Wildlife management aims to develop long term conservation strategies to safeguard the wildlife populations to provide some general principles for reducing the impact on wildlife during operation in the proposed FMU and simultaneously promote awareness among the employees in logging camps and the local communities on the importance of wildlife conservation to the forest ecology.
Management Strategies and Recommendations
- Preservation of habitats and roaming grounds – For long-term measure, buffer zones or corridors of trees on both sides of the main, first and second order of streams and rivers system shall be established and reserved.
- Identification and management of protection and conservation of saltlicks – This is to allow animals, especially hoofed animals, such as Sambar deer, Barking deer and even monkeys to come and visit these “salt licks” for mineral supplement to their diet.
- Control of Hunting – By strict adherence of DF Circular No. 6/99 on wildlife conservator and improvement of gate control/guard house.
- Education and Preventive Measures – To instill awareness about wildlife management to forest workers.
Identification and Management of Protection Areas
Protection areas were identified based on the need for conservation. There are 3 main fundamental for conservation will be identified such as conservation areas for protection of soil, rivers and wildlife.
The following criteria were used as reference for assessment:
- Non-commercial or poor timber stocking area for conservation of soil and flora and fauna.
- Site sensitive area.
- The presence/ absence of gazetted water catchment areas.
- Wildlife conservation area for example saltlicks, wallows and migration route.
- Community use area.
- Potential eco-tourism sites.
- Potential high conservation value forests.
- Sites of special cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance.
Management of Protected and Conservation Areas
| No. | Categories | Management Requirements |
| 1. | Non-Commercial or Poorly Stocked Area | Low stocking area will be excluded from FMU harvesting area. |
| 2. | Permanent Waterway | Riparian buffer zone as approved in EIA by NREB will be identified and demarcated with recommended width on the ground. |
| 3. | Steep Slope | Steep terrain IV or slope greater than 35° as indicated in Sarawak Forestry Map B will be mapped and excluded from harvesting within Entulu – Melatai FMU. |
| 4. | Water Catchments | To identify on map and demarcated on ground for protection. |
| 5. | International Boundary and Totally Protected Area | Buffer zone of 1 kilometer width will be demarcated on ground for protection. |
| 6. | Critical Resource and Sites | Buffer zone of width 100 meters surrounding identified critical resources and sites such as saltlick to be mapped and demarcated on ground. |
| 7. | Research Plot and Permanent Sample Plot | Permanent Sample Plot (PSP) established by FMU will be protected with at least 20 m buffer surrounding the plot perimeter boundary. |
| 8. | Community Use Area and Cultural or Religious Sites (if any) | Free, prior, informed and consent (FPIC) will be applied to community use area, cultural site and religious site and demarcated on ground for protection purposes. |
| 9. | Potential Tourism Area | Potential ecotourism and recreational sites would be identified and demarcated on ground (if any). |
| 10. | High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) | To identify as protected area, to mark on map and demarcated on ground |
High Conservation Value Areas Assessment Findings
HCV Assessment, likes EIA and SIA, involves the participation of the local communities. It is done by using the Malaysian Toolkit which was developed by WWF. HCV can be categorized into 6 categories as follows:
| HCV | DEFINATION | HCV STATUS | ||
| 2019 | 2020 | |||
| 1.0 | BIODIVERSITY VALUES | |||
| 1.1 | Protected area | Not Present | Not Present | |
| 1.2 | Threatened and endangered species | Present | Present | |
| 1.3 | Endemic species | Present | Present | |
| 1.4 | Critical temporal use | Present | Present | |
| 2.0 | LANDSCAPE LEVEL ECOSYSTEM | Present | Present | |
| 3.0 | ECOSYSTEM AND HABITAT | Not Present | Not Present | |
| 4.0 | ECOSYSTEM SERVICE | |||
| 4.1 | Water catchment | Present | Present | |
| 4.2 | Erosion control | Present | Present | |
| 4.3 | Barriers to the destructive fire | Present | Present | |
| 5.0 | COMMUNITY NEED | Present | Present | |
| 6.0 | CULTURAL VALUES | Not Present | Not Present | |
High Conservation Value(s)
- There are 4 out of 6 HCVs as listed in the HCVF Malaysia Toolkit presence in the FMU.
- There are 41 fauna and 41 floras threatened and endangered species found in the studied sites (HCV 1.2).
- There are 39 endemic flora and 12 endemic fauna species (HCV 1.3).
- Areas for critical temporal use ware identified (HCV 1.4).
- The FMU is located within the Heart of Borneo (HoB) provisional boundary and it is a significant large landscape forest for wildlife species to exist in natural patterns of distribution. In a regional perspective, the main riverine reserves served as wildlife reservoirs and corridors with adjacent Timber Licence area within the HOB initiatives. (HCV 2).
- Based on Forest type classification, the Mixed Dipterocarp Forest (MDF) within the FMU is divided into lowland and upper Dipterocarp forests. Both forest types are accorded as medium priority for conservation by National Conservation Strategy (NCS) List of Priority Habitat. No distinct Heath Forest (Kerangas Forest) was detected in the FMU but rather a mixture of Heath and MDF forest were detected on the surrounding ridges of steep hills (HCV 3).
- The FMU is located within Kapit Water Catchment and the legally gazette Baleh Dam Catchment. Terrain Classes III and IV are present within the FMU (HCV 4.1).
- The FMU has identified riparian areas and Terrain Class IV in the FMU (HCV 4.2).
- No history of forest fire was found within the FMU. Adjacent forest containing other HCVs is considered potentially present even though no records or data of HCVs were found during the assessment. HCVs information on surrounding areas may be available if adjacent Timber Licence areas are conducting their HCVF assessment in the future. The FMU is only surrounded by Timber Licence areas, there is no human settlement either inside or located within 3 km from the boundary (HCV 4.3).
- No evidence of forest use by communities was found within the FMU. Being remotely located near the Kalimantan border and only surrounded by Timber Licence areas, there is no human settlement either inside or located within 3 km around the FMU boundary (HCV 5).
- No evidence and record of critical forest use from any community was found within the FMU (HCV 6).
Summaries of Management and Monitoring Recommendations for HCV
| HCV 1.1 – PROTECTED AREA | ||
| No. | Management Recommendation | Action Taken |
| 1 | Demarcation of the buffer zone along Malaysia (Sarawak) – Indonesia (Kalimantan) International Boundary | A 1 km buffer zone along the Malaysian – Indonesia international boundary was marked in General Harvesting Plan (GP) and approved by Forest Department Sarawak (FDS). |
| 2 | Monitoring of perimeter of buffer belt to have identification on any encroachment. | Monitoring on all logging roads including the existing and old logging roads.Speed limitation of logging trucks and vehicles on the using of logging road to minimize the accidents in the FMU. |
| HCV 1.2 – ENDANGERED, RARE AND THREATENED (ERT) SPECIES | ||
| No. | Management Recommendation | Action Taken |
| 3 | Maintenance of the protection on protected species under forestry Rules | All species (ERT) listed in the Wildlife Protection Ordinance were not allowed to fell. |
| 4 | To carry out marking on the protected trees during reduced impact logging to prevent felling accidentally. | Tree for protection has been implemented in previous Coupe 3AR (planned as Coupe 1 in the recently approved GP). |
| 5 | Measures taken in assessing endangered, rare, and threatened species in new coupes before commencing harvesting and trees tagging of all trees to be harvested. | Training on Endangered, Rare and Threatened (ERT) species was conducted by FDS at Sapphire 99 camp in July, 2019.Follow-up training on ERT was conducted by our in-house Honorary Wildlife Ranger in October, 2019. |
| 6 | A training on the workers on recognition of protected species will be further improve the identification of these species within the FMU | One training session has been conducted by Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) from 8th July, 2019 to 14th July, 2019. |
| 7 | An education on the local communities in recognizing protect sites and wildlife | A briefing on the protected sites and wildlife was held in July, 2019 in the Sapphire 99 camp.Awareness training program on ERT was conducted to forest workers. |
| 8 | Honorary Wildlife Rangers and surveyors were instructed to monitor the presence of wildlife population in order to assess the number of these species before the commencement of forest harvesting activities. | The baseline data was collected by Mesra – Alam Consulting on the status of mammal and avifauna species with recommendation for its management.The opportunity in monitoring the presence of wildlife population has also been conducted during the Forest Resource Assessment exercise. The assessment was done in 2016.An internal wildlife survey through patrolling was conducted by Wildlife Rangers in July 2019.A survey on the species distribution in the FMU by surveyors was conducted in July, 2019.Wildlife posters and Policy on “No Hunting” were made available in the FMU. |
| 9 | An annual assessment with data collected during monitoring. | Based on the data collected in the pre-harvest, inventory has basic information on ERT of 0.75 tree per hectare recorded in Block 20 of Coupe 3AR (planned as Coupe 1 in the recently approved GP).Monitoring in previous Coupe 3AR (planned as Coupe 1 in the recently approved GP) is still in progressing. |
| 10 | The construction of guard house and gate in order to control on the hunting activities. | A security gate and guards house has been constructed in the main entrance of FMU in 2018 with records of ingress and egress of workers and local communities (if any).Based on recording book, there was no local community entered into our FMU for hunting activity. |
| 11 | A Wildlife Ranger in patrolling and detecting illegal activities with reporting to Forest Department Sarawak (if any). | Two (2) Wildlife Rangers were appointed for Entulu – Melatai FMU in July, 2019. More staff to be trained as Honorary Wildlife Ranger in 2020. |
| 12 | Camera trapping system to be installed for determination of ERT species to-date. | A total of 4 camera traps has been installed in July, 2019 covers both active and post logging area, i.e. the previous Coupe 2AR (planned as Coupe 1 in the recently approved GP).Based on recently monitoring record, there were a total of 17 species has been captured through camera traps and hand held camera both in the post-harvesting Coupe 2AR and active Coupe 1, 2019. |
| 13 | In order to confirm the endemic species, more studies need to be conducted for more details information | The assessment of flora species was also conducted during the pre-harvesting inventory work. Assessment of fauna species was conducted through hand held camera and camera trapping system in Coupe 1.Based on the HCVF Assessment done by consultant, the HCV is considered as present.Recommended that:A training session on the identification of ERT species to be maintained.A continuous monitoring the presence of wildlife especially on endemic species. |
| HCV 1.4 – CRITICAL TEMPORAL USE | ||
| No. | Management Recommendation | Action Taken |
| 14 | Entulu – Melatai FMU with saltlicks. | Two (2) saltlicks have been identified by the survey crews in Coupe 3 & 22. |
| 15 | A 100 m x 100 m of buffer zone reserve shall be marked around the saltlicks in order to prevent the visiting wildlife being interfered from normal. | Demarcation of 100 m x 100 m on ground for saltlicks sites in Coupe 3 and 22 was done. |
| 16 | Saltlicks shall only mark on map and demarcate on ground but there should be no signboard so as to attract the hunters. | The buffer zone for saltlicks shall only be marked on map and demarcated on ground but not to put up signage for indicating the location of saltlicks sites. |
| 17 | A more accurate determination with continuous monitoring the population and diversity of wildlife is through the installation of more camera traps. | A more reliance result is through collaboration with the local communities to who may know the forest well.Four (4) camera traps have been set up in the saltlicks areas and monitoring in Coupe 1.According to Honorary Wildlife Rangers, there was no poaching found in the previous Coupe 2AR.The monitoring in new coupe is still in progressing as it is an active coupe. |
| HCV 3.0 – THREATENED ECOSYSTEM | ||
| No. | Management Recommendation | Action Taken |
| 18 | A map showing the Kerangas Forest Ecosystem. | The Kerangas Forest has been shown in the HCV map. The demarcation of Kerangas is in Coupe 9. |
| 19 | A demarcation on ground and marked on map | The demarcation on ground shall be done after Detailed Harvesting Plan (DP) approved by FDS. |
| 20 | Field workers will be informed for not to carry out harvesting activities and detail planning map must mark the status of protected area. | The protection status must clearly mark on the DP map.Field instruction with ground demarcation of the area is to avoid harvesting activities in the protected area. |
| HCV 4.0 – ECOSYSTEM SERVICE | ||
| No. | Management Recommendation | Action Taken |
| 21 | Establishment of inventory plots in order to assess the vegetation types to compare its unique features with similar forest type. | Certain portion of the FMU is inaccessible by road. Therefore, the survey crew is expected to carry out ground reconnaissance during the establishment of inventory plots.There is no encroachment captures during the cleaning of the existing M-2 and M-3 in July, 2019. |
| 22 | Mapping is completed and followed by demarcation on ground in active areas. | Initially there are two (2) water catchments were identified within Entulu – Melatai, namely Sapphire 99 camp with nursery site and Camp 138 (temporary skid house was laying outside FMU boundary). .All water catchments have been mapped and demarcated for protection in June, 2017.Review of HCVF in 2019 shown that our FMU is located within Kapit Water Catchment and the legally gazette Baleh Dam catchment. HCV 4.1(3) is considered present. |
| 23 | The annual monitoring of boundary and signage | The boundary and signage monitoring on the two- water catchment were conducted in May 2018.Review of HCV in 2019 shows that none of the above water catchment is gazette as water catchment under Principle 9 of the MC&I (Natural Forest). |
| HCV 4.2 – EROSION CONTROL | ||
| HCV | Management Recommendation | |
| 4.2 | Terrain Class IV area are mapped and included in DP as per GP (if any).Terrain Class IV shall also be mapped in the Comprehensive Harvesting Plan too.There will be no new skid trails inside the Terrain IV area. To reuse the existing roads and skid trials.The Terrain IV has already been marked and mapped in the approved GP. Therefore, DP shall follow GP for the annual coupe and also Comprehensive Harvesting Plan during the blocking.Terrain IV shall be marked and demarcated on ground with blue colour paint.The ground based bulldozers are not recommended for slope greater than 35° in slope and Low Impacts Logging (LIL) System such as yarder cable line system is recommended for harvesting, if any. | |
| HCV | Monitoring Recommendation | |
| 4.2 | The monitoring is to ensure this Terrain IV area being not encroached. | |
Research Collaboration
The FMU is collaborating research studies with University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) on amphibians and reptiles at the Entulu – Melatai FMU. Field studies will be carried out on threatened earless monitor lizard and other rare species of reptiles’ population dynamic in the FMU and also, to update its monitoring results in line with the requirement of MC&I SFM.
