Forest Management Plan - Sabah Forestry Department

and protected for the conservation of flora and fauna of naturalimportance and interest.Riparian reserveFMU17A is drained by 2 major rivers, namely, Sg Karamuak and SgTangkulap Besar. Along these rivers and their major tributaries, there willbe at least 30 meters of riparian reserves, which are to be maintained andprotected. Maintaining the 30 m riparian reserves along the rivers isimportant in order to minimize soil run-off and also to serve as a filtrationsystem to preserve the quality of water entering the rivers.Stratum 1 & 2Especially for FMU 17A, intact ecosystems may only be found in Stratum 1and to some extent Stratum 2. Therefore, the protection of theseremaining ecologically superior areas is necessary whether for germplasmconservation or wildlife refuge. There are 234 ha of Stratum 1 and 3,510ha of Stratum 2 in FMU 17A.(ii)Concentrations of threatened or endangered speciesAs prescribed in 4.3.1, FMU 17A is home to large mammals particularlyorangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), pygmy elephants (Elephas maximus) andtembadaus (Bos javanicus). Orangutans are mostly found fairly widespreadin the southern part of Tangkulap FR but significantly lower in numbers ifcompared to DFR. The pygmy elephants, tembadaus and other largemammals on the other hand, appear to use the generally flatter parts ofFMU 17A (where shelter and food are aplenty) and those with mildlyundulating terrain below 200 m asl. Most of these undulating terrains existin Tangkulap FR that shares the common boundary with DFR. The rangesare within the Sg. Tangkulap Besar in the north and Sg. Karamuak in thesouth (see Figure 4.2). Meanwhile, like in DFR, saltlicks are believed to bequite common in FMU 17A. However, their exact locations are yet to bedetermined. This will be done during the plan period.The entire FMU 17A area is generally logged over forests and therefore,the presence of threatened and endangered plant species is regarded asnot significant. Nevertheless, the entire forest area of FMU 17A can stillserve as a habitat for wildlife particularly rare, threatened & endangeredspecies (RTE) – see list in Appendix A.32