Conservation of Wildlife and Oil Palm (Kinabatangan River, Sabah)

If I were asked "What was the highlight of this trip to Malaysia for you?", I would answer "River cruise along the Kinabatangan". Probably, most of other participant would answer so.

During the trip in Sabah, we stayed several days at the accommodations which located beside the Kinabatangan River. And we enjoyed wildlife observation from the boat in mornings and evenings.

Thanks to skilled guides and our luck, we had chances to meet many species of mammals, birds and reptiles. Proboscis monkey, crab-eating macaque, hornbills, eagles and kingfishers were frequently observed species. Also we occasionally met orangutans, leaf monkeys, gibbons, Borneo elephants, crocodiles, etc... Accompanying people who had been working there said that we were unbelievably lucky guys to meet such species within a couple of days.

The only regret was I could not take a nice photo by myself. One of our colleagues took beautiful animal photos during the cruise. I expect he would soon upload some of them to his blog.

Anyway, it was really precious time for us.

During the stay at Kinabatangan, we learned about the wildlife conservation acts in the lower Kinabatangan which carried out by Borneo Conservation Trust and SARAYA Co. LTD.

Not only in the lower Kinabatangan, the biggest issue in wildlife conservation in Borneo island is oil palm plantation. Oil palm plantation has been spread around Borneo for last couple of decades, and it resulted in rapid destruction of rain forest and wildlife there. During the river cruise we frequently met the scenery that the oil palm plantation came close to the river which cause a significant effect for wildlife habitat.

First lecture was given by Mr. Hirotsugu Daishima from SARAYA. SARAYA is Japanese private company, and manufactures soaps from palm oil. As a pioneer of cooperate social responsibility (CSR) and wildlife conservation in Japan, they have been working for rehabilitation of the lower Kinabatangan area where oil palm plantation had once altered jungles, with Borneo Conservation Trust. Also as a member of Round table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), they contribute to the building of certification for oil palm development which minimize the damage to biodiversity and consider the welfare to the people who works in the plantation. In addition, they provide the website to appeal the such situation of Borneo's jungle and their activities for conservation, and plan study tours to Borneo for Japanese consumers.

The most impressive point in his lecture was that they were working with two opposite stakeholders: the conservationist and the industry group. Since SARAYA is a part of palm oil industry, and they need to continue their own businesses, they have involved to RSPO to realize the true sustainable oil palm plantations in tropical regions. However, they think that working only with RSPO is not preferable because major companies in RSPO still does not accept several regulations in oil palm plantation which seems to be necessary to conserve habitats for wildlife. For this reason, SARAYA made a decision to act for conservation of wildlife at the lower Kinabatangan with Borneo Conservation Trust, as long as they could.

Mr. Daishima said, "Still, we have not decided which side to take. The effort of RSPO seems to be insufficient, and it is difficult to change the mind of majority of them. But we would continue to participate with RSPO, and would like to propose for revisions of RSPO frameworks. This is our responsibility as a member of palm oil industry. On the other hand, we would continue to act for rehabilitation of wildlife habitat at the lower Kinabatangan because it is our responsibility as an palm oil company."

Next lecture was given by Dr. Toshinori Tsubouchi from Borneo Conservation Trust and Sabah Wildlife Department. As an active conservationist (also as a veterinary), he has been working in dozens of countries until now, and now is the one of the key person in conservation of the lower Kinabatangan. In the lecture, he introduced about the rehabilitation project of wildlife habitat (especially for orangutans and elephants) at the lower Kinabatangan which was carried out by Borneo Conservation Trust.

Also he gave a very impressive talk about difficulties and conflicts on wildlife conservation in developing counties. In the developed countries such as EU, USA or Japan, it is relatively easy to build a systematic strategy and consensus with stakeholders for wildlife conservation. However, because of poverty, lack of education, corruption and pressures from global economy, conservation acts are not easy as in the developed countries.

He emphasized that scientific theories does not help in the developed country for conservation, but solution is always ad hoc. It is probably true, however, non of us agreed with it. During the session, we had a very active discussion with him, but never leached to a conclusion, unfortunately.

I believe that scientists must always have roles in every conservation projects: giving a direction to the plan, developing techniques to carry out and validating the project for further improvement and generalization. But scientists usually could neither do reconciling conflicts among stakeholders nor making a decision. In other words, scientists cannot work by themselves, but always need collaboration with other activist. Probably, this is a reason why he said that scientific knowledge does not help.

We need to talk with conservation activists, and conservation activists need talk with us. Then, we need to work together. During this session, however, I could not find the way to talk and work with him. Still I do not have answer.

Probably we need to change the mind, and also they need to change the mind. The discussion with him have made a very little change to my mind to open up. I hope the discussion with us also have made him a change to his mind.

Kinabatangan River

Blue Eared Kingfisher Alcedo euryzona

Oil palm came close to the river