The Star
Nation
13 January 2009
THE National Tiger Action Plan singles out three major tiger refuge in need of protection: the Main Range, Greater Taman Negara and Southern Forest Landscape. Each will have a priority area where conservation efforts will be focused on.
All are within the Central Forest Spine (CFS), a network of forest complexes crucial for biodiversity and environmental protection, mooted in the National Physical Plan (the peninsula’s blueprint for spatial planning). The Town and Country Planning Department is now drawing up the actual boundaries of this green haven.
The Main Range landscape includes the Royal Belum and Gunung Stong Tengah state parks, Bintang Hijau forest, Ulu Muda forest and the Temenggor, Gunung Basor and Gunung Stong Utara Permanent
Reserved Forests (PRF). The Belum and Temenggor tracts are likely to be the main stronghold for the Main Range tiger population.
The Greater Taman Negara landscape encompasses Taman Negara National Park and over 10,000sqkm of PRF around it. This area harbours the peninsula’s largest remaining lowland forests (under 300m), areas where large mammals are usually found.
The Southern Forest landscape is isolated from the other two and includes four groups of increasingly fragmented forests: the Chini/Ibam forest, south-east Pahang peatswamp forest, Endau Rompin National Park and Endau-Kota Tinggi forest.
The Main Range and Greater Taman Negara forests collectively is among 20 global sites crucial for long-term tiger conservation, and the world’s fifth largest. Priority corridors to link up the three main tiger landscapes, thus enlarging the habitat, are Belum-Temenggor, Taman Negara-Lebir-Tembat and Endau-Rompin-Mersing.
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