25/10/2017 (The Borneo Post) - KOTA KINABALU: After a decade of implementation, the Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative has become the epitome of Sabah’s exemplary achievement in the management and conservation of its tropical rainforests.

Sabah Chief Minister, Tan Sri Musa Aman, said as the custodian of the state’s rainforests, the Sabah Forestry Department continued to ensure the state’s rich biodiversity was duly safeguarded for the benefit of the current and future generations.

“A significant achievement in line with the HoB initiative is the state government’s policy in conserving its natural terrestrial ecosystems through the designation of protected areas.

“About 26 per cent of the state’s land area has been gazetted as Totally Protected Areas (TPAs), and this figure represents the largest network of TPAs in the country,” he said during the opening of the HoB International Conference yesterday.

Musa also said that the state government was on track to expand the size of the TPAs to cover 30 per cent of Sabah’s land mass by 2025.

He noted that the HoB initiative was not only to conserve forest biodiversity and wildlife, but was also crucial for the well-being of the communities.

 “The ongoing rationalisation of land use for the socio-economic well-being of local communities, especially those living within or adjacent to protected areas, should be in tandem with the expansion of the TPAs.

“As such, the state government has excised up to about 21,400 hectares of forest reserves for community purposes since 2010,” he said.

Musa said that it was important to engage with the local community through various initiatives such as ecotourism, and most importantly, the community must be consulted to ensure that any programme under the HoB initiative benefited them.

The chief minister said that Sabah had given much emphasis on best practices in the agriculture sector through initiatives such as the Sabah Jurisdictional Certified Sustainable Palm Oil, which is a 10-year programme launched in 2015 for Sabah’s crude palm oil to be recognised as Certified Sustainable Palm Oil. — Bernama