BORNEO-MALAYSIA PROJECT

OM PERSONAL has received this S.O.S.  THANKS for helping.

November 2000

Dear people,

We want to inform you about the proposed forest plantation and pulp mill plantation project called "B… W… P…". This project will convert 241,399 ha of lowland tropical rainforest, which has the highest biodiversity on earth, into a mono-culture, single species, tree plantation. The tree planted is Acacia magium -a soft wood species, introduced from Australia- and is intended to feed a huge pulp and paper mill.

Clouded Leopards and more species in danger

 

The project in question is a joint-venture between China and Malaysia. The location of this plantation is at the heart of Sabah, in the largest lowland forest remaining in Sabah, between the Danum Valley and the Maliau Basin Conservation Areas.

The plantation will eventually cut the linkage zone and corridor between these two important protected rainforests. The first stage of logging has already been carried out last year which has caused the Segama River -the river that runs through Danum Valley Field Center- to become muddy and highly sedimented. The second phase of forest clearing will soon to be implemented. Many efforts have been done to stop this project but unfortunately all failed, due to high-authority procedures (Prime Minister).

If the forest became cleared to the proposed project size, this should mean that the following amount of "mega-wildlife" in the country will lose their habitat and die. To make the calculation easier, we used 2000 km2 of forest, instates of 2413 km2 as proposed in the project.

 
 

SPECIES
(Animals in this forest)

DENSITY

NUMBER

 
 

Elephant

1 elephant/7 km2

286 elephants

  
 

Sun bear

1 bear/ 4 km2

500 bears

  
 

Clouded leopard

1 leopard/ 4 km2

500 leopards

  
 

Orangutan

1 orangutan/ km2

2,000 orangutan

  
 

Gibbons *

1 group of gibbon/ km2

6,400 groups of gibbons

  
         

* A gibbon's group consists of 2-3 individuals.


The density of animals is referred from "A Fauna Survey of Sabah" (Davies and Payne, 1982), published by WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

We are very frustrated here as we tried many ways to stop "the biggest disaster" in Southeast Asia. The political power involved is too big for us to do anything. We hope you can report something about this catastrophe and let the world know that we are losing our priceless biodiversity. The problem is not just losing the forest, wildlife and biodiversity; it also creates more and more catastrophe to this part of the world such as, pollution (waste from the pulp mill), fire (very dry Acacia magium plantations burn easily), social (many illegal workers will be imported) and hunting. All of the animals mentioned above, plus many many more will be doomed, if we don't act NOW.

Anyway, in the future communication via email, try to avoid using the full name of the project, i.e., B.....W.....P.... The whole environment in Sabah is pretty "hot" about this issue. You guys should act while everything is still hot. Local NGOs are too weak to do something. We can't rely on them, we need people like you.

We thank you on behalf of all the flora and fauna of the forest that call this forest HOME.

Here are the addresses of the Prime Minister of Malaysia and some other top decision makers that you and your friend should raise the concern over the BWP. Please write to them asking to stop this project. Thank you very much again.

Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad - Prime Minister of Malaysia
Prime Minister Office
Federal Government Administration Center
62502 Putrajaya
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: 603-88888000
Fax: 603-88883444
email: ppm@smpke.jpm.my

YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Osu Hj Sukam - Chief Minister of Sabah
Tingkat 25, Bangunan Yayasan Sabah
88502 Kota Kinabalu
Sabah
Malaysia
email: ketuamenteri@sabah.gov.my

TB Datuk Chong Kah Kiat - Minister of Ministry of Tourism Development, Environment, Science and Technology
Tingkat 5-7, Menara Sabah Bank
Wisma Tun Fuad Stephens
Karamunsing
88300 Kota Kinabalu
Sabah
Malaysia
email: menteri.mted@sabah.gov.my

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