Company To Manage Mulu National Park

Sarawak Tribune 4 February 2001

Kuching- Mulu National Park will be managed by a company, Minister of Tourism Dato Sri Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Johari Tun Haji Openg revealed on Saturday night.

" At the moment, we feel we need professionals to manage the park in view of it's status as a world heritage site," he explained after attending a welcoming dinner for 41 members of the Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs from Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Mulu National Park, located in Miri Division, is one of the 138 listed natural heritage sites in the world. The world heritage status was bestowed on the park by the United Nations at the 24th UNESCO's World Heritage Committee's Annual Meeting held in Cairns, Austrailia on 27 November 2000.

The 52,864 ha park, famous for it's richness in biodiversity and unique karstic features is dominated by Gunung Mulu, a 2,377 m high pinnacle karst with exceptional natural beauty. Gunung Mulu is believed to be most cavernous mountain in the world with at least 295 KM of explored caves, providing a major wildlife spectacle in terms of millions of cave swflets and bats.

Mulu also houses the Sarawak Chamber, the largest known cave chamber in the world and a few other spectacular chambers like the Deer Cave, the world's largest cave passage and the Clear Water Cave, the longest cave in Asia and the eleventh longest cave in the world.

Johari, who is also the deputy president of SABERKAS, added that today's youth played an important role in nation-building and especially in making Vision 2020 a reality.

" The youth must be united and understand each other so that they can work together," he stressed.

He said the government had been sending youth to from the State to Peninsular Malaysia so that they could learn from the experiences of their compatriots.

Meanwhile, the visitors, led by chairman of the Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs, Dato Haji Saidi Adam, will be in the State for three days. They will visit Tebedu, the Sarawak Cultural Village and other places of interest in the city.