Potential recreational fishing for Sg Rawog
KOTA KINABALU: There is potential to develop and promote recreational activities at Sungai Rawog without further degrading its important forest landscapes.
Sabah deputy chief conservator of forests (research and development) Dr Robert Ong said there are a few saltlick sites identified within the Sungai Rawog conservation area and many were found throughout the management unit which are accessible by road.
“Rawog River itself is a potential water body that recreational fishing can be developed. Thus, we can develop and promote recreational fi shing to generate revenue for Sabah without further degrading this important forest landscape,” he said in a speech at the closing ceremony of the seminar on Sungai Rawog conservation area scientific expedition here on Thursday.
His speech was delivered by the senior assistant chief conservator of forests ( forest management enterprise) Indra Purwandita H Sunjoto.
The seminar was jointly organised by KTS Plantation Sdn Bhd and Sabah Forestry Department to disseminate research findings from the expedition in August last year, with participation from Universiti Malaysia Sabah ( UMS), Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Parks and World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) Malaysia.
Sungai Rawog is a conservation area covering 3,118 ha along the Sungai Rawog valley, located within the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve in Sandakan, which has been managed by KTS Plantation
Rawog River itself is a potential water body that recreational fishing can be developed. Thus, we can develop and promote recreational fishing to generate revenue for Sabah without further degrading this important forest landscape. Dr Robert Ong, Sabah deputy chief conservator of forests (research and development)
Sdn Bhd since 1993.
Ong said the surrounding forests of Sungai Rawog have been exploited for timber in the past, with findings from fauna and flora suggesting these once severely disturbed ecosystems are crucial for their continued survival.
“Hence, placing this area as conservation zone under sustainable forest management practices by KTS Plantation is appropriate and crucial for the maintenance of biodiversity in Sabah,” he said.
He added that the Sabah Forestry Department and KTS Plantation would take note of the various points brought up in this seminar, including the most important key fi ndings of critical concentration of biodiversity in Sungai Rawog.
“The department, forest managers and relevant stakeholders will evaluate and formulate biodiversity monitoring programme that is in line with the statewide monitoring of crucial and important forest landscape, ecosystems and species programmes.”
KTS Plantation Sdn Bhd Sabah area operations manager (forests) Collin Goh said the old notion that the forestry industry was just about ‘Fell and Sell’ is a thing of the past.
“We are continuously determined embrace to the approach of scientifically evidentbased practices. We need the best foresters to develop models and methods to navigate us forward,” Goh said.
He said results from the expedition would be used to improve the company’s management of conservation areas in a holistic manner, which is now being incorporated into its Forest Management Plan for the period of 2019 to 2028.
Goh added that KTS Plantations is looking forward to more collaborative activities in future as the company works to set up the Field Research Station soon.
“Perhaps, the priority will be focused on understanding the aspect of cohabitant between rare, threatened, and endangered ( RTE) species and operational activities in the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve, otherwise we are not doing justice to these species which may have been deprived of their preferred habitat,” he said.