Sarawak’s beautiful panorama, ethnics’ wonderful hospitality a world class tourism potential

KUCHING: Sarawak also known as the Land of the Hornbills offers a beautiful panorama of its landscape and the wonderful hospitality of its 23 ethnic groups.Whoever had visited this place is bound to return with friends or family. This is what the writer himself felt after participating the Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia programme in Sarawak organised by the Gaya Travel Magazine with the cooperation of the Tourism Ministry.

The programme from March 26-29 was participated by media, Tourism Malaysia representatives, and the tour agents from Malaysia and Indonesia. The group had the opportunity to tour many places of interest, among others the Borneo Highlands Resort, Homestay Santubong, Homestay Kampung Darul Islam Belimbing Padawa, Kampung Budaya and the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching.

The group members were tired after stopping at numerous places, and their stomachs were full after eating non-stop. The stay at Homestay Kampung Santubong located about 42 kilometres from Kuching city was a memorable experience. Here visitors can savour and feel the natural splendour at the foothill of the Santubong mountain, among others the beaches and jungles that hold the myth of the Santubong Princess.

Nestled within the fishing village with 2,000 residents, the homestay is being operated with the cooperation of the locals since 2007. It is beautiful, clean and unspoilt by development. Throughout the stay guests were entertained with songs and dances along with activities like tug-of-war and beach football.

According to Jamilah Shukri, the Homestay Santubong coordinator, the visitors there could also scale the beautiful Santubong mountain, visit the Sultan Tengah’s mausoleum and get up and close with dolphins. “Visitors can take pictures of these dolphins at sea, but the dolphins are only present between April and October only. “Even if it rains the dolphins won’t appear, visitors here can follow fishermen to see the dolphins and feed them, they like to feed on small fishes especially anchovies,” she said to Bernama.

For more information on Santubong Homestay please go to www.santubong homestay.com.my. Being the biggest state in Malaysia covering an area of 124,450 square km, Sarawak has many places of interest waiting to be explored and has the potential to emerge as a world class tourist destination.  However, due to certain reasons many of the places are yet to be promoted on a big scale overseas.

The Director of Tourism Malaysia Sarawak, Ahmad Johanif Mohd Ali provided Pulau Talang-Talang as an example where the number of visitors had to be restricted to seven only at any one time to safeguard the turtle’s habitat there.

“We conduct studies on the respective places before promoting the place, and this is why at times people get the wrong impression that the government is not helping to promote a particular area, that is not the case, it is due to factors that I have mentioned earlier and others,” he said. — Bernama

Orangutan conservation programme to be emulated for hornbills

by Geryl Ogilvy Ruekeith and Chai Shin Yi April 7, 2010, Wednesday

KUCHING: Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) will intensify its hornbill conservation efforts through restructuring the protection programmes to get them on par with those used in orangutan conservation.“Hornbill conservation has always been around but the adoption programme is much more difficult. We are now finding ways to make the conservation systematic just like the orangutan adoption programme,” SFC chief executive officer Datu Len Talif Salleh said at a press conference at Pullman Hotel, here yesterday.

Len, who is also Ministry of Planning and Resource Management deputy permanent secretary, pointed out that SFC has always been serious in wildlife protection.In fact, the programmes were restructured and governed by strong laws.

“However, the law will be useless if enforcement is weak or not carried out at all. What needs to be done is strengthening enforcement on the ground,” he said.

According to him, enforcement was even packaged together with the Endangered Wildlife Programme to enable the public to voluntarily help to enforce the law.He also mentioned that lots of things needed to be done especially cultural integration.

“When I saw hornbill feathers used to decorate native headgear, I asked if it was easy to find them. The rural folk said it was very difficult as hornbills are rarely found nowadays.

“Here, we know that there should be more awareness of the communities concerning the conservation of hornbills. We have to integrate this culture into something which is sustainable as far as wildlife conservation is concerned,” said Len. He admitted that the programme might be hard to implement as the government needed to educate the natives and disseminate the correct information to them. Not to be deterred, SFC has designated Matang Wildlife Centre as part of the hornbill conservation programme.

SFC would also step up in-depth research which lots of emphasis on hornbill productive capabilities, migration pattern and diet. The programme is currently in its initial developmental stage, and it is hoped that it could be implemented by 2010. On the current hornbill population, Len said that it has not been surveyed. He mentioned that it was very difficult to quantify because hornbill habitats have no boundaries.

Hence, trans-boundary conservation programme was very much needed because no matter what efforts were taken here, the effort would become useless if the other side (Sabah, Brunei, Kalimantan) were not doing enough.

“Our efforts must be comprehensive and integrated. For positive results, all enforcement efforts must coincide or at least be carried out by all parties,” said Len. He also reminded the public not to worry about the hornbill’s population as all eight species were not on the verge of extinction.

On Hose’s civet, many of which have been found in logging concession areas, Len said the animals were included under the protection and conservation programme as well. “Since SFC is conserving all wildlife deemed endemic in the state, all logging and conservation activities are monitored by the Forest Department. We are making sure that the animals are not harmed.

“The forest ordinance also covers conservation efforts. It is a total package, not separate issues. Even if a concession area belongs to a private company, SFC will study the area and restrict certain activities. I as the director issues logging permits. SFC is responsible for monitoring logging,” he said. He acknowledged that there have been a lot of foreign criticisms, critical articles and reports calling for more conservation efforts.