The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment is in the process of creating guidelines to control tourism activities in sensitive areas such as islands, forest reserves, parks and rivers.
One of the aspects that the ministry is looking into are policies to control and provide management standards of resort developments, especially island resorts, to ensure that the resorts built are eco-friendly.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, said the ministry has conducted a study and would later come up with an action plan to control the islands in Sabah.
“We will carry out zoning initially, conduct a thorough study to identify all the islands in Sabah and determine what suitable sectors can be done on each islands such as quarry, tourism and agriculture.”
With an expected increase in tourist arrivals of up to 3.2 million this year, Pang said, there was a need to create more facilities such as resorts and hotels.
However, the ministry sees a lack of standards in resort developments, where operators build resorts that are not environmentally friendly, nor do they consider the environmental impact where the resorts are built, he said.
Pang said a system needed to be in place to regulate human waste and sewerage from island resorts, to make sure that the waste were treated and not just being disposed into the sea.
Whilst resort developers have to comply with safety standards imposed by the local government, Pang said, there has yet to be guidelines in place pertaining to developments in environmentally sensitive areas.
“We hope in the short term we are able to come up with policies to be implemented especially in areas under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment, Sabah Parks and Wildlife Department, whereby resorts to be built must meet certain standards,” he said.
Pang said this when officiating at a seminar on ‘Environmental Management: Issues and Challenges of Islands Management in Sabah’ and the launching of the Integrated Environmental Information Management System (IEIMS) here yesterday.
“This (Sabah) is a top world class destination. We have one of the best dive sites, oldest forest reserves in the world. We must protect our environment so that the environment can contribute to our economy eternally,” Pang said.
The guidelines or action plans will also extend to boats used along Kinabatangan river, to ensure boat operators utilize engines that do not cause too much noise.
On another note, Pang urged government agencies to carry out their tasks efficiently, in terms of enforcing the regulations.
He said a company has planted trees in riparian reserves in Kinabatangan but the relevant agency has not taken action against the company despite the years that have passed.
He also called on the people to cooperate with the government to report environmental pollution incidences.
Earlier on, Pang said there were more than 439 islands in Sabah, some of them have been developed with various socio-economic activities particularly tourism. On the other hand, part of the islands have yet to be developed, be it for the fishing, agriculture, forestry, silica mining, quarry or as a new tourism destination.
In view of this, the government has envisioned an integrated management plan as a reference to all parties responsible in planning, controlling and considering development proposals on the islands in Sabah to ensure the developments do not affect the environment.
On IEIMS, Pang said that the on-line or web based system aimed to facilitate matters between the government and private sector such as the checking of environmental impact assessment (EIA) status, submission of reports and registration of environmental consultants.
The public can also lodge an environmental complaint and be informed of its status via the Internet. He added that the public especially young children could also learn about government policies by tapping into IEIMS.
Also present at the event was the deputy permanent secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, William Baya and the director of Environment Protection Department, Yabi Yangkat.
