Awang Tengah: 26 new frog species discovered throughout Sarawak

KUCHING (Nov 20): A total of 26 new frog species have been discovered throughout Sarawak, said Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.

The Second Natural Resources and Urban Development Minister said the findings were the result of several research which were carried out following the 10th World Congress of Herpetology held here back in August.

“Of the new frog species, six have been given scientific names by our Premier according to the name of the place where the frogs were found.

“For example, for the frog found in Mulu, the name given was ‘Limnonectes Muluensis’ and for the frog found in Penrissen, it is called ‘Limnonectes Penrissensis’,” he said when winding up his ministerial speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Sitting here.

He added that the remaining 20 species are still at the Morphological Identification stage.

He said the discovery of these new species proved that Sarawak is rich in a diverse range of frog species.

“It is one of the important indicators of the health of the ecosystem because of its sensitivity to environmental changes,” he said.

On another matter, Awang Tengah said a new Permanent Forest Reserve area, namely Mujong Pila Protected Forest, which covers an area of ​​32,812 hectares, has been gazetted this year.

“To date, the Sarawak government has gazetted an area of ​​four million hectares as Permanent Forest Reserves out of the targeted six million hectares,” he said.

For Fully Protected Areas (TPAs), he said the Sarawak government is targeting 1 million hectares by 2025.

“To date, an area of ​​874 thousand hectares has been gazetted.

“The Sarawak Government has gazetted 1.2 million hectares of water areas as TPAs, bringing the total TPAs ​​in Sarawak to 2.1 million hectares.”