KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is on board with Malaysia's commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
With the commitment, Sabah is expecting to see very little habitat loss for wildlife, said Sabah Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin.
"With Sabah's commitments to forest conservation, and Malaysia's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, we expect to see very little further habitat loss.
"Poaching may be a bigger threat than habitat loss, but, as the book stresses, we need to take care of births, as well as deaths, in endangered species," he said.
He was speaking at the launch of the book "The Hairy Rhinoceros: History, ecology and some lessons for management of the last Asian megafauna" authored by well-known conservationist Datuk Dr John Payne.
Jafry commended Payne for his attention to detail and for providing some bold and important analyses in his book, including details on the human elements without apportioning blame to any particular agency.
He said the book provides an impression of the story of why this particular species was the first species to go extinct in Malaysia in recent times.
"For the Hairy rhino, the major human impact started many thousands of years ago, in China. And the critical period for decisive action was many decades ago. I think it is fair to say that we left it far too late. And we were not the only ones.
"The second conclusion is that the cause of this species extinction was not poaching or habitat loss. It was that, from a century ago, there were too few Hairy rhinos in any one place, and too few births.
"I consider this book to be a landmark in publication on Malaysian wildlife species. Many lessons have been – and can still be – learnt on how to manage other endangered wildlife species, not only in Sabah, but in Malaysia, and globally," he said.
"I believe that Sabah is now pioneering some of those methods. And I hope that we will continue to do so."
Jafry said human institutions, everywhere in the world, need to do better at recognising crises, and at making and acting on difficult decisions.
"Risk aversion and 'group think' tend to dominate when multiple institutions are involved.
"Let us strive to be more aware of these issues in the future, while hoping the international community, including specialists and advisory bodies, continue emphasising poaching and habitat loss."