The "Development of Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary as a Totally Protected Area" Project is a joint effort of ITTO and the Sarawak Forest Department with co-funding from the ITTO. The Sarawak Forest Department is the Executing Agency.

Objectives

The development objectives of the Project are:

• To develop management guidelines/plan for the Sanctuary; and
• To formulate policies, strategies and procedures for the development of the Sanctuary in order to serve as a model in the conservation, protection and scientific utilisation for other Totally Protected Areas in Sarawak and Malaysia.

The specific objectives are:

• To conserve the biological diversity of the Sanctuary through a locally based research programme. This includes conservation and research on biological and genetic diversity, forest ecology and other aspects of the living resources in the Sanctuary to improve the knowledge of sustainable forest management; and
• To establish protection programmes while reducing pressure on the Sanctuary through community consultation and community-oriented biological diversity resource development in the surrounding Buffer Zone designed for sustainable use by the local communities.

Activities

The project has completed Phase I and Phase II (1993 - 2000). A management Plan was prepared at the end of Phase I.

Activities were carried out during Phases I and II to :

• survey, analyse and interprete soils and geological materials;
• survey, identify and describe a complete series of representative forest types relative to different soil types and altitudes;
• study the floristic diversity and distribution in different forest types and identify species with economic potential;
• establish gene bank plots for timber tree species;
• identify rare or endangered plant and animal species and their habitats for protection;
• study the population of mammals, birds, fish and insects to determine their species diversity, distribution and habitat ranges;
• study the socio-economic status of the communities living in the periphery of the Sanctuary and their perception on the conservation and preservation of the natural resources;
• implement indigenous crop cultivation and indigenous fish rearing with direct participation of the local communities; and
• study the wild game species management.

Phase III, which emphasizes community activities through training and management of resources, has begun in September 2000.