Sabah must invest in nature for prosperity, resilience – report

KOTA KINABALU (Dec 13): Sabah’s greatest economic and cultural wealth lies in its forests, rivers, reefs and wildlife.

Because of this, the state must invest in nature if it hopes to secure long-term prosperity, resilience and identity.

As pressures from land development, resource extraction and climate change intensify, the logic becomes clearer: if Sabah’s growth is built on the strength of its natural environment, then its future depends on protecting and enhancing that foundation.

These findings and recommendations are part of the Science Panel for Borneo’s (SPB) Assessment Report, presented at the just concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) in Belém, Brazil.

COPs are held annually and serve as the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change, bringing together almost every country on Earth.

The SPB’s 2025 Assessment Report, developed through seven expert clusters, outlines a roadmap for urgent and coordinated actions.

The clusters cover Geography and Geology, Flora, Fauna, Sustainable Agriculture, Social Well-Being and Cultural Diversity, Water and Minerals, and Economic Development.

The Report calls for the restoration of degraded ecosystems through connectivity corridors, peatland rewetting, forest rehabilitation and collaborative conservation led by diverse stakeholders, including governments.

It also emphasises the need for stronger governance, with robust enforcement, transparent revenue-sharing and legal protection for indigenous rights.

Above all, it urges trilateral collaboration under a unified Borneo Biodiversity Strategy to meet global climate and biodiversity targets before the window for action closes.

Put simply, COP is where nations come together to agree on actions to address the climate crisis, including limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr Mazlin Mokhtar, Deputy Head (Research) at Sunway University and one of the speakers at the conference, said the Borneo Assessment Report was the product of collaborative research involving more than 300 scientists from Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Mazlin is also Director of Ecological Systems Program, Sustainable Development Solution Network (SDSN) Asia Headquarters, Sunway University and Co Chair of the Science Panel for Borneo.

He said the researchers examined the complex dynamics of economic development, investment trends and environmental degradation in Borneo — Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak).

The research also assessed broader impacts on social welfare and proposed feasible solutions to support dynamic, green and inclusive development for the region.

The SPB established a coalition of Borneo experts to form its core research group.

The core group include 15 insitutions – six Indonesian universities, the Central Bank of Indonesia, Sunway Unversity, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, University College Sabah Foundation, Sabah Forestry Department, WWF Sabah, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and the Sarawak Forestry Department.

The SPB also engages with several Malaysian federal government agencies, Indonesian government agencies, and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Studies by the Sabah research team show that within the state’s multicultural landscape, diversity acts as a living force that nurtures both environmental stewardship and community resilience.

Explaining what “investing in nature” means, Mazlin said: “It’s essentially a call for sustainable governance: you cannot profit from nature without also protecting it.

“Otherwise, the natural assets that fuel economic activity will eventually degrade, collapse or lose value.

“In short, Sabah trades on nature and must invest in nature. Conservation is no longer a luxury; it is an economic necessity,” he explained through email interview.

Investing in nature means that if a state’s economy, identity or development relies heavily on its natural resources – forests, oceans, wildlife, clean water, ecotourism – then it has a responsibility to reinvest in protecting and managing those resources.”

The SPB Assessment Report also highlights that Sabah’s economy has long depended on natural resources — timber, land, oil and gas, agriculture — and increasingly on conservation tourism and biodiversity research.

“The state’s global reputation is built on its rainforests, reefs and wildlife. Yet these same assets face pressure from land conversion and inadequate funding for protected areas.

“For decades, Sabah has relied on natural assets to drive tourism, support rural livelihoods and attract global research partnerships.

“Yet these assets cannot sustain themselves without consistent reinvestment. You cannot profit from nature without protecting it,” the Report states.

Mazlin said the SPB’s objective is to provide practical policy solutions to help the three countries move towards a sustainable development trajectory.

Other recommendations include harnessing Borneo’s biodiversity for eco-tourism by investing in better management of flora, fauna and indigenous cultural heritage.

SPB also recommends investment in renewable energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and the implementation of climate-resilient agriculture to generate high-quality jobs while protecting natural resources such as soil fertility.

The SPB is one of three research teams under the “Three Forest Projects”, coordinated by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

The Science Panel for the Amazon and the Science Panel for the Congo Basin are the other two.

The goal of the Three Forest Project is to prepare assessment reports on the state of rainforests in the Amazon, Congo Basin and Borneo, and to propose science-based strategies to embed environmental sustainability, economic dynamism and social progress into their developmental pathways.

According to Mazlin, the SPB is also the first report under the development initiative titled “A Regional Approach to Designing Development Strategies for the Rainforest Countries in Southeast Asia”.

Borneo, the world’s third-largest island at 740,000 sq km, is shared by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Sabah’s globally acclaimed conservation areas managed by Yayasan Sabah – such as Danum Valley, Maliau Basin and Imbak Canyon (also known as DaMaI Forest Complex) – stands as the last bastions of untouched tropical rainforest in Malaysia.

They represent not only ecological treasures but also a moral and economic conscience of the  state.
Yet, their future could come under immense pressure if Sabah’s next phase of economic development lacks true diversification and long-term vision.

Borneo’s geology and geography allow it to function as a global carbon sink, comparable in significance to the Amazon and Congo basins.

The UN SDSN, which convenes the three science panels, has launched the 2025 Amazon Assessment Report and previewed key messages from the Congo Basin and Borneo assessments. –