KUCHING, Jan 11: The pristine mixed dipterocarp forest of Lambir harbours carbon stocks exceeding 200 tonnes per hectare, with even higher concentrations in the mangrove forests lining Sarawak’s extensive coasts, estimated at about 13,500 hectares within the State’s protected areas.
However, the World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) highlighted that based on its GIS calculations, Sarawak’s lowland mixed dipterocarp forests are grossly under-represented in the totally protected areas network, covering only 139,023 hectares or less than 7 per cent of what is out there.
As such, the organisation has emphasised the need for a unified effort to preserve intact ecosystems and explore community conserved areas and other effective conservation measures to assist Sarawak in surpassing its target of 1 million hectares of protected areas.
“Forests provide a crucial function in regulating temperatures on earth, by absorbing and balancing out some of the greenhouse gases that human activities release. Sarawak’s vast forests play a crucial role in climate regulation,” it said in a statement reflecting on Sarawak’s key achievements in 2023 and its aspirations for a sustainable State in 2024, issued yesterday (Jan 10).
Applauding the Sarawak government’s exploration of carbon financing involving private sectors, WWF-Malaysia believes this approach could give impetus in reaching a higher target of protected areas.
With that, the organisation pointed out that a clearer mechanism for the distribution of monetary benefits derived from carbon projects is necessary, and should be equally distributed to the people residing, or with rights in these project areas.
“WWF-Malaysia calls on the government to assign private sectors that embark on carbon financing projects the responsibilities to commit to long-term conservation,” it urged.
Meanwhile, the organisation is actively involved in habitat restoration, including planting various tree species for the benefit of the environment, wildlife, and local communities.
As part of its forest restoration programme, WWF-Malaysia has worked with communities in Belawai, Gunung Lesong, Sungai Menyang, Lemanak, and upper Tutoh, to plant 12,497 trees on 16 hectares of degraded landscape last year.
Proud to participate in the Greening Sarawak Campaign, as affirmed in the collaborative engagement with the Forest Department Sarawak through a five-year Memorandum of Understanding in June 2022, WWF-Malaysia remains committed to fostering sustainability and biodiversity in the region. — DayakDaily
