WWF-Malaysia’s orang utan conservation manager Donna Simon said the 5km corridor, which is 200m wide on average, will serve as an important route for elephants, orang utan and other species.Currently, no orang utan has been spotted in the Bagahak corridor as it is still an open area with fragmented riparian forests along the small river, she said, hence the need to restore the degraded forests there.
“There is an estimate of about 1,000 orang utan in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve and about 50 in the Silabukan Forest Reserve, so the connectivity of both forests is crucial to maintain gene flow between the two populations. WWF-Malaysia Conservation Director Dr Henry Chan added that forest restoration is among the key efforts in conserving the orang utan population.
“In order to secure the survival of the orang utan, there is a need to ensure that the habitat can support them and degraded habitats are restored,” he added.