Huge wildlife sanctuary for Kalimantan

Huge wildlife sanctuary for Kalimantan

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia and Indonesia are to jointly set up the world's largest wildlife sanctuary, covering nearly one million hectares (2.47 million acres) of Borneo island, an official said yesterday.

The two countries want to run the sanctuary together with the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), a Yokohama- based timber producer-consumer group which campaigns strongly for sustainable management of tropical forests.

The project would be implemented next year, Bernama news agency quoted senior Sarawak government official Awang Tengah Ali Hassan as saying, after opening a Malaysia-Indonesia socio- economic working group meeting in Sarawak's Bintulu town.

Awang Tengah said that the sanctuary would comprise about 173,000 hectares (427,310 acres) in Sarawak and another 800,000 hectares on the Indonesian side of West Kalimantan.

"When launched the whole area would make up the world's largest wildlife sanctuary. It would be fully protected and no one will be allowed to cut down trees or harm any wildlife in the area," he said.

Sarawak, which boasts Malaysia's largest forested area, slashed log production in 1992 to comply with an ITTO recommendation after coming under attack from Western environmentalists for what they termed indiscriminate logging, a charge denied by Kuala Lumpur.