Maliau Basin: Sabah’s Lost WorldThe Maliau Basin, Sabah's Lost World celebrates the many
natural wonders in one of the most captivating and mysteriously beautiful
protected areas in the World. The Basin has a spectacular crater-like form with
a mountainous rim and includes magnificent rain forests, wild rivers, splendid
waterfalls and a cool highland plateau. These rain forests inspire awe by their
immense richness in plant and animal life, and a sense of history spanning
millions of years. Exceptionally rare, possibly even unique, plant communities
occur in Maliau's montane forests. Although scientific exploration has only
recently begun, Maliau's importance in terms of protecting a tremendous range of
ecosystems with innumerable species of plants and animals, many of which are
rare and endangered elsewhere, has already become evident. Through spectacular
photographs and an excellent accompanying text, this beautiful and informative
book fosters a deeper understanding of many of nature's splendid wonders. The
book is an important guide to Maliau's plant and animal life, natural
communities and geology and will greatly enhance the experience of both
explorers-to-be and nature lovers at large. Author(s): Hans P. Hazebroek, Tengku Zainal Adlin and Waidi Sinun
Hans P. Hazebroek came to Borneo as a geologist
in 1991, working in Miri, Sarawak, for Sarawak Shell Berhad. He took up
full-time writing and photography in 1996. His earlier books are National
Parks of Sarawak and A Guide to Gunung Mulu National Park (both with
Abang Kashim).
Hans first visited the Maliau Basin in 1993, when he
travelled the Basin from the Western rim via Long Ridge to the southern plateau
on a photographic expedition. Impressed with its pristine wilderness, the beauty
and vastness of Maliau’s landscapes, and the abundance of its wildlife, he
returned in 1994 for another expedition to the Basin, spending much time
photographing the wildlife in the mixed diptercarp forest along the Maliau River
and in the lower montane forest of the southern plateau. In the course of
writing this book with Tengku Zainal Adlin and Dr Waidi Sinun, he returned for a
third expedition in 2002.
Hans thanks his love for nature, God’s creation, to his
parents, who took him out camping in the wilds in his early childhood. His
father taught him the basic of photography.
Tengku Zainal Adlin became fascinated with the
spectacular landform of the Maliau Basin when he first flew over it during an
aerial survey in the early seventies. Many subsequent flights for the planning
and long-term management of the Sabah Foundation Forest Concession convinced him
of the uniqueness of the Basin, and he became instrumental in the establishment
of the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley Conservation Areas in the early eighties,
when he was Deputy Director of the Sabah Foundation. Tengku undertook the
initial management planning for the Maliau Basin, in cooperation with the late
Dr Clive Marsh (from 1983 to 1995) and with Dr Waidi Sinun (from 1996 onwards),
and was instrumental in the success of the first scientific expedition into the
Maliau Basin by the Sabah Foundation and WWF Malaysia in April 1988. Presently,
Tengku is a part of the Maliau Basin Management Committee. In his capacity as
Honorary Vice President, Raleigh International (United Kingdom), he has
initiated Raleigh International expeditions into the Maliau Basin since the
early nineties and as President of the Sabah Society for periods during a
decade, he helped ensure public awareness of the need to conserve Sabah’s “Lost
World”.
Tengku Adlin served as a pilot in the late fifties and early
sixties and thereafter followed a career in the civil service for 34 years,
including as Assistant District Officer and Assistant State Secretary, Kelantan
in the mid-sixties, Chief Executive Officer of the Sabah State Housing
Commission and the Deputy Director of the Sabah Foundation from the late sixties
to mid-nineties; he was responsible for the institutional and capacity building
of the two statutory bodies. The Sabah State Government appointed him Chairman
of the Sabah Tourism Board since 2000.
Tengku Adlin is very active in voluntary work and is
currently the Chairman of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) Malaysia and a
member of the Board of Trustees of WWF-International, Chairman of the Danum
Valley management Committee and the Likas Wetlands Bird Sanctuary, Trustee of
the Sabah Parks, Chairman of the Outward Bound Sabah and Honorary Member of the
Scientific Exploration Society, U.K., among others. He has also written books
and publications on nature and adventure, having led or participated in many
expeditions to the unexplored or lesser known parts of Sabah since the late
sixties.
A new species of the genus with the largest flowers in the
world, Rafflesia, which is found in the Maliau Basin, is named
Rafflesia tengku-adlinii for him. He was conferred an Honorary Doctor of
Philosophy by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In 1999, he was conferred the
Langkawi Award by His Majesty The King of Malaysia, and then the WWF Duke of
Edinburgh Conservation Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions in
fieldwork, education and public awareness to policy-making and international
cooperation.
After completing his initial education in high school in
Perak, Dr Waidi Sinun was sent to Queensland, Australia by Yayasan
Sabah where he completed his studies at the Scots College, Warwick and
subsequently his first degree at the Queensland University of Technology. Upon
returning to Sabah in 1987, he was selected by Manchester University to work as
a graduate research assistant on a forest hydro-geomorphological research
project on the impact of logging on a tropical rain forest stream system in the
Danum Valley. While working with the team he completed his MSc on tropical rain
forest hydrology with sponsorship from the Royal Society, U.K. Based on his MSc
work, he was awarded the Muriel Stort Scholarship by the University of
Manchester for a PhD, studying the impact of montane forest destruction on
streams in the highlands of Kinabalu.
He was appointed the second Manager of the Danum Valley in
1988, when the first Scientific Expedition to Maliau Basin was carried out,
until January 1992. In 1995, he returned with a PhD from Manchester University
to work for the Yayasan Sabah. At the end of 1995 he took over as the Second
Secretary of the Danum Valley Management Committee and at the same time became
the head of the Conservation and Environmental section of the Sabah Foundation.
In this capacity, he initiated the second Scientific Expedition to Maliau Basin,
which was carried out collaboratively by various agencies in 1996. At about the
same year, he helped initiate the formal collaborative arrangement with DANCED (DANIDA)
that culminated in the formulation of the first Maliau Basin Strategic
Management Plan and the development of the Maliau Basin Studies Centre. The
duration of the collaboration was four years (1999-2003), during which he was
the Project Director. Maliau Basin was made a Class I Protection Forest Reserve
as well as Cultural (Conservation) Heritage in 1997. When the Maliau Basin
Management Committee was set up in 1998 as required in the Government Gazette,
The Maliau Basin Forest Rules 1998, he was chosen by the Committee as the
Secretary. He is currently Group Manager of the Research and Development
Division of the Yayasan Sabah Group. Dr Waidi is from Ranau, on the lower slopes
of the mighty Kinabalu.
Publisher: Natural History Publications (Borneo)
Editor(s): K.M. Wong
First Published: January 2004
No. of Pages: xxiv + 235 pp.
Size: 18.5 x 25.5 cm (Hardcover)
ISBN: 983-812-082-0
Cover: HB
Price: US $58.00
Weight: 1400g Quantity:
|
 |