Conservation Program

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THE KINABATANGAN FLOODPLAIN – A CORRIDOR OF LIFE

The lower 70 – 100km of the Kinabatangan River flows through low-lying ground, forming the Kinabatangan Floodplain. It is the arguably the last forested alluvial floodplain in Asia.

This area is rich in bio diversity; it is one of the two places on earth where ten primate species are found together, including the orang-utan, proboscis monkey and the Bornean gibbon. It is also home to over 250 bird, 50 mammal, 20 reptile species and 1056 plant species.

Kinabatangan floodland. Courtesy of WWF-Malaysia/Julia Majail

For these reasons, WWF-Malaysia is engaging stakeholders and partners (government agencies, oil palm companies, tour operators and the local community) to address the issues of reforestation, protection and management of the area.

A 'Corridor of Life' Vision was formulated towards Sustainable Development for the area, which includes:

• A forest corridor along the Kinabatangan, connecting the coastal mangrove swamps with the upland forests, where people, wildlife, nature-based tourism and local forest industries thrive and support each other.
• A floodplain that supports a thriving and diverse economy that offers opportunity and choice to local people and businesses.
• Good environmental management of the natural capital on which all partners depends upon.
• A landscape in which agriculture, people and nature conservation is united by their common source of vitality – water.

Currently, the Kinabatangan - Corridor of Life team operates in two areas doing reforestation work:

• Lot 3 of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, close to our nursery in Kampung Bilit
• The Matarob area, close to Kampung Abai at the river mouth of the Kinabatangan
• Funding for sustainable forest management

As the management of such a vast area as the Kinabatangan is a costly affair, WWF-Malaysia is working with tourism operators in carrying out a pilot project called Voluntary Conservation Levy to establish a fund which would finance the cost of protecting and reforesting (in essence ‘managing’) the area.

Wildlife viewing is a big draw for tourists to Kinabatangan and the VCL is targeted at tourists. The VCL concept encourages tourists to make a voluntary contribution towards nature conservation work in that area and to promote sustainable tourism.

Nature Lodge Kinabatangan is proud to be a partner in this pilot project. For every RM20 that our guest contributed, we will issue a VCL receipt on behalf of WWF – Malaysia. And during our busy month of May – September 2007, we even matched dollar for ever dollar that our guest contributed.

Do ask our friendly staff for details of this program and we urge you to join us in our bit to conserve this fragile environment of ours.

For more information of this pilot programme, click : HERE