DEVELOPING LOCAL TALENTS IN FORESTRY AND BIODIVERSITY AREAS

The exceptional richness of biodiversity in Borneo forests offers tremendous opportunities R&D towards conserving, protecting and managing the priceless heritage. This living lab can provide an avenue for Malaysia to train, nurture and develop local talents among young scientists as well as harnessing local experts in the field of forestry and biodiversity towards strengthening country’s capacity and capability in this fields.

In its efforts to develop talents and enhancing local capacity and capability in forestry and biodiversity areas, ASM has been collaborating with Sabah Foundation (SF) since 2006 in bridging and bringing scientists from Malaysian institutions and institutes to perform expedition and research in Sabah forests. Since 2016, ASM is entrusted to develop and implement scientific research programmes for Imbak Canyon named as Imbak Canyon Rainforest Research and Training Programme (ICRRTP).

An exploratory visit to Imbak Canyon Conservation Area (ICCA) was held from 17 – 20 February 2019 by ASM Task Force on ICRRTP. Through this visit, the current opportunity for research in ICCA, as well as facilities that available in the Imbak Canyon Studies Centre, were explored for ICRRTP. Among the identified potential research areas for ICRRTP as follows:

1. Genomics and informatics-based assessment of biodiversity status
2. Corridor connectivity and landscape changes
3. Ecosystem change, biodiversity and health
4. Hydrogeomorphological and watershed management
5. Climate change