KOTA KINABALU – Concerns have been raised over parts of the ongoing Pan Borneo Highway project severely impacting the environment and local communities.
Macaranga.org reported that local NGOs and researchers have expressed concerns over the planned alignment of Route 1 that will cut through the class one protected Tawai Forest Reserve.
It said the 30km route will dissect the reserve, cutting through the stomping ground of the endangered Bornean pygmy elephant.
“We cannot avoid the highway. It is part of the government agenda to improve connectivity as far as possible,” Sabah chief conservator of forests Frederick Kugan was quoted as saying.
The pygmy elephants are already facing extinction as hundreds wound up dead near plantation areas or inside forest reserves, next to plantation grounds, or found drowned in the river over the years.
In 2019, former Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had taken note of the issue and proposed a realignment away from protected reserves.
“The construction of the highway should not involve felling of trees or cutting hills because the approach only affects the forests and the environment,” said Shafie as he proposed an expansion of the existing roads, rather than constructing a new highway.
The site also quoted Humans Habitats Highways (Coalition 3H) which said the dissecting of the forest would also put at risk orangutans, clouded leopards, and Bornean peacock pheasants.
A four-lane highway across the forest reserve increases risk for humans and animals of becoming roadkill as well as habitat fragmentation.
Danau Girang Field Centre director Benoit Goosens believes conflict will arise if the highway is made, saying construction sites and workers’ camps in elephant habitats pose a safety hazard for workers as well as for the wildlife.
Goosens also rubbished plans to build an overpass as a crossing for wildlife in Tawai Forest Reserve, saying it would resolve the problem only for small animals but not for elephants.
Meanwhile, Nurzhafarina Othman, director of Sabah-based conservation organisation Seratu Atai, said that building roads will help hunters access wildlife with ease.
She said the killing of elephants could still happen when there are no proper roads, but that the matter would be much worse if there is a road to access the habitats of elephants. – The Vibes, April 14, 2021
