Ecotourism in protected areas of Sabah, Malaysia: some models of integrated management for conservation

This presentation outlines some significant management initiatives recently undertaken by the Sabah State Government, Malaysia to enhance protection over existing areas and to place other areas under some form of protection not only for their biodiversity and life-supporting values, but also to serve other economic purposes. These measures represent a somewhat radical change from past management approaches where the focus had been largely on the preservation of biodiversity and environmental values of the respective areas. Much of the new initiatives are tied to needs to defray costs of protection, and also to derive some economic benefits from conservation and at the same time to provide a more definitive framework to carry out as well as to regulate various economic and development activities. Many significant areas under protection in Sabah contain resources with multiple values that allow for diverse and creative ways, and in varying degrees, for both consumptive and non-consumptive uses. Among such uses is nature-based tourism, and its derivative forms, which utilizes the natural environment as the principal resource to create its products. Since Sabah places high priority on the development of tourism, its potential extension of the protected area (PA) network has become a means to protect its touristic resources. The proposed and existing models of integrated management of two areas in Sabah are providing new and exciting examples for the future in managing other new and proposed areas for both conservation and tourism. The recently declared Tun Sakaran Marine Park, an inhabited area covering 35 sq km of eight islands and sea is intended to involve in situ inhabitants in both the conservation and tourism activities. Conserved for its high and outstanding marine biodiversity values the park is a special case within the Sabah Parks management system, as it includes state land, native titled land and land claimed under native customary rights. The other is the Sugut Islands Marine Conservation Area (SIMCA), an uninhabited area comprising three islands and sea covering a total area of 46,300 ha. Gazetted under the Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 and enforced by the Sabah Department of Wildlife, SIMCA is managed by the private sector as diving resort