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By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, June 24: Sarawak hopes to get feedback on whether Niah National Park will be recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site by next year.
In stating this, Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Sarawak, Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, was referring to Niah National Park’s nomination as a Unesco World Heritage Site recently.
“We have submitted (application) for Niah Caves (Niah National Park), which we hope to get recognition by Unesco.
“Hopefully, we will get feedback next year,” he said during a press conference in conjunction with Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) at Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) here today.
Citing other places of interest in Sarawak, he informed that Sarawak already has one Unesco World Heritage Site so far, which is Mulu National Park.
He also mentioned that he has recently visited Jeju Island in South Korea, which has been recognised as a Unesco Global Geopark (UGGp) as part of the mission to attain the same status for Sarawak Delta National Geopark.
Although Sarawak Delta is already recognised as the sixth national geopark under Malaysia’s National Geopark Development Programme, Abdul Karim said the Sarawak government does not want to stop there and would continue to be recognised globally under Unesco.
“If you want to see how a global geopark is managed, you can look at Jeju Island. I have been to Jeju Island, and I am amazed. It is a good place to learn how to manage the environment and our geoparks.
“Apart from that, I would also like to share that I am very proud to see Sarawak now have the most number of national parks, more than 50 sites. When a site has been gazetted as a national park, a lot of things you cannot do anymore, and that is one of the ways we can preserve and conserve our flora and fauna inside the park,” he added. — DayakDaily
