NEED TO REGULATE TOURS IN LOWER KINABATANGAN, SAYS TEO

In The Borneo Post – 14 th April 2005

KOTA KINABALU: Albert CK Teo, founder of Sukau Rainforest Lodge, believes that a management committee should be set up to regulate tours being conducted in the Lower Kinabatangan , in particular Sukau.

The committee should comprise the Government, private sector as well as conservation bodies, he said.

Albert, who co-authored the book, entitled “Saving Paradise. The Story of Sukau Rainforest Lodge” with Canadian Carol Patterson, said this when met at the book launch yesterday by Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment minister Datuk Karim Bujang.

“I heard that the State Wildlife Department is in the process of setting up something similar to a management committee but we are in the dark about what is going to happen,” he said.

“It is my hope that one day there I would be regulations, code of practice and enforcement,” he said, adding that, Sukau should ‘be regulated like Sipadan Island .

With the number of tourists visiting Sukau regulated, it would than be possible to claim that we have truly international ecotourism,” he said. “If we can have that, we can increase tour rates and the Government can, by charging conservation and entrance fees, earn a revenue as well as finance the management committee.

“That way we can also ensure that the flora and fauna in Sukau would not disappear from the face of the earth, which is what this conference is all about and we want to make people understand that is not a threat, to them or to those whose livelihood is in the business,” he said.

“With enforcement, there will be sustainability of business which is equally as important as sustainability of the wildlife.

Albert cautioned: “The tour operators must all understand that, otherwise we will be digging our own grave.?