The greater Batang Ai-Lanjak-Entimau
landscape comprises core protected areas, including the Batang Ai
National Park and the Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, flanked by proposed
protected area extensions and non-protected orangutan habitats including
communal areas (for farming and tourism), logging concessions, and agroforestry
plantations.
The core habitats of the Batang
Ai-Lanjak-Entimau Landscape have the best prospect for long-term survival of orangutans in Sarawak. Since 2011, orangutans have been documented in
non-protected areas around the greater Batang Ai-Lanjak-Entimau Landscape.
These include (a) the proposed Batang Ai National Park extensions (up to 81 square
kilometres), (b) Ulu Sungai Menyang (140 square kilometres) which is contiguous
to the Batang Ai National Park, and (c) Ta Ann Group’s Pasin Forest Management
Unit (1,322 square kilometres) which is next to the Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife
Sanctuary. In 2015, the Sarawak Government reaffirmed its commitment to
conserve orangutans especially by creating a huge area of forest as orangutan
reserves. Since 2021, the Premier of Sarawak committed towards the preservation
of six million hectares of land as permanent forests and one million hectares
as Totally Protected Areas under the Sarawak’s Post COVID-19 Development
Strategy 2030. This included the proposed Ulu Sungai Menyang as a Conservation
Area with High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF), as the site has a globally
significant orangutan population.
The Batang Ai-Lanjak-Entimau Landscape is
also ecologically important as a critical habitat for other charismatic species
such as helmeted hornbills, clouded leopards, sun bears, bearded pigs and Sunda
pangolins. However, current biological baseline and threat assessment data on
these high-value traded species at the Batang Ai-Lanjak-Entimau Landscape are
still deficient. Despite their unknown origins, the wildlife trade products of
high-value traded species seized during Sarawak Forestry Corporation’s
enforcement operations were in towns within the same administrative district as
the Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary.