Malaysia supportive of efforts to list Belum-Temenggor as World Heritage site

The World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) says, it stands ready to work with the government to strengthen the conservation of the Belum-Temengor rainforest reserve in Perak, with a view to listing it as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Its executive director and chief executive officer, Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said the organisation believed that sustainable management of the habitat, wildlife as well as the Orang Asli communities would strengthen the case for Belum-Temengor to be registered as such.

"WWF-Malaysia feels that in addition to economic and tourism benefits, habitat management should also be a priority in order for Belum-Temengor to be listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site," he said in a statement here on Wednesday.

He noted that WWF-Malaysia had recently completed the first science-based ecological study which included camera-trapping and sign surveys on tigers and their prey species within Belum-Temengor.

"Our findings indicate that the landscape is crucial to the long-term survival of tigers within the larger landscape as it also contains populations of large tiger prey such as sambar deer and gaur," he added.

The government had recently announced that it was eyeing a Unesco heritage listing for Belum Temengor. Unesco stands for United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation.