Sabah Wildlife Department and 10 years of research: Towards a better conservation of Sabah's wildlife

Abstract

In this paper, we present an update on the current wildlife research undertaken by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and its partners. For the last ten years, SWD has been extremely active in developing research programmes on all Sabah's flagship species including the Bornean orangutan, the proboscis monkey, the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Bornean elephant, the Bornean banteng, the Malayan sun bear, and the Sunda clouded leopard. This has been facilitated by: (1) the setting up of their own field research centre located in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, the Danau Girang Field Centre, in collaboration with Cardiff University; (2) the development of strong collaborations with different overseas institutions such as Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, University of Indiana, Kyoto University, Oxford WildCRU, EcoHealth Alliance, Houston Zoo, and many others; and (3) the collaboration with several NGOs such as HUTAN-Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme, Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT), WWF-Malaysia, Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), UK Appeal, and many others. Recently, some of the research carried out by SWD and partners has received funding from the palm oil industry through the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Sime Darby Foundation, and others. The main aim of the research carried out by SWD and partners is to contribute to the conservation and management of the species and ecosystems, which are under their responsibility.