Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Muguntan Vanar The Star 17 Dec 12;

KOTA KINABALU: Conservation efforts for the endangered banteng or wild cattle has received a boost with an injection of RM1mil fund by the Sime Darby Foundation.

The Sabah Wildlife Department and the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) received the funding from the foundation in line with Sime Darby’s “Big 9” programme to protect and conserve nine endangered animals, most of which are indigenous to Malaysia.

The other animals covered under the programme, for which the foundation has already committed a total of RM80mil, include the sun bear, orang utan, Asian elephant and Sunda clouded leopard.

The others are the hornbill, proboscis monkey, Sumatran rhinoceros and Malayan tiger.

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said they had started a three-year project to assess the conservation status and longevity of the banteng in their current locations and to relocate them to other habitats across Sabah.

“To achieve our objective, we will use an unpublished report titled ‘A Faunal Survey of Sabah’ that was compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1982, which includes a distribution map of the banteng in Sabah and their estimated population sizes,” he said.

Dr Goossens said it was the only record available of banteng distribution.

“The recognition of remnant banteng populations is critical to identify the extent of the decline which has occurred over the past 30 years as a result of deforestation, land conversion and human population expansion,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

“Education and capacity building have always been a priority for the Sime Darby Foundation, and as such, the project will also include training of a Malaysian master student and two local field research assistants,” Dr Goossens said.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the funds from the Sime Darby Foundation were necessary for their project to conserve and manage the banteng in Sabah.

“The project aims to increase the knowledge and awareness of this extremely endangered species of wild cattle in Sabah,” he said.


Sime Darby's RM1m funding to study banteng
New Straits Times 17 Dec 12;

KOTA KINABALU: The Danau Girang Field Centre and the Sabah Wildlife Department recently received RM1 million funding from the Sime Darby Foundation for a conservation project for banteng in the state.

Danau Girang director Dr Benoit Goossens said the remaining population of the endangered wild cattle would be studied in a three-year project.

"The aim of the project is to identify the extent of the species' decline because of deforestation, land conversion and human invasion over the past 30 years.

"We are also going to assess their conservation status and chances of long-term survival," he said on Saturday.

The centre would use data from a report entitled A Faunal survey of Sabah as a reference.

The report was compiled by World Wild Fund in 1982. It contained data on the locations of the banteng and its estimated population in the state.

Goossens said camera traps would be set up to photograph the animals.

"The cameras are also crucial for identifying connectivity issues, such as the genetic integrity of the species."

Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the purpose of the project was to increase knowledge and awareness of the species.

"At the end of the project, we will organise an international workshop on the conservation status of the banteng.

"The workshop will highlight the current status of the species, discuss mitigation possibilities and come up with an action plan."

Ambu also said the project was carried out in collaboration with the Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Foundation and Cardiff University.

The funding from the Sime Darby Foundation is in line with its Big9 programme to protect and conserve endangered animals, including the sun bear, orang utan, Asian elephant, Sunda clouded leopard, hornbills, proboscis monkey, Sumatran rhinoceros and Malayan tiger.