activities within the MBCA are formulated in a risk-averse manner so as to avoid compromising the integrity of its resources, which will be needed intact for sustainable financing to be achieved.

1.7 PROCESS OF PLANNING

This draft Strategic Plan 2003-2012 was prepared by Julian Caldecott (Creatura Ltd), based on literature review (see bibliography), including outputs of a workshop in August 2001 (Jacobsen, 2001), field visits, discussions with stakeholders, internal meetings of the project management group (comprising Innoprise and DANCED teams), meetings of the Project Steering Committee and MBCA Management Committee, multi-stakeholder workshops to focus on particular sub-themes, and inclusive meetings to address content. When the Strategic Plan had reached an advanced draft stage, a draft Action Plan 2003-2005 was developed at a meeting of Innoprise Corporation officers concerned with the MBCA and YS-DANCED project personnel (Annex 1). Milestones in the planning process included: · 14 Feb 2002 Preliminary working draft · 26-27 Feb 2002 Ecotourism Workshop · 22-23 Mar 2002 Management Planning Workshop · 14 Apr 2002 Partial working draft · 15-16 Apr 2002 Research and Environmental Monitoring Workshop Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 29

· 30 Apr 2002 Complete working draft · 20 Jun 2002 Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 defined · 30 Jun 2002 Final draft Strategic Plan 2003-2012

The two -day workshops made a particularly important input to the planning process. Each involved 60-80 participants (about 160 in total), and five thematic working groups to focus on clusters of issues. The chief objective was to generate ideas, comments and observations to enrich the plan’s content, and to draw attention to inappropriate proposals or to opportunities that had not yet been contemplated.

It was intended that the final draft Strategic Plan be produced as a Technical Assistance Report of the YS-DANCED project (Caldecott, 2002a). The management plan comprising the Strategic Plan 2003-2012 and Action Plan 2003-2005 would then be finalized through further editorial review prior to being submitted to the Management Committee by the end of 2002. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 30

Chapter 2: RESOURCES

2.1 OVERVIEW

Policy directions. Maliau Basin Conservation Area belongs to the foremost rank of Malaysian conservation areas, alongside Taman Negara in Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, Mulu Park in Sarawak, and Kinabalu Park and Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, all of which have the maximum possible priority for national and global biodiversity conservation. Consistent with state and national law and policy, and with Malaysia’s international commitments, every effort will be made, therefore, to preserve in perpetuity the natural conditions prevailing within the MBCA.

The 588 square km Maliau Basin Conservation Area (MBCA) is centred on about 4o50’ North and 116o65’ East, and is located in central-interior Sabah (Malaysian north Borneo), within the Forestry District of Tawau (Annex 2, Figure 1). It forms part of a forest complex dominated by the Yayasan Sabah concession, which links the MBCA with the Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA), several important Virgin Jungle Reserves (VJRs), and a number of special forest management areas (Annex 2, Figure 2). The whole complex represents most of what remains of Sabah’s natural forests, which have declined sharply in area and condition over the last 30 years (Annex 2, Figure 3), as have forests throughout Borneo and much of South-east Asia at the same time (Collins et al., 1991; Jepson et al., 2001; Ross, 2001). The MBCA, DVCA and the VJRs of the Imbak Valley are now some of the very few extensive tracts of pristine forests that survive anywhere in Sabah, or in the whole of Malaysia and Borneo.

The MBCA contains a distinctive and spectacular land-form, the Maliau Basin itself, which is ecologically self-contained, along with 10-12 vegetation types in four main formations native to the Bornean interior. These are all in a high state of preservation since the area is uninhabited, and has apparently always been so, while much of it remains inaccessible and virtually unaffected by people. There is a complex system of rivers with what is probably the world’s densest array of waterfalls, and Sabah’s only natural lake.

The total number of species is very high – estimated to be about 240,000 or 38% of Borneo’s entire biota - and many of them are endemic to Sabah or to Borneo, or are restricted to the MBCA and Gunung Kinabalu, while about a quarter of the birds and mammals are red-listed by the World Conservation Union. Thus the MBCA is replete with endangered and globally-important biodiversity at all levels from that of genetic resources to that of whole ecosystems. It is located, biologically speaking, in the richest part of the richest tropical island in the world, much of which has elsewhere been deforested. This combination of factors means that the MBCA is of extraordinary importance to the preservation of Bornean and global biodiversity.

2.2 LANDFORM AND GEOLOGY

The Maliau Basin has a nearly circular shape and steep slopes on all sides (Annex 2, Figures 4 and 5). Overall, the elevation of the basin is about 1,500 m at the rim, except for the northernmost section around Gunung Lutong at about 1,700 m, and drops gradually to about 800 m at the centre, with deeper valley bottoms down to about 200 m. Except for the narrow opening of the Maliau Gorge in the south-east, it is enclosed on all sides. It is drained by radiating tributaries of the Sungai Maliau, which leaves the basin by way of the gorge. The basin is one of a series of saucer-shaped structures Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 31

found in central and south-eastern Sabah, although it is by far the highest, deepest and most clearly defined. Its spectacular, almost-circular form and high walls give the impression of a huge impact crater or volcanic caldera yet, like the other basins, Maliau is in truth the depositional site of ancient sedimentary rocks (Collenette, 1965; Tjia & Komoo, 1989; Lim & Tungah Surat, 1989; Tjia et al., 1990; DPA, 1992). It is made up of inter-bedded layers of sandstone and mudstone (with some associated coal), approximately 7,500 metres thick in total, with each layer ranging in depth from a few centimetres to several metres (Annex 2, Figure 6).

These materials were deposited in a succession of deltaic-coastal environments between 9 and 15 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch (which lasted from 5-26 million years ago). Why and how such a deposit became a deep highland basin has puzzled many people, and the answer appears to lie in deep-seated geological structures and movements that have influenced a process of subsidence over several million years (Tongkul, 2002). In summary, fresh sediments were laid down on top of older rocks which were themselves being compressed and distorted by tectonic plate interaction, resulting in subsiding depressions bounded by faults. As the Maliau area was under a shallow coastal sea at the time, the underlying and deepening hollow in the surface of the old rock was filled by new sediments. When continuing collision of the Eurasian and Australia-Pacific plates caused elevation of the whole area above sea level, the young basin, possibly still filled with sea water, continued to conform to the subsiding older rocks beneath, resulting in the deep structure seen today.

The sea- or rain-water lake would have persisted around the geological centre of the basin in its south-west, until a line of geological weakness was exploited to the point of draining the basin entirely through Maliau Gorge. This would have deposited a fan of alluvium in what is now the Tembadau Valley beyond the mouth of the Gorge, and the present radial drainage system within the basin would have further developed thereafter. The rivers of the Maliau Basin flow steeply across layered sandstones and mudstones which have been vertically fractured by tectonic forces. Narrow gorges run along fracture planes to create the primary drainage routes, while tributaries cut down towards them through layered rocks to produce horizontal benches and vertical waterfalls at every fracture plane. The result is a dense and spectacular array of waterfalls, possibly the most per unit area in the world, many of them multi-layered because of the repetitive occurrence of resistant sandstone and weak mudstone layers (Annex 2, Figure 6).

Several landslides have been observed inside and outside the basin, and others continue to be detected whenever new remote images are compared with old ones (Prins, 2002). The steep outer side of the basin is particularly prone to slippage, but landslides are less common on the gentler slopes within the basin. The steep narrow gorges of the interior drainage system are vulnerable to slides, however, since the fractured bedding planes of sandstone and mudstone can easily slide across one another, especially when lubricated by ground water in this rain-rich environment.

The sandstone-dominated strata produce sandy soils that can easily be leached out to create very infertile beach-like white sand, often surmounted by peat up to 0.5 m deep. The mudstone-dominated strata, which are less porous, erode into a mangrove-like grey mud. A range of sandy, silty and clayey soils results from the increasing influence of mudstone parents relative to sandstone ones, further affected by slope and drainage. There are three main soil types, very patchily distributed and associated at mid elevations with distinctive vegetation: white sand with low, dense heath forest; yellow sand with mid-size forest with few palms and few dipterocarps; and yellow Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 32

clay with taller forest with many palms and many dipterocarp species (Webb, 2001; Webb & Ali, 2002; see below).

2.3 CLIMATE

The Maliau Basin is centred on about 4o50’ North and 116o65’ East and like the rest of Borneo has a typical equator ial climate, with constant rather than high temperature and humidity, and frequent thunderstorms (Holmes, 1999). Daytime shade temperatures in the lowlands rarely exceed 33o C, and at night rarely fall below 20o C. Average temperatures decline by about 0.75o C per 100 metres ascended, which combines with other (probably more important) edaphic factors such as cloud, mist and water stress to modify the forest considerably with increasing altitude.

Average annual rainfall was estimated by the 1988 expedition hydrologist as being 3,800 mm (Mykura, 1989), which would make the MBCA considerably wetter than Danum Valley, where the 14-year (1986-1999) mean rainfall is 2,712 mm (DVMC, 1999a). Automated weather stations were installed in the Maliau area during 2000: at Belian camp (273 m asl) in June, at Camel Trophy camp (ca 1,000 m asl) in July and at Strike Ridge (ca 1,200 m asl) in October (Maral, 2002). The Strike Ridge station failed to function during 2001, but in that year rainfall at the other two sites was about 2,260 mm, considerably less than at Danum where about 3,000 mm of rain fell in the same year (and 3,550 mm in 2000). Until further documentation is available, all that can be assumed is that the MBCA has a rainfall regime similar to Danum Valley’s with intra- year seasonality influenced by monsoon winds, and inter-year variability influenced by the El Ni ño-Southern Oscillation or ENSO phenomenon which is associated with occasional droughts.

Two or three times each decade, the dry season in Borneo is more severe and prolonged than normal. This is now known to be associated with the ENSO phenomenon, and is a factor that seems to be becoming an increasingly important aspect of Bornean climates (Beaman et al., 1985; Knapen, 1997; Davison, 1999; Holmes, 1999). Large-scale droughts occurred in the years 1965, 1972, 1976, 1982- 83, 1987, 1991, 1994 and 1997-98, with the last five being particularly severe and the final one the most intense in recorded history. These droughts have multiple impacts on all aspects of rain forest ecology and the behaviour of forest organisms, and the fires associated with drought years have irreversible effects on the ecology of large areas. In the 1982-83 drought, a million hectares of Sabah were burnt, of which 85% were logged forest, while in the 1997-98 drought, fires occurred at the lowland forest fringes of the Crocker Range and Kinabalu parks, the Kalumba and Kinabatangan wildlife sanctuaries, and on the Klias Peninsula. Occasional severe droughts can be expected to affect the MBCA in future, and fire will be serious risk in the logged buffer zone at those times.

2.4 ECOSYSTEMS AND FLORA

2.4.1 Soils and forest types

Apart from small land-slides, areas cleared for camps and helipads, the rivers, and Lake Linumunsut, the whole of the MBCA is covered in natural forest (Annex 2, Figure 7). Several types of forest ecosystem can be described in the area, based on characteristics such as prevailing stature of the vegetation, species richness and the kinds of organisms likely to be encountered there (Lamb, 1988; Marsh, 1989a; Wong, 2001; DPA, 1992; Phillipps, 2002). These ecosystem types are distributed in Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 33

association with the various soil types within and outside the basin (Simin, 1989; Sinun et al., 1998; Tongkul, 2002). The 1988 expedition distinguished four main forest formations – that is, major structural categories – in the MBCA (Saw and Marsh, 1989), which may be rearranged after Webb (2001) and Webb & Ali (2002) as follows:

· Lowland rain forest, to about 600 m and comprising: o Lowland (dipterocarp) forest , confined to the lower valleys of Sungai Maliau and its main tributaries, and outside the basin to areas around Lake Linumunsut, along the southern foot of the basin wall from Belian to Agathis camps, and along Sungai Kuamut. o Floodplain forest, up to about 300 m from the Sg Maliau below Maliau Gorge. o Riverine (riparian) forest, adjacent to the rivers where the soils are rocky and subject to flooding. · Lower montane rain forest, from 600-1,200 m and comprising: o Upper dipterocarp forest , from 600-1,000 m and comprising: § Dry ridge forest on yellow sand soils (6,669 ha). § Clay upland forest on clay soils (12,150 ha). o Lower montane Agathis forest, on sandy soils from 1,000-1,200 m. o Lower montane heath forest, on white sand soils from 900-1,200 m. · Upper montane rain forest, from 1,200-1,500 m and above, and comprising: o Oak-conifer forest on clay soils. o Upper montane Agathis forest, on yellow sand soils. o Upper montane heath forest on white sand soils. o Montane ericaceous or rim forest on sandy soils at peak elevations.

These forest types connect, blend and interdigitate in a complex overall system, characterized by the following attributes (among many others) of the tropical rain forest biome 5 in Borneo: · high species richness, though with most species represented by few individuals in any given area, and declining with elevation (Whitmore, 1984); · numerous co-evolutionary relationships among different species, including adaptations driven by pollination, seed dispersal, parasitism, commensalism, micro-nutrient requirements, and predation (Janzen, 1975); · a great abundance of secondary metabolites in the vegetation and in animal tissues, these chemicals often being defensive (foul-tasting, toxic or resistant to digestion) and resulting from evolutionary ‘arms -races’ between predators and their prey (Rosenthal & Janzen, 1979); · very tight nutrient cycling, with the great majority of chemicals associated with life being found in the biomass and at shallow depths in the top-soil (Kira, 1978); · many species that are dependent on the shady, moist micro-climate of the rainforest interior, and that cannot survive exposure to hot, dry conditions; hence a dynamic patchwork of local extinctions in and around gaps, and recolonization from surrounding areas as the local micro-climate is restored (Caldecott, 1997);

5 Biome: a major portion of the living environment in a particular region (such as rain forest or grassland), characterized by its distinctive vegetation and maintained by local climatic conditions. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 34

· subtle and irregular but profound ecological events involving many species responding to common environmental cues, such as the local ‘mast fruiting’ of dipterocarp and other trees that are believed to be an adaptation to resist seed predation (Janzen, 1974); · numerous species whose populations respond to the dynamic ‘phenological mosaic’ that results from patchy mast fruiting by lemming-like reproductive and migratory behaviour, including the commonest ungulate, the bearded pig (Caldecott, 1988); and · relatively low biomass of seed-eating and leaf-eating mammals, because of mast fruiting and defensive chemicals in the vegetation (Marsh & Wilson, 1981).

2.4.2 Lowland dipterocarp forest

Floristically, this is the most diverse forest type in the MBCA, and among the most biodiverse in the world, typically wi th over a thousand tree species per square km, plus at least an equal number of vascular epiphytes including woody climbers, rattans and ferns, and many more lower plants. The forest is dense and multi -layered, with numerous emergents standing taller than 30 m and often to twice that height. Dominant tall trees include members of the Dipterocarpaceae (Dipterocarpus, Parashorea, Shorea, Dryobalanops, Hopea, Vatica), Burseraceae (Dacryodes) and Leguminosae ( Parkia, Koompassia and Sindora).

The logged lowland forest of the Tembadau Valley in the buffer zone grows on a deep fan of relatively fertile alluvium eroded out of the Maliau Basin. It appears to be a highly productive and species-rich environment, and supports the main local populations of tembadau and elephants in the MBCA and its environs, making the logging road system there the most likely place to encounter these large mammals.

2.4.3 Riverine forest

Lowland forest adjacent to rivers and large streams is a specialized type conditioned by more exposure to light, more rocky soils, and periodic flooding. Plants of this community, called rheophytes, are typically firmly anchored to the bank or to rocks, have small or narrow leaves, have a shrubby growth form, and resist flooding and torrential flow. Common riverbank trees include various Eugenia, Tristania (one species occurring only here and in heath forest), Callicarpa, Mallotus, Guioa, Cinnamomum, Dysoxylon and Rhodamnia, with shrubs including Melastoma, Clausena, Glochidion, Pandanus and a Bornean endemic Osmoxylon borneensis. Climbing bamboos (Dinochloa) are also very common, and form dense thickets in places.

2.4.4 Upper dipterocarp forest

This forest type is structurally similar to lowland forest but lower in stature, with fewer emergents and lacking many of its species. The dipterocarp Shorea platyclados is characteristic in the MBCA, and trees of the families Fagaceae (oaks), Lauraceae (laurels), Myrtaceae (myrtles) and Guttiferae predominate. Dipterocarps concentrate on the yellow sandy ridges and fade out of the flora from about 1,000 m, being replaced by oaks and laurels.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 35

2.4.5 Agathis forest

Structurally this is a two -layered forest with a canopy height of 25-30 m. Humus accumulation increases with elevation, as does the occurrence of epiphytes. The forest is dominated by the conifer Agathis borneensis though not exclusively so except in certain patches where it forms nearly-pure stands. Other common trees include Shorea platyclados, S. venulosa and S. coriaceae, Pyrenaria, Eugenia, Calophyllum, various laurels (Actinodaphne, Litsea), oaks (Lithocarpus), casuarina (Gymnostoma sumatrana), Podocarpus polystachys and Phyllocladus hypophyllus. These occur with montane forms of climbing palms (Calamus javensis) and climbing bamboo (Dinochloa scandens), and pitcher plants (Nepenthes).

2.4.6 Heath forest

Heath forests develop on leached, sandy soils that are inherently poor in bases, highly acidic and commonly coarsely textured. In the MBCA they are widespread on the southern plateau at about 1,000 m, and also occur in patches and on ridges at higher elevations. They are characterized by dense stands of low trees, accumulations of peat, and by frequent myrmecophytes (ant-plants, including Hydnophytum and Dischidia) and pitcher plants (Nepenthes veitchii, N. stenophylla and N. reinwardtiana).

The peat reflects poor decomposability of tannin-rich vegetation (and a scarcity of termites), with tannins and other secondary plant metabolites being interpreted as defences against herbivory in a nutrient -poor environment. Ant plants and pitcher plants are also suggestive of low nutrient availability since they represent innovative ways for plants to obtain additional foods. Common genera include Tristania, Parastemon, Medinella, Prunus, Rhododendron, Vaccinium, Ilex, Elaeocarpus, Pandanus, and dipterocarps are rare. At higher altitudes the tendency towards mossiness and peatiness is accentuated, the former because of more frequent mistiness and the latter because of increased water-logging and lower temperatures that further reduce leaf decomposition.

As a result of subtle variation in soil, drainage, aspect, elevation, exposure and perhaps other factors, the heath forests of the MBCA exhibit a pat chiness that defies generic description. In many places on the outer slopes of the northern escarpment, the heath forest is dominated by a new species of casuarina (Gymnostoma sp. nov.). New species of ginger (Plagiostachys sp. nov., Zingiberaceae) and a rare saprophytic Thismia are associated with this sub-type, along with several rare and beautiful orchids including Dendrobium sculptum (new to Sabah), and D. pachyanthum and D. sanguineum (both now probably extinct in their only other sites).

In other places, the conifer Dacrydium elatum (new to Borneo) takes over as the dominant tree, and on the southern plateau the forest is dominated by Tristania, with its characteristic eucalypt-like peeling orange-grey bark. It was in the heath forest also that a spectacular hybrid pitcher plant was found, apparently a cross between Nepenthes veitchii and N. stenophylla, but larger and finer than either of its parents. At the edge of the heath forest near the northern rim, a stunted shrub develops, where rhododendrons and their relatives, including red-leaved bilberries (Vaccinium) become more common. Twenty species of Rhododendron have so far been recorded from the MBCA, including the rare R. javanicum cockburnii with large scarlet blooms, the dainty crimson-flowered R. burtii (both known from only one other locality), and the extremely rare R. nervulosum.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 36

2.4.7 Oak-conifer forest

Oak-conifer forest has two distinct layers, with a lower storey dominated by Eugenia and a taller canopy, some 20-25 m high, dominated by oaks (Lithocarpus), chestnuts (Castanopsis) and conifers (Podocarpus and Dacrydium elatum) and casuarina (Gymnostoma ). The unusual trig-oak (Trigonobalanus verticellatus) also occurs; it has a coppicing trunk and is regarded floristically as a ‘living fossil’ that links the northern European beeches and oaks with the Antarctic beeches of New Zealand’s South Island. This forest is interspersed with stands of a unique forest on the steeper slopes, where the dominant tree is Gymnostoma sumatrana. Epiphytes are common in oak- conifer forest, including striking orchids such as Nephelaphyllum trapiodes, the necklace orchid Coelogyne odoardi and the rare Bulbophyllum limbatum (all first records for Sabah). Two other rare orchids, Acriopsis gracilis and the jewel-like helmet orchid Corybas piliferus are known only from one other site in Sabah which has now been logged, so they may have already joined the MBCA’s increasing list of ‘artificial endemics’ 6. The first Sabah records for the little pitcher plant Nepenthes hirsuta were also from this forest type.

2.4.8 Montane ericaceous or rim forest

This forest occurs where the basin rim catches the cool mist-laden winds that swirl up and over the escarpment. In this world of drifting and driving cloud, liverworts and mosses shroud every branch, trunk and root. Trees here are short (less than 4 m), gnarled, stunted, shrubby or prostrate, with small leathery leaves, and the ground is largely covered by tangled roots caked in moss and peat. Common rim trees include members of the Ericaceae (Rhododendron, Vaccinium, Diplycosia), Myrtaceae (Eugenia, Tristania), Lauraceae (Actinodaphne, Litsea, Cinnamomum), Guttiferae (Calophyllum), and Podocarpaceae (Podocarpus, Dacrydium). The pitcher plant Nepenthes stenophylla is a common scrambler over the stunted trees, and N. lowii and N. tentaculata have both been recorded. A mysterious new Rhododendron is known only from a few fallen petals, white with purple spots.

2.4.9 Aquatic ecosystems

The tea-coloured waters of the Maliau Basin’s rivers and streams are characterized by high acidity, low transparency, low ion content, and low concentrations of dissolved and suspended solids, all features typical of tropical ‘blackwater’ rivers and associated with low primary productivity (Anton and Alexander, 1996). Fish diversity and abundance is limited in the Maliau Basin, therefore, and is further reduced by the many vertical or overhanging waterfalls that prevent fish from ascending the drainage system.

Lake Linumunsut is about 12 ha in area and is located in the Ulu Pinangah, having been formed 50-100 years ago when a landslide blocked the mouth of the Sg. Linumunsut tributary of Sg. Namatoi. Sabah’s only non-oxbow lake, it is fed by three small streams and is surrounded by eight hectares of sedges and marsh, suggesting that it is gradually filling with sediment. Because of its closer connection with the greater Sabah river system, aquatic life is much more diverse in the lake than in the basin’s rivers and streams (Lakim et al., 2002a).

6 Artificial endemic: a species extinguished by people in other parts of its natural range and now restricted to the site mentioned. Other examples of human-caused or artificial endemism in the MBCA may now include the rafflesia Rafflesia tengku-adlini , and the orchids Dendrobium pachyanthum and Dendriobium sanguineum. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 37

2.5 BIODIVERSITY

2.5.1 Plants

A total of 1,806 higher plant species had been identified by March 2002 (Webb & Ali, 2002), including six pitcher plants (Nepenthes, with a species new to Sabah and a new hybrid), 80 orchids (including a new Bulbophyllum, two others new to Sabah and many very rare), new species of Thismia (Burmanniaceae), Benincasa and Zehneria (Cucurbitaceae), and a new Gymnostoma tree (Casuarinaceae). This list is very far from complete, and many more species of higher and especially lower plants (ferns, filmy ferns, algae, mosses, liverworts, etc.) are expected to be found eventually. Of the species that have so far been identified, 54 are red-listed by the World Conservation Union.

The overall conclusion from botanical work in the MBCA to date is that the 11% or so of the area that comprises lowland rain forest is significantly the most species rich of all the ecosystems present, and since it is also the most endangered in Sabah and locally, should be accorded the highest priority for conservation efforts. Similar conclusions are reached from zoological research. It should be noted, however, that some of the higher-elevation forest types, such as oak-conifer forest and the heath forests, are also highly biodiverse and very rare, or even unique in the case of forest dominated by the casuarina Gymnostoma sumatrana.

2.5.2 Mammals

The MBCA has a mammal list of 70 species to date, with another 16 species so far recorded only in the buffer zone (Juul-Nielsen, 2000; Naiman et al., 2001; Traeholt, 2001a, b, 2002; Jomitin, 2002a, b; Malim, 2002; Olsen, 2002). Of these, 18 are red- listed by the World Conservation Union. The mammal fauna includes the first Sabah records for the least horseshoe bat (Rhinolophulus pusillus) and black-eared pygmy squirrel (Nanosciurus melanotis), as well as the following: · the critically-endangered Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) · the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) · the Bornean wild ox or tembadau (Bos javanicus) · the Bornean endemic red-bellied sculptor squirrel (Glyphotes simus) · the Bornean endemic bay cat (Felis badia) · Borneo’s unobtrusive top predator, the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) · the flat -headed, marbled and leopard cats (F. planiceps, F. marmorata and F. bengalensis) · primates including the orang utan (Pongo pygmaeus), Bornean gibbon (Hylobates muelleri), red, grey and silver leaf monkey (Presbytis rubicunda, P. hosei and P. cristata), proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus), pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina and M. fascicularis), slow loris (Nyctecebus coucang), and western tarsier (Tarsius bancanus) · sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) · the tufted ground squirrel (Rheithrosciurus macrotis) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 38

· the red and spotted giant flying squirrels (Petaurista petaurista and P. elegans) · the giant tree squirrel (Ratufa affinis) · ungulates including bearded pigs (Sus barbatus), payau or sambar deer (Cervus unicolor), kijang or barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) and mouse deer (Tragulus javanicus and T. napu).

2.5.3 Birds

The MBCA has a bird list of 238 species to date, with another 33 species so far recorded only in the buffer zone (Biun & Lakim, 2000, 2001a, b, 2002a, b; Lakim et al ., 2002b). Of these 271 species, no less than 68 (or 25%) are red-listed by the World Conservation Union. The bird species count is four less than the total reported from Danum Valley in 1995 after ten years of intensive research there by several Malaysian institutions and the Royal Society (Marsh, 1995). When inventories are complete, both sites are expected to yield lists in the range 300-330 species, with Maliau perhaps having a few more than Danum because of its greater altitudinal range. Highlights for Maliau include: · Bulwer’s pheasant (Lophura bulweri) · great argus pheasant (Argusianus argus) · peregine falcon (Falco peregrinus) · large green pigeon (Treron capellei) · all eight Bornean hornbills (Bucerotidae) · all nine Bornean barbets (Megalaimidae) · eight kingfishers (Alcedinidae), including the blue-banded (Alcedo meininting) · giant pitta (Pitta caerulea) and · Borneo bristlehead (Pityriasis gymnocephala).

The great majority of bird species are local residents, but the forests and rivers are also important for wintering boreal species such as the Siberian blue robin (Luscinia cyane), Arctic warbler ( Phylloscopus borealis) and grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea).

2.5.4 Other vertebrates

The Maliau list to date contains over 50 amphibi ans (Traeholt, 2002), out of an expected total of about 70 species (Inger, 1992). The frog fauna is variable between forest types (Ahmad and Wong, 1996). With three exceptions among medium- elevation species (Microhyla petrigena, Ansonia longidigita and Staurois tuberilinguis), the frog fauna is typical of lowland, hilly rain forests of Sabah (Inger, 1992). In streams within the basin, Marsh (1989b) and Martin-Smith et al. (1998) found only one species of catfish (Mystus [Hemibragus] nemurus) confined to large streams, one of cyprinid (Puntius sealei) in streams of all sizes, and one of fighting fish (Betta unimaculata) confined to small streams. Eight species of fish were recorded from Lake Linumunsut in 2001 (Lakim et al., 2002a). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 39

2.5.5 Invertebrates

At least two species new to science have been found in the MBCA so far, a crab (Thelphusula sp nov.) and a beetle (Neptosternus thiambooni), and many more such discoveries are highly likely. Few invertebrate studies has been done to date, but Martin-Smith et al. (1998) collected three species of crustaceans (including the new crab), Yang et al., (1998) found 23 species of aquatic bugs, Davis (1998) found 29 species of dung beetle (with significant differences between habitat types), and Jones et al . (1998) collected 36 termite species in two forest types. The impression from these surveys is one of great variation among ecosystem types in the MBCA.

Maryati Mohamed, Chey et al. (1998) collected 37 species of butterflies in two forest types near the southern rim of the Maliau Basin, and compared their results with those of the 1988 expedition (Marsh, 1989a), also concluding that major differences occur in the butterfly fauna of different sites. Chey and Lim-Hasegawa (2001) collected 130 individuals of 91 moth species in three evenings of light trapping near Lake Linumunsut, of which several were unidentifiable and suspected to be new to science. In ten days, they also caught by hand-net and fruit-baited trap representatives of 63 butterfly species (of 930 in Borneo), including Rajah Brooke’s birdwing (Troides brookiana), and 20 species of dragonflies and damselflies (of 259 in Borneo).

The total number of species in the MBCA is unknown, but is likely to be large based on the limited number of studies of the rich invertebrate fauna of tropical forests (Erwin, 1983; May, 1988; Wilson, 1992; Stork, 1993; Gaston and Hudson, 1994). A simple calculation of total species richness is as follows: · The MBCA has about 50% of Bornean bird species (ca 300 of 600). · Assuming that the MBCA also has 50% of all Bornean butterflies, then the total butterfly list would be 465 species · The ratio of butterflies to all other insects in the United Kingdom (where the insect fauna is well known) is 1:328.4, and about 64.3% of all named species in the world are insects7 (Jeffries, 1997). · Assuming the same ratios apply in the MBCA, then the total number of insects would be 153,171 (152,706 + 465), and the total number of all species would be 238,213 (153,171/64.3 x 100).

Various other ways exist to estimate species richnessError! Bookmark not defined. in a largely-unknown biota, all of them requiring major assumptions about the numerical relationships among various taxa on the order of those just made. One independent estimate of the total number of insect species in Borneo arrived at a figure of about 400,000 (S.L. Sutton, personal communication, April 2002), and if this represented 64.3% of all species, the total species richness of the island would be about 622,000. The estimated total for the MBCA is about 38% of this figure. This is plausible, considering that the MBCA is a large sample of ecosystem types typical of the Bornean interior between 200 and 1,700 m above sea level.

7 The known insect fauna is distributed as follows: 24.9% Coleoptera; 19.3% Hymenoptera; 12.9% Diptera, 3.2% Lepidoptera; 4.0% others. These figures reflect a strong bias against coleopterans (beetles, most of them tiny and cryptic) and towards lepidopterans (butterflies and moths, most of them easily caught and of particular interest to collectors). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 40

2.5.6 Genetic resources

The forest ecosystems of the MBCA occur at a wide range of elevations and on a variety of sandy to clay soils with great variation in drainage, aspect and exposure. It is to be expected, then, that adaptation to a wide variety of physical conditions will have created a great diversity of morphological, chemical and genetic types within each species, in addition to the different suites of species in each location.

The lowland forest in particular is rich in fruit trees and their wild relatives, including durians (Durio, Bombacaceae), rambutan (Nephelium, Sapindaceae), breadfruit (Artocarpus, Moraceae), mangosteen (Garcinia, Guttiferae) and mango (Mangifera, Anacardiaceae – including the first Borneo record of Mangifera bullata).

2.5.7 Endemism and uniqueness

Northern Borneo is believed to have kept patches of rain forest during high-latitude glaciations over the last two million years, when most of the rest of Sundaland was much drier. It therefore functioned as a refuge for rain forest organisms, which recolonized the rest of Borneo when warmer and moister climates returned (McNeely, 2001a). Groups of organisms differ in their mobility, however, either because of their design (e.g. inability to fly or be dispersed by flying creatures or the wind), their co- evolutionary dependence on less mobile forms (dispersion then being limited to the slowest partner) or their adaptation to local conditions and inability to cross barriers of unsuitable habitat (e.g. weakly-flying montane birds).

Like other refuges of this sort, the north Bornean refuge therefore possesses a significant number of species among relatively immobile families that survive only there8. The area is hence identified as a biodiversity ‘hot-spot’ by Myers (1988, 1990), and is also part of a globally-recognized centre of plant diversity (WWF and IUCN, 1995), and a key area for restricted-range birds (Bibby et al., 1992). It is therefore generally accepted to be of maximum global priority for biodiversity conservation (UNEP, 1995; Caldecott et al., 1996). Rates of ‘artificial endemism’ in the area are increasing rapidly because of habitat destruction elsewhere, and as this advances into the immediate vicinity of the MBCA, species will inevitably start to be lost that have never previously been absent from Borneo even in glacial times.

2.5.8 Information and knowledge

The MBCA contains an unknown but very large number of lineages, species and higher taxa, as well as a number of ecosystem types in interface with one another. It therefore also contains an immense amount of information, in the form of lineage biodiversity (or genetic diversity), ecosystem biodiversity (the variety of ecosystems) and metabiodiversity (information contained in the relationships among components of living systems). In view of the MBCA’s natural and recent artificial endemism rates, a large and increasing proportion of its information content is only available within the MBCA itself. Human understanding of the rain forest is trivial relative to the scale of the information resource that is available to be organized into knowledge and ultimately wisdom, and there is broad consensus that increasing this understanding is an

8 This interpretation has been applied to the 80-90% endemism rate for the immobile herb families Gesneriaceae and Bignoniaceae in the Malay Peninsula (Caldecott, 1997). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 41

important task, whether this is considered to be a divine duty, an intellectual reward, or a utilitarian enterprise.

2.6 INTANGIBLE RESOURCES

There is a widespread feeling among educated people everywhere that progressive destruction of life on Earth is dangerous to our collective interests, even if it is not always possible to point to the precise consequences of any particular incident or species extinction. This point of view is illustrated by the following: · A Boeing 747 contains many thousands of rivets. If these were removed randomly, one per second, while the airplane was in flight, how long would the flight last? It’s hard to say, since no one rivet is critical on its own, but there must be some point at which too many were lost, and something catastrophic happened. How long would you care to be on board while the experiment continued, even in business class? · Our planetary ecosystem contains 50 million species, plus or minus 25 million or so. These are being removed randomly at a rate of several tens or hundreds of thousands per year. How much longer do you care to stay on board, even in ‘business class’, and where will you go instead?

These questions sum up why saving biodiversity is everyone’s concern, whether they know it or not. Because of their special evolutionary role as long-term rain forest refuges, the ecosystems of the MBCA in particular can be viewed as a deep sample of the evolutionary creativity of life on Earth, part of the ‘root stock’ of the tree of life. Hence they are vitally important parts of the biosphere, which people should cherish and preserve in their own interests and those of their descendents.

All of the world’s great religions, including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism, recognize that all forms of life have intrinsic value. They are unanimous in commanding respect and compassionate treatment for non-human as well as human life, and in drawing attention to the inter-linkages of life upon which we all depend while seeking spiritual and personal fulfillment. Destruction of biodiversity is therefore forbidden, and has been ruled as such by many religious authorities, including the senior clerics of Islam, the Pope, and the Dalai Lama (Abou Bakr et al., 1983/1403; Hargrove, 1986; John Paul II, 1989, 1990).

More positively, preserving and cherishing biodiversity has often been endorsed as a welcome act by religious authorities, and has given rise to strong traditions of worship, art, and the preservation of numerous natural sites and wildlife populations on the grounds of their sacredness. The peoples of Borneo have long traditions of augury and shamanism associated with wildlife (particularly birds – see Harrisson, 1999), and the existence of a spirit world and the association of spirits with particular places remains well established in Sabah. Lake Linumunsut, for example, continues to be regarded by local Murut people as a spiritually-important place where meditation, prayer and propitiation ceremonies are actively conducted. The notion of conservation areas as sacred sites is also a potent and growing one world-wide, being closely linked perhaps to the sense that in a world that is quickly filling up with people, any large area that is biologically rich, undamaged, and uninhabited, possesses a distinct existence value as a symbol of wilderness past, present and future.

Traditional religious views on biodiversity are being enriched in many societies by an increasing sense of kinship with nature that motivates a strong conservation ethic. This Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 42

is known as ‘deep ecology’, a view that recognizes the human place amidst and related to other species and embedded in the patterns of the unfolding universe, and that accepts a humble role for people within nature rather than an arrogant and destructive role outside her. Deep ecology draws its intellectual strength from our increasing understanding of nature through rational discovery, and its moral strength from the feeling of rightness and satisfaction that comes from co-operation with nature and with other people. The motivation to understand and to co-operate is a profound and universal aspect of human experience, and leads to the same conclusion as that of all religions: that anyone who knowingly contributes to the destruction of biodiversity is acting in a disordered, offensive and sinful way.

2.7 COMPARATIVE CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE

2.7.1 Integrity of the area

Prior to the excision of the MBCA from the Yayasan Sabah concession in 1997, the western edge of the Maliau Basin itself formed part of the boundary of that concession. Forests up to that edge, therefore, were exposed to logging procedures considerably harsher than those enforced by Yayasan Sabah. The result is a dense network of logging roads, yards and skid trails up to, and in places just over, the western and south-western edge of the Basin. Somewhat less intense logging occurred during the 1990s under Yayasan Sabah’s supervision throughout the Tembadau Valley, and ‘reduced-impact logging’ (RIL) is currently advancing through the buffer zone to the north-north-west and north-east of the basin. The plan is to subject the balance of the outer buffer zone to RIL, and there is a proposal to combine this with the establishment of a forestry research facility to the north of the basin, where trials of various kinds of forest management can be undertaken. These factors have significant implications for fire management and for developing a support zone involving local people.

Hunting is believed to have occurred in the late 1980s, when mineral exploration teams were active throughout the interior basin and on its external slopes. This is thought to have reduced populations of the larger mammals significantly in some areas, although detailed evidence is lacking and prey species such as kijang (Muntiacus muntjak), bearded pigs (Sus barbatus), payau (Cervus unicolor) and red leaf-monkeys (Presbytis rubicunda) are still frequently encountered at mid elevations both inside and outside the basin (Traeholt, 2001a, b, 2002; Jomitin, 2002a, b). Nevertheless, signs of human intrusion and hunting are still often found both inside and outside the basin, though seldom in heath forest areas and with decreasing frequency overall (Juul, 2001; Jomitin, 2002a). If wildlife populations do remain below carrying capacity as a result of this history, it is expected that they will recover with enhanced protection, and that this will be documented by the monitoring programme (see Chapter 7). The chief motivator of intrusion appears to be the search for gaharu which has resulted in numerous Aquilaria trees being felled or damaged (Ali, 2001), and which will also be targetted through law enforcement efforts.

2.7.2 Significance of the area

Dangers to forest ecosystems and biodiversity that are inherent in the present circumstances of the whole island of Borneo cannot be overstated, and have serious management implications for protected areas and conservation systems in all Bornean locations. An island-wide review commissioned by WWF (Caldecott, 2001) concluded that the disturbed ecosystems which now predominate are highly vulnerable to dessication and fire during prolonged droughts, that fire will continue to be used by Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 43

people to clear land, that fires are bound to spread into forest areas and ultimately into isolated conservation areas, and that forest disturbance and clearance processes are now virtually out of control in Kalimantan (see also Jepson et al., 2001).

Against this background, it can be seen that the managers of those few, large, undisturbed forests that still exist in Borneo bear a large and increasing responsibility for the survival of all Bornean biodiversity. At the same time, those relict forests are becoming increasingly isolated from one another through the intense and repeated logging – and often burning - of intervening forests, or their conversion to plantations. These factors mean both that conservation areas such as Maliau are becoming more and more valuable, but also harder to protect against large-scale processes of climate change, fire, weed invasion and genetic impoverishment, as well as the demands of the ‘business as usual’ economy to consume the last forest resources.

The MBCA is of extreme significance for landscape, wilderness and biodiversity protection, and the maintenance of environmental integrity and services in central and eastern Sabah. It is an important part of the headwaters of the Kinabatangan river system and contains large, intact samples of four main forest formations – lowland, lower montane, upper montane and heath forests, all with local variations and inter- linkages. The basin is a self-contained hydrological unit of exceptional value as a global resource for environmental monitoring, research and education. Biologically speaking, the MBCA is set in the richest part of the richest tropical island on Earth, and of maximum global priority for conservation. Its significance is summarized in Table 1, which highlights its role in a nested set of biogeographical realms, regions and other units.

2.7.3 Comparative analysis

The MBCA in central interior Sabah contains large and inter-connected samples of undisturbed tropical rain forests at a range of elevations from 200 m to 1,700 m, all growing on soils derived from sedimentary sandstones and mudstones, some of them highly leached and strongly acidic. As such, it will preserve a unique set of ecosystems, species and genetic resources, and is highly complementary to the other major existing protected areas in northern Borneo: · Kinabalu Park (730 square km, designated as a World Heritage Site), western Sabah, compri sing the middle and upper slopes of Gunung Kinabalu (at 4,095 m the highest mountain in South-east Asia), which is complementary to Maliau in comprising a sample of distinctive north-west Bornean forests growing on soils over granite, ultrabasic and sedimentary rocks; · Danum Valley Conservation Area (438 square km), eastern Sabah, comprising unlogged lowland forest (90% below 760 m asl) on sedimentary rocks, which is complementary to Maliau in comprising a sample of distinctive north-east Bornean lowland forests; · Crocker Range Park (1,400 square km), western Sabah, comprising mostly unlogged upland and montane forest on sedimentary rocks, which is complementary to Maliau in comprising a sample of distinctive western Bornean forests and lacking continuity with lowland formations; · Mulu Park (529 square km, designated as a World Heritage Site), northern Sarawak, comprising unlogged forest at a range of elevations, which is complementary to Maliau in comprising a sample of distinctive west Bornean Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 44

forests growing in a karst landscape on limestone or limestone-derived alkaline soils · Batu Apoi Forest Reserve (480 square km, encompassing the Belalong Field Studies Centre), Brunei Darussalam, which is complementary to Maliau in comprising a sample of distinctive western Bornean forests; and · Kayan Mentarang National Park (16,000 square km), East Kalimantan, Indonesia, which is complementary to Maliau in comprising a traditionally- managed, human-influenced landscape patchwork of shifting cultivation, forest and grasslands. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 45

Table 1: Conservation Significance of Maliau Basin Conservation Area

Level of analysis Implications for biodiversity

Tropical rain forest Most species-rich terrestrial biome. Occurs in South and Central America, Central and West Africa, and South and South-east Asia

Indo-Malayan Realm One of several distinctive tropical realms. Encompasses the Indian Sub- continent and South-east Asia.

South -east Asia Natural terrestrial ecosystems mostly tropical moist forest, now dominated by logged, burned, cleared, flooded or settled lands.

Malesia or Malesian Region defined by similarities in plant communities that show a strong region biogeographic connectedness amongst the lands of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Sundaland or Region defined by similarities in plant and animal communities due to Sundaic region past land connections among the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, nearby islands (including Palawan) and (weakly) Java, especially common ecological features of dipterocarp forests.

Borneo Largest part of Sundaland. Centre of dipterocarp distribution, diversity and dominance. Species-level endemism: 6% (birds), 10% (moths), 24% (reptiles), plants (34%), freshwater fish (38%), mammals (48%). Many cases of genus -level endemism.

Northern Borneo Refuge of rain forests during high-latitude glaciations and drying of Sundaland. Biodiversity ‘hot-spot’ (Myers, 1988, 1990), centre of plant diversity (WWF and IUCN, 1995), key area for restricted-range birds (Bibby et al., 1992); maximum global priority for biodiversity conservation (UNEP, 1995; Caldecott et al., 1996).

Sabah Tallest forests and richest large mammal fauna in Borneo. Major protected areas: (a) Kinabalu Park (World Heritage Site), a very high mountain of igneous rock in western Sabah; (b) Danum Valley Conservation Area, a lowland rain forest in eastern Sabah; and (c) Maliau Basin Conservation Area, a lowland to montane forest on sedimentary rock in central-interior Sabah. Elsewhere mostly logged, cleared and settled.

Central interior Rugged terrain with lowland to upland dipterocarp forest and some Sabah montane and heath forest. Conservation areas and Virgin Jungle Reserves set in landscape of logged forest (Yayasan Sabah concession), mostly commercially exhausted and requiring 20+ years before re-logging is possible. As a result, alternative land uses (plantati ons) are becoming widespread.

Maliau Basin 588 square km unlogged totally protected forests, plus 286 square km Conservation Area unlogged and 1,044 square km logged buffer zones; includes 1,500 m deep circular basin, ecologically self-contained, with four forest formations and all intergraded ecosystems.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 46

Chapter 3: THREATS

3.1 OVERVIEW

Policy directions. Reviewing issues of land use around the MBCA, Greer (2002) concluded “that the MBCA is under an increasing number of development pressures, mo st of them invasive in nature and that unless proactive measures are taken, the area in the not so distant future will be under siege”. This siege will be avoided by systematically and continually detecting, understanding, neutralizing and diverting threatening factors at all scales from the local and short-term to the state-wide and long-term. The preferred approach to this will be to build partnerships through research, dialogue and shared responsibility for conflict resolution among informed stakeholders.

The following threats are thought to be particularly relevant to the future of the MBCA: · Fire, whether starting locally or reaching the area from elsewhere, including the possibility that forest fires could ignite surface coal seams. · Plantations, especially large pulp-wood plantations adjacent to the buffer zone; · Illegal logging in the buffer zone and, possibly, the conservation area. · Mining, especially the possibility that, despite the present legal protection, coal mining might be permitted at some future date. · Farming, especially the possibility of gradual encroachment on remaining forests in the general Maliau area. · Hunting, especially of tembadau and rhinoceros but also of other species. · Harvesting, especially of gaharu and rattan but also of other resources. · Tourism, especially the possibility of inappropriate tourism development and infrastructure in and around the basin, and excessive visitation pressures within the basin. · Infrastructure, especially the impact of the newly-rebuilt Tawau to Keningau road, and other possible developments in the area. · Hostility to the conservation area, especially among local people and influential interest groups who would like to use the area in ways other than conservation.

3.2 STRATEGIC THREATS

3.2.1 Forest fires

Widespread fire is an inevitable consequence of the opening of large areas of forest by frontier farming, logging and other forms of disturbance, such as has happened throughout Borneo in recent years (Pyne, 2001). Logged forests are particularly vulnerable to dessication and fire during prolonged droughts, and there has been a succession of droughts and fires in Borneo and elsewhere during the 1980s and 1990s (Section 2.3). Logged forests largely surround and in places penetrate the MBCA, so fire represents a significant threat to its future. In the assessment of the team that prepared the EIA for proposed coal mining at Maliau (DPA, 1992), two of the six main forest types in the area are “particularly susceptible to forest fires; these are the Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 47

montane casuarina forest and the coniferous/casuarina forest”, the former occurring in “a huge band below the mossy forest found on the summit rim of the Basin” (and nowhere else in Sabah), and the latter occurring “in patches throughout the Basin at elevations of 850-1200 m” (and surviving – because of its flammability – in only one other location in Sabah). The EIA report concludes that “for the Maliau Basin, with the forest situated on a dried up peat bed with coal underneath, the risk of fire is extremely high. It is uncertain whether the coal itself would catch fire and increase the extent of damage; however, this happened in some areas of Kalimantan during forest fires there in the mid-1980s”.

Risks have intensified since 1992, with logging up to the edge of the Basin in several areas, extensive logging in the general area (including Nunukan Regency of Kalimantan to the south), and the proposed conversion of very large areas of nearby natural forest in Sabah to pulp-wood plantation (Section 3.2.2), all suggesting that the risk of major fires entering the MBCA is likely to increase in coming years. Amongst many other socioeconomic impacts, this would be catastrophic for all the components of biodiversity in the area. Even the smoke from distant fires is likely to deter tourists, and a worst -case scenario might also involve ignition of coal seams in and around the MBCA, which could burn for years.

The prevention and suppression of fire in the vicinity of the MBCA is thus judged to be among the highest priorities of long-term management. This in turn implies that management of the buffer zone and engagement with external stakeholders who influence land use will be of paramount importance. It also implies that emergency measures, such as firebreaks, may need to be contemplated despite their inevitable consequence of increasing the biological isolation of the conservation area. Multi- stakeholder workshops focussed on fire issues are urgently needed (see Chapter 4).

3.2.2 Tree plantations

Proposals exist by a Malaysian-Chinese consortium to convert 241,400 hectares of natural logged forest between the MBCA and DVCA into Acacia mangium pulpwood plantation, in order to supply a new pulp and paper mill at Kalabakan with a capacity of 500,000-750,000 tonnes per year (Anon., 2001a; Yoga, 2001). Although this proposal was not approved during the planning period, neither was it finally rejected by government, and substantial areas of natural forest in the project area were meanwhile cleared under licences issued by a previous administration which apparently could not be revoked9. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to summarize the expected consequences for the MBCA and its environs, should the project proceed. An EIA for the project is expected to be finalized in due course.

The Kalabakan project would affect practically all the forest land between the MBCA and DVCA, destroying the core of the Yayasan Sabah concession and the largest natural forested area in northern Borneo. Environmental consequences would be catastrophic, not least for the MBCA which could be separated from the Acacia by only a narrow hedge of logged buffer zone forest. Since Acacia mangium is highly flammable, and a large area such as that proposed is likely to create its own hot, dry local climate, a very serious risk of forest fire would be inevitable. Moreover, Acacia mangium is an aggressive weed likely to colonize at least the fringes of the MBCA and its buffer zone, occupying the niches of native species and irreversibly distorting the

9 Chief Minister Datuk Chong Kah Kiat, quoted in the Borneo Post of the 4th April 2002. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 48

process of forest recovery from logging. A number of additional points have been made by other commentators on this proposal (DVMC, 1999b; MNS, 2000; WWFM, 2001), including that the conversion project would: · destroy catchment forests needed to maintain water supplies and to provide flood and erosion protection in and around Lahad Datu and Tawau, while making the Segama and Kinabatangan rivers even more flood-prone than they are now; · cause immense amounts of soil to be washed away, probably at least doubling present erosion rates to more than six million tonnes per year and thereby stifling downstream fisheries and reefs; · eliminate buffer zone forests that are essential to the long-term ecological and evolutionary integrity of Danum Valley Conservation Area; · raise the likelihood of Sumatran rhinoceros extinction to a near certainty; · devastate the habitat of a key population of orangutans, in what may well be the only place in the world that could sustain a viable population in the long term (see also Hutan, 2001); · encourage human-elephant conflict, with about 600 elephants that are prone to strip bark from Acacia mangium trees; · obliterate virtually all local biodiversity in what is biologically the richest part of the richest tropical island in the world; · violate Principle 12 of the ITTO guidelines against replacing natural forest with forest plantations; · break up the continuity of forest cover and gene flow among ecosystems between Darvel Bay, Mt Silam, Taliwas, INFAPRO, Danum, Ulu Segama and the MBCA; · fatally undermine the INFAPRO and FACE projects on RIL and carbon storage; · take a big step away from sustainable forestry and negate years of valuable research; · constitute a huge fire risk at a time of climate change and likely intensified droughts in what is already the most drought-prone part of Borneo (the only previous large Acacia mangium plantations in Sabah were destroyed by fire); · greatly reduce tourism potential; and · have serious repercussions for the international reputation of both Sabah and Malaysia, undermining attempts to promote Malaysian timber certification and possibly leading to an international boycott of Malaysian timber products.

Other points raised by various commentators were that the proposal was made without consulting stakeholders, that it was approved by a previous administration in a hasty and covert manner, that it is in direct contradiction to state land policy, and that based on previous experience the revenue benefits are likely to be minimal relative to the enormous scale of the resources to be liquidated. In short, it is hard to imagine any justification for the project from a Malaysian or Sabahan perspective.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 49

Should the plantation project be implemented in full or in significant part, despite the considerations summarized above, the following steps should be taken to mitigate and compensate for it s impacts on the MBCA. · The width of the natural forest buffer zone between the MBCA and plantation should be maximized over the entire length of the interface between land uses. · Since logged buffer zone forests are themselves vulnerable to fire, a devegetated fire break (or road) should be established and maintained between the edge of the buffer zone and the plantation, or at least surveyed and demarcated for swift clearance in the event of plantation fire. · Fire towers should be built, maintained and staffed and equipped sufficiently that relevant areas of the plantation are continuously monitored during times of fire risk. · Adequate trained staff and suitable equipment, including fire-fighting gear, 4WD vehicles and bulldozers, should be permanently available on call to create the firebreak in an emergency and to suppress any fires that manage to cross it. · Intensive management efforts should be directed to the buffer zone forests themselves, to promote regeneration and restoration of fire-resistant microclimates, and to destroy seedlings of plantation trees and other weeds invading from outside areas. · The entire cost of the above measures should be borne by the investors in the plantation project. · Since protective measures made necessary as a result of the plantation project must be maintained in perpetuity, the investors should be required to capitalize a permanent trust fund, the revenues from which would be used to finance such measures by MBCA managers. · A detailed study should be undertaken at the expense of the investors by consultants appointed by and reporting to the MBCA Management Committee, to determine the capital requirement of the trust fund and the means by which it would be managed and maintained at adequate levels in perpetuity, the findings of which should be binding upon the investors without the possibility of appeal.

3.2.3 Coal mining

Coal seams of minable thickness and quality were discovered in 1986 on the north- west side of the Gunung Lotung escarpment, and subsequently explored further. This led to the assessment that the total coal resource may amount to as much as 215 million tonnes, mostly under the eastern and north-eastern basin rim (DPA, 1992; see Chapter 1). The company that performed the preliminary assessment of the prospect (BHP-UTAH Minerals International) applied for further exploration rights, having calculated that the prospect was commercially viable (subject to confirmatory drilling) with an internal rate of return on investment (IRR) of about 21% (BHP, 1995). Taking into account the environmental consequences of coal mining and the increasing pace of scientific work in and around the basin, however, the state government opted to declare the MBCA as a Class I (Protection) Forest Reserve, a status incompatible with the area being mined.

Despite this, public speculation persists that a major coal mine in the area would generate significant revenues, employment and other benefits for Sabah and Malaysia. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 50

It is therefore not impossible that at some future time, a state government might bow to short-term fiscal pressures and reverse the present position. Given that the preliminary EIA for the coal prospect (DPA, 1992) had made it clear that mining and conservation were essentially incompatible uses of the Maliau Basin, the YS-DANCED project commissioned a detailed economic review of the BHP (1995) proposal (Sinding & Peck, 2002). The aim of this was to clarify whether the prospect remained commercially viable under current market conditions, and whether it had the potential to be economically beneficial in the Sabah context. The main conclusions of this analysis are summarized below. · The IRR was recalculated to be in the range 6-13%, mainly due to the fact that market prices for coal have declined (and the lowest IRR was found using current coal prices of about US$ 32/tonne) while costs have increased due to inflation. The IRR was also depressed by adding costs that were missing from the original calculation, such as a royalty to government, access roads, environmental mitigation measures, ventilation shafts, staff and dependents’ accommodation, rehabilitation and mine closing costs, and various maintenance costs. · The median recalculated IRR of about 10% is considered to be a level “that few mining firms would find attractive” (page 17), so the prospect can be described as rather marginal from a commercial perspective. · An attempt was made to model an improved IRR by adding to the project a coal beneficiation plant, which would clean and purify the product on site and allow it to be sold at higher unit price. The additional capital cost of US$ 34 million early in the project (plus rehabilitation costs at closure) had the effect of reducing the expected IRR by about 2%, despite a price premium on the product. · An attempt was also made to model reduced environmental impact by adding to the project a tunnel (or adit) into the Maliau Basin from beyond its rim, as an alternative to establishing a road and mine portal within the basin itself. The additional capital cost of US$ 10 million early in the project was found to reduce the expected IRR by only 0.3-0.4%, suggesting that this approach should be required if mining is ever authorized. · Two important environmental impacts were identified but could not be expressed in monetary terms or captured in the calculations, these being: o the likelihood of widespread ground subsidence with “potential impacts in terms of surface cracking, soil disturbance and changes in erosion patterns … particularly in the light of the reported inherent instability of some soils and slopes in the area” (page 5); and o the urbanization and encroachment effect of an estimated 2,000- 2,500 mine employees, their dependents, and unplanned in-migration prompted by the opportunity to sell goods and services to them.

· Regarding the latter, “experience from other large mining projects in the region suggest that the number of employees at the mine must be multiplied by 10 or 15 in order to generate a realistic estimate of the total number of people that will settle nearby” (pages 5-6). A new, mine-dependent township of 20,000-30,000 people would impose a range of direct and indirect costs on the mining company and on the environment during mine operation, and raises “the question of what this population will turn to once mining is finished” (page 6).

The overall conclusion of Sinding & Peck’s (2002) study was that, while Maliau “may have the makings of a significant coalmine” (page 27), returns on any investment to Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 51

develop it would be about half that originally calculated, and there would be serious but unquantifiable environmental consequences. Hence there seems little reason to dispute the conclusions of the earlier preliminary EIA (DPA, 1992), that mining and conservation are incompatible uses of the Maliau Basin area, although it is now possible to add that even if mining were chosen it would most likely be only marginally profitable.

Nevertheless, the possibility that mining might one day be authorized should be borne in mind, and should motivate MBCA managers to ensure that alternative conservation uses of the area are consistently presented to the public as being more valuable over time, as well as more sustainable, than mining. The cumulative income streams from sustainable sources such as those outlined in Chapter 10 of this Strategic Plan, for example, have the potential to exceed likely income from mining and to continue indefinitely, whereas the coal mine would soon be exhausted.

In the event that mining is in fact one day authorized, and the necessary legislation to enable this is passed, clearly a very detailed, comprehensive and credible set of studies would be needed to specify measures to minimize, mitigate and compensate for impacts on the MBCA. These studies should be fully integrated within the process of designing the mining project, and the investment itself should be bound to adopt to their recommendations. Thus there should be no question of mining engineers and financiers designing the project and then submitting the finished version for a separate EIA. Instead, MBCA managers and their consultants should be involved in a determinative way in every decision by which the investment is formulated, from the pre-mining exploratory work on the prospect to the final decommissioning of the mine, the restoration of affected habitats, and the resettlement of all people attracted to the area by the mine and associated activities. The full cost of all such studies and of implementing their conclusions should be borne by the investors in the project.

On the grounds that mining will unavoidably foreclose many options for preserving the MBCA and for generating sustainable benefits from it, a detailed study on compensatory financing should also be undertaken. This should be undertaken at the expense of the investors, by consultants appointed by and reporting to the MBCA Management Committee, and its findings should be binding upon the investors without the possibility of appeal. This study should determine the capital requirement of a trust fund, to be internalized within the investment, and the means by which it would be managed and maintained in perpetuity at adequate levels to underwrite: · the management costs of the MBCA and its buffer zones in perpetuity, including but not necessarily limited to every item specified in Chapter 9 of this Strategic Plan 2003-2012 (i.e. the implementation programme); and · the investment costs needed to implement in full every item specified in Chapter 10 of this Strategic Plan 2003-2012 (i.e. the sustainable financing programme).

3.2.4 Unsustainable tourism

The capacity for poorly-planned and poorly-supervised tourism developments to ruin natural and social environments is well known. Hence there is concern that suddenly throwing the MBCA and particularly the basin open to tour operators could quickly degrade its ‘pristine’ feel through crowding, litter and footpath erosion, amongst other things, which would have the effect of foreclosing options for a more sustainable tourism model. Similarly, investors exist who might wish to build hotels and other facilities in inappropriate locations in and around the basin. Hopefully the development Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 52

of a clear, agreed strategy for guiding and facilitating selected kinds of tourism in the conservation area will prevent damaging initiatives being undertaken.

3.2.5 Infrastructure

The road from Tawau to Keningau is currently being rebuilt, which will make the southern periphery of the MBCA much more accessible from the rest of Sabah. This is a source both of dangers and of opportunities. Better access may increase the risk of illegal intrusion and poaching, as well as ribbon development and in-migration both formal (e.g. the Tibow resettlement) and informal. On the other hand, easier travel to and around the MBCA can ease the development of an active management presence and sustainable revenue-earning activities, such as those based on tourism, education and commercial biodiversity research, which can help build and sustain public support for the MBCA.

There is always the risk that some kind of ‘planning failure’ will occur, in which risks to the MBCA are created because its needs, or even its location, are inadequately present in the knowledge resources of other government agencies. This risk can be minimized by ensuring integration of the MBCA within structure plans prepared by the Town and Regional Planning Department, and by routine outreach to all other stakeholders (Greer, 2002).

Any new infrastructure (trails, sealed roads or new gravel roads, helipads, camps and buildings), especially inside the MBCA but also in the buffer zone, will need careful environmental impact assessment and additional studies before construction. Various mitigation measures will be needed in order to reduce negative impacts on the flora, fauna and whole ecosystem.

3.2.6 Intangible threats

There is reported to be significant resentment against Yayasan Sabah among the communities of the Sg Pinangah (Anon., 2000; Baptist et al., 2000; Wong & Guntavid, 2000). The main cause of this is that local people see outside firms benefiting from contracts to log what they perceive to be their own forests, while they themselves are excluded from such contracts and may even be punished for ‘stealing wood’. This attitude is deeply entrenched and apparently cannot be mitigated through the provision of development assistance. Kg Karamok, for example, has received from Yayasan a new road, support in clarifying community land tenure, construction material for 173 new houses, 10 acres for a clinic and various forms of training and farming system improvements, all based on thorough socioeconomic surveys, yet the community as a whole still resents its lack of cash income from logging.

Even offering communities contract work is unlikely to be very helpful, partly because they lack the capital and equipment resources needed to participate effectively, and partly because ultimately they feel that they own the trees already. Their underlying claim is to be given the right to manage substantial areas of forest for themselves and for their own benefit, at which point, they argue, they would be able to build their own houses and would not depend on Yayasan handouts. Meanwhile, the perception at Yayasan is that the state-land forests around villages are already very poorly managed, with decisions being made by unaccountable village élites aligned with outside political parties, so placing more forest under this kind of management would be disastrous. A solution to this deadlock has yet to be found, but must be sought because of the importance of local support for the long-term future of the MBCA. The best that can be Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 53

said for now is that the MBCA itself is not resented because it is perceived as equally off-limits to exploitation by any group.

Also in the category of ‘intangible threats’ would fall political, public and media pressures to implement plantation, mining, logging, tourism or infrastructure projects detrimental to the MBCA.

3.3 TACTICAL THREATS

3.3.1 Illegal logging

Legacies of the timber boom years of the 1970s to 1990s include that Sabah’s timber reserves are critically depleted, and that there remains an over-capacity for log processing and a strong demand for illegally-obtained logs, reflected in illegal logging in Yayasan Sabah’s concession that amounted to at least 140,000 m3 in 1997-2001 (Chua, 2001). Illegal loggers are extremely effective in Sabah, being very experienced and able to work round the clock to extract wood at great speed. They must therefore be assumed to pose at least a potential threat to the integrity of the MBCA, which may grow worse over the next few years. This is a primary enforcement challenge for conservation-area managers, requiring the development of a fool-proof surveillance system and a capacity for quick response, plus an intelligence network and cooperation with other branches of the Yayasan Sabah family, neighbouring FMU operations, and the Forestry Department. A further risk to the north-east, north and north-west of the MBCA comes from licenced logging activities in the buffer zone, which may enter it by accident.

3.3.2 Farming

A trend can be anticipated towards gradual encroachment on remaining forests in the general Maliau area by a poor, growing rural population used to the practice of unsustainable shifting cultivation. This will be facilitated by the planned up-grading of the Tawau-Keningau road, and by the existence of logging roads in and around the buffer zone. Active and constructive engagement with support zone communities and broader civil society should help to stabilize land use outside the buffer zone, the ultimate aim being to achieve a ‘social fence’ of robust, settled communities with an interest in resisting further in-migration. Of equal importance, however, will be the capacity of MBCA managers to detect illegal farming quickly and to respond to it through arrest, prosecution and eviction procedures before large-scale irreversible damage is done.

3.3.3 Hunting

It is clear from field reports that hunting for Sumatran rhinoceros body-parts and tembadau meat and trophies is a continuing problem, with rhinos at least being on the verge of extinction in the area. Intrusion by outsiders who live off the land, including loggers and mineral prospectors in the recent past, as well as rhino hunters and gatherers of forest products on a continuing basis, has meant hunting of ungulates and other animals, and may have depressed wildlife populations throughout the area. There is likely to be steady recovery of wildlife abundance with protection, however, and a primary aim of law enforcement within the MBCA is to ensure that this happens. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 54

3.3.4 Harvesting

Gaharu, like rhino horn and hornbill ivor y, has been a Bornean export for at least a thousand years, and is sufficiently valuable (and portable) to justify seeking in places as remote as the Maliau Basin. Such visits have presumably occurred for centuries. Parts of the MBCA are now much more accessible than formerly, however, and, with roads nearby, far less valuable (and less portable) forest products could be harvested profitably, including commercial species of rattan, damar (resin of dipterocarp and Agathis trees) and timber. This risk will need to be offset by enforcement efforts. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 55

PART TWO – MANAGING RESOURCES, THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Chapter 4: PROTECTION

4.1 OVERVIEW

Policy directions. Threats to the MBCA will be neutralized through an integrated process with three main themes that respectively emphasize: · promoting biological connectedness in the landscape surrounding the MBCA, mainly through dialogue between conservation stakeholders and others, so as to avoid conflict between conservation priorities and other forms of land use; · managing a buffer zone surrounding the MBCA with the involvement of all local stakeholders, so that the use of resources there complements and supports the protection of the conservation area itself; and · protecting the conservation area.

The MBCA is set in a broader landscape, where stakeholders exist and decisions are made that profoundly affect its long-term viability. An important consideration is the need to promote biological connectedness between the MBCA and its buffer zone on the one hand, and more distant forest ecosystems on the other. Another is the need to manage the buffer zone itself in ways that promote the integrity of the MBCA. These both require close cooperation among multiple stakeholders, including all concerned government departme nts, institutions of local government, NGOs, local communities and FMU holders10, both through the medium of the MBCA Management Committee and also through a wide range of direct contacts at the field level. Detailed buffer zone management planning will be required (see below), which will need to be undertaken in close cooperation with the relevant FMU holders and the Sabah Forestry Department.

The third primary consideration is the need to manage the MBCA itself. This will succeed to the extent that the aims, principles and importance of protective management are communicated to and understood by the general public and their representatives at the local, state, national and global levels, including an appropriate range of potential donors and investors. It also requires a long-term perspective and the ability to apply innovative and adaptive management strategies while consistently avoiding any action that could do irreversible harm to the MBCA and its ecosystems. Clear boundaries, well-sited bases, suitable equipment and effective patrol routines for protection staff, appropriate management zones and adequate personnel resources will all be needed, along with the relief of constraints to managerial performance which are discussed in Chapter 5. All solutions will have to be adapted to the specific geography of the MBCA and its environs (see Annex 2, Figure 8).

4.2 PROMOTING LANDSCAPE CONNECTIONS

A central factor in conserving wild species in tropical rain forests is that these ecosystems have an enormo us variety of species but many of them are very rare even if they are widespread. Large areas of forest often contain, therefore, only small

10 Especially FMU 14 (Sapulut Forest Development); also FMUs 15, 16 and 20. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 56

numbers of individuals belonging to any one species. Since each species has a minimum population size that must be maintained if it is to continue to breed successfully, large areas of forest must be conserved if many forest species are to survive. Isolated rain forests, by contrast, inevitably lose many species over time, so a set of conservation areas separated by non-forest environments will, as a whole, become impoverished biologically. A consequence is that the condition of natural ecosystems lying between conservation areas is of great importance to the conservation of biodiversity.

The MBCA is set in a much larger managed forest block, and its intact natural ecosystems are therefore in direct and indirect contact both with a range of more-or- less natural forests under various kinds of management throughout the Yayasan Sabah concession and beyond, and with other conservation areas such as the VJRs of the Imbak valley to the north, and Danum Valley to the east. The buffer zone forests are vital to the security of the MBCA itself, but the onward connections to the broader forest landscape of central and eastern Sabah as far as the lower Kinabatangan and the coast are just as important to the long term survival of many of the conservation area’s organisms. Hence a biodiversity-friendly approach to forest management over this whole area would contribute strongly to conservation and sustainable development objectives.

The managers of the MBCA will therefore actively engage with other actors in the broader landscape, in the search for ways to promote biological connectedness. One step would be to institutionalize lines of communication through established forums, for instance by inviting neighbouring FMU holders to join the MBCA Management Committee. Others would involve undertaking a series of inclusive workshops, each of which might be used to develop the content of training courses or other forms of study, dialogue, research and action to promote the following themes: · forest management practices that retain patches of intact forest to act as biodiversity reservoirs, and corridors to act as dispersion conduits; · macro forest planning strategies that retain large-scale ‘wildlife corridors’ to preserve connectedness between Maliau and Danum in particular; · further improvements in RIL techniques to reduce damage during harvesting; · replanting of native tree species and extension of harvest intervals to promote forest recovery; · institutional measures to ensure that biodiversity considerations are given due importance in land use planning decisions; · identification of measures to reduce logging intensity and promote species survival and habitat connectedness between the MBCA and the VJRs of the Imbak valley; and · development of forest rules to guide biodiversity-friendly forest management in buffer zones and corridor forest ecosystems.

These seven workshops will be folded into the process by which a management plan is prepared for the buffer zone of the MBCA (see below). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 57

4.3 MANAGING THE BUFFER ZONE

4.3.1 Roles of the buffer zone

The MBCA’s buffer zone is still in the process of being defined by inter-institutional consensus, but it seems agreed that it will have an area of about 133,000 hectares (Greer, 2002), and will comprise (Annex 2, Figure 8): · Inner Buffer Zone (ca 39,000 ha), is an inner ring of Class II Forest Reserve that is to be logged only once (if at all11) using RIL techniques, and will thereafter be up-graded to Class I status, plus a proposed 1,705 ha Virgin Jungle Reserve; and · Outer Buffer Zone (ca 94,000 ha), is an outer ring of Class II Forest Reserve that is to be logged repeatedly on long rotation using RIL techniques.

The buffer zone will have a critical strategic role in the protection of the MBCA and possibly in contributing to its financial sustainability. The way in which the buffer zone forests are managed will largely determine long-term fire risks in the area, the scale and nature of tourism development, the extent of local involvement in tourism, fire prevention and benefit sharing, and the possibility of deriving revenues and other benefits from carbon storage mechanisms. The buffer zone will also be where most immediate threats to the MBCA are addressed in a tactical sense, including blocking the intrusion of hunters, loggers and gaharu collectors, fighting fires, and planting native trees. Finally, the buffer zone is where the Maliau Basin Studies Centre will be built (see Chapter 8), and where research focussed on the recovery of logged forest and the ecology of large mammals will be conducted. The buffer zone management plan will address all these themes, and the terms of reference for its preparation are given in Annex 3.

4.3.2 Fire management

The International Tropical Timber Organization has produced a set of principles and recommendations for fire management in tropical forests (ITTO, 1997). These draw attention in particular to the following needs: · for broad-based support from all sectors of society, and appropriate laws; · for fire management plans integrated within overall land-use plans developed through co-operation between all sectors and levels of society; · for effective fire detection and early warning systems; · for ground crews of fire fighters with good local organization, adequate hand tools, and basic training in fire suppression and safety; · for a positive relationship between the rural community and fire managers; · for exchanging knowledge of forest fires and fire management among forestry and research personnel throughout the world; and

11 The government’s intention to terminate all logging in the inner buffer zone was indicated by Encik Abdul Rahim Sidek of the Natural Resources Office of the Chief Minister’s Department, at the YS -DANCED Project Steering Committee meeting on the 8th April 2002. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 58

· for the understanding of, and the taking of appropriate actions against, fire risks that are increased by farming practices, logging operations and recreational or hunting use of forests.

A comprehensive plan for fire prevention and suppression in the buffer zone will need to be developed according to these ITTO guidelines, and integrated within the buffer zone management plan. The fire management plan should be based on an assessment of: · the condition of residual forest stands, including the extent of canopy opening and the accumulation dead biomass; · location and condition of the logging road system, from the point of view of providing access to areas at risk, and the alignments of potential firebreaks; · location of surface coal deposits, and their vulnerability to forest fires, including the possible pre-positioning of fire-fighting equipment and supplies near them for use in emergencies; · areas where ecological remediation is needed, for example enrichment planting with native species, in order to restore the fire-resistance of native vegetation; and · the scope for community involvement in fire prevention and management.

Surface coal seams will need to be surveyed for vulnerability to fire, and mapped. Opinions differ on their likelihood of catching fire, but inextinguishable sub-surface coal fires are known in India, Indonesia and the US, and a risk-averse strategy for the MBCA requires this possibility to be taken seriously. One option for seams that are considered high risk would be to pre-position nearby a store of fire-fighting materials – for example, cylinders of foam (‘wet water’) that could be sprayed onto the coal surface if fires approach. In this case, only staff would need to be deployed to the locations at risk without having to transport large quantities of material during the chaos of a fire emergency.

Blocking fires that are advancing dangerously close to the MBCA or to surface coal deposits might have to involve bulldozing firebreaks through the buff er zone forests, by clearing and greatly widening existing logging roads. Detailed surveys in advance will be needed to identify the alignments of suitable firebreaks, which can be created quickly and safely in a range of different emergency situations. Once cleared, firebreaks will need to be patrolled continually by trained and properly equipped teams with the aim of detecting and suppressing small fires that may cross the break. After the emergency has passed, firebreaks will need to be re-vegetated with a fast-growing ground cover as quickly as possible to reduce erosion, and supplies of seeds and some kind of binding medium for spraying them will need to be available for this purpose, along with appropriate equipment.

A recent WWF-supported review of forest fires (Rowell & Moore, undated) concluded that of all the attempted solutions to this complex problem, “the most promising move is towards community education, empowerment, and involvement in forestry”, and its key recommendations reflected this. Case study evidence from East Kalimantan suggested that out-of-control fires can largely be prevented by community rules requiring three days’ notice of intent to burn, the presence during the burn of people with water and instruments to put out fires, and the payment of compensation for breaking rules. An effective community fire ordinance was also reported from eastern Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 59

Pará state in the Amazon, requiring eight days’ notice, coordination of swidden burnings among neighbours, fire breaks in forest and pasture, and compensation for economic damage payable by the perpetrators of accidental fires. Rules of this sort should be developed with the participation of support zone communities and incorporated within community adat. Hence community involvement in fire management can be seen as one dimension of a broader engagement with local people in management of the buffer zone as a whole.

4.3.3 Community involvement

The idea of a ‘support zone’ is that the support of local people for a protected area can greatly reduce the cost of managing it, while enhancing the impact and sustainability of management programmes. Maliau is unusual for a tropical conservation area in having few settlements close enough to pose a direct management challenge, and such a light pattern of human use in the past that ‘ancestral domain’ claims for continued access rights or benefit sharing are barely credible for most of the area, and not at all for the basin itself. Nevertheless, communities along the Sg Pinangah are capable of doing damage to the MBCA or its buffer zone on their own account, or of doing so indirectly by tolerating the activities of outsiders. Looked at more positively, the active support and participation of those communities would greatly facilitate protection and sustainable development of the area, in ways ranging from the social atmospherics needed for successful grant applications, to the exclusion or apprehension of rhino poachers and illegal loggers, and participation in fire prevention activities.

As noted in Chapter 3, relations between Yayasan Sabah and local communities are not entirely cordial, and strategies are needed to break the prevailing attitude of competition, rather than cooperation, between Yayasan and its contractors on the one hand, and local people on the other. One possibility would be to create a mechanism by which the Forestry Department and Yayasan Sabah could negotiate and oversee the operation of community forestry agreeme nts, drawing on the experience of successful initiatives elsewhere, such as those at Ekuri in Nigeria (Caldecott & Morakinyo, 1996) and Quintana Roo in México (Finch, 1996). In such an approach, the final agreement would address not only timber production, but also wildlife conservation and fire prevention, thereby exchanging participation in forest management with a more comprehensive role in preserving the entire ecosystem. This strategy would require a willingness on the part of FMU holders to relinqui sh forest land for community management oriented to logging, which may not occur voluntarily.

Some areas within FMUs, however, are already set aside for water catchment protection, and these could be managed by agreement with communities not for logging but for compatible purposes such as hunting12, gathering medicinal plants and fruits, harvesting rattan canes, and for ecotourism. These uses would also be acceptable in areas set aside to maintain primary-forest microclimates in order to act as reservoir s for recolonization of logged forest by fragile organisms, and to improve the forest’s resistance to fire. Such community forests could comprise one part of a strategic accommodation with local people that also addresses cooperation on wildlife protection and fire prevention, and that provides for preferential access to educational scholarships, employment and training opportunities as guides, rangers and parataxonomists, and the assurance that local children will obtain places in subsidized

12 An approach which is already being explored by the Sabah Wildlife Department though the proposed Kampung Hunting Licence/Hunting Area pilot project (SWD, 2002). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 60

hostels in towns such as Nabawan while they are attending school. In this way an effective support zone for the MBCA might be constructed piece by piece.

The MBCA’s support zone would potentially comprise all the communities living along the upper Sg. Pinangah to the north, and any new settlements that may arise along the upgraded Tawau-Keningau road to the south, or elsewhere at a comparable distance or with a comparable capacity to support or undermine conservation efforts. The overall approach to support zone communities is to induct them as allies into the management system of the MBCA and its buffer zone. Doing so will involve encouraging and enabling them to analyse their own socioeconomic circumstances and articulate their own development priorities through community action plans. The MBCA may be able to help support zone communities attain their objectives by offering employment and training opportunities (e.g. as rangers, guides or parataxonomists), by encouraging local participation in research, by exploring benefit-sharing arrangements, and by offering a possible role in the community-based management of forest areas within the buffer zone. These incentives will be exchanged for cooperation with law enforcement and fire protection programmes, to be formalized within binding agreements between MBCA managers and support zone communities.

4.3.4 Re-planting native trees

Heavily logged parts of the buffer zone are logical candidates for extensive re-planting of native tree species, with several aims: · securing carbon credits (see Chapter 10); · promoting fire resistance; · encouraging re-growth of commercial timber in those areas where subsequent logging cycles are envisioned; · encouraging recovery of the whole forest ecosystem towards something resembling its original state; · promoting population recovery and expansion among wild species that may have been locally depleted; and · promoting recolonization by wild species that may have become locally extinct.

This approach will build on the success of the FACE and IKEA foundations, in collaboration with Innoprise, in establishing nurseries capable of producing large numbers of native seedlings, and planting them in forest locations with very high survivorship rates. Opportunities to establish similar programmes with these or different participants in the buffer zone will be actively explored in the context of buffer zone management planning.

4.3.5 Tourism development

The inner buffer zone includes the Tembadau Valley, to the south of which and close to the security gate is the proposed VJR (Annex 2, Figure 8). This latter area of intact forest represents a key resource for tourism development in the general area. The logic of this is that within several years the Tawau-Keningau highway will have been completed, becoming the main east-west route across Sabah and passing the MBCA’s security gate. Since it is located about half way between Kota Kinabalu and Tawau, many travellers are likely to stop there if offered rest facilities, and a restaurant and Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 61

other retail outlets at that location may therefore prove profitable. A ‘Maliau Basin Visitor Reception and Information Centre’ (VRIC) is also to be established at the Gate House through a Shell oil company donation, probably in 2002-2003. It will allow passers-by to be exposed indirectly to the MBCA, and some may wish to explore further, creating a demand both for accommodation and forest recreation facilities in the vicinity.

Since mass tourism is not an acceptable use of the MBCA or the Maliau Basin Studies Centre (MBSC), meeting this demand elsewhere would be appropriate, both for public education and fund-raising purposes. This would involve creating trails, including interpretative nature trails, to view points and waterfalls in and around the VJR, and maintaining a motorable route for ordinary cars to a viewpoint from which the rim of the Maliau Basin can be observed. It is intended, therefore, that the security gate complex will be developed to include a restaurant and education centre, and to provide guidance and access to other facilities in the immediate area. This facility would also provide a base for protection staff to prevent intrusion by hunters from the road, and a reception centre for visitors who have booked in advance to stay at Agathis camp or the MBSC, or to enter the basin itself.

These visitors will proceed either in their own cars or, after parking them, by means of onward 4WD transport. If the former, then the old logging roads they will use will require careful maintenance and therefore a significant budget allocation which would need to be recovered from vehicle entry fees. If the latter, personal entry fees should be understood to cover the cost of transport, including the cost of repairing damage to the road surface caused by the journey, as well as the cost of providing security for parked vehicles. Given the possibility of seeing elephants, tembadau and other animals on the way, transport to Agathis camp or the Studies Centre could be presented as a ‘game spotting’ experience as well as a means of access. This option, which was endorsed by participants at the Ecotourism Workshop of the 26-27 February 2002, would also reduce the chance of collision between wildlife and speeding vehicles, as all drivers would be familiar with the roads.

Two other tourism zones have been proposed, at Tibow a few km west of the security gate complex, and at Kg Inarad on the Sg Pinangah to the north of the MBCA. The former is intended to meet the needs of a resettlement township that may be created by the state government in the near future, and the latter to provide for the possible involvement of local people in offering visitors homestays and guided access to Lake Linumunsut. These are preliminary proposals at present, the viability and implications of which would need to be assessed during the preparation of a buffer zone management plan.

4.4 TACTICAL PROTECTION

4.4.1 Boundaries, bases and patrols

The MBCA is surrounded by lands managed by Yayasan Sabah and other FMU- holding companies. These all have a strong incentive to maintain tight security in order to resist illegal logging. This external security presence relieves MBCA managers of the sole responsibility of preventing intrusion, although FMU guards tend to be more interested in detecting mechanized logging and timber extraction than, for example, wildlife or gaharu poaching. Nevertheless their presence is helpful, and means that the protection staff of the MBCA can concentrate on gaps in the security system, and the interception and deterrence of particular kinds of intruders. Only a small increment in Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 62

protection staff numbers is proposed here, therefore, along with some fine tuning of capacity and management.

The MBCA incorporates Lake Linumunsut and the outer slopes of the mountains that surround the Basin to the north-east, north and north-west, where there are no easily- followed topographic features to follow. If they are to be demarcated on the ground, therefore, a rentis will have to be cut and durable markers placed along it. The chief immediate risk in these areas, however, comes from logging activities in the buffer zone which, if they are continued despite recent policy change noted in Section 4.3.1, may enter the MBCA by accident. In this case, contractors should therefore be accompanied at all times by MBCA staff who will use digital maps and GPS units to determine position and ensure that logging is kept well away from the boundary.

The edge of the basin in these areas is a serious obstacle to illegal entry by hunters, but logging roads in the buffer zone will make the whole outer slope more accessible, so a boundary rentis will be needed. A permanent enforcement base will be required in the Sg Pinangah area, and could be established in parallel with the development of tourist access from Kg Inarad to the environs of Lake Linumunsut. Lowland forest in this area is extremely species rich and, along with the lowland forests of the Sg Kuamut and Sg Maliau valleys, should be among the highest priorities for protection of all the MBCA’s ecosystems.

Higher priority for demarcation in the short term should go to the western and south- western boundary, since here logging has reached the basin and the edge of the MBCA itself, while the terrain is generally less severe with several easy routes of access being available. Top priority should be to identify all these routes, clear and mark the boundary across them, and watch them thereafter to deter, detect or intercept illegal entrants. The boundary rentis would then be used to provide access to specific patrol areas where knowledge of the terrain and the location of water supplies would increase the likelihood of encountering poachers.

The main permanent office and base of all MBCA staff will be at the MBSC, where facilities will be constructed and staff redeployed from Luasong and Tawau during 2002, in advance of the opening of the MBSC in 2003. This proposed south-eastern location is remote from the logging road system to the west, and enforcement patrols in the latter area will require a permanent base there. This will also allow much more continuous surveillance against forest fires in the vulnerable western buffer zone, while providing facilities, including at least one dedicated vehicle, to support work on the rehabilitation of logged forests aiming to restore their fire-resistant properties. Intruders are also known to enter from the Sg Kuamut to the east, however, and a security post will be needed in that area as well.

Another likely source of illegal entrants is the Tawau-Keningau road, from where hunting parties already enter at least the southern buffer zone forests. An enforcement presence will be required at the security gate complex, therefore, which should have a dedicated vehicle with which to patrol the main road and old logging roads accessible from it. The Tembadau valley closer to the MBCA proper, and the southern Maliau Basin, is perceived as a relatively low security risk because of the tourism and management activity occurring there.

There is no substitute for patrolling on the ground as a way to establish a presence and deter intruders in and immediately around the MBCA. Regular aerial surveillance will also have an important role to play, however, especially as a way to detect and monitor Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 63

logging and land clearances in and around the buffer zone. This will be supplemented by obtaining and interpreting satellite imagery of the general landscape in which the MBCA is set.

Public knowledge of the existence and precise location of the MBCA should be promoted by distributing maps and boundary descriptions, with a summary of applicable conservation rules in appropriate languages, to all communities, logging camps, government offices and other centres in the general area, including within the Nunukan Regency of East Kalimantan. The latter will require transfrontier liaison with the Regency authorities, and may be best achieved through the involvement of conservation NGOs, such as WWF, which are active on both sides of the border.

4.4.2 Management zones

The overall management aim for all parts of the MBCA is that it is set aside for protecting and studying biodiversity, for monitoring the environment and for limited, low-impact use by visitors. Zones represent management priorities in different places, and are established with the aim of separating different kinds of activities that may conflict with one another. The following proposed system, which would need to be confirmed by the MBCA Management Committee, responds to the existing distribution of access routes and accommodation, and preserves flexibility for managers to respond to future events and new information (Annex 2, Figure 9). · Wilderness Zones. These would be the default classification for all parts of the MBCA unless otherwise determined. Visitor access would be by special permission only (e.g. in the context of an authorized scientific expedition), but wilderness zones may be patrolled freely by protection staff. · Research Zones. These would provide exclusive space for scientific studies that may be disrupted by other visitors, safeguard the integrity of environmental monitoring sites, or limit public access to ecologically-sensitive areas. Routine access would be restricted to those undertaking approved research, and protection staff should enter only after liaising with the scientists concerned. Research zones would include lowland forest along the west bank of the Sg Kuamut downstream of Kuala Maliau, and along the base of the southern basin rim, and other areas as needed. The vicinity of Rafflesia camp and the trail up Strike Ridge should also be treated as research zones. The north bank of Sg Maliau across from the Studies Centre, from Kuala Maliau upstream to the interior of the basin, is a particularly sensitive area for long-term biodiversity conservation (see Section 8.3), which should be classified either as a Research Zone or a Strict Protection Zone. · Strict Protection Zones. These would protect particular components of biodiversity, such as critical areas for flagship or keystone species, point endemics, key habitat resources, or vital links between areas of particular ecosystem type. No access should be permitted to strict protection zones other than on an authorized, need-to-enter basis. · Heritage Zones. These would set aside substantial areas where no access at all should be permitted, pending management decisions by future generations (e.g. no sooner than 2050). One heritage zone should include about 10,000 ha north and east of Sg Maliau. This would provide an opportunity for fund-raising that would not otherwise be available (see Section 10.6). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 64

· Recuperation Zones. These would set aside areas that have previously been disturbed by people, so that they can undergo natural processes of recovery. Such areas currently exist in the western and north-western edge of the MBCA, where logging has affected some 2,056 ha (Prins, 2002), but the classification could be extended to any logged areas of the buffer zone that are later incorporated within the MBCA. Assisted recovery or deliberate ecological rehabilitation would be permitted in recuperation zones, where this is scientifically justified or needed to promote resistance to fire. · Education Zones. These would provide space for use by visitors and resident naturalists, in which will be located nature trails, observation points, tree towers and demonstration activities such as non-lethal light-trapping for insects and non- lethal mist-netting for birds and bats. Education zones would include areas within 1 km of Camel Trophy, Bambangan and Ginseng camps, within 100 metres of a helipad, and within 50 metres of a main trail or a nature trail. · Infrastructure Zones. These would provide dedicated space for infrastructure such as field protection camps, radio towers, visitor camps, trails, helipads, and areas needed for maintenance purposes. Infrastructure zones coincide with the physical space occupied by the installations concerned, so they generally lie within other zones such as education and research zones.

4.4.3 Personnel and equipment

The current 36 MBCA staff are organized in five 6-8-person teams with special responsibility for administration, maintenance, fauna/security, botany/education, and geohydrology/recreation. Six of these people are permanent staff, five are on contract and 25 are casual workers (Suhaimi, 2002). They belong to a sub-unit of the Conservation and Environmental Services Section of the Innoprise Corporation. It would be desirable to raise the administrative status of the MBCA in order to send a clear signal of the importance with which it is regarded by corporate management and the state government. The protection team especially will need to be strengt hened to 12-15 members, in order to provide minimum levels of security through patrols along the southern road and the eastern river, and a presence in the western logged forests and the northern Sg Pinangah villages.

The Sabah Wildlife Department plans to appoint 90 individuals in the state as Honorary Wildlife Rangers, including some MBCA staff. This will provide them with useful additional enforcement powers under the Wildlife Conservation Enactment of 1997, although their precise authority, expected duties, line management accountability and additional training and equipment needs are not yet clear. Training is expected to be provided by the Sabah Wildlife Department once the appointments are authorized.

Equipment needs that have so far been identified for the enforcement staff in particular include dedicated 4WD vehicles, global positioning system (GPS) units, sets of field gear, footwear and uniforms, camping gear, VHF radio hand sets and base sets. There is VHF radio coverage which links the gate complex on the Tawau-Keningau road to Belian and Agathis Camps, and which extends over much of the Maliau Basin (Greer, 2002a). Voice communications within the MBCA and buffer zone thus appear adequate for most purposes, although one or more additional repeater stations may be needed to complete coverage. The nearest reliable digital communication access is in Tawau, however, and this will soon become an important constraint on developing and managing the MBCA, which will need to have on-site access to Internet, e-mail, fax and Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 65

phone facilities. This may best be resolved by establishing a C-band (4 GHz) satellite communications system (see Annex 4).

4.4.4 Fighting forest fires

Forest fires are considered to be a serious threat to the MBCA, and a range of measures are needed to reduce the likelihood that they will approach and enter the area, including the preparation of a fire management plan to guide the necessary strategic investment. To complement these, a tactical capacity must be established to detect and suppress small fires before they become large ones, and to block the progress of large fires in emergencies.

Detection of fires would be by means of observation towers, which must be situated to provide overlapping coverage of the whole logged buffer zone, continuously staffed round the clock during times of enhanced fire risk, and equipped with radios. Risk periods would be identified by an absence of rainfall over a certain number of days, with particularly windy and sunny weather being additional risk factors. This could in principle be automated by re-programming the three weather stations in and around the MBCA. The timing of seasonal burning by shifting cultivators should also be taken into account. Sources of up-to-date satellite images showing fire hot-spots in Borneo should also be identified and subscribed to (www.macres.org). Fire risk assessment methods are currently being examined by the Sabah Forestry Department, supported by a consulting team from Natural Resources Canada.

Suppression of fires would invol ve staff and local people being deployed immediately to the site of the fire. They would need to have received training in fire-fighting techniques, and to be properly equipped. The capacity to transport and equip at least every staff member to any location in the buffer zone on very short notice must be assured, and maintained round the clock during risk periods.

4.4.5 Interdicting logging roads

Old logging roads in the buffer zone will need to be assessed and decisions made on which ones to decommissi on so as to limit potential access by intruders, and which to maintain so as to promote access for management staff, re-planting teams and fire- fighting teams. Those that are maintained would need to be blocked by permanently- staffed security gates at strategic points. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 66

Chapter 5: ENHANCING MANAGEMENT CAPACITY

5.1 OVERVIEW

Policy directions. The MBCA is a key resource for the sustainable development of Sabah’s and Malaysia’s economy. To fulfill this role, investment will aim to build adaptive managerial systems that are able both to overcome challenges and to use opportunities creatively and effectively. These systems should bring smoothly together key elements of operational planning, budgetary accountability, clear line authority, performance monitoring, staff incentives and knowledge management arrangements. Institutional change, decentralization, staff training and other measures will be employed as needed to ensure that this capacity is developed and maintained.

The 36 staff working on MBCA management in the field are well led and have considerable capacity to implement basic aspects of the Strategic Plan, although training and organizational improvement will be needed to adapt staff capacity to new challenges over time. The managerial system as a whole shows shortcomings in the areas of: (a) staff incentives and opportunities for career development, (b) an over- reliance on the knowledge and skills of a small number of individuals who are potentially transferable to other duties, and (c) an insufficiency of key personnel at headquarters with consequent over-burdening of the central executive leadership. Also identified is a need for a more sophisticated capacity to manage large amounts of digital information related to management and research, which will require a specific, detailed planning exercise and targetted investment to achieve.

5.2 LEADERSHIP AND DECENTRALIZATION

The effective management to modern standards of a large, complex enterprise such as the MBCA is a challenging task, especially in its establishment and development phase which will occupy at least the next five years. Executive leadership and technical support for both the Maliau Basin and the Danum Valley conservation areas are provided by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section of the Innoprise Corporation. The head of this is also the Secretary of both the Maliau Basin and the Danum Valley conservation area management committees. The same individual also has several other necessary roles within the forest management establishment of Sabah and the bureaucracy of the Yayasan Sabah family. This arrangement places stress on the leadership system, which should be relieved by: · appointing two full-time deputies to the head of section, with respective responsibility for overseeing the management of the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley conservation areas; and · strengthening, deepening and broadening management capacity at the field level for both conservation areas, and delegating appropriate responsibilities and decision-making powers to them.

The first measure would allow the new deputy heads to take charge, as line managers of the entire staff of each conservation area, of all decision-making that requires central authority. They would also have the important role of representing the interests and perspectives of field staff at the headquarters of the institution, thus freeing the field managers to concentrate on implementing field activities that are typically complex, time -consuming and require intimate and continual interaction with conditions on the ground and with local people and institutions. It would also allow the head of section to Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 67

concentrate on strategic oversight and policy development in relation to the conservation areas, and to fulfill other functions wi thin the institution that are required to embed conservation consistently within the full range of its operations. The head of section and both deputies, plus their support staff, would then comprise a joint secretariat for both conservation area manageme nt committees, thus ensuring a consistent strategic and executive environment for the development of the conservation areas in a coordinated and complementary way.

The second, decentralizing, measure, while also streamlining decision making, would relieve the fundamental challenge of over-reliance on a few skilled individuals. This is risky because they might at any time be lost to the management system, for example by being promoted from the MBCA to a regional forestry programme, and replaced by a less-experienced person in a key conservation role. The solution is to ensure adequate transfer of knowledge and skills to a wider range of employees, so that no one of them becomes indispensable in any position.

Annual workplans and budgets, for example, are currently prepared not by the field teams responsible for the various aspects of its management, but by the officer in charge, who agrees them directly with headquarters and informs subordinate staff accordingly. This arrangement does not encourage development of planning skills at the team level, and discourages staff buy-in and commitment to implementation. No matter how good the officer in charge may be, it also separates planning decisions from the people closest to the situation on the ground, with a consequent loss of adaptation capacity. Greater devolution of planning and budgetting responsibilities would yield a cadre of skilled team leaders, all of whom would be able to take over a more senior job at any time. It is understood that a system more like this is anticipated to be established following the move of field staff from Luasong to a base close to the MBCA during 2002.

5.3 STAFF INCENTIVES

Staff incentives are at present of an informal nature, as there are limited official opportunities to pay bonuses or award extra leave or other benefits. The strategic challenge is that conservation area staff cannot be treated differently to those in other branches of the Forestry Division of Innoprise, which has a payroll of thousands. Innoprise is reluctant to set precedents for extra costs in the area of conservation which would then have to be applied more widely. Potential solutions include: · designing a staff performance system that is cost-neutral overall (e.g. paying awards only out of cost savings elsewhere); · designing a system that can only respond to good performance in conservation (e.g. wildlife protection awards); or else · formally separating the conservation and forestry branches of Innoprise.

The last is hardly a minimal change, but if contemplated it should involve consolidating conservation, education, research, environmental monitoring and sustainable financing within a separate institutional arrangement covering both the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley conservat ion areas. This would make a lot of sense in terms of an holistic approach to conservation, but it would require policy decisions at the highest level. A main reason to consider it would be that the long-term earning potential of such a new division may be significantly larger than that of traditional forestry, which would justify exceptional efforts to maximize the capture of available benefits. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 68

Such a change would also make possible a new approach to career development for conservation staff. This is presently constrained by the lack both of a multi-levelled staffing structure and of opportunities for the acquisition of new skills, which would allow for promotion and re-deployment to new but related or complementary tasks. Institutional consolidation of all aspects of conservation would allow individuals both to specialize and to diversify, in the context of career paths dedicated to the management of conservation areas and the development of derived businesses (see Chapter 10).

5.4 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1) specifies a significant emphasis on human resource development and training as one of four priority programmes. Proposed courses fall into the following six categories, details of which are given in Annex 1: · Basic capacity-building courses: o Orientation o Team Building o English language o Interpersonal communication skills o Report and proposal writing o Management and organizational skills o Clerical and accounting skills. o Computer skills · Field capacity courses: o Search, rescue & first aid skills o Mapping, orienteering & survey skills o Advanced patient management skills o Fighting forest fires · Visitor management and education: o Interpretation and Guiding o Hospitality skills for field and rest house o Environmental education and outreach · Technical courses: o Faunal inventory & survey techniques o Floral inventory & survey techniques o Techniques of phenology o Tree Identification o Herbarium & curation techniques o Data Management o Library Management · Safety and maintenance courses: o Risk assessment o Use of equipment o Maintaining trails, buildings and signs o Store inventory maintenance o Safety in fire emergencies o Vehicle maintenance · Specialized courses: o Photography Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 69

o Swimming o Nursery skills o Gardening & landscaping o Tree climbing o Fire fighting leadership o Study tours o Honorary Wildlife Warden

5.5 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

The MBCA will generate immense amounts of information over time, especially in the processes of managing staff, money, equipment and facilities, so a management information system (MIS) will be needed, along with appropriate data collection and entry procedures. A well -designed, fully-computerized MIS would be able to provide instant access to an overview of personnel, work plans, budgets, income, expenditure, visitor patterns and maintenance records, as well as policies and management decisions, all integrated with a geographical information system and various distance learning and referencing systems with appropriate search tools. The MIS would be located within equipment at Innoprise headquarters, but networked with the Studies Centre once digital telecommunications are established (see Annex 4).

Research activities will also generate large amounts of information, and a biodiversity database system (BDS) will be needed to maintain records of all taxonomic, ecological, behavioural and other studies of the biota of the MBCA and its buffer zone, to meet the needs of research scientists, tourists, taxonomists, educators, reserve managers, legislators, politicians, and resource planners. A separate, private-access system will be needed to support bioprospecting (see Chapter 7), but the main, public- access system will be particularly useful in ecotourism development, knowledge merchandizing and fund raising (see Chapter 10), by capturing and making available an increasing knowledge resource on the MBCA’s biota. The core library of books proposed to be kept at satellite camps (see Chapter 6) could be supplemented by digitized versions of published or locally-produced field guides, to be kept in the main database. By arrangement with the copyright owners, up-to-date versions of these could be copied onto palm-top computers and rented to visitors for use in the field, as well as being used by staff.

These proposals are not yet implementable, and if they are to become so a detailed design study would be needed for the MIS and BDS, leading to the creation of the necessary systems and training of operators. It is expected that the investments required would be more than offset by enhanced operational efficiencies and greater income streams resulting from them.

Annex 4 describes a C-band (4 GHz) satellite telecommunications system designed around a ‘building block’ approach, starting with a single ‘Very Small Aperture Terminal’ (VSAT) connected to a US-based Teleport. This will provide effective voice and digital telephone, telefax, e-mail and Internet services from the Studies Centre to all other points, regardless of the local rainfall which reduces the effectiveness of ordinary Ku - band (11 GHz) satellite phones in rain forest locations.

This will in turn greatly facilitate many aspects of MBCA management, coordination with the Innoprise headquarters, and booking arrangements for visitors. This same system, however, will simultaneously create a number of other opportunities by providing (or being easily upgraded to provide) the capacity to transmit educational Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 70

web-casts and satellite TV broadcasts direct from the field, and to manage highly secure transactions (such as those involved in biodiversity futures trading) and transmissions of bioprospecting data that are immune to interception and biopiracy. This communications system, then, will have a broad impact in support of the whole sustainable financing strategy (see Chapter 10), as well as greatly strengthening management capacity.

5.6 STAFF JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Officer-in-Charge (Manager). Line manager of all field staff and reports to head of the Conservation and Environmental Services Section (through the proposed deputy director for the MBCA) at HQ. Agrees monthly, quarterly and annual wor kplans and budgets with team heads and advises HQ accordingly (via MIS once this is installed). Queries team heads on deviations from activity schedules and expenditure forecasts by line item, and adjusts schedules and budgets, or administers sanctions, accordingly, while keeping HQ informed (via MIS). Identifies individuals who perform exceptionally well and recommends incentives for central disbursement (wages or leave entitlements, special awards). Prepares annual reports and up-dates MIS content accordingly. Undertakes such other duties as the service requires.

Head of Protection Team (Forest Officer/Senior Forest Ranger). Deputy Officer-in- Charge. Proposes monthly, quarterly and annual workplans and budgets, and submits accounts and reports, to Officer-in-Charge. Responsible for organizing security patrols and supervisory or monitoring work in all regions of the MBCA and buffer zone, and for coordinating enforcement action as appropriate, liaising with other institutions (e.g. Police, Sabah Wildlife Department) as necessary. Receives recommendations for strict protection and other zones (see Section 4.3.2), and if these are agreed with the Officer-in-Charge and HQ, ensures they are captured in appropriate GIS layers and reflected in patrol and other procedures. Coordinates all activities to prevent forest fires during fire hazard periods, and assumes overall command of efforts to suppress fires during fire emergencies. Undertakes such other duties as the service requires.

Head of Education/Visitor Management Team (Forest Officer/Senior Forest Ranger). Leads staff whose duties involve interacting with visitors defined as legitimate by HQ, the Officer-in-Charge or the deputy Officer-in-Charge. Proposes monthly, quarterly and annual workplans and budgets, and submits accounts and reports, to Officer-in-Charge. Responsible for liaison with communities and other institutions, for proposing content of educational materials to HQ and for field testing resulting proofs before their final release by the production unit, for the accuracy of nature trail and display information, and for all bookings of accommodation, guiding and portering services in the MBCA. Undertakes such other duties as the service requires.

Head of Maintenance Team (Forest Officer/Senior Forest Ranger). Proposes monthly, quarterly and annual workplans and budgets, and submits accounts and reports, to Officer-in-Charge. Responsible for supervising the initial construction and thereafter for maintaining all satellite camps, field camps, main camps, trails, trail hardening and easing works, helipads, shelters, fire towers, signs including nature trail signage, equipment including vehicles, and associated items of infrastructure and services, and for all aspects of waste management in the MBCA. Undertakes such other duties as the service requires.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 71

Head of Administration Team (Forest Officer/Senior Forest Ranger). Proposes monthly, quarterly and annual workplans and budgets, and submits accounts and reports, to Officer-in-Charge. Responsible for maintaining records within the MIS concerning personnel (names, identities, addresses, next of kin, education, training, employment records, salary level, sanctions and awards earned, etc.), the procurement of all goods and services, the operational, depreciation and maintenance status of all buildings, equipment and other fixed assets, the progress of all enforcement activities (prosecutions, etc). Undertakes such other duties as the service requires.

Head of Environmental Monitoring Team (Forest Officer/Senior Forest Ranger). Proposes monthly, quarterly and annual workplans and budgets, and submits accounts and reports, to Officer-in-Charge. Responsible for collecting and collating data on environmental monitoring (hydrology, weather, phenology, etc.), for detecting droughts and issuing fire hazard warnings, for maintaining field library collections and scientific and tree climbing equipment, for maintaining field logs of all wildlife observations, for maintaining identity number and authorization records of all biological samples leaving the MBCA. Undertakes such other duties as the service requires.

In addition to these key positions, it would be highly desirable to appoint a Scientific Coordinator/Manager with similar seniority to the Officer-in-Charge. Ideally, this position should be wholly or partly funded through an external agency, either academic or, in the context of a bioprospecting partnership (see Section 7.3), commercial. This is because dealing with the diverse and sometimes conflicting requirements of scientists can be very demanding and can really only be undertaken by a person with a solid grounding in research. This will be particularly true at Maliau where, as emphasized in Secti on 8.2, there are several areas of extreme conservation value, particularly the lowland forest ‘corridor’ close to the Studies Centre, where zoning and management of research activity will be of critical importance (Reynolds, 2002). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 72

Chapter 6: EDUCATI ON, TOURISM AND PUBLIC AWARENESS

6.1 OVERVIEW

Policy directions. The ecosystems of the MBCA are knowledge resources that can be used to generate various kinds of sustainable benefit flows to Sabah, Malaysia and the world. Pr ocesses of education, tourism and public awareness are viewed as fundamentally connected and will be fully integrated with one another. In this approach, education will be used to help create new generations sensitized to the wonders of nature while harvesting revenues from those able to pay for learning experiences; tourism will be used to harvest revenues from visitors eager to learn about rain forest ecosystems; and public awareness will be promoted by systematic marketing and outreach, using materials in all media developed using rain forest knowledge resources, some of them distributed for free and some at a profit. These three themes strongly reinforce one another, and will be developed toget her. In all cases, strong preference will be given to activities that involve minimal risk to the MBCA while yielding maximum benefits – including financial benefits – for conservation.

Managing the MBCA is one thing, but managing information about it is quite another. The latter can be used as feedback from management decisions, which is one of the key aspects of managerial monitoring, or it can support marketing in either a commercial or a non-commercial sense. Issues related to the use of information about the MBCA are seen most clearly in the field of education, tourism and public awareness. The process of generating such information is discussed further in Chapter 7 (on research) and Chapter 10 (on sustainable financing).

It has often been said that tropical rain forests are like immense libraries of unread books. Conservationists may add that tropical deforestation is like those libraries being burned down before even a catalogue is made of what they contain. These ideas highlight the nature of the MBCA’s ecosystems as information resources, which can yield a limitless flow of knowledge, and even perhaps wisdom, through the work of scientists and the experience of visitors, whether those visitors actually enter the forest or are touched by it in other ways.

6.2 EDUCATION

The Danum Valley Field Centre (DVFC) has a very well-developed environmental education programme targetting especially younger children, and its resources are fully-booked throughout all school holidays and often at other times as well. An even larger environmental education facility is being built there currently, with sponsorship from the Shell oil company. It is not intended that Maliau compete with Danum for the same market, not least because this is a loss-making area in financial terms and Maliau has other priorities in the immediate future. In due course, however, once the whole system is working sustainably, the Maliau Basin Studies Centre should become an educational resource servicing the schools of western Sabah in the same way that Danum Valley Field Centre will service primarily those of eastern Sabah. This will be greatly facilitated by the existence of good road access, which in a few years will put the MBCA within a six-hour drive of almost anywhere in western Sabah.

In this process, priority will be given to jointly developing, with Danum, a programme to put every teacher in Sabah through a rain forest environmental education course. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 73

This will remove a strategic block to the use of these educational facilities, which is that most teachers themselves have little idea how to use the rain forest as an educational resource. A teachers’ resource pack is being prepared by the project’s environmental educati on team (Yorath, 2001, 2002), and will be an important tool in this enterprise.

Beyond this, the strategy for tourism development described below is fundamentally oriented to the education of all visitors. It includes incentives for use of the MBCA by students at all levels, but the exclusion of younger children from the basin proper means that junior educational activities will be focussed on facilities outside the basin itself, such as at the Studies Centre and security gate complex.

6.3 TOURISM

6.3.1 Rationale, constraints and carrying capacity

Recreational use of the MBCA can, in principle, yield conservation benefits in the following ways: · by building a support network of Sabahan, other Malaysian and international clients with an interest in the long-term future of the MBCA, and who may rally to its defence in future times of trouble; · by promoting awareness of the MBCA through media exposure and word of mouth, so as to increase support and visitation and marketing potential; · by generating revenues that can be used to underwrite the management costs of the MBCA; and · by occupying and protecting space within the MBCA that might otherwise be taken over by illegal entrants, including loggers and poachers.

Visitors impose costs on ecosystems, however, including at least the impacts of footprints and sewage, or the engineering works needed to mitigate them, as well as pressures on management systems to guide and supervise visitors and remove their wastes. Careful planning and management of visitation can reduce but can never completely eliminate these costs. Because of the Maliau Basin’s inherent fragility, the Management Committee has a longstanding policy of ‘capping’ the number of visitors at 15 people within the basin at any one time. Even this number imposes a considerable burden on existing camps, toilets, trails, etc.

Consistent with the MBCA Forest Rules of 1998, the Management Committee has also ruled out development of ‘mass tourism’ in the basin, and this conclusion was endorsed by the tourism and management planning workshops. On the other hand, because of the need for the conservation benefits listed above, there is a general feeling that the MBCA should not be totally sealed off from the public. The question, therefore, is whether and how any further development of visitor access can be made in an acceptable manner?

This is the issue of carrying capacity, a term taken into the tourism sector from ecology, where it means the maximum biomass of a particular species that a given set of ecological conditions can sustain. In tourism usage, it means the maximum visitation rate that can be sustained by a given location without damage to the values that attract visitors to it. Since values are not objective factors, it is not possible to determine a carrying capacity in an absolute sense. In this case, all the resources both Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 74

tangible and intangible described in Chapter 2 are the values concerned – ranging from the sense of wilderness to the preservation of biodiversity in general and individual species in particular. Protecting such a variety of public goods requires a cautious approach to visitation – which would be reflected both in limiting absolute numbers to a low level, and in attention paid to mitigating their inevitable environmental impacts.

The distribution of public goods in and around the MBCA is not uniform, however, and it is necessary to distinguish between tourism inside the basin and outside it, in the outer MBCA and especially in the buffer zone. The buffer zone presents the least problem, and considerable tourism development is possible around the security gate complex, with access to the VJR and the southern Tembadau Valley. The issue of how revenues from this would be captured by the MBCA would need to be addressed in the context of the proposed buffer zone management plan (see Chapter 4), and business plan (see Chapter 10). Options would include: · public-sector investme nt, ownership and management of facilities; · public-sector investment and ownership with private-sector management of facilities; · private-sector investment, ownership and management of facilities; and · various forms of public-private partnership.

Tourism within the basin is a difficult issue. Here there are already three camps which are capable of accommodating small parties of visitors, these being Camel Trophy, Bambangan and Ginseng. If these were suitably upgraded or replaced, and the trails between them hardened and eased (see Chapter 8), a capacity to absorb up to 24-30 visitors at any one time would be created, based on parties of 8-10 at each camp. It is recommended that the Management Committee consider adopting a new ceiling at this level for overnight tourism access within the Maliau Basin (but see also Section 6.3.2). Most of this section considers the investments needed to achieve such a capacity and to use it most effectively, with the least possible environmental impact and maximum sustainable conservation benefit. For the sake of discussion, a 24-person limit is assumed for overnight visitation within the Maliau Basin.

Within the basin there is also Rafflesia camp, which could be upgraded into a scientific base camp, an established trail up Strike Ridge to the northern rim which could be eased and hardened for use by scientists and others, and a number of helipads. The personnel of carefully planned and authorized scientific expeditions, resident scientists, and MBCA staff might all reasonably be considered to be over and above the 24- person visitor limit. People making recreational ‘treks’ up Strike Ridge or visits to the Maliau Falls via Camel Trophy, Bambangan or Ginseng camps, however, should be included within that limit. Apart from further impact on the wilderness character of the area, there is no obvious reason why the existing helipads should not be used for ‘helicopter tourists’, if any wish to pay for an aerial tour. These would only be included in the 24-person limit if they stayed overnight.

The above applies to existing facilities, or those that can be upgraded or re-engineered to make them more suitable and less impactful on the environment, but the Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1) envisions the establishment of certain new facilities as well. As a general principle, however, no new facilities or trails should be made without detailed consideration of their impacts, consistency with the MBCA Forest Rules of 1998, and approval by the MBCA Management Committee. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 75

6.3.2 Public access to Maliau Falls

An issue that will need to be considered early on by the MBCA Management Committee relates to the provision of public access to Maliau Falls. This would inevitably violate the wilderness character of the interior of the basin, but should nevertheless be considered for several reasons. First, the falls are spectacular and deserve to be admired by the public as part of their landscape heritage. Second, by visiting them, members of the public are more likely to become admirers and supporters of the MBCA as a whole. Third, public visitation provides an opportunity for public education. Fourth, it provides an opportunity to raise funds. Finally, an access route safe and easy enough for the general public would also be available to transport scientists and their supplies and equipment into the interior of the basin, especially onwards to nearby Rafflesia camp which is envisioned to become an important forward base for scientific research. These factors naturally become more pressing as a result of the decision to build the MBSC at the mouth of Maliau Gorge.

Several challenges need to be overcome if access is to be provided, all of them connected to the fact that the terrain between the MBSC and Maliau Falls is extremely severe. An important constraint is that, as long as a low ceiling on the number of overnight visitors is maintained by the MBCA Management Committee, a public access route to the falls would only be acceptable if it were to allow a return visit in less than a day, and therefore no increase in overnight accommodation within the basin. The following two options were considered by which to provide access without also having to make arrangements for additional overnight accommodation: · A well-engineered, flat contour path over about 6 km of the western edge of the Maliau Gorge from near its mouth, perhaps incorporating a narrow-gauge railway. This option could do great harm if done badly, but might be considered one day if sufficient funds are available to do the job well. · A cable car over the basin rim, built by helicopter insertion of the main gear using low-impact techniques developed in Australia13. This option would probably be less impactful but more expensive, and it seems unlikely that visitor numbers would ever be high enough to allow adequate return on such an investment.

In the light of difficulties with these options, another was considered that would require the Management Committee to modify its stance on overnight visitation. Subject to that approval, however, it would be feasible to build a trail from MBSC over the basin rim to the west of the gorge, and thence via a suspension bridge over a major tributary of the Sg Maliau directly to the falls. This would be a hard journey but, with good design and trail easing, a feasible one for most healthy people. It would, however, require day shelters along the way, and also a camp near the falls, with all the challenges of waste management that would inevitably result. Pending review of this proposal by the Management Committee, the trail, suspension bridge, day shelters and camp are all included within the proposed Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1).

13 An example being the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway near Cairns, Queensland (www.skyrail.com.au). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 76

6.3.3 Attributes of the MBCA that may attract visitors

Some in the tourism industry argue that tourism demand should dictate visitor access, and that large numbers of tourists will inevitably be visiting the MBCA in the near future (Hansen, 2002). Given the area’s primary purposes of conservation, education and research, however, more reasonable would be an approach in which all informed stakeholders adopt a risk-averse and innovative approach to balancing protection and development. This in turn requires careful analysis of how such limited tourism access as is permi tted within the basin can best contribute to the capture of benefit flows.

A starting point is to consider the particular attributes of the resource, what kind of people might most appreciate those particular features, and how the experience of visiting the basin might most effectively attract and reward those people in sufficient numbers to utilize the access space available (i.e. a ceiling assumed to be 24 people x 365 nights = 8,760 person-nights per year). Hansen (2002) has emphasized that Sabah as a whole will attract increasingly large numbers of tourists because of its abundant natural and cultural attraction. This actually strengthens the case for greater selectivity in choosing the target market for visitors to the MBCA. Given limited access and a large and growing pool of potential visitors, careful management should result in a preserved environmental resource, steadily increasing prices per person-night, growing waiting lists for access bookings, and a predictable cash income to support forward planning.

The MBCA contains several distinct forest types native to the Bornean interior, all in a high state of preservation, and transforming into one another with variations in elevation, soils, slope and drainage. Each forest type contains an unknown but very large number of lineages, species and higher taxa, diverse structures and growth- forms, and many different evolutionary-ecological relationships. The MBCA as a whole therefore contains an immense amount of biological information. Meanwhile, the Maliau Basin itself is a spectacular land-form, uninhabited and little affected by people. There are very few comparable areas remaining in Borneo, and a biodiverse wilderness like this, in a world fast running out of such places, cannot help but be of profound interest to many people, some of whom will wish to visit it. This visitation potential creates both opportunities and challenges for the managers of the area.

The unique selling points of the MBCA’s ecosystems are their information richness and uniqueness. While some aspects of this diversity are obvious and easily experienced, virtually all of the detail is stored in a bewildering mass of subtle variation, which requires interpretation to appreciate. Hence for many potential visitors, the greatest asset of a rain forest like this is its capacity to provide intellectual stimulation, and prolonged, on-site contact time with a knowledgeable interpretation service is perhaps the only way to provide it to visitors. As the Sabah Tourism Masterplan explains, “visitor interpretation in rainforest is particularly important, especially as many nature tourists are used to seeing large mammals and rich fauna of Africa or India. Skilled guiding by trained naturalists can succeed ni bringing the rainforest alive for visitors” (IDS & TRC, 1996:412).

It is therefore suggested that the most appropriate mission of tourism management within the MBCA is to sell intellectual stimulation through on-site interpretation. This would be supplemented by providing for people to visit the spectacular scenery of the basin interior, if ways can be found to do so that do not conflict with conservation priorities. Both approaches would be complemented by educational and recreational Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 77

tourism in the buffer zone and peripheral parts of the MBCA, using especially the Visitor Reception and Information Centre (VRIC) at the security gate, and the Maliau Basin Studies Centre (MBSC) at the mouth of Maliau Gorge, both of which are now under construction.

If the core, long-term tourism strategy for the interior of the MBCA is to sell ‘intellectual stimulation through on-site interpretation’, the question arises of who is most likely to buy it at full price? One answer is educated, middle-class people, raised on nature documentaries, campaigns by environmental NGOs and environmental coverage by the media, who subscribe by their tens of millions to National Geographic, Scientific American, the Discovery Channel and the Nature Channel, and who raise their children to appreciate nature and biodiversity. Such people have an awareness of and interest in stories about ecology, animal behaviour, evolution and conservation, while also possessing the means to spend significant but carefully-budgetted amounts on nature- oriented tourism, ranging from bird-watching to SCUBA diving. Some of these are Sabahans, other Malaysians, and other Asians, and this number is steadily increasing. Most, however, are West Europeans and North Americans, the ‘baby boomers’ and their children, who are the heirs of the immense growth in quality public education and in the wealth of industrial economies since the 1950s. They have a head start, and are ripe for the appropriate marketing of a resource as interesting as the MBCA.

6.3.4 ‘Knowledge-seekers’ and facilities for them

Recognizing that categories can never be hard and fast, the target audience just described can be called ‘knowledge seekers’, to emphasize what they are really looking for. For them, it is the intellectual quality of the experience that is vital, and requires a number of features to be brought together in an organized way. First, they must be kept in one place long enough to pay attention to some of the details of it, so there must be adequate, comfortable accommodation available. Then they must be encouraged and enabled to understand some of what they are looking at, such as the leeches, the termites, the butterflies and their food plants, the drip-tips on the leaves, the bioluminescent fungi, the lianas and rattans, the signs and calls of birds and mammals, and the camouflage, pollination, seed dispersal and parasitism strategies of various life forms. Hence they need a teacher who knows enough to teach and to answer questions, and who can give them enough time.

This combination of demands could be met by resident naturalists (see below), living at the MBSC and able to visit camps in the basin with visitors for extended periods. The camps would each be surrounded by nature trails, research plots and observation points, with visitors in small groups, staying for several nights. This approach would make the basic units of tourism management in the MBCA comprise: · small parties of ‘knowledge seekers’ on six- or seven-day itineraries; · rangers to make sure the visitors reach the camps safely while inspecting and lightly maintaining the trails on the way; · optional porters to help with barang (who can also help remove trash from the basin for recycling or disposal); · well-established and in places hardened or eased trails from the outside of the basin to camps within it; Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 78

· low-impact facilities at each camp that can provide a comfortable few days for visitors and their guides, and short -term accommodation for rangers and porters; · a knowledge resource at each camp, comprising locally-produced materials and a core library of books14; and · a resident naturalist (RN) and a trainee assistant resident naturalist visiting each satellite camp for extended periods.

The camps within the MBCA thus have particular functions to perform, which means that they must be built to particular specifications, including the need for: · three to five private sleeping units; · a kitchen and food store; · a bathroom, with low-impact disposal of ‘grey’ waste water; · storage space for tools, maintenance equipment and supplies; · storage space for reading and writing materials, and scientific equipment; · a communal working and eating area; · an off-ground, preferably two-storey construction; · a nearby site with shelter and hammock poles, to provide overflow accommodation for rangers, guides, porters and maintenance staff; · a nearby helipad for emergency evacuations 15; · gravity-fed water supply; · low-impact toilet facilities (see below); and · VHF radio and solar power.

Additional investment will be required in ‘hardened’ and ‘eased’ trails to provide access to the camps, including those: · from Agathis over the basin rim to the southern plateau, thence in one direction to Camel Trophy and in the other to Bambangan via an existing helipad with a spectacular view of the whole basin, and from Bambangan by stair to Maliau Falls; and · from Agathis over the basin rim to Ginseng, and onward to Bambangan.

Because the emphasis of this whole approach is on teaching and learning about ecology, rather than being solely focussed on the appreciation of totally unspoilt wilderness or the experience of luxury, there are two important advantages for MBCA managers:

14 Such as: Burkill (1966); Wilson (1980); Thapa (1981); Whitmore (1984, 1990); Payne et al. (1985); Mackinnon & Phillipps (1993); Hölldobler & Wilson (1994); MacKinnon et al. (1994); Smythies (1999). 15 All visitors should have insurance covering emergency evacuation by helicopter, the premiums for which should be added automatically to access fees. A group policy with this cover should also be in place for all permanent and casual staff, including porters, and for non- paying visitors who are there by invitation. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 79

· it is relatively robust to moderate environmental disturbance, since even the signs of this can be used as teaching and learning resources (e.g. the traces left by gaharu collectors, or the recovery of buffer zone forests from logging); and · it is relatively robust to moderate levels of physical discomfort, since ‘knowledge-seekers’ will be happy if they have only a dry place to relax, talk and sleep, a bit of privacy, some books to read, and decent food, perhaps with a ‘snifter’ before bed.

This particular strategy therefore imposes moderate demands on management that can realistically be met without excessive investment relative to likely income streams, both in terms of forest protection and in the provision of facilities and services.

6.3.5 Resident naturalists

In the same wa y that a successful dive resort relies on divemasters who live there and are familiar with every nook and cranny of the surrounding coral reef ecosystem, a terrestrial ecotourism facility is only as good as its in-house knowledge and interpretation skills. If the intention is to create a location to which people can go to learn, the usual way to provide for this is with resident naturalists. An alternative for use with groups who visit a number of locations on one itinerary is for them to be accompanied by skilled guides who are familiar with each area and the particular thematic interests of the group concerned. There is no reason why the camps in the Maliau Basin could not accommodate guided groups, but there are several reasons why resident naturalists would be a good idea as well. These include the higher quality of interpretation, the better maintenance of on-site teaching facilities, the continuity of a management presence at the camp, the continuity of research and environmental monitoring in the MBCA, and the opportunity to use resident naturalists as presenters in distance-learning programmes (see Chapter 10).

6.3.6 Pricing and discounting

Charges to visitors should be at moderate international levels, set neither too high (because the approach is not intended to be ‘exclusive’) nor too low (because ‘back- packers’ are not a priority target). At these levels, accommodation would be charged for at a rate of US$ 45-60 per person-night, depending on the demands that the visitor places on resident naturalist and ranger resources. A fee for entering the MBCA should also be charged, as well as a mandatory insurance premium covering helicopter evacuation (modelled on arrangements at Kinabalu Park). Targetted discounts would be used to encourage participation by Sabahans, other Malaysians and students, and to promote membership of environmental NGOs and cross-visits with other ecotourism facilities. Among them might be the following: · 100% discount on all charges for official visitors and guests of the MBCA (insurance fee to be charged to the conservation area); · 90% discount on all charges for the registered inhabitants of specified local (‘support zone’) communities; · 75% discount on all charges for members of the Sabah Nature Club and their teachers on pre-arranged educational visits; · 50% discount on the entry fee and accommodation at Agathis camp for children of 12 years or less (who should not enter the Maliau Basin itself); Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 80

· 50% discount on all charges to members of the Sabah Nature Club; · 25% discount on all charges to members of affiliated Malaysian NGOs and cooperating research institutions; · 15% discount on all charges to full-time students; · 10% discount on all charges to Friends of Maliau (see below); · 10% discount on all charges to visitors arranged by other ecotourism operations with reciprocal discount arrangements.

Discount schemes are better able to send constructive price signals (e.g. to encourage educational use and to promote environmental NGO membership), than a less flexibl e system based on higher prices for foreigners than Malaysians. They also allow MBCA managers a broader range of options in their negotiations with third parties, and the ability to adjust the different discount rates from time to time in response to changing priorities. Discount schemes will generate a variety of scenarios with a different pricing consequences, and the proportion of discounted visitors in the total population of visitors in the course of a year will have profound implications for revenue in that year. Hence managers of the MBCA will inevitably be confronted by tension between the conflicting policy aims of maximizing revenue and maximizing social utility over time.

Additional costs to the visitor, which may not be captured by the MBCA, include porterage within the basin, and road transport to Agathis camp or the Studies Centre. Standard porterage prices will need to be negotiated with local people, and porters accredited from support zone communities. Porterage fees could be based on a rate per kilogram-day, per kilogram-kilometre, or per day for a maximum pack weight, and negotiations should also address the need of the MBCA to move supplies into the basin, and trash out of it, perhaps at different rates to those for direct hire by visitors. Road transport could be provided by the MBCA on a for-profit basis, by 4WD from the security gate and by minibus from KK or Tawau once the Tawau-Keningau road has been rebuilt.

6.3.7 Friends of Maliau

One advantage of catering specifically to the ‘knowledge-seeker’ market is the opportunity to recruit visitors into an Internet-based Friends of Maliau network. Success in recruitment could be used as an important performance indicator for tourism development, since it woul d respond directly to the quality of the overall experience. A satisfied ‘knowledge seeker’ could be defined as one who wants to retain a relationship with the Maliau Basin, at least to the extent of knowing that it is safe, but also perhaps rallying to its defence if needed, or returning in a year or two to visit another study site and take another specialist course.

Visitors should therefore be encouraged to join the Friends at the end of their stay, and provided with registration and donation forms if not actually recruited on the spot. Names, addresses and e-mail contacts should in any case be obtained from all visitors, allowing reminders to be sent out along with electronic newsletters and links to the Friends of Maliau pages of the maliau.org web-site. Realistic three-year targets might include 25% of all visitors joining the Friends, and 10% of visitors either returning to Maliau or being introduced to Maliau by a Friend. Membership should confer a 10% discount on the cost of subsequent visits, and reciprocal discounts could be negotiated with other ecotourism operations elsewhere in Sabah or the world. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 81

6.4 PUBLIC AWARENESS

A recommendation of the mid-term review of the Management of Maliau Basin Conservation Area Project (Development Associates, 2001) was to prepare a long-term Public Awareness Strategy for inclusion in the management plan. This was outlined by Tvevad et al. (2002), and envisions the following steps among others (see Annex 5): · Preparation and distribution of printed materials, to include o New and up-dated fact sheets. o Updated, revised and translated (to Bahasa Malaysia) A4 information leaflet. o 36 page booklet for sale to visitors. o A1 scenic poster. o A1 educational poster. o Information binders for visitors. o “Journalistic” presentation of management plan. o Press release concerning the management plan. · Visits, talks and events, including o Treating VIP visits as ‘targets of opportunity’. o Supporting and assisting VIP visitors and associated media representatives. o Workshop with local community leaders. o Study visit to Maliau Basin and Danum Valley for local community leaders. o Talks to local clubs and organisations including environmental NGOs. o Support and in-kind contributions to local sporting events and similar in the Maliau area. o Commission promotional video for sale and fund-raising uses. o Cooperate in production of a documentary film for global nature TV market, highlighting natural features, establishment and management of the MBCA. o Participation in ‘environmental events’ such as World Environment Day, World Forestry Day, etc. o Revise exhibits at Tawau, Luasong, Agathis camp, and establish displays at the Studies Centre.

The public awareness strategy would also need to address merchandizing issues (see Chapter 10), and a range of routine, internal ‘housekeeping’ activities, including: · Annual/biannual meetings with tour operators. · Coordination with other stakeholders in environmental education. · Maintenance and expansion of picture library. · Build-up of a library for digital images. · Training in handling and editing of digital images. · Active collection of new photos, including efforts to fill gaps in coverage by commissioning a professional photographer. · Administration of questionnaire to visitors and analysis of results. · Provision of information, services, interview opportunities, and technical and logistical support to the media, reporters, tour operators and individuals. · Regular reports on activities, including status of objectives and achievements. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 82

· Regular inventory of materials in stock. · Proposal for next year’s activities and budget in the context of a three-year ‘rolling plan’.

6.5 WEB-SITE DEVELOPMENT

The YS-DANCED project has established a web-site for the MBCA (www.maliau.org), and this domain will be a key resource in developing various forms of on-line marketing and knowledge dispersion. Tvevad et al. (2002) observed that the content of the web- site should be enriched by addition of: · The Strategic Plan and a non-technical summary thereof. · Technical assistance reports and other project documents. · Updated literature list. · Web-links to relevant news and magazine articles. · Articles from magazines and other sources (subject to arrangements with copyright holders). · Other project information materials. · An internal search facility. · Translations of selected materials and eventually the whole website into Bahasa Malaysia.

The sustainable financing strategy would also involve installing e-commerce enabled dimensions of the web-site to support merchandizing and the sale of knowledge services, and this is reflected in the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (see Chapter 10).

Search engine optimization. Registration with search engines is a key way to make the web-site accessible to Internet users. In all cases, the key is to optimize the positioning of www.maliau.org by improving the ranking of its web page in the major search engines and directories for specific search phrases, so that it emerges in the top few ‘hits’ for the kinds of search phrases that people are likely to enter in the search engine. At present, the accessibility of the web-site is monitored by the number of ‘hits’ obtained by searching for the word ‘maliau’. More appropriate search phrases might be ‘rainforest conservation’, ‘tropical biodiversity’ or ‘Borneo wildlife’, or even ‘jungles’, ‘forests’ or ‘wildlife’. Optimizing the site for the major search engines and directories would involve: · creating and submitting 3-5 ‘information pages’ to the major crawler-based search engines (i.e. AltaVista, AOL Search, DirectHit, FAST Search [AllTheWeb.com], Google, HotBot [Inktomi], Lycos, MSN Search, Netscape Search, Teoma and WiseNut); · creating or re-optimizing the www.maliau.org ‘site map’ page and submitting it to the major crawler-based search engines; and · re-optimizing and (if necessary) re-submitting the www.maliau.org home page to the major crawler-based search engines and to the major human-edited Web directories (i.e. Yahoo, LookSmart and The Open Directory [dmoz.org]).

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 83

Paid inclusion. Since these techniques cannot guarantee that the search engines will respond fully, an important way to push the web-site towards optimal ranking would be to pay for inclusion in the search engines. In this case the best investment would be in the Inktomi search engine (submitted via the Network Solutions, Position Technologies or INeedHits.com home pages and the Inktomi Search/Submit links). Inktomi guarantees home page listing in it's index within 48 hours, that it will remain there for one year and that it will be re-indexed every 48 hours. The Inktomi index is used by AOL, HotBot, iWON, LookSmart, MSN, and GoTo. Altavista is also regarded by the industry as a good invest ment for a paid inclusion strategy.

Reciprocal linkage . Forming reciprocal links with other web-sites is another key way to guide web traffic to www.maliau.org. In it's simplest form, this involves the Webmaster e-mailing counterparts at other relevant sites and asking if they would be willing to provide a hyperlink to and a brief description of the web-site in return for a reciprocal hyperlink to and description of their own sites on www.maliau.org.

A final important strategy for developing web marketing is the use of e-mailed newsletters, already mentioned in the content of the Friends of Maliau organization.

All of these web-marketing tactics are highly technical in nature and the web itself is a complex and dynamic ‘place’, so up-to-date technical nputi will be needed to support implementation on a continuing basis. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 84

Chapter 7: RESEARCH AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

7.1 OVERVIEW

An early step in this process, programmed in the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1), will be to develop a research prospectus to clarify strategy and priorities, and to explain protocols and procedures as agreed among all stakeholders, including the Sabah Biodiversity Council (see below). This would then be used as a basis for encouraging research activities by outside institutions, for building a capacity for pure and applied research on site, and for developing, organizing and maintaining an environmental monitoring programme, as well as appropriate databases and library collections. Long-term and participatory studies would be designed to support environmental monitoring, by generating longitudinal datasets that reflect progressive change in key ecological parameters (e.g. forest leaf -flushing, flowering and fruiting at different elevations, and the abundance of wildlife populations at different places over time). This would be supplemented by the collection and interpretation of climatological and hydrological data.

7.2 NON-COMMERCIAL OR ‘ACADEMIC’ RESEARCH

Existing research and environmental monitoring activities at the MBCA include the deployment of three automated weather stations Greer (2001; Maral, 2002) and a river- level gauge (Greer, 2002b), the establishment of 29 vegetation plots, a camera- trapping and bird ringing programme, and on-going studies on various aspects of the fauna and flora by consultants and management trainees. Two graduate students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah are currently doing field work on geology and entomology in Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 85

the MBCA, and the area is expected to become increasingly important as a field research site for Malaysian and Sabahan university students. Additional ecological and other research may be expected to develop at the MBSC, where a laboratory with basic research facilities is due to be built during 2003. Research is expected to be stimulated by a Memorandum of Understanding that was due to be signed in July 2002 between the MBCA Management Committee and Harvard University Herbaria (Annex 6), with the stated aims of: · increasing knowledge and botanical collections of the MBCA flora; · enhancing Sabahan research capacity; and · promoting research by Harvard personnel at the Maliau Basin.

The academic research agenda might be inhibited by the need for researchers to comply with the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment of 2000, which was formulated primarily to regulate access to biodiversity resources with a view to allowing bioprospecting and preventing biopiracy (see Chapter 10). The Enactment requires all researchers wishing to undertake any activity “relating to the prospecting, collection, commercial utilisation and research and development of biological resources or associated relevant knowledge” to obtain an ‘access licence’ from the Sabah Biodiversity Council, by applying in writing with information specified in the Enactment. The Council, however, “upon application may exempt individual, academic and research institution from the access application seeking to undertake any pure academic and non-profit oriented research” (Article 15 paragraph 3). Thus the Enactment offers no obstacle to academic research that cannot be overcome by means of the Management Committee agreeing definitions and procedures with the Council in advance.

No definitions of the terms ‘academic research’, ‘commercialization’ or ‘commercial research’ are contained in the Enactment, and the following might be considered as a basis for discussion with the Council, so as to facilitate the pre-approval of research projects that the Management Committee may consider desirable: · ‘Academic research’ means any process of analysis, collection, discovery, exploration, sampling or other study that is not intended for the development of products, processes, goods, services or inventions that are amenable to sale, patenting or licencing. · ‘Commercialization’ shall include, but not be limited to, the following activities: sale, filing a patent application, obtaining or transferring intellectual property rights or other tangible or intangible rights by sale or licence or in any other manner; commencement of product development, conducting market research, and seeking pre-market approval. · ‘Commercial research’ means any process of analysis, collection, discovery, exploration, sampling or other study that is intended for the development of products, processes, goods, services or inventions that are amenable to sale, patenting or licencing.

In agreeing definitions and procedures with the Sabah Biodiversity Council, it should be established that the intention to create and publish or broadcast works in any medium for sale should ordinarily be considered to lie within the definition of academic rather than commercial research, provided that the intention is to profit solely by promoting public enlightenment or entertainment. It should also be affirmed that increasing scientific and popular understanding of the components of biodiversity within the MBCA Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 86

is strategically important and desirable, so permission to conduct academic research should not unreasonably or arbitrarily be withheld nor subject to unnecessarily onerous terms and conditions.

That said, the MBCA Management Committee should have the right to establish fees to be paid and other conditions to be fulfilled, and to set schedules and time limits, before granting permission for research in the MBCA, or to waive or vary such fees, conditions, schedules and time limits during the study. In the case of academic research, such fees would be intended primarily to offset any administrative burden imposed by the research project. They should not exceed the ability of academic researchers to pay them, based on the guidelines of their own financing institutions. Close coordination wi th DVCA charging policy should be maintained to avoid both inter-site competition and prohibitive pricing.

The procedure for foreigners to obtain permission to conduct research in the MBCA is as follows: · The researcher contacts the Secretary of the MBCA Management Committee, in order to clarify procedures and for guidance on the design and likely acceptability of the proposed research project. · The researcher comes to an agreement with a local collaborator (i.e. a Malaysian with appropriate expertise attached to a recognised institution based in Sabah). · The researcher applies to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister’s Department in Kuala Lumpur. · The EPU consults the State Internal Affairs and Research Office (SIARO) of the Chief Minister's Department in Kota Kinabalu. · The SIARO consults the Management Committee and Sabah Biodiversity Council on the acceptability of the proposed research. · The SIARO advises the EPU on the acceptability of the proposed research. · The EPU isues a research permit to the researcher.

The research application should contain sufficient information to convey the precise nature and objective of the proposed study. Its contents should include the following: · name of applicant (principal investigator); · name of Malaysian collaborator; · name of overseas collaborator; · title of research project; · a statement as to whether an academic or commercial research permit is being sought; · name of supporting agencies (attached letter of financial support); · form of contribution to local collaborator; · budget for funding a local collaborator for post-graduate study (if applicable); · research starting date; · duration of research; Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 87

· brief statement of research (objective & scope; research design; general techniques to be used and overall budget); · expected outputs (thesis or dissertation for a degree, report or publication); · implications of research (e.g. for sustainable management of Malaysian forests; improved awareness of environmental conservation in Malaysia; technology or skill transfer).

Approval of an academic research proposal should involve the researcher being bound by the following commitments: · To refrain from undertaking commercial research or taking any steps that may reasonably be construed as commercialization. · To refrain from changing the nature of the research without prior approval of the Management Committee and relevant authorities. · To accept full responsibility for any accidents, thefts or other misfortunes incurred, and to maintain adequate insurance coverage for all eventualities. · To communicate fully the findings of research through seminars, workshops, regular progress reports, a final field report before leaving Sabah, and the submission of copies of all resulting published or unpublished works in any and all media (except personal correspondence).

7.3 COMMERCIAL RESEARCH OR ‘BIOPROSPECTING’

7.3.1 Principles of access and benefit sharing

Commercial research on biodiversity, often called 'bioprospecting', is the process of using the information contained in living systems to create new commercial products and processes, and is fundamental to the continuing development of several large sectors of the world’s economy, notably agriculture (including genetic improvement of crop plants, and food additives), cosmetics (including all forms of personal grooming products), healthcare (including herbal medicines, nutrition supplements and pharmaceuticals) and biotechnology (including recombinant DNA technology, industrial enzymatics and bioremediation).

Genetic resources alone contribute an estimated US$ 500-800 billion per year to national economies (ten Kate & Laird, 1999; McNeely, 2001b), and the commercial potential resulting from access to species-rich tropical ecosystems is no longer seriously debated. Attention has shifted instead to the terms by which such access is to be permitted, and the sharing of the resulting benefits (Reid et al ., 1993; ten Kate & Laird, 1999). More than 50 sets of guidelines have been issued by national and international groups in recent years, aiming to help institutions responsible for managing biodiversity resources establish arrangements that protect the interests of the various stakeholders. A definitive synthesis of these guidelines (CBD 6, 2002) was adopted by the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in the Hague in April 2002, and may be downloaded from www.biodiv.org. If bioprospecting is to be adopted as a key part of the MBCA’s sustainable-financing strategy, a first step is to ensure compliance with global best practice as captured by these guidelines on access and benefit sharing.

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Bioprospecting is best undertaken in the context of long-term partnership arrangements that are consistent with the guidelines and with national law, with the specific terms and conditions being adapted, through negotiation, to the particular needs of the partners concerned. Annex 7 offers a list of 14 principles that can be used as ground-rules for establishing bioprospecting partnerships involving the MBCA, as well as a check-list of issues that must be negotiated in establishing terms and conditions. They are phrased on the assumption that the competent authority to authorize access to Sabah’s biodiversity resources on behalf of the state is the Sabah Biodiversity Council as specified in the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment of 2000, and that, subject to that authority, the Management Committee has the right to decide upon proposals for commercial as well as academic research within the MBCA.

7.3.2 Negotiating partnerships

It is unclear what institutional form would be required to establish and sustain a bioprospecting programme at the MBCA, but the following arrangement is one possibility. The identification of potential bioprospecting partners and negotiation of access and benefit sharing terms is a job requiring special knowledge and skills, probably best done by an official of Innoprise on behalf of Yayasan Sabah and in consultation with the MBCA Management Committee and Sabah Biodiversity Council, both of which would have to approve any agreement. The agreement might involve the establishment of a new corporate body to handle bioprospecting arrangements and capture revenues. This would logically be a subsidiary of Innoprise or a joint-venture (or one of several joint -ventures) between Innoprise and bioprospecting partners.

The terms of reference for the staff member at Innoprise responsible for bioprospecting development would include: · leading the development of strategic partnerships with other public-interest bioprospecting entities world-wide (such as Costa Rica’s National Biodiversity Institute, INBio), as a way to promote shared learning from experience and to develop cooperative measures to resist biopiracy; · identifying potential corporate partners that are able and willing to invest in the long-term development of bioprospecting capacity at the MBCA in return for access to its genetic resources, and negotiating agreements with them; and · supervising the establishment of a permanent bioprospecting facility at the MBSC and the development of its capacity through training, technology transfer and other means.

The rationale for these terms of reference is based on the more-or-less symmetrical needs of the MBCA and Sabah on one hand and potential private-sector partners on the other. For the MBCA and Sabah, the chief needs are for: · long-term partnerships with a strong accent on the establishment of applied research facilities locally, so as to increase indigenous capacity to benefit from product-development investment (rather than just the supply of samples for export), plus · up-front money and participation in future profits through royalty payments. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 89

For bioprospecting partners, the chief needs would be for: · a stable investment environment, guaranteed by a credible and viable organization, · clear legal rights to intellectual property rights emanating from their work, and · a long-term partnership with an institution whose developing capacity over time will create new opportunities for all parties.

Private bioprospecting partners would be expected to capitalize the operation at the MBCA, but representatives of the latter would enter negotiations far from empty- handed. They would be able to offer access to a large but compact array of intact, species-rich and endemic-rich tropical forest ecosystems, all under credible protective management. Access to the MBCA proper, rather than just the buffer zone, is important, partly because of the greater diversity and coherence of intact ecosystems, and partly because of the need to guarantee access to the sources of samples that prove interesting enough for further investigation.

A case in point is the discovery of the anti-HIV compound calanolide in a forest tree (Calophyllum lanigerum var. austrocoriaceum) in Sarawak. A twig and fruit sample of this plant was first collected in 1987 from a swamp forest location, and the active compound calanolide A was identified, isolated and selected for pre-clinical trials by the US National Cancer Institute. A team returned to the site of the tree in 1991, but by then it had been felled and no other specimen of this variety could be found. Other Calophyllum species from this locality did not yield any calanolide A, and neither did samples of Calophyllum lanigerum in other places. This led the investigators to believe that the original specimen was a distinct ‘chemotype’, or a variety with a distinct chemical composition, now possibly extinct (Soejarto et al., 1993 in ESCAP, 1995).

When the MBSC is completed, representatives of the MBCA would also be able to offer the use of an on-site laboratory facility, soon to be connected by sealed road to the rest of Sabah. This lab would have access to a high-security C-band digital satellite link virtually immune to penetration by potential biopirates (Annex 4). The significance of this is illustrated by the penetration by Thai and Russian hackers of databases and communications belonging to Bristol Myers-Squibb, the world’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical company (based on 1998 sales of about US$ 12.2 billion). The stolen data concerned taxol, an important anti-cancer drug derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, and were not protected by the kind of security measures recommended for the MBSC. Finally, the existence among the MBCA staff of a team of well-trained tree- climbers is an important asset, and should be maintained since it would give direct access to the rain forest canopy where much of the MBCA’s biodiversity resource is located. This combination of factors would make the MBCA uniquely attractive as a site for commercial research on biodiversity.

7.3.3 Local participation in biodiversity inventories

An international model relevant to the participation of support zone community members in biodiversity research in the MBCA is that of the parataxonomist training courses in Costa Rica. The training and use of parataxonomists was pioneered by the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) to support its biodiversity inventory and bioprospecting programmes. Parataxonomists are typically young, local people hired for intensive six-month training in biology and taxonomy. The training is usually Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 90

delivered by biologists and taxonomists recruited on short, leave-of-absence contracts from the national and regional university systems. Parataxonomists then work to collect and process biodiversity samples for INBio, rising in the system through experience and additional training to more specialized and responsible positions. This approach has proven merit both in terms of relieving constraints on graduate staff time in the biodiversity inventory, and in its educational and motivational impact on the individuals concerned and on their communities. Hiring local people, teaching them new skills, and involving them in building a new future that depends on biodiversity is evidently an excellent way to create a support zone for a conservation area.

7.4 BIODIVERSITY INVENTORIES

It was concluded in Chapter 2 that the MBCA may contain about 240,000 species or some 38% of the total biota of Borneo. Whatever the precise number, it is certain that most of them are invertebrates, and most are unknown to science. It is also certain that each species (or even each lineage) represents a unique information resource, being a biochemical expression of a distinct evolutionary heritage. Greatly improved taxonomic knowledge is an unavoidable prerequisite for understanding and using this biological wealth, and it is concluded that an all-taxa biodiversity inventory of the MBCA would be a desirable long-term target. This task will require the cooperation of numerous scientists and their institutions over many years, and should be preceded by workshops aiming to answer the following questions among others (Janzen, 1992a, 1992b; Janzen et al., 1993; Janzen, 1994; Caldecott, 1996): · Is a complete inventory of the conservation area feasible? This should be considered in relation to contemporary techniques of personnel management and taxonomy; practical difficulties would need to be analyzed in the local context and solutions determined. · Can it be done without damaging the conservation area's biodiversity? This should lead to guidelines and operational techniques to minimize damage. · Is the conservation area an appropriate site for an intense inventory? This will focus attention on the biology, logistical, political, sociological and economic attributes of the area. · What level of inventory can be achieved? Most major taxa can be inventoried adequately and quickly using current techniques if efforts are focussed and managed properly. Problems and exceptions need to be identified and potential solutions to problems targeted for study. · What protocols would be used in the inventory? There is a need to determine the general administrative, technological and sociological protocols, the structure of the inventory teams, involvement of the international taxonomic community, and integration of user needs with data collection and management procedures. · What would be the products of the inventory? These could include taxonomic, locational, ecological and ethnobiological information on the organisms present in the site, in each case opening a permanent 'file' on the organism concerned for later elaboration through further research. · Who would use the products of the inventory? Expected users would include research scientists, tourists, taxonomists, educators, reserve managers, bioprospectors, legislators, politicians, and resource planners. These and other users should be identified and their needs assessed. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 91

· How much will the inventory cost? Budget estimates would have to be devised on the basis of a detailed plan of work. Significant capital investment will be needed in facilities to manage specimens and data in the project area.

A start was made in addressing these issues by the working group on biodiversity inventories at the Research and Environmental Monitoring Workshop of the 15th-16th April 2002, which made the following observations: · There is a need to identify institutions or individuals with particular expertise on specific topics, including those best able to coordinate work on particular taxa (e.g. the Forestry Research Centre or FRC for plants, Sabah Museum, Sabah Parks and Sabah Wildlife Department for vertebrates, and Universiti Malaysia Sabah and the FRC for invertebrates). · Local and international institutions should be encouraged to participate. · Permanent plots and transects based on the 10-12 vegetation types of the MBCA should be maintained, improved or if necessary established. · Full use should be made of graduate students both local and overseas, using grants from their respective sponsors. · The various topics for priority research studies should be advertised through the www.maliau.org web-site. · A data bank for all species should be developed to promote ease of access and updating of data compilation. · A standardized system for all data compilation should be developed and coordinated by the Management Committee in ways that ensure the free flow of information among participating groups. · A general shortage of taxonomists and a lack of a Malaysian taxonomic capacity should be relieved by government-based organizations creating taxonomic positions, by on the ground training of taxonomists and parataxonomists, by local institutions training new specialists, by the corporate and philanthropic sponsorship of taxonomy training, and by seeking grants from a range of donors.

7.5 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

7.5.1 Selection of indicators

The purpose of an environmental monitoring programme is to detect change in a meaningful way, so that appropriate management responses become possible. The aims of management must therefore be clear, the possible responses defined, the indicators of change carefully selected, and the information collected meaningful. The monitoring programme in the MBCA aims primarily to detect change in indicators of local ecosystem health and threat, and secondarily to contribute to the detection of change in global environmental conditions.

Environmental indicators are physical, chemical, biological or socio-economic measures that best represent the key elements of a complex ecosystem or environmental issue. An indicator should be embedded in a well-developed interpretive framework and have meaning beyond the measure that it represents. Repeated measurements of the variables that make up the indicator in various places and times, and in a defined way, comprise the monitoring program for that indicator. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 92

Comparison of this repeated set of measurements with a benchmark set or condition provides the basis for detecting change. The minimum necessary set of indicators are those which can provide rigorous data describing the major trends in, and impacts on, biodiversity in the MBCA, by describing pressures exerted on biodiversity, its condition, and responses to the pressures or to changes in the condition.

Based on recent international best practice (Saunders et al., 1998), the minimum set of indicators relevant to biodiversity should be considered at three levels of biological organisation (ecosystems, species and genes) and should be as comprehensive as possible without being unwieldy. They should all meet as many as possible of the following criteria, by which each of them should: · serve as a robust indicator of environmental change; · reflect a fundamental or highly valued aspect of the environment; · provide an early warning of potential problems; · be capable of being monitored to provide statistically verifiable and reproducible data that show trends over time; · be scientifically credible; · be easy to understand; · be monitored regularly with relative ease and low cost; · have relevance to policy and management needs; · where possible and appropriate, facilitate community involvement; and · contribute to the fulfillment of reporting obligations under international agreements (such as the World Heritage Convention).

In the case of monitoring that aims to contribute to detection of global or regional environmental change, indicators should also: · contribute to monitoring of progress towards implementing commitments in nationally and internationally significant environmental policies (e.g. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity); · contribute to the fulfillment of reporting obligations under international agreements; · where possible and appropriate, be consistent and comparable with the indicators used in other countries and territories.

7.5.2 Local ecosystem health and threat

Suggested indicators include: · Natural resource indicators o weather (at different elevations); o phenology of leaf-flushing, flowering and fruiting of trees and lianas at different elevations; o wildlife abundance at different places over time (e.g. bearded pigs, tembadau, elephant, sambar deer, key species such as hornbills and Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 93

pheasants, fragile microclimate bioindicators, recovery of wildlife populations as a result of enhanced protection); o increase/decrease in e.g. soil fauna, insects such as large ants, amphibians; o tree mortality (in intact forest at different elevations, and in forest logged at different intensities); o riverine water (flow, sediment load, turbidity, aquatic insects and pH). · Fire risk indicators o abundance of microclimate bioindicators (e.g. liverworts, mosses, filmy ferns, leeches, planarians, crabs, certain frogs) in buffer zone forests; o temperature in buffer zone forests; o air movement in buffer zone forests; o regeneration in buffer zone forests; o satellite monitoring of fire hotspots; o meteorological analysis updates. · Other risk indicators o logging (GPS supervision of locations relative to MBCA boundaries); o illegal entry, hunting and harvesting (encounters and new traces per team- hour in the MBCA and buffer zone); o invasion of exotic species (e.g. Siam weed, rats, timor deer Cervus timorensis, Acacia mangium); and o intangible threats (assess public opinion; monitor the quality, quantity and nature of public debate, private and public proposals, and public decision- making in relation to plantations, mining, tourism, logging and infrastructure).

7.5.3 Global environmental conditions

As a large, almost entirely undisturbed and self-enclosed rain forest ecosystem, the Maliau Basin constitutes a site with considerable potential as a control for the global monitoring of environmental change. Free from local anthropogenic influences, records from the basin interior of weather pat terns, wildlife indicators (such as amphibian biodiversity), and the presence of persistent pollutants, could shed light on the extent to which truly global atmospheric or stratospheric effects are underway. The value of environmental monitoring in the basin will be multiplied to the extent that it is undertaken in concert with other global monitoring activities, with data collected in compatible formats and shared for pooled or comparative analysis.

Institutional arrangements for global environmental monitoring to which the MBCA could subscribe include: the UN Global Environmental Monitoring System, the ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC), and the network of the Smithsonian Centre for Tropical Forest Science. The MBCA is already one of three Asian sites of the International Biodiversity Observation Year 2001-2002 (IBOY), sponsored by the International Council for Sciences (ICS), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS), and UNESCO. The aim of IBOY is to promote global network awareness of biodiversity research, partly by means of a bi-monthly e-newsletter (www.nrel.colostate.edu/IBOY/news/newsletter) and by coordinating national events such as the first American Biodiversity Month in May 2002 (www.biodiversitymonth.org). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 94

Chapter 8: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

8.1 OVERVIEW

Policy directions. No new camps, trails or helipads will be built, or any other such works undertaken, before the MBCA Management Committee has approved the new infrastructure as an integrated part of the whole process of management plan implementation, and following the completion of adequate EIAs as required by law and precautionary best practice.

The following physical development themes are planned to advance the management of the MBCA: · Construction of the Maliau Basin Studies Centre (MBSC), just outside the conservation area. · Up -grading of camps at Camel Trophy, Bambangan, Ginseng and Rafflesia within the basin, and possibly at Lake Linumunsut outside it, and continued upgrading at Agathis camp. · ‘Easing’ and ‘hardening’ of trails within the MBCA. · Repair and maintenance of logging roads to provide access to the buffer zone for research, patrol and fire-fighting activities (see Chapter 4). · Construction of a Visitor Reception and Information Centre (VRIC) at the security gate on the Tawau-Keningau road (see Chapter 4).

8.2 THE MALIAU BASIN STUDIES CENTRE

The MBSC is being constructed near Belian Camp, on a site of about 70 ha on the south bank of Sg Maliau at the mouth of Maliau Gorge, and just outside the MBCA. It will function as the headquarters of the conservation area, while also offering visitor accommodation, conference and laboratory facilities. The first phase of construction will prepare the site and improve road access to it. The second phase will create an office block (ca 488 m2), conference building (ca 215 m2), laboratory (ca 480 m2), rest house (ca 465 m2), accommodation ‘A’ (ca 259 m2), accommodation ‘B’ (ca 324 m2), toilet and generator buildings (ca 95 m2) and various sites for recreation, water treatment and car parking, with a total built-up area of about 18 ha. These facilities are expected to be completed by the end of 2004, and are included in the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1). A subsequent third phase will create class rooms, a hostel, dining hall, researchers’ accommodation and additional housing units, and is expected to be completed during 2004. Certain other facilities may be added in a fourth phase of construction, but this will depend on future budget allocations and is not included in the Action Plan 2003-2005.

8.3 ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN MBSC DEVELOPMENT

The MBSC was designed in close consultation with personnel of the YS-DANCED project (Bidinger, 2000, 2001), and in the light of best practices that were seen during a visit to Australia by the Project Steering Committee (PMG, 2001). Sustainable energy supply issues were addressed by Ibrahim (2002), and a detailed environmental impact statement containing numerous specific recommendations was prepared by SEM Consultants (2002). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 95

Technical considerations from the point of view of biodiversity conservation can contribute to improve this arrangement in only one respect, which is to observe that the Maliau Gorge is the only low-altitude link between forests inside and outside the basin (Annex 2, Figures 10 and 11). This is important, since many species are limited to low elevations, there are only small areas of lowland forest within the basin, and gene flow16 from the outside is needed to maintain the long-term health of their populations there.

The direct impact of the MBSC will be on the south bank of Sg Maliau, where the forests concerned have already been logged (see Annex 2, Figure 10). Of far more importance would be any indirect impacts that may occur on the north bank of the Sg Maliau. Here the unlogged lowland forests of the Sg Kuamut connect, via a narrow forest strip between the river and the 600 m contour, with the lowland forests of the Sg Maliau valley within the basin. Damage to this strip would clearly have serious long- term consequences for all species within the MBCA that can live only in unlogged, low- altitude forest.

If this factor is not taken into account, it is easy to imagine that once the MBSC is built, there will be pressure on this small area from both scientific and recreational interests, leading perhaps to the clearance of trails and camp sites, and the building of canopy walkways (e.g. Kanstrup, 2000) and other facilities. It is already proposed in the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1) to construct a suspension bridge over the Sg Maliau, specifically to provide access to the north bank forests, which is seen as being essential for pr otection and research purposes.

It is understood that this bridge is partly intended to allow researchers to monitor the use of the north-bank forests by wildlife, permitting recreational and other facilities to be built there in ways that do not conflict with biodiversity conservation. The challenge here will be to design a research programme that can detect inter-breeding and the transmission of genetic material amongst insects, other invertebrates, fungi and plants, which together comprise most of the biota, rather than just the movements of large mammals and birds. No such research programme yet exists anywhere in the world.

In these conditions of uncertainty and potential irreversibility, it is recommended that great caution be used in doing anything that may impact on this particular area. Specifically, it is proposed that the forests of the north bank of the Sg Maliau be permanently classified as either a Research Zone or a Strict Protection Zone, and that this recommendation be considered by the MBCA Management Committee in the context of its review of the proposed Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1).

8.4 THE TRAIL SYSTEM

There will be no roads in the interior of the MBCA, so the alignment, quality and maintenance of foot -paths are central management concerns, which should be consistent with the zoning strategy. Trails are especially relevant for visitor access (‘visitor trails’) and for deploying rangers to patrol areas (‘protection trails’), even though

16 If opportunities to interbreed are reduced, for example by habitat disturbance, then gene flow declines and the population becomes increasingly in-bred. This results in the expression of bad genes that are usually masked by others, which may cause deformity, reproductive incompetence, and local extinction. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 96

tactical patrolling will often be done off paths since trails are likely to be avoided by illegal entrants. Trails are classified as follows: · ‘blue’ trails (jalan senang) are flat, easy paths that can be walked safely without paying particular attention to the ground, allowing the forest to be scanned for wildlife. · ‘black’ trails (jalan biasa) are up-and-down paths that are steep enough to cause forced breathing and heavy sweating, especially if burdened, allowing little attention to be paid to the surroundings; · ‘yellow’ trails (jalan susa) are steep to very steep paths that are hard going and demand careful foot and hand placement and frequent rest pauses, especially if burdened; and · ‘red’ trails (jalan bahaya) are very steep paths that are frankly dangerous due to a lack of secure hand and foot holds and an obvious potential for falls and serious injury.

Trails may be ‘hardened’ by building wood or metal walkways or stairs over terrain that is prone to erosion. They may also be ‘eased’, by placing bridges over gullies, by adding stairs over difficult rock faces or cutting steps into them, by routing trails along contours, or by providing climbing aids such as ropes and rails. Such works would be required mainly over ‘yellow’ parts of the steep trail up to the Basin rim from Agathis camp, and ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ ones around between the Bambangan helipad, Bambangan camp and Maliau Falls, and around Ginseng camp. These are incorporated within the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1).

8.5 BALANCING DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION

8.5.1 Planning and EIA

Balancing development and protection is vital. The overall management aim for the MBCA is that it is set aside for protecting and studying nature, for monitoring the environment and for low-impact use by visitors where this can be done without compromising the other functions. To minimize conflicts between these aims, while still allowing some access and use, the following measures for balancing protection and development are recommended: · Identifying and protecting critical areas for protecting flagship or keystone17 species, point endemics18, key habitat resources such as lowland forests, key ecosystem functions and aesthetic or spiritual values. · Establishing separate zones for education, strict protection, habitat recuperation and wilderness preservation, each with different access rules and management aims. · Managing visitor pressures by limiting numbers at any one time and place, by dispersing facilities and by ‘easing’ and ‘hardening’ trails.

17 Keystone species: Those upon which many other species depend for vital resources such as food and shelter. 18 Point endemic: a species with such a restricted range of natural occurrence that its total distribution appears as a point on a map. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 97

· Managing wastes through toilet design, recycling, composting and evacuation of materials from the basin. · Low-impact engineering of all construction works, with thorough EIA of developments within the MBCA.

Good examples of the potential difficulties involved in balancing development and protection in the MBCA are provided by the issues raised in attempting to provide public access to the forests on the north bank of Sg Maliau (see Section 8.3) and to Maliau Falls (see Section 6.3.2).

8.5.2 Waste management

Waste management is a critical issue for the interior of the basin especially, where only pedestrian access will occur and where opportunities to collect and evacuate wastes are therefore limited. The overall policy should be to ‘reduce, re-use and recycle’ wherever possible, failing which unobtrusive disposal might be used for certain items within the basin, and safe disposal outside it may be the only option for others. The message for all visitors to the basin should be to take out with them everything that they bring in.

Graffiti can be considered a kind of mind-trash, which is scattered around to deface and degrade the experience of the MBCA for others. Such actions should be banned, the ban advertized, and infractions penalized by fine and permanent expulsion from the MBCA. Existing graffiti should be expunged as soon as possible.

Littering should be banned, the ban advertized, and infractions penalized by fine. Litter will accumulate despite such efforts, and all staff should be required to collect it as part of their duties, with visitors being encouraged to help.

Wash water from bathing and washing clothes (but not from toilets) should be guided into the ground, not directly into streams. Biodegradable body, hair and laundry soaps should be selected and promoted for use in the MBCA.

Sewage disposal is a particular challenge. The most complete solution may be to use digesting toilets, which are used at some Australian ecotourism resorts, but the technology should be re-assessed for use in tropical rain forest conditions. Digesting toilets have the advantage that they can also absorb macerated cooked vegetable food waste. Open pit latrines at some distance from camp have the advantage that local invertebrates will ensure very rapid transfer of nutrients into the forest system (creating local ecological effects, however), and that toilet paper can be introduced without greatly affecting their function. Septic tank systems generate sludge that must be pumped out and taken away by road, which makes them suitable for Agathis and Belian Camps, but not for inside the basin. They also require a leach field where local impacts on soil chemistry are significant. Separate disposal of toilet paper, for example by burning (though not in cooking fires with other paper wastes), will reduce sludge formation but has aesthetic drawbacks. There is not necessarily a perfect solution to the problem of sewage disposal in the Maliau Basin.

Cooked vegetable food wastes should either be macerated and put in digesting toilets, or pl aced with waste animal material in rat-proof wire ant feeders far from the camp. All camps within the basin should in any case be largely vegetarian as a practical matter due to supply and waste-disposal difficulties. Uncooked vegetable Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 98

food wastes can be composted (see SEM Consultants 2002), which may assist in growing a small garden of vegetables for the pot at each satellite camp.

Aluminium cans and other metal containers should be separated from each other and from other wastes, cleaned, compressed and packed out for recycling. Their initial entry to the basin should be discouraged in favour of dry goods, and where practicable re-packaging (although most canned items will quickly spoil if transferred, for example, to 'ziploc' plastic bags). Aluminium cans are among the higher-impact products of industry, since mining bauxite ore and generating the large amounts of electricity needed to extract the metal from it are both environmentally demanding. At the same time, recycling Aluminium is relatively l ow impact, so is particularly to be encouraged.

Pesticide containers, should be separated from other wastes and packed out for safe disposal. This would apply mainly to old ones that have already found their way inside, since the entry of all biocides to the basin should be strictly controlled or banned completely. This is because most commercial pesticides have extremely high and non- specific toxicity to invertebrate components of biodiversity, and are also harmful to vertebrates (including people).

Pl astic items should be separated from other wastes, cleaned, compressed (e.g. using hot water and crushing) and packed out for recycling. Very small items (e.g. Maggie Mee and sweet wrappers) can be burned with waste paper. The entry of plastic bags and disposable plastic items in general should be strongly discouraged throughout the MBCA.

Batteries should be separated from other wastes and packed out for recycling or safe disposal. All batteries should be checked for toxic content and any special disposal instructions, and different types kept separate and clearly labelled.

Glass items should be separated, cleaned, and re-used locally where possible. Ordinary soda glass may be ground small (effectively creating sand) and buried. Note that some glass (e.g. lead crystal) can yield toxic leachates over time, and if identified should be packed out for recycling or safe disposal.

8.5.3 Sustainable energy

Camel Trophy camp is already equipped with solar power , and this energy source should be used at all facilities within the Maliau Basin where electricity is required. Solar power sources are included in designs for the MBSC (Ibrahim, 2002), initially as a component of a hybrid photovoltaic-generator system. It is intended that the solar component of this will expand to the point that the generator sets will be retained to provide back-up power only.

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PART THREE – IMPLEMENTATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

Chapter 9: IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMME

9.1 OVERVIEW

Managing the MBCA and developing all its various potentials over the next decade will be a complex and demanding task, requiring considerable investment in numerous activities. A check-list of all the activities recommended in this Strategic Plan 2003- 2012 is provided in Section 9.2. In the near term, however, resources are limited, so a selection of activities that are considered essential for action planning have been identified, by which it should be possible: · to ensure that key ecosystems are protected; · to maintain facilities, equipment, trails and roads; · to complete the training of staff in key skills; · to obtain at least some revenue and gain experience from tourism; · to facilitate dialogue and agree procedures amongst stakeholders; · to begin and maintain an environmental monitoring programme; · to maintain and further increase public support; and · to undertake certain cost-effective strategic actions (such as submitting a World Heritage Site nomination - see Annex 8 - and commissioning a comprehensive business plan for the sustainable financing strategy outlined in Chapter 10 - see Annex 9).

This list was further refined and the perspective further shortened in the draft Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1), in which activities are organized into the following four programmes: · Development and Infrastructure , which focusses on construction of the MBSC, the VRIC, and the road between them, as well as providing public access to Maliau Falls, and constructing, repairing and maintaining a range of trails, camps and other facilities within the conservation area. This will create and maintain the basic infrastructure needed for protection, research, education and recreation within the MBCA and parts of the buffer zone. · Human Resource Development and Training, which allows for MBCA staff to take a wide range of courses designed to strengthen their basic capacities and skills in field techniques, visitor management, safety, maintenance, fire-fighting and in a variety of technical areas. · Public Awareness and Environmental Education, which aims to deepen and broaden public appreciation for the MBCA, its living resources and conservation priorities through local outreach, teacher training, production of materials for use at MBSC, VRIC, nature trails, and special events, and by developing the www.maliau.org web-site and a capacity for selling materials through it. · Research and Environmental Monitoring, the purpose of which is to develop a prospectus to clarify research strategy, protocols and procedures, to encourage research activities by outside institutions, to build a capacity for pure and applied research on site, and to develop, organize and maintain an environmental monitoring programme, as well as appropriate databases and library collections.

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9.2 CHECK-LIST OF RECOMMENDED ACTIVITIES

Table 2 summarizes, in the form of a checklist, all the activities that are recommended over the ten years 2003-2012. Items that are considered essential for near-term action planning are highlighted i n the table.

Table 2: Check-list of recommended activities Year, 2003-2012 Activity 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 1. Buffer zone management planning a) Landscape connectedness FMUs join Management Committee Workshop on biodiversity reservoirs Workshop on large-scale ‘wildlife corridors’ Workshop on improving RIL techniques Workshop on promoting forest recovery Workshop on biodiversity in land use Workshop on Maliau-Imbak valley links Workshop on biodiversity-friendly forestry b) Fire management planning Assess condition of residual forest stands Assess logging roads and fire breaks Assess surface coal deposits Assess need for ecological remediation Assess scope for community involvement Workshops on institutional cooperation Specify replanting programme (fire) Implement replanting programme (fire) Specify equipment and supplies Acquire equipment and supplies Specify fire training programme Implement fire training programme c) Tourism development Tourism plan for Security Gate area Trails to view points in and around the VJR Maintain motorable route to a rim viewpoint Develop restaurant and shops Visitor Reception and Information Centre Tourism plan for Inarad and Linumunsut Tourism plan for Tibow resettlement area d) Conservation complementarity Specify replanting (biodiversity) Implement replanting (biodiversity) Negotiate community forestry agreements Identi fy and protect critical habitat areas Assess and map potential access routes Draft buffer zone Forest Rules 2. Active security Establish security base on S boundary Establish security base on W boundary Establish security base on N boundary Establish security base on NE boundary Establish security base on SE boundary Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 101

Table 2: Check-list of recommended activities Year, 2003-2012 Activity 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Cut and mark W and SW boundary Cut and mark NE, N and NW boundary Accom pany logging contractors with GPS Commission aerial surveillance flights Promote publicity on boundaries & rules Declare management zones as appropriate Build fire towers W and SW areas Build other fire towers Fire risk monitoring programme Fire emergency plan, training and drills Strengthen protection team (3-4 staff/base) 3. Protection equipment Acquire 4WD vehicles Acquire boats Acquire GPS units Acquire field gear, footwear and uniforms Acquire additional radio equipment Acquire C-band satellite system Acquire fire fighting equipment & supplies Maintain all equipment 4. Education Plan for 100% teacher training Complete teachers’ resource pack Implement plan for 100% teacher training 5. Public awareness Prepare written and audiovisual materials Liaison visits and workshops Commission videos/documentaries Develop museum displays Develop library of digital images Develop content of web-site Optimize ranking of maliau.org web-site Form reciprocal links with other web-sites Develop Friends of Maliau e-newsletter 6. Tourism within conservation area Establish fee rates Establish discount arrangements Negotiate local porterage charges Agree access terms with tour operators Design booking system for basin facilities Waste management system Low-impact design for satellite camps Repair Camel Trophy (CT) camp Up-grade Bambangan camp Up-grade Ginseng camp Harden/ease trails (Agathis-CT) Harden/ease trails (CT-Bambangan) Harden/ease trails (Agathis-Ginseng) Harden/ease trails (Ginseng-Bambangan) Harden/ease trai ls (Bambangan-Falls) Harden/ease trails (Rafflesia-Strike Ridge) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 102

Table 2: Check-list of recommended activities Year, 2003-2012 Activity 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Recruit resident naturalists Recruit assistant resident naturalists Maintain all buildings Maintain all trails and roads 7. Research Commission biodiversity database design Appoint Research Manager Up-grade Rafflesia camp for researchers Establish fees for academic research Agree definitions with Biodiversity Council Agree procedures with Biodiversity Council 8. Environmental monitoring Select local ecosystem indicators Select global ecosystem indicators Establish monitoring protocols Maintain monitoring programmes 9. Enhancing management capacity Maliau Basin Studies Centre Phase 2 Install and maintain solar power at MBSC Maintain MBSC facilities Commission MIS design study Appoint HQ line manager for MBCA Implement ranger training Implement/maintain tree climber training Implement fire fighting training Implement occupational safety training Implement first aid & paramedical training Review 10-year Strategic Plan Review 3 -year Action Plans Prepare annual Work Plans Prepare quarterly Work Plans Prepare Annual Reports 10. Sustainable financing Commission comprehens ive business plan Organize investment strategy Bioprospecting development manager Grants & partnerships manager International marketing manager Commission e -commerce enabled web-site Establish a trust fund and protocols 11. World Heritage Site nomination Submit nomination to UNESCO Conservation area listed as WHS

9.3 PRIORITIES FOR ACTION PLANNING

The Action Plan 2003-2005 (Annex 1) was prepared in June 2002 by Innoprise staff responsible for MBCA management. It is based on the expectation that resources would be limited over this period, so it embraces only what are considered essential and practicable activities in the context the MBCA, and its available staff and other Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 103

resources. These are organized into the four programmes of Development and Infrastructure, Human Resource Development and Training, Public Awareness and Environmental Education, and Research and Environmental Monitoring

The Action Plan 2003-2005 takes advantage of past commitments by government and others, which together mean that the MBCA will start with a set of newly-opened buildings, newly-upgraded roads, newly-acquired equipment, reasonably fresh staff, a sound knowledge base, good maps, and considerable political momentum and public encouragement. Protection functions are not specifically programmed because they will be performed continuously by the existing protection staff, although two ranger posts and a fire tower will be built to support them in strategic locations.

The major construction activities associated with the MBSC, VRIC and road works will be undertaken not by MBCA staff but by contractors or other sections of the Yayasan Sabah family. Likewise, the British NGO Trekforce has agreed to help build suspension bridges and other structures, thus freeing MBCA staff for their routine protective and other duties. Hence the Action Plan 2003-2005 captures a realistic set of activities that can be undertaken without exceeding present capacities, and without compromising the overall safety of the MBCA. These activities will also perform the important function of making it possible to obtain at least some revenue and gain experience from tourism from 2004 onwards. The extent of this, however, will depend on decisions of the MBCA Management Committee in relation to the provision of overnight public access within the conservation area and specifically to Maliau Falls (see Section 6.3).

9.4 THE ROLE OF WORK PLANS

A three-year action plan is still a strategic document, requiring detailed work-planning to put into effect. The key feature of a work plan is an annotated budget: a set of agreed budget lines, all coded in a uniform way to permit the tracking of expenditure, with explanatory notes. The budget may be preceded by text to explain the choice and implications of priorities and targets, including an assessment of past performance and impact, and followed by an assessment of risks and challenges to be avoided or overcome (and the likely consequences if they are not).

Work plans are essential to managerial systems, and should be prepared by each Team Head and agreed with the Officer -in-Charge, part of who’s job is to compile a consolidated budget and agree it with HQ. This will establish in advance the precise spending authority for each Team Head and the MBCA as a whole for the period of the work plan. One strength of this approach is that it allows deviation from agreed expenditure rates in each budget line by each Team Head to be detected before essential activities are stifled by cost over-runs in any budget line (including their own), or by the cumulative effects of multiple cost over -runs across the whole budget. Quarterly work plans can support a more sensitive managerial system than annual ones, and are recommended for adoption as soon as possible.

9.5 MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION

9.5.1 Feedback of management information

Quarterly and annual work plans provide essential feedback to managers for two main reasons: they contain summary information about what has been attempted and what has been achieved by each team; and they contain spending authorities that allow an Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 104

instantaneous assessment of where resources should be being invested at any given time. The detection of cost over-runs is also useful, as it provides a way to alert management to areas of activity that are either being mismanaged, or that genuinely require more money.

Cost over-runs would ordinarily be investigated and resolved by the Officer-in-Charge, and may be reported to HQ at once and/or retrospectively in the Annual Report, along with a comprehensive overview of progress, problems and the anticipated future. All of this material should be available in organized and accessible form to the executive leadership of the MBCA, and through it to any other authorized enquirer or auditor. When combined with other kinds of information, such as environmental monitoring reports, research results and fiscal constraints, all of this knowledge becomes the resource upon which to base the next three-year action plan.

9.5.2 Management plan review schedule

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Chapter 10: SUSTAINABLE FINANCING STRATEGY

10.1 OVERVIEW

Ross (2001) analysed timber booms and associated policy and institutional failures in the natural resource sector in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sarawak and Sabah. In the case of Sabah, the study concluded that the state “has few viable substitutes for a forest-based economy – and hence, a worrisome economic and environmental future” (page 126). This conclusion is consistent with that of the Outline Perspective Plan Sabah, 1995-2010 (State of Sabah, 1995), which accordingly laid out a strategy for “a major shift in policy direction” (page 12) towards a new “growth paradigm” that depends less on the primary sector and more on new growth areas such as knowledge-based industries. It is also consistent with a sense of public urgency in Sabah either to protect remaining forest resources and to find alternative income streams, or else to liquidate remaining natural resources and biodiversity in order to sustain the ‘business as usual’ economy for a few more years. These themes are competitive and mutually exclusive, and it remains to be seen which will prevail.

In these circumstances, the continued protection and development of the MBCA will occur in a challenging fiscal context. This will place a premium on finding ways for it to generate funds by means consistent with its conservation function. More broadly, it can be argued that (unless the option is foreclosed) the entire conservation sector in Sabah is about to move from a secondary to a primary economic role. This is essentially the same as what happened in Costa Rica in the late 1980s, when public foreign debt and the world’s highest deforestation rate combined to force a fundamental re-appraisal of the role of the conservation sector as an economic resource (Caldecott and Lovejoy, 1996). There, new ways were found to create sunrise industries based on debt-for-nature swaps, ecotourism, carbon storage, bioprospecting and the global sale of conservation services. The approach used in Costa Rica was not to loot remaining biodiversity resources, but to re-invest in them strategically, in an integrated process of saving, studying, teaching about and using them sustainably. This was combined with a pragmatic and innovative approach to other national assets, for example by developing niches in the health care, information technology and overseas retirement markets, leading overall to the emergence of a buoyant new economy.

As observed by Encik Abdul Rahim Sidek of the Natural Resources Office of the Chief Minister’s Department, at the Management Planning Workshop of the 22nd-23rd March 2002, government perceives that it would be unfair to demand that the MBCA be entirely self-sufficient financially, since it has important public-interest functions comparable to those of Danum Valley and Sepilok. This view was reinforced by Puan Patricia Regis of the Ministry of Tourism, Environment, Science and Technology, who noted that the value of the conservation area cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

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Nevertheless, the MBCA is actually in an excellent position to contribute to the reinvention of Sabah’s economy, since it contains immense biodiversity and other resources for which there is now an increasing international demand. With effective marketing and appropriate development, there is scope for the MBCA to yield significant revenues quite quickly, though not overnight and not without investment. This potential will be multiplied if ways are found to integrate the global marketing of the MBCA with that of other components of Sabah’s conservation area system, especially Danum Valley.

The following opportunities have been identified as possible ways for the MBCA to generate funds, all of them having been validated by the working group on sustainable financing at the Management Planning Workshop (although with a range of expectations as to their relative contributions over time): · Ecotourism, involving charging local and foreign visitors for access and services within the MBCA, and managing the resulting impacts to minimize conflicts with conservation priorities. · Educational services, for example the sale of subscriptions to web-cast or satellite-broadcast lectures about the rain forest, aimed at the international school and university markets. · Educational merchandizing, for example the sale of products such as books, booklets, magazines, postcards, video CDs and posters about the rain forest through international catalogue orders. · Bioprospecting, involving the development of long-term equitable partnerships with groups that undertake commercial research on biodiversity in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc. · Biodiversity futures trading, involving the sale of rights to use the MBCA’s biodiversity resources sustainably in the distant future, to investors who expect the value of those rights to rise in the near future, with price increments being taxed. · Carbon storage , involving obtaining international grants or carbon emission credits for re-planting native trees in the buffer zone, or for putting the Maliau coal deposits and forests ‘beyond use’ under legal protection. · Grants, sponsorships and partnerships, involving a systematic quest for international grant financing and the recruitment of corporate sponsors and partners for discrete investments, such as educational, library, computing and research facilities, bridges, tree towers and canopy walkways, for long-term relationship building, and for senior staff secondments. · Use of trust funds, involving managing endowments to finance all aspects of the long-term management of the MBCA.

Most of these financing options are being addressed by the YS-DANCED project’s ongoing cost-benefit analysis, which aims to assess how Malaysia and Sabah may optimise the social use of the MBCA. This is defined in terms of the optimal balance between extractive and other environmentally damaging uses of the area, and the benefits accruing from conservation and non-consumptive uses. The analysts note that “the most important of the benefit components are recreational services, hydrological protection, genetic information embodied in ecosystems, carbon sequestering, and the existence value of biodiversity” (Frederiksen & Dubgaard, 2002), Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 107

and propose to assess market creation possibilities in these fields as well as using traditional benefit valuation. As the study progresses, and absorbs new options such as the international marketing and merchandizing of knowledge-based and educational goods and services, it is likely to contribute to the rationale for a comprehensive business plan and investment strategy for the sustainable financing mechanisms that has already been identified and is explored below.

These and other opportunities could be developed into an integrated sustainable financing strategy, and this strategy could feasibly generate funds sufficient to manage the area in perpetuity, while also contributing significantly to state revenues. As noted in Chapter 1, however, several of these opportunities are based on the application of global conservation and business practices developed over the past decade that have not yet been fully apprehended within Sabah. A comprehensive business plan will therefore be needed to explain, define and be used as a basis for implementing this financing strategy.

10.2 ECOTOURISM

At a time when tourism is rapidly increasing as a source of state revenue in Sabah, it is natural to look to it as the financial saviour of a conservation area like Maliau. This tendency is apt to be reinforced by such workers as Frederiksen and Dubgaard (2002), who assume as a starting point of social cost-benefit analysis that “the most important of the marketable goods [available within the MBCA] are undoubtedly the natural resource services demanded by nature- or eco-tourism”. It is clear however, that the constraints on tourism development existing both in law and in the ecological frailty of the Maliau Basin mean that large-scale tourism in this case is actually an option of last rather than of first resort. It is proposed, therefore, to shelve tourism development within the basin beyond the very limited measures described in Chapter 6, until such time as other sustainable financing options have been more fully explored.

In Chapter 6 it was argued that accommodation charges should be guided by ‘moderate international’ rates, and that this would mean something like US$ 45-60 per person-night for the target market of ‘knowledge-seekers’ as described, with various discounts being available to meet specified social aims, especially the participation of Malaysians and students. If the permitted number of visitor person nights within the basin is raised from 15 to 24 as proposed, and if it is assumed that US$ 35 is the average charge for one person-night in the area after all discounts have been factored in, then the earnable maximum from 8,760 person-nights per year would be US$ 306,600 (or RM 1,165,080).

More optimistic scenarios are possible – for example, Frederiksen and Dubgaard (2002) tripled the expected charge per person-night from US$ 35 to US$ 105, and increased to 30 the permitted number of overnight visitors, resulting in an expected maximum income from overnight tourists of nearly US$ 1.7 mi llion per year. An important factor is that investment will be required in facilities and staff to make earnings possible by bringing accommodation within the basin up to a standard appropriate to the target market, with higher charges requiring more investment in facilities and services. The model described in Chapter 6 assumes moderate investment in repairing Camel Trophy, in upgrading Bambangan and Ginseng camps, in wage and maintenance bills, and in trail hardening and easing work, for a total of about RM 1.2 million over three years, which would leave a small profit from expected visitation over the same period. Frederiksen and Dubgaard (2002), on the other hand, Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 108

assumed investment and other costs at an annualized rate of about US$ 263,500 (RM 3 million over three years), and a net income of over US$ 1.4 million per year.

Clearly this is a subject to be clarified through detailed business planning (or hands-on experience), but the main conclusion is that the limited tourism development within the basin as described in Chapter 6 is capable of paying for itself in financial terms, while perhaps contributing modestly to the running costs of the MBCA, and contributing non- financial conservation benefits as well. Tourism income could be pushed higher by changing the fundamental constraints on the number of overnight visitors permitted in the basin at any one time. With careful husbandry, even on risk-averse assumptions, tourism can yield an adequate and slowly but steadily increasing set of benefit steams that need not conflict with other initiatives, and may actually synergise with them.

10.3 EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

Only a minute fraction of the total number of people who are interested in the MBCA will ever actually go there. This does not mean that those who stay away cannot contribute, and raises the question of whether marketing the MBCA as a vicarious rather than a real-life experience might not be a sensible fund-raising strategy. These ‘virtual ecotourists’ could contribute strongly to three of the four sources of conservation benefit noted in Chapter 6, specifically to the growth of a national and international support network, the promotion of awareness, and the generation of revenues.

This approach is particularly interesting since the conservation benefits obtained are cost-free in terms of impacts on the MBCA. It is also immune to the other serious drawback of real-life tourists, which is that they can be scared away by terrorism, crime, disease, political instability and media-fuelled rumour, or just drift away due to the ever-increasing arduousness of international travel in a security-conscious age, greater awareness of its environmental impacts, or as a result of changing fashions. Selling rain forest based goods and services to stay-at-homes using proven marketing techniques may well be a more reliable and profitable approach. Some of these possibilities are discussed in this and the following section.

A typical market segment for the MBCA’s knowledge products would be the US school system, which has a total enrolment of over 53 million elementary and secondary students (Table 3; USDE, 1999). A similar number of students is enrolled in European schools, of which at least the British and Irish systems are taught in English, bringing the total Anglophone school population in the US and Europe to over 60 million, in hundreds of thousands of schools (with more in Canada, Australia and throughout the Commonwealth). For these, educational services developed in Sabah and offered in English could be directly useful.

Table 3: Elementary and Secondary Education Enrollment in the USA (in thousands)

1980 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Public 40,877 41,217 44,840 45,611 46,127 46,844 47,244

Private 5,331 5,232 5,662 5,783 5,860 5,924 5,971

Total 46,208 46,448 50,502 51,394 51,987 52,768 53,215

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The educational market for knowledge-based services could be very profitable, and schools would be an obvious target market. One option would be to offer access to web-casts presented by subject matter experts, aiming to be broadly in line with national curricula (Creatura, 2002a). A subscription of US$ 50 per year would be similar to that of a magazine and affordable for most school budgets. The content could be live feeds (once satellite communications are established) or archived highlights from web-cams in the MBCA, and regularly-scheduled live or archived web- casts with conservation area staff, resident naturalists or visiting scientists. Segments of 15-30 minutes would be appropriate for classroom lectures. By integrating collaborative features, students could exchange ideas with the experts and other students at the same level around the world, and adding an educator resource area would allow teachers to exchange their ideas with their peers.

Schools now have considerable capacity in terms of computer hardware and network access, but working teachers often report that they have trouble finding the right resources to use. With limited design effort and investment in hardware, software and marketing (quite possibly eligible for grant support by the US Department of Education19, European Commission or Commonwealth Secretariat), the MBCA could help meet this global demand. Even 20,000 subscriptions to such a service would yield US$ 1 million per year to the MBCA, and this is clearly a very modest number considering the size of the market.

Once a schools-oriented service is established, the same technology and marketing strategy could be used to offer a university-level distance-learning service, perhaps leading to affiliation with particular universities and the awarding of degrees based at least in part on remote learning. In other words, the MBCA can offer the rain forest as a combination lecture theatre, demonstration laboratory and museum, and sell the resulting learning opportunities.

To these approaches could be added a variety of other knowledge-based services, such as a subscriber-based satellite TV channel, and computerized learning, referencing and community work-space systems on tropical ecology, conservation, sustainable development and related subjects, for sale to schools, universities, local governments and NGOs throughout the tropical world, and to donor agencies engaged with them (Creatura, 2002b).

10.4 EDUCATIONAL MERCHANDIZING

Three catalogue-based, mail-order scholastic book clubs20 have the US school market at present, with almost total penetrance, representing a huge potential marketing resource (Creatura, 2002c). A suitable product from the MBCA, say an illustrated booklet and postcard pack, placed in one of these catalogues and priced at US$ 10, would likely sell at a considerable rate judging from the things that are currently bought from this source by middle-class American families, and even a 0.2 percent uptake per year would yield gross revenues of over US$ 1 million.

19 For example, the Star Schools Program, which covers more than 1.6 million learners annually. 20 Troll [www.troll.com], Trumpet Interm ediate [www.scholastic.com/athomeclubs] and Scholastic Arrow [www.scholastic.com]. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 110

In order to exploit this market fully, a range of products would be needed along with a packaging and dispatching infrastructure (of ‘fulfillment centres’) to respond reliably to orders. An extended line of products could be created, including books, booklets, magazi nes, postcards, video CDs, posters, interactive computer games and puzzles, drawing on all the information resources of the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley conservation areas and the Sabah Nature Club, and presented in an integrated catalogue. Yorath (1998) reviewed educational materials available at that time from Danum, and much more content and potential merchandize has since been generated by the Management of MBCA Project and the Sabah Nature Club, much of which is of marketable quality and is already being sold successfully through a small number of outlets in Sabah. The Conservation and Environmental Services Section at the Innoprise Corporation thus already possesses considerable assets, including copyright material, manufactured stock and staff resources capable of handling additional product and content development. These existing assets should be used to generate a suitable product range quickly and with minimal incremental investment.

The potential revenues obtainable from a committed and professionally-managed programme of international marketing using such a catalogue may well be very large. In terms of previous instances of successful marketing of product lines of this nature, key examples include the revenues obtained through merchandizing by the major conservation charities in the US (e.g. National Park Foundation, Audubon Society, Smithsonian Institution, Sierra Club) and internationally (WWF, TNC , CI, etc.). The approach clearly works, and the only real issue is whether the necessary investment in marketing is affordable in practice, in Sabah.

10.5 BIOPROSPECTING

The potential role of bioprospecting in sustainable conservation financing can be made clearer by considering the case of Costa Rica, which is the world leader among countries that have deliberately set out to develop bioprospecting partnerships. Costa Rica established its National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) in late 1989 as a non-profit, public-interest corporation21 (Gámez et al., 1993), which subsequently forged partnerships with a series of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (ten Kate and Laird, 1999), including: · Merck & Co. in 1991; · Bristol Myers-Squibb in 1993; · Givaudane Roure in 1994; · La Pacifica and the British Technology Group in 1994; · INDENA in 1996; · Analyticon in 1996; · Phytera in 1998; and · the Diversa Corporation in 1995 and 1998.

These partnerships were authorized by a framework agreement between INBio and the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) under the Wildlife Law of 1992 and the

21 A legal status not dissimilar to Yayasan Sabah and its subsidiary corporations. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 111

Biodiversity Law of 199822. Under this agreement, 10% of all bioprospecting budgets and 50% of all income from royalties are paid to MINAE for conservation purposes. Between 1991 and 1999, INBio’s bioprospecting agreements contributed more than US$ 390,000 to MINAE, US$ 710,000 to conservation areas, US$ 710,000 to public universities, and US$ 740,000 to other groups at INBio, a total of US$ 2.55 million.

These amounts seem small given the large sums involved in bioprospecting investments – it takes an average of about US$ 500 million to bring a new pharmaceutical product to market in the USA, for example. The reason for this is probably a combination of the ‘early days’ nature of the whole enterprise (given that it also takes an average of 12-13 years to develop a new pharmaceutical product), and the fact that INBio has chosen to take many up-front payments in kind, as technology transfer and training, rather than as cash. It is also not clear how comprehensive is the public accounting that yielded these figures, since the details of INBio’s agreements are well-maintained commercial secrets. Nevertheless, it can be seen that even a pilot scheme, with everything being invented in the process, is capable of generating significant financial returns, while laying the groundwork for large profits later on.

Looked at from the perspective of one of INBio’s partners, the 1995 agreement committed the Diversa Corporation to three years’ sampling soil and water with INBio, the samples being processed at the Diversa laboratories in San Diego, California. The 1998 agreement, however, committed Diversa to set up a DNA processing laboratory at INBio’s HQ near San José, Costa Rica, which is in line with INBio’s longstanding policy to internalize within Costa Rica as much of the research and development process as possible, believing this to be at least as great a source of long-term income as any royalty system is likely to produce. The INBio-Diversa agreement was the first of its kind in the field of gene prospecting, and was the model for later contracts between Diversa and the State of Alaska and Yellowstone National Park in the USA, Bermuda, Indonesia, Russia, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa.

These agreements give Diversa the rights to discover genes and commercialize products from environmental samples, in exchange for which Diversa supports the ongoing bioprospecting activities of local organizations and their collaborators, and pays royalties on revenues from any products developed from samples provided. Diversa’s approach is to capture DNA directly from the environment and then to clone it, using ultra-high- throughput robotic screening systems to identify new enzymes and bioactive compounds expressed from both single genes and gene pathways. Interesting compounds are then licenced to client companies in the pharmaceutical, seed, crop protection and biotechnology sectors. Under the terms of both the 1995 and 1998 agreements, INBio collects samples using its own techniques and proprietary technology provided by Diversa, which INBio guarantees not to use in collecting or processing samples for other companies. INBio is otherwise free to provide other companies with DNA from the same environments.

All DNA sequences, isolated by INBio for Diversa, become Diversa property, but all microorganisms isolated from the sites remain the property of Costa Rica. In return for this access, Diversa pays the salary and overheads of at least one INBio staff member, a contribution to INBio’s core costs, and will pay undisclosed royalties to INBio if Diversa licences to a client a product based on samples from INBio. Diversa also provides INBio

22 In Sabah, the equivalent regulatory entity would be the Sabah Biodiversity Council and the equivalent law would be the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment, 2000. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 112

with non-monetary benefits including technology, equipment for a molecular biology laboratory, training and access to Diversa’s DNA sequencing facility.

It is clear from the case study material that the practice of establishing bioprospecting agreements has been quite well explored, that partnerships are feasible between institutions in biodiversity-rich tropical countries and international bioprospecting corporations, and that these partnerships can bring considerable benefits to the country that holds the biodiversity resource. In the case of Costa Rica, the first ten years’ benefits have included at least US$ 2.55 million in cash, plus various forms of inward technology transfer, training and personnel support, in addition to the development of a more strategic capacity to absorb an increasing share of the research and development investment associated with each new pharmaceutical ‘prospect’. Lastly, a stake is retained in the long-term success of the bioprospecting initiative through the contracting of royalties on any profits that may later be made (Table 4). It would be surprising if Sabah, with the benefit of all this experience, could not achieve results at least as favourable but in much less time, using the biodiversity resources of the MBCA.

Table 4: Bioprospecting royalties by category of sample provided (adapted from ten Kate & Laird, 1999:216 and 252) Nature of sample provided Range of royalties a) General bioprospecting Raw samples (e.g. dried plants, soil samples) Nil to 3% Extracts (organic or aqueous) Nil to 3% Materials with ethnobotanical information 0.25-3% Results of screens provided with materials 0.5 -3% Identified bioactive compound with known structure/activity 0.5 -2% Identified pheromones 2.5 -3% Greenhouse data supplied with biotech compound 1-6% Field-tested and identified bioactive compound 2-15% Commercial product supplied 5-50% b) Biotechnological bioprospecting Raw samples 0.025-0.1% Isolated strains 0.1 -0.9% (esp. 0.1-0.2%) Active strains/biochemical data 0.1 -8% (esp. 1-5%) Gene sequence Nil to 8% (esp. 0.4 -3%) Purified enzyme/protein Nil to 8% (esp. 0.5-1%) Commercial product 5-10% (esp. 5%)

10.6 BIODIVERSITY FUTURES TRADING

A permanent and credible commitment to the protection of the MBCA by the state government creates opportunities for long-term financing. This is because the area would become a candidate for ‘green chip’ investment in what will become increasingly sophisticated use of biodiversity in the future. This investment need not take the form of actual projects on the ground, as in the bioprospecting programme, and may instead be of a more speculative nature. In this approach, investors would be offered the opportunity to profit in the immediate future from an anticipated increase in the value of rights to use biodiversity in the distant future. One way to do this would be to offer ‘biodiversity bonds’ for sale on a private ‘BioBourse’, the basic idea being as follows (Creatura, 2002d).

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Each Maliau Biodiversity Bond would allow the owner to use the biodiversity of an area of rain forest, perhaps one hectare in the interior of the Maliau Basin (or within its ‘heritage zone’), in any sustainable way at a distant time in the future, say the year 3000. Criteria of sustainable use would be determined during the previous year (in this case, the year 2999), in the light of human knowledge at that time, but with respect to all commitments made in 1997-2002 to preserve the area in perpetuity. The information contained in these protected ecosystems is expected to become more and more valuable over time, and the Bonds would allow the foresightful investor to profit from the advance of human enterprise using this information resource. They will appreciate in a free market because of the increasing pace of discoveries on the utility of rain forest biodiversity, and also because of the declining worldwide supply of this resource during an era of mass extinction.

The Bonds would be offered to investors at some reasonable price (say US$ 100 each, in which case a 10,000 ha heritage zone could yield US$ 1 million), with net proceeds going to the Conservation Area Trust Fund (see below). They would be certified by the Government of Sabah, which would record all transactions concerning them through the Maliau BioBourse, a high-security web-site, fully e-commerce enabled and linked to the major international bourses and brokerages. The BioBourse is where all transactions and changes of ownership would be recorded in an encrypted fashion. The Bonds would be heritable and tradeable only through the BioBourse, with a two percent commission payable by the purchaser on the Bond price at each transaction, and an eight percent tax payable by the vendor on price increments arising at each transaction. Scientific advances and company results that may affect prices would be updated daily on the maliau.org website, and would include worldwide bioprospecting discoveries, patents and the declared profits of patent holders. Tax revenues collected by the BioBourse would be divided equally between the Government of Sabah and the Conservation Area Trust Fund. The same mechanism could be used for the Danum Valley Conservation Area.

Start -up costs would include designing the BioBourse, acquiring and developing software, acquiring and installing hardware, and international advertising. In return for this investment, a mechanism would have been established to capture revenues continually from the predicted steady, long-term increase in globally perceived option and bequest values for tropical biodiversity. There is no way to predict exactly how successful this mechanism would be without trying it, but the scale of worldwide speculative investments in futures markets for all kinds of commodities (many of them very intangible), and the logic of increasing value and decreasing availability that applies to tropical biodiversity, would seem to be grounds for optimism.

10.7 CARBON STORAGE

The environmental, social and economic costs of climate change anticipated from a human-induced increase in carbon-based greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are extremely large and likely to become larger over time (Houghton et al., 1996). The international community has therefore been seeking ways both to reduce the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere, and to increase the amount that is stored within living systems such as forests. One consequence of the resulting international dialogue is that various ideas for off-setting carbon emissions against carbon storage mechanisms have been explored (Moura Costa et al., undated). Yayasan Sabah has already benefitted from this to some extent, through investments in reduced-impact logging and forest re-planting by the New England Power Company and the Forests Absorbing Carbon-dioxide Emissions (FACE) Foundation (Moura Costa, 1996). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 114

The international community has been steadily working towards a global carbon trading system to help reduce net worldwide emissions through market-based mechanisms to complement other more direct me asures (Moura Costa & Stuart, undated). This whole family of approaches is often referred to as the ‘clean development mechanism’ (CDM), and their outputs as CDM credits, carbon offsets, carbon credits or certified emission reductions (CERs). These CERs are intended to be tradable, the idea being that institutions able to claim the establishment of a carbon store (or ‘sink’) will be able to sell them to other institutions that require the right to emit more carbon than they would otherwise be allowed to do. The cost of the CERs would therefore provide an incentive for purchasers to reduce emissions in future, for example by investing in cleaner technologies, or in the case of developing countries to generate their own CERs, for example by planting forests or protecting coral reefs. The use of CERs would also allow companies to take advantage of fiscal and publicity benefits, and industrial- country governments to claim net carbon emission reductions.

This whole approach received a setback in 2001 when the US pulled out of negotiations to implement the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and another in 2002 with the US-backed removal of the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Without US participation, CER prices are likely to be depressed for at least several years, possibly in the US$ 4 per tonne (t-1) range (Anon., 2001b). This would be a sharp reversal of historical trends, which saw prices evolve from around US$ 0.20 t-1 paid through voluntary mechanisms in the late 1980s, to US$ 2.60 t-1 in pioneer investments in the early 1990s, to US$ 10-16 t-1 before Kyoto in 1997, and to US$ 20-25 t-1 after Kyoto in the late 1990s (Moura Costa & Stuart, undated).

Since the US withdrawal, a parallel carbon trading and investment system is starting to emerge in the US, reflecting the fact that energy companies and others expect binding arrangements compatible with Kyoto to emerge eventually, and wish to position themselves appropriately. There is also the factor that individual US states and cities are beginning to pass laws that commit themselves to reduced carbon emissions, without the need for international agreements, and may therefore be seeking to make carbon storage investments in ways that meet their own criteria, some of which could potentially benefit the MBCA.

The current situation, then, is that all the industrial countries agree that net carbon emissions must be reduced and that some form of tradeable emission or sequestration mechanism is feasible as a means of doing so, even though the method of calculating carbon storage (or release) in relation to land use, and especially forest management, remains uncertain (e.g. Pinard & Putz, 1996; Commonwealth Forestry Association, 1998; Healey et al., 2000; Watson et al., 2000; Yamagata & Alexandrov, 2001). Nevertheless, EU energy producers in particular are bound by Kyoto Protocol guidelines, and are therefore facing near-term emission-capping issues, which means that credible CERs must necessarily become an increasingly desirable commodity.

The question arises, therefore, of how activities in or around the MBCA could yield net carbon benefits that might result in CERs, or some equivalent source of income tied to avoided carbon emissions. The key point is the credible certification of additionality – that is, whatever the net emission reduction may be, it must be additional to the ‘business as usual’ or baseline scenario (Moura Costa et al., undated). Hence, the carbon stored in the MBCA either as forest or as coal cannot be claimed because it is already contained within a protected area. Likewise, the use of ‘reduced impact Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 115

logging’ (RIL ) in the buffer zone, which causes fewer carbon emissions than alternative logging processes, cannot be used for this purpose because Sabah is already committed to practicing RIL in all its remaining commercial forests.

Two options remain for creating carbon credits from buffer zone management. One would involve reversing the current policy of logging the remaining unlogged forests of the inner and outer buffer zone23. There are abundant conservation reasons to do this, notably because it would greatly simplify the task of protecting the MBCA from fire, while enhancing biological connectedness in the landscape around the basin. Additional carbon storage benefits of such a decision might amount to about a million tonnes, assuming that avoided RIL would occur over 100 square km of forest, and save 40% of 25,000 tonnes of carbon per square km.

The other way to use carbon storage would be to re-plant native24 trees in the logged buffer zone forests, either using internal investments in the hope of earning CERs directly and then selling them, or by receiving grants for the purpose in the manner pioneered by Yayasan Sabah and the FACE Foundation through INFAPRO. Unless Sabah then receives a share of the CERs, the chief benefit for Sabah in the latter case would be the receipt of rehabilitated forest areas that would yield a more valuable timber harvest (or a more valuable ‘conservation harvest’ in terms of species survival and fire protection) in future years.

At the time of writing, however, the international position with respect to carbon market creation is complex and dynamic, and no final position has emerged especially as it involves governmental participation and certification of investments. For the present, therefore, it may be that the most effective way to use carbon stores within and beneath the MBCA in fund raising, is as an attractant for grants.

10.8 GRANTS, SPONSORSHIPS AND PARTNERSHIPS

The MBCA is an attractive prospect for grant financing. It is located, biologically speaking, in the richest part of the richest island in the world, and global willingness to pay for the conservation of biodiversity in general and endangered species in particular is steadily increasing. To the marketability of the MBCA can be added the carbon storage value of coal and forest, which would be attractive to donors interested in ‘saving the world’ rather more urgently than the inter -governmental negotiations on clean development are likely to achieve.

Hence it can be said that there are funds potentially available internationally, but that accessing them will require a focussed approach of sufficient quality to out-compete other applicants for the same resources. Although Sabah and Malaysia are too rich to be eligible for many of the easier sources of international funding (soft loans and anti- poverty grants), the sheer scale of the biodiversity resource and the high likelihood that donations will be used effectively will tend to encourage donors to invest in Sabah, if the message is presented to them correctly.

The key to obtaining non-market resources is to match the particular needs of the potential donor in each case to an appropriate selection of the needs of the MBCA. In

23 The government indicated a cessation of logging in the inner buffer zone in April 2002. 24 Re-planting non-native trees would be contrary to ITTO guidelines and all conservation principles. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 116

other words, donors have agendas too, and will give only in ways that are compatible with their own institutional interests, which must therefore be understood. Each programme and sub-programme defined in the Strategic Plan may appeal to a different set of potential donors (pure research, biodiversity inventories, environmental education, protection, support zone development, infrastructure construction, etc.). Some may even find attractive the whole, integrated package, and be willing to fund undifferentiated core costs or to capitalize a trust fund. Nevertheless, finding potential donors, understanding their needs and procedures, preparing properly-formatted proposals and delivering them to the right people against inflexible deadli nes is a significant task, requiring dedicated and competent personnel. Such personnel may well pay for themselves many times over through results, but investment will still be required.

Cases in point include government budget lines managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (e.g. the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund under Public Law 105-96, and the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund under Public Law 103-391, both with about US$ 970,000 available in 2000), the Commission of the European Communities (e.g. the Tropical Forests budget line), and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (e.g. the Environmental Protection Fund and Darwin Initiative budget lines). Yayasan Sabah would be eligible to apply for grants from all of these and many others, yet each application would require at least several days’ work by someone. The same would apply to the many international non-governmental donors in biodiversity conservation (some of the larger and more appropriate ones being TNC, CI, WWF, FFI and WCS). Add to this the need to track changing priorities at each donor, to maintain all-important personal relationships at each, and to build long-term partnerships and alliances with selected institutions, and the need is clear for a full-time, professional donor liaison capacity within the Conservation and Environmental Services Section at Innoprise.

The terms of reference of staff having that role should also include building relationships with corporations that may wish to sponsor particular needs at the MBCA, such as library, computing and research facilities, or bridges, paths, tree towers and canopy walkways. Where new staff positions are required, there is the possibility of filling them by means of senior staff secondments, which may be wholly or partly sponsored. Examples include the World Bank’s Staff Exchange Programme (SEP), in which a Bank staff member is identified as suitable for a particular role and confirms their interest in undertaking it. His or her director has to agree to their secondment for 1-2 years and to guarantee re-entry to the Bank at the end of the assignment. If this is achieved, the SEP manager25 is approached, and if she agrees in principal a letter is required formally requesting the staff, explaining why the assignment would be in the interest of both parties, and indicating how much the host organization would be willing to contribute (usually less than half of the total employment package). Recent World Bank SEP appointments in the biodiversity ‘sector’ have included the Director General of the Iwokrama International Institute for Rainforest Conservation and Development, and the South-east Asian Regional Director of Fauna and Flora International.

An emerging global trend is towards long-term partnerships between private corporations and civic society, including communities, local government institutions and non-profit or charitable institutions. This is built around the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), in which it is recognized that private corporations may have a duty to compete with each other, but they do not have the right to compete with society as a

25 currently Ms Pauline Ramprasad Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 117

whole, and indeed have a duty (like any other citizen) to affirm and support the interests of society to the extent permitted by their resources and powers. Corporations often now understand that if they wish to exercise the right to operate in any particular community or environment they have responsibilities towards that community or environment. Early expressions often took the form of one-off grants to particular social causes, which tended to gave rise to unequal and dependent relationships between donor and recipient. This approach is giving way to CSR-based strategies of long-term partnership, in which corporations and civil institutions recognize their mutual dependence and routinely work together to solve common problems and exchange assistance to meet the unique needs of each. One international organization that specializes in introducing to one another civil groups and corporations with complimentary needs, is Living Earth (www.livingearth.org.uk).

Partnerships between public-interest institutions can also have an important role, especially where they involve two or more groups in the global ‘south’ which have common interests and are facing shared challenges. Biodiverse, tropical countries, for example, may need to develop ways to advance their interests that are different from those proposed by the biodiversity-poor but economically-powerful global ‘north’. In areas such as bioprospecting and resistance to biopiracy, the sustainable management of tropical forest ecosystems, development of innovative financing mechanisms, and training of conservation area staff, most recent innovation has come from institutions in tropical countries. Two that would be particularly relevant to the evolution of the MBCA (and the conservation sector more generally in Sabah) are: · The National Biodiversity Institute (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INBio) in Costa Rica. (www.inbio.ac.cr). Founded in 1989, INBio was described in Section 10.5 as a world leader in developing fair, equitable and effective partnerships with bioprospecting corporations. In becoming so, it has had to develop viable arrangements for intellectual property rights, access and benefit sharing, as well as overcoming a broad range of technical, legal and financial challenges in its arrangements with private and public institutions both national and international. Lessons from this experience will be highly relevant in Sabah. · The IwokramaError! Bookmark not defined. International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development in Guyana (www.iwokrama.org). Iwokrama has its origin in the 1989 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kuala Lumpur, at which the Government of Guyana offered to set aside 360,000 ha of tropical moist forest for the use of the international community as a proving ground for techniques of conservation and sustainable use. Iwokrama as an institution is hence confronting many of the same issues as Yayasan Sabah, reflecting its mandate as an international centre for research applied to the issue of sustainably managing its rain forest concession in equitable partnership with various stakeholders and investors, and achieving sustainable self-financing by doing so. Thus research, partnership-building and sustainable income generation are all necessary, and necessarily integrated, aspects of Iwokrama’s mission, and interchange of views and experience between Yayasan Sabah and Iwokrama may be very helpful to both sides. Further details on Iwokrama’s business planning process and its relevance to Sabah are given in Section 10.10.

10.9 TRUST FUNDS AND ENDOWMENTS

In recent years it has become clear that the endowment of trust funds and trust-like mechanisms offers an important way for conservation areas to secure long-term, stable financing, which is a key fact or in effective management. A review of 13 such funds by Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 118

the Global Environment Facility (GEF, 1998) concluded that they are often the most efficient way to achieve long-term conservation aims, and should continue to be financed if the circumstances meet the following four essential conditions: · the issue to be addressed requires a commitment of at least 10-15 years; · there is active government support for a public-private sector mechanism outside direct government control; · there is a critical mass of people from diverse sectors of society who can work together to achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable development; and · there is a basic fabric of legal and financial practices and supporting institutions (including banking, auditing, and contracting) in which people have confidence.

All four of these conditions are met by the MBCA. Although the Strategic Plan itself focusses on the next 10 years, it explicitly aims to begin processes such as support zone development, bioprospecting, and fire hazard reduction that require a much longer-term perspective. Meanwhile, Sabah has a history of making innovative institutional arrangements to harness the flexibility of corporate mechanisms to the regulatory authority of government, and Yayasan Sabah in particular is oriented to partnerships with the private sector. Lastly, the skills and institutional capacities available locally are clearly capable of supporting long-term biodiversity conservation activities and the management of substantial investment portfolios. It is therefore concluded that a Conservation Area Trust Fund should be established to act as a sustainable financing mechanism for all aspects of the long-term management of the MBCA, and that its legal basis, potential means for its capitalization, and protocols for its operation be clarified as soon as possible.

10.10 BUSINESS PLANNING

All of the ideas discussed above have the potential to generate net income over the next five years. It is possible to be reasonably clear about the level of investment required in each case, and to speculate about the possible scale of return on these investments, but further details will require the preparation of a comprehensive business plan. An international model for this approach is the preparation, in 1997, of a ten-year business plan for the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development in Guyana, at the same time as a five year management plan was comp leted for Iwokrama’s 360,000 hectare rain forest concession. The business plan was then used successfully as a tool with which to attract major grants from the British and Canadian governments, the International Tropical Timber Organization and the European Commission (Caldecott et al ., 2001). These grants were then used to implement programmes specified in the management plan. The Iwokrama business plan was flawed in some ways – for example, by positing a bioprospecting programme (which the EC later funded) without addressing the ownership of biodiversity resources or the terms of accessing them26 – yet the exercise provided a useful opportunity to examine in detail the rationale for investment in various activities, the scale and pattern of investment needed, and the anticipated returns. A similar strategy is proposed here, and terms of reference for preparing a suitable business plan are given in (Annex 9).

Table 5 summarizes the kinds of investments likely to be needed in each of the enterprise fields discussed above, and relates them to an estimate of the potential

26 This was later corrected through a study of IPR, access and benefit sharing issues (Caldecott, 2002b). Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 119

returns available in each field, with the following conclusions. Two fields appear to have especially high revenue potential, these being educational services and educational merchandizing, simply because of the very large available market. It would be surprising if a determined marketing effort in these areas would yield less than US$ 2 million per year, and not unsurprising if total revenues were five or more ti mes that within five years. Most of the other fields are judged to have low to moderate earning potential, each in the range of US$ 0.35-1.4 million per year, for a total earning capacity of US$ 1.4-4.4 million per year.

The exception is biodiversity fut ures marketing, where it is simply unknown if an offering of Bonds will be ignored (causing a loss) or snapped up by the market (causing a substantial windfall gain), or whether or not prices would increase during the relevant time interval, and if so by how much. What is certain is that investment would likely be quite low (probably less than US$ 100,000), publicity gains quite substantial, and that past offerings of ‘shares’ or ‘adoption papers’ for protected rain forests by conservation NGOs (Earthlife, WWF and others) have been quite successful, making it likely that the investment cost would be recouped at the very least. There is also uncertainty over the long-term earning potential of bioprospecting for the conservation sector, even though global revenues to corporations derived from bioprospecting activities in the recent past amount to many billions of dollars annually. The prospect of participating in such benefits has caused Costa Rica and Sarawak to take determined steps to position themselves in the market, so the inference must be that sufficient potential exists if appropriate arrangements are made.

Success in all of these enterprise fields except ecotourism will depend primarily on marketing investment and secondarily on product development. By contrast, ecotourism is constrained not by demand but by the facilities available, which are in turn constrained by law and the ecological frailty of the area. Hence ecotourism investment is limited to putting in place permitted accommodation, trails and services, and pricing them according to the desired target market. In the other fields, the primary focus of the business plan will be the delivery of professional international marketing and product development and distribution services, at least cost for most gain. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 120

Table 5: Investments and potential returns in a sustainable financing strategy

Enterprise field Nature of investment Potential returns Comments

Ecotourism Up-grade Low to moderate Cap on visitor nights per year; accommodation within (US$ 0.35-1.4 investment in facilities of basin; harden and ease million/year, not different quality relates to trail system; employ including possible target market and charges resident naturalists public access to per person-night Maliau Falls).

Educational International marketing High (US$ 1.0 -5.0 Target market is 60+ million services manager, hardware, million/year) Anglophone school and software, content and university students in several subscriptions hundred thousand managers, global educational institutions marketing effort

Educational International marketing High (US$ 1.0-5.0 Target market is 60+ million merchandizing manager, content million/year) Anglophone school and manager, production university students in several unit, order fulfillment hundred thousand centres, global educational institutions marketing effort

Bioprospecting Bioprospecting Low to moderate Balance between up-front development manager, (US$ 0.35-1.0 (access) payments, milestone negotiation costs million/year) in payments and royalties, and medium term; high between cash and in-kind in long term receipts depends on partnerships

Biodiversity Hardware, software, Low to moderate Low initial investment could futures trading international advertizing (loss to US$ 1.0 create a new way to capture million on initial biodiversity option, bequest offering of 20,000 and existence values with Bonds; zero to US$ high publicity value and many 0.02 million/year) other applications

Carbon storage Global marketing effort Low to moderate Windfall investments are (US$ 0.35-1.0 possible; otherwise used as million/year) grant attractant

Grants, Manager of donor Low to moderate Mainly available for specific sponsorships liaison, partnership (US$ 0.35-1.0 projects, rather than for core and partnerships development and grant million/year) funding applications

OVERVIEW US$ 0.5-1.0 Range US$ 3.4- With strong management, million/year, mainly in 14.0 million/year returns are likely to be contract staff and proportional to investment; marketing costs possible loss in years 1-2, rising to maximum profitability by year 5 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 121

The Yayasan Sabah family already possesses abundant potentially-saleable educational merchandize and experienced staff who are able to create more. Sabah in general also clearly possesses people who are well able to manage donor liaison, sponsorship negotiations, grant applications, subscriptions, educational content and materials production tasks. What might be lacking in immediate availability may be specialized professionals able to lead the establishment of global marketing programmes, bioprospecting partnerships, and the design and implementation of web- based solutions to educational broadcasts and bond trading. These services might logically be purchased under international contract, with a training provision to ensure full localization of these services by the time their profitability is fully developed. A complementary or alternative strategy would be to make arrangements with private groups to manage the production, distribution and sale of various goods and services, with a share of global revenues being returned to the MBCA.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 122

Annexes

Annex 1: Draft Action Plan 2003-2005

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 1. Development and infrastructure 1.1 Maliau Basin Studies Centre (MBSC) 1.1.1 Phase 1 construction (site preparation, etc.) 1.1.2 Phase 2 construction (building works, etc.) 1.1.3 Nursery establishment 1.1.4 Maintenance of MBSC facilities 1.2 Visitor Reception & Information Centre (VRIC) 1.3 Road (Security Gate and VRIC to MBSC) 1.3.1 Construction 1.3.2 Maintenance 1.4 Access to Maliau Falls27 1.4.1 Trail survey, preparation and construction 1.4.2 Suspension bridge 1.4.3 C onstruct day-shelters 1.4.4 Steps and other trail easing installations 1.4.5 Camp construction near Maliau Falls 1.4.6 Maintenance of access facilities 1.5 Agathis-Camel Trophy trail 1.5.1 Repair trail

27 This sub-programme would require review and confirmation by the Maliau Basin Management Committee. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 123

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 1.5.2 Suspension bridge at Agathis end of trail 1.5.3 Bridge at Camel Trophy end of trail 1.5.4 Replace trail easing installations 1.5.5 Construct d ay shelters 1.6 Other trails 1.6.1 Camel Trophy-Rafflesia (repair & maintenance) 1.6.2 Rafflesia-Bambangan (repair & maintenance) 1.6.3 Agathis-Ginseng (repair & maintenance) 1.6.4 Riverine trail (repair & maintenance) 1.7 Nature trails 1.7.1 Maliau Basin Studies Centre 1.7.2 Agathis 17.3 Jalan Babi 1.8 Other camps 1.8.1 Camel Trophy (upgrade) 1.8.2 Camel Trophy (repair tree platform) 1.8.3 Agathis (upgrade) 1.8.4 Agathis (field laboratory) 1.8.5 Belian (construct) 1.8.6 Ginseng (move or upgrade) 1.8.7 Rafflesia (upgrade) 1.8.8 Camp maintenance 1.9 Ranger posts 1.9.1 Sg Kuamut 1 (construction) 1.9.2 Sg Kuamut 2 (construction) 1.10 Other items 1.10.1 Tree platform (MBSC) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 124

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 1.10.2 Canopy walkway (across river from MBSC)28 1.10.3 Fire tower (Km 5 or ‘W’ Point) 1.10.4 Observation platform (Jalan Babi) 1.10.5 Suspension bridge over Sg Maliau at MBSC29 2. Human Resource Development & Training30 2.1 Basic capacity-building courses 2.1.1 Orientation (refresher) 2.1.2 Orientation (new staff) 2.1.3 Team building 2.1.4 English language 2.1.5 Interpersonal communication skills 2.1.6 Report & proposal writing 2.1.7 Management & organizational skills 2.1.8 Clerical and accounting skills 2.1.9 Computer skills 2.2 Field capacity courses 2.2.1 Search, rescue & first aid skills 2.2.2 Mapping, orienteering & survey skills 2.2.3 Advanced patient management skills 2.2.4 Fighting forest fires 2.3 Visitor management & education courses 2.3.1 Interpretation & guiding

28 This item would require review and confirmation by the Maliau Basin Management Committee. 29 This item would require review and confirmation by the Maliau Basin Management Committee. 30 See notes following this table. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 125

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 2.3.2 Hospitality skills for field and rest house 2.3.3 Environmental education & outreach 2.4 Technical courses 2.4.1 Faunal inventory & survey techniques 2.4.2 Floral inventory & survey techniques 2.4.3 Techniques of phenology 2.4.4 Tree identification 2.4.5 Herbarium & curation techniques 2.4.6 Data management 2.4.7 Library management 2.5 Safety and maintenance courses 2.5.1 Risk assessment 2.5.2 Use of equipment 2.5.3 Maintaining trails 2.5.4 Maintaining buildings 2.5.5 Maintaining signs 2.5.6 Store inventory maintenance 2.5.7 Safety in fire emergencies 2.5.8 Vehicle maintenance 2.6 Specialized courses 2.6.1 Photography 2.6.2 Swimming 2.6.3 Nursery skills 2.6.4 Gardening & landscaping 2.6.5 Tree climbing 2.6.6 Fire fighting leadership 2.6.7 Study tours Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 126

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 2.6.8 Honorary Wildlife Warden 3. Public Awareness and Environmental Education 3.1 Web-site development 3.1.1 Optimize web-site design and search engines 3.1.2 e-commerce enable 3.1.3 Establish order-fulfillment capacity 3.1.4 Develop Internet sales 3.1.5 Friends of Maliau home page & e-newsletter 3.2 Local outreach 3.2.1 Annual sports activities 3.2.2 Use of MBSC for local teachers 3.2.3 Use of MBSC for local students 3.2.4 Visit to MBSC & DVFC by community leaders 3.2.5 Other local outreach activities 3.3 Materials production and sale 3.3.1 Prepare teacher’s env. Ed. pack 3.3.2 Prepare materials for MBSC display/use 3.3.3 Prepare materials for VRIC display/use 3.3.4 Sale of educational merchandize 3.4 Nature trails: signs and booklets 3.4.1 MBSC nature trail 3.4.2 Agathis nature trail 3.4.3 Jalan Babi nature trail 3.5 Special events 3.5.1 Official opening (MBSC) 3.5.2 Official opening (VRIC) 3.5.3 World Heritage Site listing ceremony Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 127

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 3.6 Ongoing activities 3.17 Ongoing media & VIP visits, mobile exhibitions 3.18 Ongoing book, booklet, poster, etc. production 3.19 Annual Report 4. Research and Environmental Monitoring 4.1 Research coordination 4.1.1 Research Committee (established) 4.1.2 Research Strategy (finalized and published) 4.1.3 Research protocols (agreed with Bdv Council) 4.1.4 Research Prospectus (MBSC & DVFC) 4.1.5 MoU with Harvard herbaria operates 4.1.6 Appoint Research Coordinator/Manager 4.2 Research/field activities 4.2.1 JICA Scientific Expedition 4.2.2 UMS – Jupailin Naiman (MSc) 4.2.3 UMS – Chang (MSc) 4.2.4 UMS - Norhaidah Maral (MSc) 4.2.5 UMS - other 4.2.6 External volunteers 4.3 Laboratory and equipment 4.3.1 Field equipment 4.3.2 Laboratory equipment 4.3.3 Maintain laboratory 4.4 Environmental monitoring 4.4.1 Environmental monitoring designed 4.4.2 Weather (quarterly downloads) 4.4.3 Weather (annual reports) Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 128

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 4.4.4 Phenology (fruiting, flowering, leaf-flushing) 4.4.5 Changing wildlife abundance 4.4.6 Selected indicator species 4.4.7 Selected species of concern 4.4.8 Continuation of camera-trapping programme 4.4.9 Transect routes 4.5 Encroachment monitoring 4.5.1 Encroachment monitoring designed 4.5.2 Boundaries & boundary penetration 4.5.3 Internal signs of intrusion 4.6 Fire risk monitoring 4.6.1 Fire risk monitoring programme designed 4.6.2 Weather indicators 4.6.3 Microclimate indicators 4.6.4 Fire starting 4.7 Data, information & knowledge management 4.7.1 Database protocols & architecture designed 4.7.2 Climate database maintained 4.7.3 Water level database maintained 4.7.4 Plant/fungi speci es lists maintained 4.7.5 Vertebrate/invertebrate species lists maintained 4.7.6 Phenology database maintained 4.7.7 Wildlife abundance database maintained 4.7.8 Indicator species database maintained 4.7.9 Species of concern database maintained 4.7.10 Camera trap photo -library maintained 4.7.11 Transect database maintained Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 129

Draft Action Plan 2003-2005 for M anagement of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and Buffer Zone (prepared by the Conservation and Environmental Services Section, Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd).

Year and Quarter, 2002-2005 (plus indicative continuing activities) Programme 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1-4 1-4 4.7.12 Annual reports 4.8 Library management 4.8.1 Existing holdings housed at MBSC 4.8.2 On-line catalogue (integrated with DVFC) 4.8.3 Books purchased or donated 4.8.4 Journal subscriptions renewed

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 130

Notes on Programme 2 (Human Resource Development and Training) of the draft Action Plan 2003-2005:

2.1 Basic capacity-building courses

2.1.1 Orientation (refresher). Present staff need to become familiar with the roles of all management teams. Temporary attachment to similar projects is also recommended to places such as to Danum Valley Field Centre or Kinabalu Park.

2.1.2 Orientation (new staff). Conservation is a profession like no other, in the diversity and complexity of the tasks invol ved, its long-term perspective, and its attention to the needs of diverse non-human as well as human stakeholders. All new recruits should therefore undergo a month’s basic orientation training (and aptitude evaluation) before being given specific assignments. New recruits need to undergo a full orientation programme, involving a week’s attachment to each of the five MBCA management teams.

2.1.3 Team Building. A team building workshop has been conducted for both senior and junior staff, which has proven effective in raising awareness of the importance of importance of communication, cooperation, listening, etc. (see Forum, 2001a, b). This should be repeated annually.

2.1.4 English language . In English language training, levels of linguistic competence are assessed as follows: · Level 7, Proficient (Cambridge ‘Proficiency in English’): extremely fluent, large vocabulary, full understanding, easily understood, ease of colloquial conversation. · Level 6, Advanced (Cambridge ‘Advanced English’): fluent, wide vocabulary, very good understanding, easily understood, ease of conversation with colloquial elements. · Level 5, Upper Intermediate 2 (Cambridge ‘First Certificate’): moderately fluent, able to understand most concepts and express clearly but simply on most subjects. · Level 4, Upper Intermediate (just above Cambridge ‘Preliminary Certificate’): adequate but halting understanding and expression on most subjects. · Level 3, Intermediate (just below Cambridge ‘Preliminary Certificate’): moderate understanding and expression in most everyday situations. · Level 2, Elementary: basic understanding, vocabulary, grammar and expression. · Level 1, Beginners: virtually no English.

Language training assumptions include the following: · To be effective, teachers are assumed to have a minimum qualification of the CTEFLA (Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language) with two years’ experience. · With an input of 15 hours per week by an effective teacher, it takes about 3 months (180 hours) to move from one level of linguistic competence to another, Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 131

up to Level 5. To move from Level 5 to Level 6 takes about 4.5 months (270 hours), and from Level 6 to Level 7 takes about 7.5 months (450 hours). · Class sizes should be divisible by 2 and 3, with 18 the maximum feasible. · Level 5 should be the working target for MBCA staff. This would allow easy interaction with English-speaking foreigners and the development of specialized vocabulary for research and self-improvement through practice and reading, including an ability to use the Internet. It would also position staff to upgrade easily to a sufficient level to take advantage of overseas training and travel opportunities. · One effective teacher can work with two classes per day, so can move 36 students from Level 1 to Level 5 per year (144 student-levels per teacher-year). Given that a number of MBCA staff are already well above Level 1, this implies that the need is for a full-time English teacher for one year. This role could perhaps be fulfilled by a VSO (British volunteer) placement.

2.1.5 Interpersonal communication skills. A course on communication skills is vital and recommended for all staff in order to promote the skills of listening, questioning, answering and communicating.

2.1.6 Report and proposal writing. Specific skills are needed if reports and proposals are to be clear, specific and effective.

2.1.7 Management and organizational skills. To train staff in how to manage time, personal schedules, subordinates, office procedures, etc. A component should focus on raising awareness of ‘environmentally friendly’ practices.

2.1.8 Clerical and accounting skills. This training is important especially to those dealing with financial transaction of visitors.

2.1.9 Computer skills. Knowledge in how to operate computers and use software effectively is important as all the reports and presentations are done using computers.

2.2 Field capacity courses.

2.2.1 Search, rescue & first aid skills. These courses will be needed to ensure that at least some staff possess the skills to lead effective responses to any reasonably foreseeable emergency.

2.2.2 Mapping, orienteering & survey skills. Good knowledge in mapping and surveying is important for all field staff.

2.2.3 Advanced patient management skills. Training to cope with medical problems should respond to the fact that transport to a helipad and the arrival of a helicopter ambulance may take many hours, and should therefore include a full paramedic course for at least some staff, with units on pain management, safe patient transport and emergency medication.

2.2.4 Fighting forest fires. Adequate preparation is required if fires are to be combatted effectively and safely.

2.3 Visitor management and education courses. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 132

2.3.1 Interpretation and Guiding. This course will enhance capacity in nature interpretation and guiding.

2.3.2 Hospitality skills for field and rest house . All MBCA staff should possess at least basic hospitality skills.

2.3.3 Environmental education and outreach. These programmes require particular skills if they are to be executed effectively.

2.4 Technical courses.

2.4.1 Faunal inventory & survey techniques. Specialized skills in faunal inventory and survey techniques are needed to support research and environmental monitoring programmes.

2.4.2 Floral inventory & survey techniques. Specialized skills in floral inventory and survey techniques are needed to support research and environmental monitoring programmes.

2.4.3 Techniques of phenology. Training in phenological observation techniques is needed to support research and environmental monitoring programmes. Collection of fruits for future planting would be facilitated by phenology studies.

2.4.4 Tree Identification. This is an important skill to support visitor guiding and the environmental education programme, as well as research and environmental monitoring.

2.4.5 Herbarium & curation techniques. Knowledge in herbarium & curation techniques is important to preserve fauna and flora for identification. This course could be conducted at Sabah Museum for fauna and the Forestry Research Centre, Sandakan for flora collection.

2.4.6 Data Management. Skills are needed to allow the proper management (updating, organizing, searching, etc.) of large amounts of data likely to arose from field activities.

2.4.7 Library Management. The MBCA library is already substantial and is likely to grow quickly with the acquisition of new books, articles, reprints, journals, etc.

2.5 Safety and maintenance courses.

2.5.1 Risk assessment. This is intended to allow staff to assess and avoid hazards associated with the use of equipment or with any maintenance and repair task which they are called upon to undertake.

2.5.2 Use of equipment. Good knowledge on how to handle and maintain field and office equipment is important as to prolong the life-span of the equipment. In the case of chainsaws, winches and outboard motors this has an important safety aspect as well.

2.5.3 Maintaining trails, buildings and signs. Skills are required on how to maintain trails, buildings and signs to ensure safety and security. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 133

2.5.4 Store inventory maintenance . Systematic recording of items in the store should be done efficiently to allow timely re-ordering when essential items become depleted.

2.5.5 Safety in fire emergencies. Fire emergencies pose special safety challenges, and it is important that at least some staff know how to respond so as to minimize injury and loss of life.

2.5.6 Vehicle maintenance . All MBCA vehicles will benefit from appropriate service and maintenance programmes designed to promote safety and longevity.

2.6 Specialized courses.

2.6.1 Photography. Images of the forest and its wildlife resources are important resources for research, education and merchandizing, and special skills are needed to manage equipment so as to obtain useful images in a rain forest environment.

2.6.2 Swimming. The routine use of boats for patrol, research and tourism on the Sg Kuamut means that swimming skills are bound to be important one day.

2.6.3 Nursery skills. Managing a nursery to maintain an adequate supply of appropriate native seedlings will be important to support landscaping and forest rehabilitation.

2.6.4 Gardening & landscaping. Visual appearance, shade and environmental integrity (e.g. resistance to erosion) will all be important around the MBSC, VRIC and elsewhere.

2.6.5 Tre e climbing. Three MBCA staff were trained to climb trees during 2000, and a refresher course with a fourth participant as a beginner was undertaken in January 2002 (Kanstrup, 2002). This has created a team possessing skills of considerable strategic importance, since it provides the capacity to access the forest canopy for research purposes, to anchor standing trees around camps (with cables to the base of neighbouring trees) so that they no longer pose a threat to staff or visitors and do not have to be felled, and to help construct facilities such as tree towers, canopy walkways and suspension bridges. Tree climbing skills should be maintained through a training and practice routine of at least one day per month, starting as soon as possible, supported by the maintenance and appropriate storage of the necessary equipment, including books.

2.6.6 Fire fighting leadership. This is an advanced course for those who will have leadership roles during fire emergencies, intended to allow them safely to organize their staff and equipment to combat fires, and to coordinate evacuations as required.

2.6.7 Study tours. Study tours will expose the staff to the ways in which comparable challenges are overcome at other conservation facilities and projects.

2.6.8 Honorary Wildlife Warden. This course is expected to be undertaken jointly with the Sabah Wildlife Department, and will convey the roles, rights and responsibilities of those appointed as Honorary Wildli fe Wardens. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 134

Notes on Programme 4 (Research and Environmental Monitoring):

Possible priorities of a research strategy for the MBCA might include: · enriching the knowledge resource through ecological studies and taxonomic inventories, in order to improve the quality of the educational experience for paying visitors and to provide a knowledge infrastructure for applied research; · related to this, giving priority to filling gaps in basic forest biology, for example through taxonomic inventory work focussed on invertebrates, studies on the identification and ecology of lianas, and preparation of identification manuals; · studies of poorly-known, threatened or endangered species and ecosystem types; · monitoring weather patterns and interactions among climate, hydrology, vegetation and soils; · contributing to the monitoring of global climate change using a pristine rain forest ecosystem and an unpolluted water catchment; · documenting and finding ways to accelerate the process of recovery of buffer zone areas after logging, including studies of post-logging tree mortality, microclimate restoration and the re-growth of a fire-resistant environment in the buffer zone; · investigating the consequences for fragile organisms of microclimate disruption caused by logging, and the role of biodiversity reservoirs large enough to retain intact microclimates in preventing widespread extinctions in and promoting recolonization and fire resistance of logged-over landscapes; · long-term studies aimed at monitoring and understanding the interactions among phenomena such as forest leaf-flushing, flowering and fruiting at different elevations, and the abundance of bearded pigs, migratory birds and other wildlife populations at different places over time; · participatory research involving local people from support zone communities, focussed both on the resources available to them and on monitoring impacts and environmental changes, including possible training and involvement in biodiversity inventories as parataxonomists; and · bioprospecting with private-sector partners on agreed terms, to identify and develop commercial opportunities for new products and processes based on local components of biodiversity.

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Annex 2: Maps and figures

Figure 1: "Map of Sabah" (A4).

Figure 2: "Map of the Yayasan Sabah concession" (A3).

Figure 3: "Changes in condition of forest cover in Sabah, 1970-1995" (A3).

Figure 4: "Satellite image of the MBCA" (A3).

Figure 5: “Slopes in degrees in and around the MBCA, colours ranging 1-10 dark to light blue, 11-20 dark to light green, 21-30 yellow to orange, > 30 red to dark red (from Prins, 2002). The extremely steep outer slope of the Maliau Basin rim shows clearly” (A4).

Figure 6: "Geological structure, sedimentary layering and waterfalls within the Maliau Basin (from Tongkul, 2002)" (A4).

Figure 7: “The Maliau Basin area divided into main forest formation types: Upper Montane (blue), Lower Montane (yellow), Lowland (green), Severely logged (brown). The three zones of Conservation Area, Inner Buffer Zone and Outer Buffer Zone are outl ined in black (from Prins, 2002)” (A4).

Figure 8: “Base map of MBCA and its buffer zone” (A3).

Figure 9: “Proposed management zones within the MBCA” (A3).

Figure 10: “Logged and unlogged lowland forests in and around the MBCA” (A3).

Figure 11: “Logged and unlogged lowland forests in the south-east quadrant of the MBCA” (A3).

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 136

Annex 3: Terms of reference for buffer zone management planning

A detailed buffer zone management plan is required, which should address the issues identified in Sections 4.3.1 to 4.3.5 of the MBCA Strategic Plan in a fully integrated way over 5-10 years. It should be prepared in close cooperation with the relevant FMU holders and the Forestry Department, according to the following terms of reference:

Landscape connectedness. · To facilitate a series of multi-stakeholder workshops focussed on the themes indicated in Section 4.2, and to define appropriate follow-on activities such as training courses, research and action programmes. · To design a programme of research on the ecology, populations, behaviours and habitat requirements of large mammals (especially tembadau, elephant, rhinoceros, orangutan and bearded pig), and to identify habitat corridors and other factors needed to maintain them in the wild state in perpetuity.

Fire management. · To develop a detailed fire management plan for the buffer zone through a series of multi-stakeholder workshops and other forms of close consultation with local communities, local government (especially the District Offices) and relevant sectoral agencies of the state government, with due attention to relevant ITTO guidelines and particularly to the needs listed in Section 4.3.2. · To ensure that the buffer zone development plan and relevant draft legislation emphasizes the role of buffer zone management in preventing forest fires, and promotes inter-institutional cooperation in planning for and developing the capacity to prevent, detect and suppress fires in buffer zone areas, with the involvement of local people though participatory fire management programmes where appropriate. · To assess residual forest stands and surface coal deposits as potential fire hazards and make recommendations concerning remedial replanting, possible pre-positioning of fire-fighting equipment and supplies for use in emergencies, use of logging roads to provide access to areas at risk, and the alignments of potential firebreaks.

Forest replanting. To assess the suitability of heavily logged parts of the buffer zone for re-planting with native tree species, with the aims listed in Section 4.3.4, and to specify a plan of work for doing so.

Community involvement. To design a process for the negotiation of community forestry agreements between local people, the Forestry Department, FMU holders and Yayasan Sabah, drawing on international experience for example as mentioned in Section 4.3.3, in which final agreements would address not only timber production, but also wildlife conservation and fire prevention, thereby exchanging participation in forest management with a more comprehensive role in preserving the entire ecosystem. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 137

Critical habitat areas. · To identify locations of intact ‘biodiversity reservoirs’ of sufficient size (200-500 ha) to retain a rainforest microclimate and to act as sources of recolonization by fragile species that depend on an ever-moist micro-climate, and to contribute to fire-proofing. · To identify areas of any size that may be declared so as to exclude everyone except those on an authorized, need-to-access basis, in order to protect critical areas for protecting flagship or keystone species, point endemics and key habitat resources such as rare ecosystem types.

Access routes. To assess and map potential access routes for illegal entrants to the conservation area, or for use by protection staff, tourists, researchers and fire fighters.

Tourism development. To prepare detailed development plans for proposed tourism zones near the security gate, Tibow and Kg Inarad, and others as appropriate.

Legislative development. To draft Buffer Zone Forest Rules for consideration by the Sabah Forestry Department as potential new legislation, which would aim to ensure: · that permanent buffer zones can be declared around protected areas; · that the purpose of a buffer zone is to contribute to the long-term security of the protected area concerned; and · that decisions on their future management must be made by consensus between the Forestry Department and protected area managers. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 138

Annex 4: Satellite telecommunications

The lack of reliable digital communication between the Maliau Basin Conservation Area and the outside world can best be resolved through satellite-based communications. The industry standard at present uses Ku -band (11 GHz) satellites, however, and there are significant problems with this system. Heavy rain causes up to 90% of Ku -band energy to be lost which results in communicat ions outages for the duration of the rain storm. This can be overcome by providing a stronger signal to and from the satellite which, in turn, requires teleport and remote VSAT power control systems to be employed to compensated for the power absorbed by the rain. These power control systems increase the cost of the system components significantly. Moreover, Ku -band satellites require a 9° orbital spacing, and the scarcity of such orbit slots, coupled with high orbit fees paid to the US government, are additional cost burdens on Ku-band users. These factors mean that Ku-band communications are very expensive, and they will not work very well in a rain forest area such as Maliau, due to uncompensated weather effects. The magnitude of this challenge is shown by weather records at Danum Valley, where a total of 3,359 mm of rain fell on 255 days in 1999, and where the recently-installed satellite telephone system is proving to be unreliable as a result.

The alternative to Ku-band is C-band (4 GHz), significantly less in price and virtually unaffected by rain (DataSec, 2002). This is actually an earlier-developed but updated satellite system, based on 2° spacing of Intelsat and other owner/operators’ C-band satellites in geosynchronous orbits. Using technology available when they were launched, the low frequency meant that large antennae were necessary on the ground – typically a 4-5 metre parabolic dish, which was unsightly and difficult to install. Ku- band satellites represented an attempt to evade this problem. Recent changes in ground antenna design and newer C-band satellites, however, mean that C-band communications are now being re-discovered as a viable alternative to Ku-Band.

The new C-band antenna design comprises three 50 cm dishes mounted edge to edge. These are linked to ‘Very Small Aperture Terminals’ (VSATs), which transmit encrypted data at a rate of up to 4 Mb/s, and can receive it at up to 70 Mb/s. Voice, digital information, IP Internet traffic combined to form data are transmitted to the satellites and down to Networked Terrestrial VSAT stations allowing the VSATs to be interconnected in private worldwide networks. A hub station (Teleport) allows the VSAT to make direct connection to the Internet and to international carriers for long distance telephone service. The Teleport controls the network allowing any VSAT in the network to connect directly to any other VSAT in the network. From the users’ perspective, an email message to another user is the same as using the terrestrial Internet and e-mail service. Telephone calls are as simple as dialing a 4 digit telephone number to get clear, point-to-point connections.

Each VSAT is composed of an antenna, an antenna mount, an RF Transceiver, a modulator; multiple demodulators, a voice, data and IP multiplexer, an uninterruptable power supply, cabling and the required racks/transit cases. A basic block diagram is as shown below. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 139

Voice Antenna RFT Modem Multiplexer IP Internet Data

Antenna Uninterruptible Power Supply Ground Mt

Diesel Generator (if required)

The VSATs, if so equipped with LAN connected computers, use EMI/EMC hardened systems designed originally to protect government computers from remote monitoring, so any communication being generated or received by these systems is virtually impossible to monitor or disrupt. Network and information security, Intrusion Detection and Prevention and Information Routing can be provided. The antenna design and key elements of the data-transmission system are patented by DataSec, a private Delaware corporation, which aims to provide a inexpensive, reliable and secure digital communications system using the existing constellation of C-band satellites.

Thus, DataSec appears able to offer a viable solution to the conservation area’s strategic digital communication needs, based on advantages over Ku-band in the areas of price, power demand, and freedom from rain fade. The system can also incorporate optional features giving it very high security, which reflects DataSec’s target market of diplomatic services and private corporations. This exceeds the conservation area’s needs at present, but could become very important in the event of partnerships being established with private bioprospecting corporations. Secure digital communications between laboratory facilities at the Maliau Basin Studies Centre and the parent facilities of partner companies would greatly enhance protection against biopiracy and give the conservation area a significant competitive advantage over alternative sites for commercial research on biodiversity. It may also be possible to acquire the DataSec antenna and versions of the VSATs at first without such extreme data security features.

The following technical design and cost estimate as of 1st May 2002 for providing a complete digital communications capacity to the conservation area have been prepared on behalf of DataSec by the Becerra Trading Company (BTC) of 832 East New Haven Avenue, Melbourne, Florida 32901 USA (tel: 001 321 953 5899; fax: 953 6566; e-mail: [email protected]). This is a ‘bare-bones’ system designed to meet immediate needs and to support easy upgrading as resources become available.

Fundamental Communications Architecture

BTC proposes a Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) architecture that allows a single active VSAT station to communicate in a single hop (one pass through the satellite) to the teleport for connectivity to an international terrestrial carrier and to the internet. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 140

Int’l Carrier VSAT

BTC US NOC VSAT Based VSAT Teleport

World VSAT Wide Web (Internet) Future Options

The number of VSAT can be expanded to include any number of individual units. The network can start with a single VSAT and grow to accommodate the user’s needs. Additional satellite space segment would be required to support each new VSAT brought into service.

BTC has identified a number of satellites that can support the physical location and the frequency band of operation. INTELSAT and PANAMSAT service the Pacific Operating Region (POR) with C-Band spot beam and and zone beam coverage. The pricing provided is typical of any of those satellite owners/operators services as the space segment costs are comparitively priced thoroughout the industry. As detailed above, BTC favors C-Band operation over the Ku-band services because of the superior rain fade performance offered.

BTC will connect the network to the internet via a direct Internet Service Provider connection at 64 Kbps from the Teleport. This will provide the least capacity at the most favorable cost. .

BTC chose a westcoast USA landing/Teleport because it allowed for best connection to the Internet and allowed for direct connection to international carriers capable of supporting the users telephony needs and long distance calling to Europe, the United States, and the Pacific.

The VSAT will support up to 6 voice circuits, either analog or digital, a slow speed data service and IP internet connectivity. Al l of these services are multiplexed together and share the same bandwidth. The total uplink/downlink data rates will be at 64Kbps, full duplex operation, thus, minimizing the space segment requirements (and cost). The IP internet services will be slow at this data rate, but the voice will be toll quality! The unit will be programmed to establish voice service as a priority service, however, the bandwidth management feature will allow IP internet service to use all bandwidth not being used by voice services whenever telephone calls are not being made. Alternatively, greater amounts of bandwidth (within the 64Kbps) can be assigned in the evening hours to support internet usage. Other operational options are available.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 141

Satellite space segment suppliers, terrestrial international carriers and teleport operators all require up to three months lease payments as a deposit. Such deposits are shown herein as non recurring costs.

The costs shown for the VSAT earth terminals includes the equipment cost, all engineering costs, shipping cost from the US to the Maliau Basin, installation, set up, test and commissioning of the equipment. The project would be considered a full turn key type operation.

The base architecture and its costs assumed that a single VSAT would make up the initial buy, thus the recurring monthly costs for satellite service, teleport services, and internet services are based on a single VSAT to Teleport network. Deposits are required and usually reflect 3 months of recurring costs. These costs are recoverable at the end of the contract (i.e., the last three months of the contracts are prepaid). Further additions of VSATs would cause the recurring costs to increase incrementally.

Pricing

The pricing model provided makes the following assumptions: 1. BTC contacts and negotiates space segment contracts for the customer and enters into a single year contract for satellite services for supporting a single VSAT. 2. BTC contacts and negotiates teleport services for the customer and enters into a single year contract for these services supporting a single VSAT. 3. BTC contacts and negotiates International Carrier services for the customer and enters into a single year contract for these services. Long distance calling charges are not included in this pricing mo del. 4. BTC contacts and negotiates with an ISP for 64 Kbps Internet access for the customer and enters into a single year contract for these services. 5. BTC invoices the customer for deposits and reduces the customers monthly rate for the last three months of the contract by the amount of those deposits. 6. BTC provides full system monitoring and on line maintenance services via its NOC. 7. A minimum cache of Spare parts are provided. The customer will be coached by BTC in the removal and replacement of failed hardware.

Cost estimate

VSAT Earth Terminals (each): $77,520 Engineering Integration and Installation Testing and Commissioning Non Recurring Costs (deposits for 1 VSAT): $17,500 Satellite Space Segment Teleport Services Carrier Services (excl. long-distance charges) Monthy Recurring Price: $7,484 Satellite Teleport Services Internet Services Carrier Connection BTC NOC

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 142

Delivery

90-120 days after receipt of order

Options.

· Additional VSATs can be added to the network as the customer identifies his requirements. · Additional bandwidth can be supplied to increase the number of telephones supported, increase Internet downloading speed or to support other data services. · Network LAN/WAN equipment can be separately provided and priced based on customer needs and quantities required. · Secure Network Access System Equipment and Software can be separately provided and priced based on customer identified needs. · Telephone equipment can be separately provided and priced based on customer needs and quantities required. · BTC can provide Network Operations Center services for 24/7 managed network services that would include VSAT operations and Intrusion Detection Services as part of the Advanced Secure Network Access System (ASNAS) equipment.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 143

An nex 5: Public awareness and environmental education plan, 2002-2006

The following table expresses the conclusions of Tvevad et al. (2002) concerning the need for public awareness and environmental education activities for the Maliau Basin Conservation Area for the five-year period 2002-2006, and summarizes the main features of a plan by which these needs will be met.

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated

PRINTED & AUDIO VISUAL MATERIALS: Fact-sheets, updating L H-M When needed SY & DLH - - New fact-sheets L M When needed SY & DLH - - A4 leaflet, update L M When stocks SY - - finished - revision L M “ SY 3,000 - - further distribution L M Ongoing SY - - - same, Bahasa M version L H “ GA & DLH 3,000 - 36 page booklet printed S H Completed by SY 40,000 40,000 June, 2002 - copy to visitors L H June, 2002 SY & JS - - onwards - copies for MBCA staff L H June, 2002 SY & JS - - - same, Bahasa M version L H June, 2002 GA 40,000 - - Internet-version L H End 2002 DLH - - Poaching + Gaharu flyer, L H Ongoing JS - -

31 Name abbreviations: AO: Albinus Ongkudon, CCD: Corporate Communications Dept., DLH: Darline Lim-Hasegawa, ES: Esperanza Sulit, ITD: Information Technology Dept., JC: Julian Caldecott, JO: Jimmy Omar, JS: Jadda Suhaimi, MBMC: Maliau Basin Management Committee, RJ: Rose John Kidi, SA: Sidkan Ali, SY: Sylvia Yorath, WS: Waidi Sinun.

Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 144

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated distribution A1 poster, scenic S H Before Sept., 2002 SY, DLH, CCD 5,000 5,0 00 A1 poster, educational S H Before Sept., 2002 SY, DLH, CCD 5,000 5,000 - distribution L H Sept. 2002 SY, DLH, JS - - onwards Info-binders for visitors L M July 2002 DLH, RJ, JS - - Maliau Basin Management Plan on S H After Sept., 2002 DLH - - website. - Non-technical summary of S M “ JC - - Management Plan on website. - printing S H October, 2002 Not PA Budget Articles for newspapers / magazines L M Ongoing SY, CCD - - Reprinting of 1988 report S M Before September, SY, GA, RJ, 3,0 00 3,000 2002 CCD Printing of Nature Trail guides S M End of 2002 SY, DLH, CCD 3,000 3,000 Printing of Lake Linumunsut S H August, 2002 DLH, CCD 5,000 5,000 Expedition report Printing of Pictorial Report 2001 S M April, 2002 DLH 3,500 3,500 Booklet on MB Studies Centre S M 2003 - 2004 GA - - Maliau Basin Coffee Table Book S H Sept. 2002 SY, CCD 150,000 - onwards Production distribution and L M When needed CCD, DLH - - translation of films SUBTOTAL – PRINTED 261,100 64,500 MATERIALS ETC.

WEBSITE WWW.MALIAU.ORG: Short-or Priority Timing Responsible Tentative Covered Longterm (H – M – L) Budget by (S – L) (RM) DANCED budget Review of website + systematic L M Biannually DLH - - Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 145

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated updates Review of TA Reports etc. for L M After September, - - eventual website use 2002 Clarification of © issues etc. re. L M After September, DLH - - reports by subcontractors 2002 Preparation of excerpts from TA L M After September, - - reports etc. 2002 Updating of literature list L M Biannually DLH - - Web-links to news- & magazine L L DLH - - articles Inclusion of articles from L L DLH - - magazines etc on website Inclusion of other project L L DLH - - information materials on website Inclusion of google-search facility S M DLH - - Translation/preparation of website S H In progress GA, DLH - - in Bahasa M. Inclusion of info materials in S M GA, DLH - - Bahasa M. on the website Advance training of staff on desk S M When needed 2,000 Not PA top publishing Budget SUBTOTAL – WEBSITE 2,000 -

VIS ITS, TALKS, EVENTS: Short-or Priority Timing Responsible Tentative Covered by Longterm (H - M – L) Budget DANCED (S – L) (RM) budget Keeping an open eye for “VIPs” to L M Ongoing All, CCD - visit Support and assistance to visits L H When needed All, CCD - - by VIPs Assistance and support to media L H When needed All, CCD - - by VIP visits Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 146

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated Prepare and conduct workshop S H 2003 SY, DLH, JS, - - meeting with local community GA, RJ, EMS, leaders AO Prepare and conduct study visit to S M 2003 SY, DLH, JS, 10,000 - Maliau B + Danum V. for local GA, RJ community leaders Organise talks etc. to local clubs, L M When needed SY, DLH, JS 5,000 - environmental NGOs and other organisations Support + in-kind contributions to L M When needed JS ,DLH 2,000 - local sport events etc. near Maliau Assist YS/ICSB CCD with Lake S M 2002 GA, DLH - 4,000 Linumunsut documentary film Propose ways of use + marketing S M 2002 onwards GA, DLH - - films Participation in “environmental L M When needed All, CCD - - events” Displays to Tawau, Luasong, L L 2002 - - Agathis C. etc. SUBTOTAL – VISITS, EVENTS, 17,000 4,000 TALKS:

MERCHANDISE: Short-or Priority Timing Responsible Tentative Covered by Longterm (H - M – L) Budget DANCED (S – L) (RM) budget Develop marketing policy to L M In progress AO - - ensure revenue from merchandise Establishment of new L M When needed AO, SY - - merchandise outlets. Action if outlets do not perform well Production of new merchandise L M End 2002/2003 SY, AO 10,000 - items Considerations of including S H 2003 SY, AO - - Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 147

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated merchandise in visitors’ fee, overnight rate etc. - - Developing of material and L M 2002/2004 DLH, SY, AO, marketing for ‘virtual’/internet CCD, ITD sales SUBTOTAL – MERCHANDISE: 10,000

“HOMEWORK”: Short-or Priority Timing Responsible Tentative Covered by Longterm (H - M – L) Budget DANCED (S – L) (RM) budget Annual/biannual meeting with tour L M See Management AO - - operators Plan Coordinate etc. w. other L M When needed SY, DLH, RJ - - stakeholders in environmental education Maintenance and expansion of L H Ongoing SY, DLH - 500 picture library Build-up of a library for digital L M-L Ongoing DLH - - images Training in handling and editing of L L Before September, - - digital images 2002 Active collection of new photos L L Ongoing All, CCD - - Commissioning of prof. L L 2002/2004 SY, DLH, CCD - - photographer to fill in gaps Processing and evaluation of L M March, 2002 DLH - - filled-in questionnaires. onwards Information and service to media L M When needed WS, SY, DLH, - - JS Availability for interviews etc. L H When needed - - Technical and logistical support L M When needed SY, DLH, JS, - - to media CCD Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 148

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated Information and service to L M When needed SY, DLH, JS, - - reporters, tour operators & AO individuals Provide technical and logistical L M When needed SY, DLH, JS, - - support to the same when and as AO needed Status -report of activities L H Every 3 months SY, DLH - - Status of objectives and L H Every 6 months SY, DLH - - achievements Inventory of materials in stock L H Every 3 months JS, AO, RJ - - Proposal for next year’s activities L H September, SY, DLH - - and budget 2002/annually SUBTOTAL, HOMEWORK: 500

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION in Short-or Priority Timing Responsible Tentative Covered by MALIAU: Longterm (H – M – L) Budget DANCED (S – L) (RM) budget Preparation of the overall aims, L H See Management WS, JO, SY, - - objectives and strategy for EE Plan DLH, JS, RJ, activities And Technical AO Report No.39 Demarcation of areas open for EE L H 2003 JS - - activities. Rules for the use of areas L H 2002/2003 JS, SY, DLH, - - AO Infrastructure (trails, tracks, L H 2003 onwards WS, JS, - - camps, housing facilities etc.) MBMC Trial visits by L M 2003 JO, DLH, RJ, 20,000 - schoolteachers/students for JS feasibility study Preparation of design for a risk L H End 2002 JS, JO, DLH, - - assessment scheme RJ Risk assessment L H End 2002 JS, JO, DLH - - Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 149

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated Risk assessment in relation to L M End 2002 “ - - school children Ongoing risk assessment of L M When needed JS, DLH - - “new” areas Prep. of risk guidelines for L M End 2002/2003 DLH - - visitors Implementation of risk-preventing L H 2003 JS - - precautions Assessment of internal and L H-M 2003 SY, DLH, JO, - - external factors restricting EE JS Preparation of a strategy (and L H After risk SY, DLH, JO - - budget) for implementation of EE assessment and activities. feasibility studies Evaluation of staff training needs. L H End 2002/2003 JS, SY, DLH, - - ES Preparation of EE program L H 2003/2004 SY, DLH, JO - - Preparation of EE activities L H 2003/2004 “ - - Preparation of EE materials L H 2003 onwards SY, DLH, JO, - - CCD Fundraising to cover costs. L H 2003 onwards DLH, SY - - Procurement of equipment. L M 2003 onwards DLH, SY, JO, - - RJ Liaison with experts on L M 2003/2004 DLH - - installations for handicapped Explore options for activities & L M 2003/2004 DLH - - installations for handicapped Demarcation of short, self-guided S M End 2002 SA, JS, SY, - - EE trails DLH Display/ interpretation materials L H 2003/2004 SY, DLH, GA, - 50,000 for Studies Centre CCD Display/interpretation materials S H 2003 SY, DLH, GA, 50,000 - for Visitor Reception and CCD Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 150

Activity Table Short-or Priority Timing Responsible31 Tentative DANCED Longterm (H - M – L) Budget budget (S – L) (RM) allocated Information Centre at Security Gate SUB-TOTAL, EE in Maliau 70,000 50,000

GRAND TOTAL FOR MB PA&EE 360,100 119,000 BUDGET

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Annex 6: Memorandum of Understanding with Harvard University Herbarium

A Memorandum of Understanding between the MALIAU BASIN MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE, 9th Floor Wisma Innoprise, Jalan Sulaman, Teluk Likas, P.O.Box 11622, 88817 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia and the HARVARD UNIVERSITY HERBARIA, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States of America, 9th July, 2002.

Article 1: Objective of this Memorandum of Understanding

Following discussions, the Harvard University Herbaria (HUH) and The Maliau Basin Management Committee (MBMC) wish to promote and to safeguard future HUH and MBMC collaboration.

Accordingly, HUH and MBMC hereby agree actively to pursue a relationship to ensure mutually beneficial collaboration in the collection, study and conservation of the Maliau flora and in particular to:

· Increase knowledge and collections of the Maliau flora; · Enhance Sabahan research capacity; · Promote research by Harvard personnel at the Maliau Basin.

HUH and MBMC further agree that both institutions will work together to ensure that access to plant material is in accordance with all relevant state and federal laws and regulations and relevant international conventions that any benefits arising from such access are shared fairly and equitably.

Article 2: Joint work in Maliau Basin

Researchers from Harvard and Sabah will work together to study biological processes, including the collection of herbarium specimens and related collections, including carpological collections, spirit collections and DNA samples.

Article 3: Collaboration: HUH

In order to promote and safeguard the collection, study and conservation Maliau flora and to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of any benefits arising from such collection, study and conservation, HUH will:

3.1 Ensure that at least the top two duplicates of any HUH collection are housed in Malaysia, further duplicates (not more than ten (10)) will be sent to HUH; 3.2 Accession duplicate copies of the Herbarium Material sent to HUH into the collections at HUH and distribute further duplicates to herbaria according to an agreed list of repositories where the material will be used to further the aims of both HUH and MBMC; 3.3 Carry out scientific study on the Herbarium Material sent to HUH; 3.4 Financially and logistically facilitate local researchers to visit the Harvard University Herbaria as agreed between HUH and MBMC; 3.5 Provide MBMC with copies of the results of all such scientific study; within one year after completion of the study. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 152

3.6 With the agreement of MBMC, loan the Herbarium Material to other scientific institutions for the purposes of further scientific research; 3.7 Where appropriate, work together with MBMC to apply to national and/or international bodies for funding to enable further HUH and MBMC research and conservation studies on the Maliau flora.

Article 4: Collaboration MBMC

In order to promote and safeguard the collection, study and conservation of the Maliau flora and to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of any benefits arising from such collection, study and conservation, MBMC will:

4.1 Enable MBMC personnel and staff time to make possible projects agreed in advance and to encourage collaboration between HUH and MBMC; 4.2 Provide logistical help required for HUH and their counterparts’ ' expeditions (eg field trips) and activities (eg workshops) in Maliau; 4.3 Where appropriate, work together with HUH to apply to national and/or international bodies for funding to enable further HUH and MBMC research and conservation studies on the Maliau flora; 4.4 Help HUH to obtain from the relevant Sabah authorities and/or any other relevant stakeholders any necessar y documentation and/or authority(ies) relating to access to the Herbarium Material, for example, permits, licences and any necessary prior informed consents; 4.5 Help HUH to obtain from the relevant Sabah authorities and/or any other relevant stakeholders any necessary documentation and/or authority(ies) relating to, inter alia: the import of scientific equipment to Malaysia and the export of the Herbarium Material to the United States.

Article 5: Non-Commercialisation

5.1 The Harvard University Herbaria will not commercialise any collection sent to HUH in accordance with this Memorandum of Understanding; 5.2 Without prejudice to the above, any commercialisation to which HUH and MBMC agree will be subject to a separate written agreement.

Article 6: Duration, Renewal and Amendment

6.1 This Memorandum of Understanding will come into force on the date at the head of this document. It will be valid for five (5) years from that date. 6.2 It can be renewed for further periods of five (5) years through mutual agreement expressed in writing. 6.3 It can be amended at any time through mutual agreement expressed in writing.

Article 7: Termination

This Memorandum of Understanding may be terminated by one party giving six (6) months notice in writing to the other party. The obligations and rights contained in Clauses 1 to 6 shall survive the expiration or other termination of this Memorandum of Understanding, unless mutually agreed in writing to the contrary. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 153

Annex 7: Principles for bioprospecting partnerships

Principle 1: Components of biodiversity are recognized to be the sovereign property of the state, as asserted by Malaysia on ratifying the Convention on Biological Diversity, but exercised in partnership with Sabah by virtue of the Malaysian Constitution. Principle 2: Components of biodiversity may be accessed only with the permission of the Sabah Biodiversity Council acting on behalf of the state in concert with the Federal Government, and in accordance with the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment of 2000. Principle 3: The permission of the Sabah Biodiversity Council and the Federal Government must have been obtained before any request for permission to access the conservation area can be granted by the Management Committee. Principle 4: The permission of the Sabah Biodiversity Council and the Federal Government is a necessary but not sufficient condition for accessing the components of biodiversity within the conservation area, and the prior approval of the Management Committee is also required. Principle 5: Permission to access the components of biodiversity within the conservation area for commercial research purposes can be granted by the Management Committee only after considering an application by the research team. Principle 6: Research applications must contain sufficient information to convey the precise nature and purpose of the proposed study, and must be formulated according to whatever format the Management Committee may decide. Principle 7: The Management Committee shall have sole discretion to negotiate the terms, conditions, schedules and time limits comprising an agreement to allow the study team to access the components of biodiversity within the conservation area for commercial research purposes. Principle 8: An agreement between the Management Committee and a research team for the purposes of commercial research on the components of biodiversity shall ordinarily contain specific provisions for restricting the supply of information and samples to third parties, arrangements for sharing monetary and non-monetary benefits, and other terms that are required to make the contract complete and enforceable. Principle 9: Restrictions on the supply of information and samples to third parties shall comprise transfer agreements that pass on to recipients a requirement for further authorization in the event of a change of use (e.g. from academic to commercial), benefit-sharing obligations, and the labelling of all transferred samples as ‘not authorized for commercial use’ unless specifically authorized to the contrary. Principle 10: Arrangements for sharing monetary benefits in access and material transfer agreements shall be negotiated so as to comprise a combination of: o up-front fees that exceed the cost of reviewing the application and preparing samples, treating or screening samples prior to shipping, and handling and shipping costs; Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 154

o milestone payments triggered by successive stages in the process of commercialization, either as independent payments or advances against future royalties; and o royalties proportionate to the revenues derived from products, processes, goods, services or inventions which result from access to the components of biodiversity within the conservation area and their subsequent commercialization. Principle 11: Arrangements for sharing non-monetary benefits in access and material transfer agreements shal l be negotiated so as to comprise a combination of: o participation of Sabahan scientists in research; o transfer to Sabah of equipment, software and know-how; o exchange of staff and training between Sabah and collaborating institutions; o in-kind support for conserving the components of biodiversity within the conservation area; o acknowledgement of the conservation area and all Sabahan stakeholders in all research publications, patents and other forms of intellectual property rights that may be generated or applied for; o sharing of research results, including notification of discoveries and ensuring that copies of relevant publications are sent to the conservation area and all Sabahan stakeholders; o depositing of properly-documented and conserved voucher specimens in Sabahan institutions; and o terms for the licencing of technologies developed from research on the genetic resources transferred. Principle 12: Other terms that shall be negotiated so as to make the contract complete and enforceable include: o definitions of key terms used in the agreement; o duty to minimize the environmental impact of collecting activities; o duty to maintain samples in good condition; o ownership of materials; o representations and warranties concerning the quality, identity of the materials transferred and any liabilities arising from their use; o indemnity against potential liability, such as that arising from civil or criminal actions connected to access and benefit -sharing brought by Sabah and other providers or recipients of genetic resources; o duration of the agreement; o notice of termination; o the fact that the obligations in certain clauses (e.g. benefit sharing) survive the termination of the agreement; o independent enforceability of individual clauses in the agreement; o events limiting liability of either party (e.g. extreme weather, seismic or volcanic activity, land-slide, flood, fire, plague, war, terrorist or military activity, riot, strike, Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 155

failure of the supply of essential materials, solvents, fuels and electricity), and the requirement to notify the other party of such an event; o arbitration and other dispute-avoidance and dispute-settlement procedures; o assignment or transfer of rights; and o choice of law. Principle 13: Recognizing the strategic importance and desirability of generating revenues through fair and equitable partnerships with other institutions in the area of bioprospecting, and the immense diversity of living systems within the conservation area, the Management Committee shall in principle always be open to applications to conduct commercial research on mutually agreed terms. Principle 14: Recognizing, however, that the best arrangements for both sides are usually available in the context of long-term institutional relationships, the Management Committee shall actively seek to explore, establish, maintain and develop such relationships and shall give preference to these as a means for undertaking commercial research on the components of biodiversity within the conservation area.

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Annex 8: Notes on the World Heritage Site nomination

The Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, to which Malaysia acceded in 1988, established an Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the ‘World Heritage Committee’) which maintains a list of properties that it considers to have outstanding universal value. These are known as World Heritage Sites, and there are two types, cultural and natural. The Maliau Basin Conservation Area meets key criteria for inclusion in the latter category, specifically that: · it is an outstanding example of a significant geomorphic feature representing on-going geological processes in the development of landforms; · it is an outstanding example of a set of significant on-going ecological and evolutionary processes; · it is an area of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance; · it contains important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity.

The conservation area also meets all the conditions of integrity needed for the nomination to be successful, specifically that: · it contains all of the key interrelated and interdependent elements in their natural relationships, in that the whole geological structure and the ecological elements contained within it are enclosed within the conservation area; · it is large enough to contain all the key variants and processes needed for the long-term conservation of the ecosystems and the biological diversity they contain, in that the area incorporates contiguous samples of all naturally- occurring forest types at all altitudes from below 300 to about 1,700 metres above sea level, on all available soils and slopes; · it is of outstanding aesthetic value and includes all areas that are essential for maintaining its beauty, for example the whole of the basin rim, the whole of the forests ascending to it within the basin, and the entire catchment of Maliau Falls; · it contains habitats for maintaining the most diverse fauna and flora characteristic of the northern interior of Borneo; · it has a management plan, comprising this Strategic Plan and emerging action and work plans based upon it; · it has adequate legislative, regulatory and institutional protection, and its boundaries reflect the spatial requirements of the habitats, species, processes and phenomena that provide the basis for the nomination, including the existence of a managed buffer zone to protect its heritage values from the direct effects of human encroachment and impacts of resource use in surrounding areas; and · it is one of the most important locations in the world for the conservation of biological diversity.

The completed nomination form, duly signed and supported by all relevant material (including the management plan) must be received by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris by the last day of June if the site is to be inscribed on the World Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 157

Heritage List in the January of the second year following. This schedule cannot be accelerated, but the late-June deadline can easily be missed. World Heritage Site status would essentially make the conservation area a ‘gift to the world’, monitored by the United Nations and eligible for various forms of international support. The status is reserved for sites of the most profound global significance, and nomination of Maliau would be highly appropriate while sending a strong signal of irreversible commitment to its conservation. This in turn would open up many possibilities for the long-term financing of the conservation area, since it would facilitate proposals for international support or investment that are predicated upon permanent arrangements for biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and other ideals. Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 158

Annex 9: Terms of reference for business planning

The following enterprise fields are described in Chapter 10 of the Maliau Basin Conservation Area Strategic Plan: · ecotourism, · sale of educational services, · educational merchandizing, · bioprospecting, · biodiversity futures trading, · carbon storage, · grants, sponsorships and partnerships, and · trust funds and endowment management.

A detailed business plan is needed to analyse each enterprise field, provide a costed plan for its development over 5-10 years, and to integrate them all into a sustainable financing strategy for the conservation area. For each enterprise field, the following should be defined: · Vision and rationale. To explain the nature of the investment opportunity, the steps needed to exploit it, the identity, location, scale and potential of the ma rket for the proposed goods or services, and the special advantages and suitability of the conservation area/Yayasan Sabah system as a basis for developing and marketing the proposed goods or services. · Market and price analysis. To provide detailed analysis of the available or emerging market, including possible segmentation and institutional structure, the potential for partnership development, and the range of pricing strategies that might be employed, with their implications for growth and profitability. · Development needs. To define the technical, content/material, personnel, infrastructure and other inputs that are needed to produce the proposed goods or services, to market them effectively, and to deliver them to users in a timely, reliable and profitable manner. · Cash needs and cash flows. To define the scale and pattern of financial investments needed to meet the development needs of the project, and to explore cash-flow and profitability scenarios in the light of debt-service obligations and other costs of doing business. · Investment strategy and risks. To define the preferred investment strategy for bringing the enterprise field on-line as a profit centre in an optimal manner, and to describe, enumerate and quantify the risks inherent to the line of business, the assumptions made in planning, and the indicators for judging success and failure including any that should result in termination of the investment. · Annual cash-flow projections. To present a synthesis of the expected cash- flow from the project under the preferred investment scenario in each year to the limit of realistic projection.

For the overall sustainable financing strategy, the following cross-cutting processes should be defined: Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 159

· Institutional and ownership arrangements. To review options and define arrangements which are as simple and effective as possible, provide optimum returns and protection of interests to Yayasan Sabah, and address with the minimum number of separate measures the institutional and ownership needs of the maximum number of enterprise fields. · Global marketing programmes. To define a costed strategy for the global marketing all goods, services, products and processes developed from the resources of the conservation area and Yayasan Sabah. · Bioprospecting partnerships. To define a costed strategy for negotiating and developing long-term partnerships with private and public-interest bioprospecting institutions, based on accepted international guidelines and best-practices, and on state and national law, to ensure the effective discovery of new products and processes and the fair and equitable distribution of benefits arising from their development. · Web-based solutions. To design fully-costed and technically-specified web- based mechanisms through which to implement or complement all dimensions of the financing strategy, including: o Developing the maliau.org web-site, with due attention to content, design, functionality, links, and search facilities. o Optimizing the performance of the maliau.org web-site with respect to the major crawler-based search engines and human-edited Web directories. o Developing web -based services including an e-newsletter to support the Friends of Mal iau organization. o Enabling the maliau.org web-site to support the sale of educational goods and services. o Developing a complete system for recording and disseminating educational broadcasts via the Web to subscribers. o Developing the ‘Maliau BioBourse’, a high-security web-site, fully e- commerce enabled and linked to the major international bourses and brokerages, to support biodiversity futures trading. · Skills transfer. Where indigenous expertise is not available to provide necessary services, and it is recommended to use international contractors instead, to design measures to ensure the transfer of skills to Sabahans as quickly as possible. · Phasing of investments. To provide a detailed rationale for the phasing of investments across all enterprise fields in the light of their individual earning potential, investment needs and speed of development, such that bottlenecks in the supply of expertise, financing and other resources are avoided, and the overall supply of conservation benefits (including but not limited to financial benefits) occurs as early as possible and grows at the maximum sustainable rate. · Cumulative annual cash-flow projections. To present a meta-synthesis of the expected cash-flows from all enterprise fields under the preferred investment scenario for each, in each year to the limit of realistic projection. The growth of net profits across the strategy should be compared over future time with the possible net income to various stakeholders that might have been derived from alternative and unsustainable land-uses. Non-financial (or non-monetarizable) cost and benefit streams should be enumerated in this analysis.

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Index

Acacia mangium, 47 Coal, 49 academic research, 85 commercial research, 85 Action Plan, 104, 124 Commercial research on biodiversity, Action Plan 2003-2005, 100 87 adat, 59 commercialization, 85 Agathis forest, 35 Commission of the European amphibians, 38 Communities, 117 Aquilaria, 43 communications, 65 ARCBC, 93 Community involvement, 59 artificial endemism, 36 conservation areas as sacred sites, 42 Audubon Society, 111 Convention on Biological Diversity, 92, Batu Apoi Forest Reserve, 44 155 bearded pigs, 38 corporate social responsibility, 118 benefit-sharing, 155 cost over-runs, 105 BIODIVERSITY, 37 Costa Rica, 106, 111, 118 biodiversity bonds, 114 Crocker Range Park, 44 Biodiversity Convention, 24 Cultural Heritage (Conservation) biodiversity database system, 69 Enactment, 25 biodiversity futures, 120 Danum Valley Conservation Area, 44 Biodiversity futures trading, 17, 107, Danum Valley Field Centre, 72 122 Danum Valley Management biodiversity inventory, 90 Committee, 22 biodiversity reservoirs, 56, 139 deep ecology, 42 biological connectedness, 56 discounts, 79 biopiracy, 85 distance-learning, 110 bioprospecting, 85, 87, 111, 136, 155 District Office Keningau, 22 Bioprospecting, 16, 107, 122 District Office Nabawan, 22 Bioprospecting partnerships, 161 District Office Tongod, 22 bird ringing, 85 Diversa Corporation, 112 Birds, 38 DNA sequences, 113 Boundaries, 61 droughts, 32, 43 buffer zone, 57 Earthlife, 120 buffer zone management plan, 74 ecosystem biodiversity, 41 buffer zone management planning, 138 ecotourism, 121 business plan, 74, 108, 120 Ecotourism, 16, 107, 122 business planning, 160 education, 12, 72 calanolide, 89 Education Zones, 64 camera-trapping, 85 Education, tourism and public camps, 78, 95 awareness, 12 carbon credits, 116 educational market, 110 carbon storage, 115, 117 Educational merchandizing, 16, 107, Carbon storage, 17, 107, 122 122 carrying capacity, 73 Educational services, 16, 107, 122 CERs, 115 El Ni ño-Southern Oscillation, 32 certified emission reductions, 115 elephant, 37, 48 CI, 111 elephants, 84 Climate Change, 92 encroachment, 53 Climate Change Convention, 24 Endemism, 40 clouded leopard, 37 Enhancing management capacity, 11 coal, 10, 17, 47, 50, 58, 101, 138 enterprise fields, 120 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 176

Environmental Conservation Implementation programme, 14 Department, 22 INBio, 88, 90, 111, 118 environmental education, 145 indicators, 91 Environmental indicators, 92 INFAPRO, 48 environmental monitoring, 84 Information and knowledge, 40 Environmental Quality Act, 24 Infrastructure Zones, 64 Equipment, 65 Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd, 23 FACE, 48, 60 INTANGIBLE RESOURCES, 41 feedback, 104 intellectual property rights, 89 FFI, 117 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate fire, 32, 43, 47 Change, 115 Fire emergencies, 135 International Biodiversity Observation Fire management, 57, 138 Year, 94 fire resistance, 136 interpretation, 76 fires, 133 Invertebrates, 39 fish, 39 investment environment, 89 Forest fires, 46, 65 Iwokrama , 118, 119, 120 Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, JOB DESCRIPTIONS, 70 22 Kalimantan, 43, 63 forest types, 33 Kayan Mentarang National Park, 44 Forestry Research Centre, 134 kijang, 38 Friends of Maliau, 80 Kinabalu Park, 43 gaharu, 42 knowledge resources, 72 Gaharu, 54 knowledge-based services, 110 gene flow, 96 Knowledge-seekers, 77 genetic diversity, 41 Kyoto Protocol, 115 Genetic resources, 40, 87 Lake Linumunsut, 36, 41 gibbon, 37 Land Ordinance, 25 global climate change, 136 language training, 132 Global Environment Facility, 119 leaf monkey, 38 Global marketing programmes, 161 library, 134 global monitoring, 93 lineage biodiversity, 41 grant financing, 117 Living Earth, 118 Grants, 107, 122 Location and legal status, 8 Grants, sponsorships and partnerships, logging roads, 95 17 Lowland dipterocarp forest, 34 guidelines on access and benefit lowland rain forest, 37 sharing, 88 macaques, 38 Guyana, 119 Malaysian Constitution, 23, 155 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 153 Maliau Basin, 30, 145 Harvard University Herbaria, 85 Maliau Basin Conservation Area Forest Heath forests, 35 Rules 1998, 22 heritage zone, 114 Maliau Basin Conservation Area Heritage Zones, 64 Management Committee, 22 Honorary Wildlife Rangers, 64 Maliau Basin Studies Centre, 28, 95 Honorary Wildlife Wardens, 135 Maliau Gorge, 30, 96 human resource development, 68 Mammals, 37 hunting, 53 Management authority, 8 Hunting, 42 Management Committee, 23 IBOY, 94 management information system, 69 IKEA, 60 Management objectives, 8 Illegal logging, 53 Management plan review schedule, 15 Imbak valley, 56 managerial systems, 28 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 177

MBSC, 95 RIL, 56, 116 merchandize, 111 Sabah Biodiversity Council, 84, 88, 155 metabiodiversity, 41 Sabah Biodiversity Enactment, 85, 88, microclimate, 136 155 Ministry of Tourism, Environment, Sabah Conservation Strategy, 25 Science and Technology, 22 Sabah Forestry Department, 6, 22, 65, mouse deer, 38 139, 163 Mulu Park, 44 Sabah Museum, 22, 91, 134 National Biodiversity Policy, 24 Sabah Nature Club, 111 National Forest Policy, 24 Sabah Parks, 22, 91 National Park Foundation, 111 Sabah Wildlife Department, 22, 59, 64, Natural Resources Canada, 65 91, 135 Negotiating partnerships, 88 Sarawak, 120 non-market resources, 117 satellite communications, 65, 110 Oak-conifer forest, 36 satellite telecommunications, 69 orang utan, 37 Satellite telecommunications, 140 orang utans, 84 Saving biodiversity, 27 orangutans, 48 Scientific Coordinator/Manager, 71 parataxonomists, 90, 136 Search engine optimization, 82 Parks Enactment, 25 Shell oil company, 72 partnerships, 107, 122 Sierra Club, 111 patrolling, 63 Skills transfer, 161 payau, 38 Smithsonian Institution, 111 Phasing of investments, 161 solar power, 99 phenology, 134 species richness, 39 Plants, 37 sponsorships, 107, 122 post-logging tree mortality, 136 Staff incentives, 67 priorities of a research strategy, 136 Strict Protection Zones, 63 proboscis monkeys, 38 Studying biodiversity, 27 Protective measures proposed, 10 sunrise industries, 106 public access to Maliau Falls, 75 support zone, 59 public awareness, 13, 72 sustainable financing, 28 Public awareness, 145 sustainable financing strategy, 108 Public Awareness Strategy, 81 Sustainable financing strategy, 15 Purpose and scope of planning, 9 Tawau Municipal Council, 22 rainfall, 32 taxol, 89 Rakyat Berjaya Sdn Bhd, 23 Teaching about biodiversity, 27 real-life tourists, 109 team building, 132 Recuperation Zones, 64 technology transfer, 112 reduced-impact logging, 42 tembadau, 37, 84 religious views on biodiversity, 42 Tembadau Valley, 31, 60, 74 Re-planting native trees, 60 Threats to the resources, 10 research, 84 TNC, 111 Research and environmental tourism, 12, 72 monitoring, 13 Tourism, 74 research proposal, 87 tourism development, 108 research prospectus, 84 Tourism development, 60 Research Zones, 63 Town and Regional Planning resident naturalists, 77 Department, 22 Resident naturalists, 79 trails, 78, 95, 97 Resources to be conserved, 9 training, 68 rhinoceros, 37, 48 Tree climbing, 135 rhinos, 84 Tree plantations, 47 Strategic Plan for MBCA Management (30th June Final Draft) 178

trust funds, 107, 119 weather stations, 84 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 22 Web-based solutions, 161 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 22, 85, 91 web-casts, 110 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 22 web-site, 82 Universiti Putra Malaysia, 22 Wilderness Zones, 63 Unsustainable tourism, 51 Wildlife Conservation Enactment, 25 US Fish and Wildlife Service, 117 wildlife corridors, 56 Using biodiversity sustainably, 27 Work plans, 104 vegetation plots, 85 workshops, 29 Virgin Jungle Reserves, 25 World Bank, 118 virtual ecotourists, 109 World Heritage Sites, 158 Visitor Reception and Information World Wide Fund for Nature, 22 Centre, 95 WWF, 63, 111 VRIC, 95 Yayasan Sabah, 22 Waste management, 98 Zones, 63