By Dr Robecca Jumin, Head of Conservation, WWF-Malaysia (Sabah)

Originally published in The Borneo Post

As the world marks the International Day of Forests on 21 March, this message resonates strongly in Malaysia. Sabah’s experience shows how forests thrive when communities are empowered to shape decisions that affect their lands, culture, and livelihoods.

Sabah’s landscapes are more than a rich tapestry of forests, rivers, and plantations—they are living spaces shaped by generations of people whose cultures, livelihoods, and identities are deeply tied to the land. From communities in Nabawan to those across the coasts and highlands, many Sabahans have long lived in a symbiotic relationship with nature, a bond reflected in stories, traditions, and daily life.

This lived experience points to a truth increasingly recognised worldwide: sustainable forest management cannot succeed without the full participation and empowerment of the communities who depend on these ecosystems. As global sentiments shift toward inclusive conservation and social forestry, the conversation is no longer about whether communities should be involved, but how they meaningfully shape the governance of the forests that sustain them.

Sabah is charting its own course toward people‑centred forest governance. Policies such as the Sabah Environmental Policy, the Sabah Biodiversity Strategy 2024–2034, and the Sabah Forest Policy 2018 demonstrate the state’s long‑standing commitment to safeguarding nature while supporting development. Yet the real test lies in implementation—and in ensuring that communities understand the rules, rights, and opportunities that shape their relationship with the forest.

This direction aligns with recent state announcements to expand Sabah’s Totally Protected Areas, with approximately 216,000 hectares set to be gazetted, bringing protected coverage to just over 30% of the state’s land area. This plan underscores the importance of ensuring that future protected area decisions are guided by transparent processes, sound ecological priorities, and strong community engagement.

At the community level, many forest‑dependent communities remain unsure about the rules governing Forest Reserves, the proper channels for resolving grievances, or the opportunities available for them to participate in forest management. Without accessible guidance, communities are at risk of being left out of decisions that directly affect their daily lives and long‑term well-being.

Across Sabah, efforts are underway to clarify, make more transparent, and make more inclusive forest governance. Government agencies, community groups, NGOs, and private‑sector partners each play a role in translating complex regulations into practical tools, standardising engagement processes, and strengthening dialogue. These collective efforts help ensure that policy commitments take meaningful shape for the communities who live closest to Sabah’s forests.

KIPMAPS (Kit Informasi Penglibatan Masyarakat dalam Perhutanan Sabah) was created to provide communities with clear, easily accessible information on the rules governing their interactions with forest resources. Launched at the International Conference on Borneo’s Green Heart in 2025, the toolkit provides straightforward guidance on the “dos and don’ts” within Permanent Forest Reserves and the channels for resolving forestry‑related issues.
Developed by SFD and WWF‑Malaysia with input from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), KIPMAPS was shaped through workshops and focus groups in Telupid, Lahad Datu, and Nabawan, ensuring it reflects real community needs and contexts. It simplifies complex regulations into clear steps for grievance resolution, explains Forest Reserve classifications, and outlines opportunities for participation in management planning, certification, and community forestry initiatives.

By standardising engagement across Sabah, KIPMAPS ensures that communities receive consistent information and can participate more confidently in forest governance. In doing so, it moves inclusive conservation from principle to practice, empowering communities to become informed partners in managing the forests they depend on.

Alongside formal tools like KIPMAPS, communities also develop their own protocols to guide interactions with government agencies, researchers, NGOs, and companies. These protocols articulate local values, cultural practices, and resource‑use norms, ensuring that engagement is transparent, respectful, and grounded in community priorities.

Community protocols provide clarity on land and resource use, co‑management arrangements, and sustainable harvesting or hunting practices. For example, a protocol may outline how hunting permits are linked to cultural needs or community events—balancing traditional practices with conservation objectives.

Such protocols help communities define their expectations, strengthen their role in decision‑making, and formalise how they wish to collaborate with external partners. Ultimately, they serve as a powerful mechanism for communities to safeguard cultural integrity while participating meaningfully in forest governance.

In many forest‑edge areas, community rangers play an increasingly important role in bridging local knowledge with formal conservation efforts. As residents who understand the landscape, wildlife movements, and cultural practices of their area, they serve as the first point of response to issues such as human–wildlife conflict, forest encroachment, or resource‑use pressures.

Community rangers support monitoring activities, report illegal activities more rapidly, and help share information with relevant authorities, including the Sabah Wildlife Department. Their presence strengthens early‑warning systems, especially in remote areas where government teams may have limited reach. Beyond protection, rangers also help raise awareness—explaining forest rules, promoting safe and sustainable practices, and ensuring that local voices are represented in management discussions.

By combining local knowledge with practical field skills, community rangers are demonstrating how their involvement can contribute meaningfully to the long‑term stewardship of Sabah’s natural heritage.

Beyond local tools and community‑led initiatives, international standards such as the IUCN Green List for Protected and Conserved Areas play an important role in strengthening inclusive governance. The Green List framework emphasises fairness, community participation, and cultural values, ensuring that conservation areas are not only well managed but also socially equitable.

A key component of the standard is the recognition of local and Indigenous community rights. Cultural values—whether tied to traditional practices, resource use, sacred sites, or historical knowledge—are identified through direct engagement and integrated into site management plans. These values are monitored over time, ensuring that conservation efforts protect what communities consider important.

In Sabah, this approach is helping forest managers better understand how cultural heritage and forest resources are intertwined. Activities such as traditional harvesting or culturally significant practices (for example, edible bird nest collection) can be recognised as important cultural values that must be safeguarded alongside ecological objectives.

By embedding cultural and social dimensions into conservation standards, the Green List supports governance models where communities are not only consulted but meaningfully involved—affirming that effective forest protection is strongest when rooted in local rights, identity, and life experiences.

Efforts to make forest governance more inclusive in Sabah rely on collaboration among government agencies, civil society organisations, local leaders, and the communities who rely on forest resources for their well-being. Across the state, these partnerships prioritise clearer information flows, fairer engagement processes, and opportunities for communities to take part in decisions that affect their lives.

Tools like KIPMAPS reflect this shift. Led by the Sabah Forestry Department through a statewide socialisation roadshow, the toolkit helps ensure consistent access to forestry rules, grievance procedures, and participation channels.

In the Tabin and Tawau–Kunak landscapes, WWF‑Malaysia continues to work alongside communities, plantation companies, and government agencies within a broader network of local and regional initiatives led by various organisations and local actors. Here, an integrated approach recognises forests, plantations, wildlife habitats, and community areas as interconnected. This includes shared planning, community‑led monitoring, local priority‑setting, and regular avenues for dialogue among authorities, communities, and corporate land managers.

Together with many other efforts across Sabah, these initiatives signal a shift toward governance models that recognise communities as essential partners—contributing their knowledge, values, and long‑standing stewardship to the future of Sabah’s forests.

Nabawan community members develop a 3D participatory map to document local knowledge and land-use information, which is informing the development of their community protocol.
© Dairysia A. Yukin / WWF-Malaysia

A three-day wildlife data analysis training brought together 39 participants from IUCN Green List Candidate Sites to strengthen how communities and site managers identify and safeguard key Natural Values.
© Sabah Forestry Department and WWF-Malaysia

Members of the Teburi Community Ranger Team inspect the early warning system installed to alert their community of the presence of elephants in their area.
© Marina Aman Sham / WWF-Malaysia
 

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About WWF-Malaysia

World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) was established in 1972 and is part of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the international conservation organisation. Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature, WWF-Malaysia’s efforts to conserve nature focus on six major themes: forests, oceans, wildlife, food, climate and energy, as well as freshwater. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Find our latest news here: https://www.wwf.org.my/media_and_information/media_centre_and_updates/