Bio-diversity

The issue on climate change and environmental degradation faced by the global community needs to be brought down to local communities so that it can be addressed. There is an urgent need to bring awareness as well as to strengthen and improve the capacity of the local communities in maintaining the community s biosphere and natural resources as well as to find other alternative sources of income for the family. Four villages in Sabah, namely being Kg. Kipouvo, Kg. Notorus, Kg. Kibunut and Kg. Togudon will be the focus in this project. For generations, the populations of these villages have depended on the Crocker Range Forest for forest resources such as rattan, wood, vegetables and medicine. As a result of increase in population, the demand for more land has increasingly been putting more pressure on the forest around these villages. For the villages that have lost almost all of their surrounding forest, they face shortage of water during the drought season and have no source of medicinal plants and other forest produce such as rattan and wood. For those whose forest areas have been declared as water catchments, forest reserve and national park, they face the dilemma of illegal activities such as felling of logs for their own use and limited area for their livelihood. Pressured to obtain more out of their land to meet daily livelihood needs also resulted in farmers using more herbicide and chemicals in their farm. Initially this practice had brought some good result but now the soil has become hard and infertile. The use of chemicals is also hazardous to the health of the villagers as well as surrounding areas since these villages are located in water catchment area for the city as there is a possibility that these chemical affluent will flow into the Moyog river. Through this project, PACOS Trust plans to support the local communities of the 4 villages and their contiguous villages to: i) Strengthen their local leadership so that they can look after their natural resources and address loss of biodiversity ii) Train people within the community to effectively address climate change and biodiversity management iii) Improve biodiversity in areas that have been degraded iv) Address land degradation and create alternative method of farming as well as other economic activities to support livelihood To achieve the above objectives, PACOS will implement capacity building workshops, awareness workshops and seminars, leadership training, team building, hands on training, networking, exposure visits and exchanges will done to enhance the capacity of communities to address this global issue at community level. Activities carried out will be implemented at two levels, namely at the 4 respective villages (On-site) and together (Centralised). Detailed or day to day project administration, communication, supervision, monitoring and evaluation will also be carried out at two levels in order to ensure smooth implementation and management of the proposed project. To achieve the project objectives, 2 types of activities mainly centralized and on-site (activities that will be done at the village level by respective villages) are planned. The following activities will be implemented: 1) Centralised Activities 1.1) Project Team Meetings 1.2) Reporting & Joint Tactic Sessions 1.3) Centralised Training on Leadership, Documentation, Accounts 1.4) Seminar/Workshop on Biodiversity Protection, Climate Change, Land Degradation and Ecotourism 1.5) Exposure visits and exchanges, courtesy call to government departments 1.6) Taking part in PACOS Annual Socio-economy and Indigenous Peoples Day Gathering 2. On-site Activities 2.1 Village Project Team Meetings (Tactic sessions, monitoring & evaluation) 2.2 Activities to address the Biodiversity Focal Area i) Community Biodiversity Mapping - identifying and documentation of herbal plants and endangered species in each village ii) Community Water Catchment Management determine the boundary of water catchment areas of Kg. Kipouvo and Kg. Kibunut and enrichment planting iii) Marking walking tracks and important plants in water catchment area and other parts of the village 2.3 Activities to address the Climate Change Focal Area i) Waste Management workshop on waste management, setting up segregated community rubbish bins ii) Habitat Management River (Tagal Sungai) and Forest (Tagal Hutan) iii)Community Mapping Village Zoning workshop and mapping, Community Land use protocol 2.4 Activities to address the Land Degradation Focal Area i) Soil Fertility Restoration and Organic Farming Campaign Awareness workshop, training on composting and organic farming as well as developing indicators to show reduced chemical use in farming practices in Kg. Togudon, system of rice intensification (SRI) training in Kg. Notorus as pilot/demonstration plots at community level and exposure visits. The following project outputs are expected: 1) The leadership, networking and cooperation among the 4 villages to look after their natural resources and reduce biodiversity loss are strengthened. 2) Communities members from the 4 villages will be trained to address climate change, biodiversity management and land degradation. 3) The people within the community are aware of the biodiversity content on their area, posters, phamlets, booklets, CDs, maps and protocol produced. 4) Community water catchment, village environment and habitat properly managed and biodiversity in areas that have been degraded improved. 5) Alte

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