Primates Under Threat in Sabah, Borneo: How Tourists Can Help

Primates under threat

Sabah, in Northern Borneo has two very different types of primates that are currently under threat; the Bornean orang utan and the proboscis monkey. Their fates are intertwined as habitat destruction is having huge negative impacts on both populations. Conserving the shrinking rainforest is the key to their survival.

Forest destruction and oil palm plantation

Borneo’s rich natural resources have been exploited for decades and a boom in the timber industry in the 1950s apparently created millionaires. Forest clearance has been followed in many areas by a monoculture of oil palm plantations and the past decade or so has seen the rise of another generation of millionaires who got rich by wreaking havoc on the landscape.

How much more of this destruction can Borneo take? The Kinabatang River Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the best places to see wildlife in Sabah but the sanctuary is just a few kilometres wide on either side of the river. Already experts suggest that some species may be extinct in this corridor within a few decades. Development and infringements of the forest in the sanctuary continue, and the future for some of the inhabitants looks bleak. The outlook is mirrored across Sabah as increased forest clearance puts inexorable pressure on forest dependent species.

What is the hope for the future?

Aside from preventative measures that provide protection for the forest and their inhabitants, such as the designation of national parks, perhaps the greatest hope for saving these species is the ability to generate jobs and income from the attempts to save them. This is where revenue from tourism can play a part.

Saving a part of the mangrove forest for the proboscis monkey

The Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary at Labuk Bay, c. 40 km from the city of Sandakan and set within a huge oil palm plantation, illustrates how tourists can provide hope for a sustainable future. The owners of the oil palm plantation became fascinated by the proboscis monkey during development of their plantation and, in 1994, decided to set aside an area of mangrove swamp as a sanctuary. The monkeys are fed twice daily and these sessions are open to tourists. It’s a charming place and a truly wonderful experience to watch these monkeys interact and to hear the guides’ stories about the social organisation of all the monkey groups in the sanctuary. It is also possible to stay at the centre and to go on organised wildlife watching trips. The fact that the centre can earn revenue from tourists offsets the loss of income that the owners of the plantation had to absorb when they decided not to convert all their land to oil palm cultivation. And it is not just tourists and local people who benefit, research monitoring the behaviour of the monkeys is always ongoing at the sanctuary.