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2009 BORNEO SAFARI

Event Announcement

by Fred Leong

KOTA KINABALU: The Deramakot Forest Reserve will once again bring back memories of the toughest route ever experienced by participants in 2006 – as this year’s International Borneo Safari 4x4 Challenge (Oct 25 – Nov 1) is back to traverse inside this pristine conservation jungle.

Aerial view of the Deramakot Base Camp, inset are a group of wild pygmy elephants roaming in the area.

Participants can expect the unexpected this year when the convoy take on the treacherous terrain of the well protected Forest reserve, where there is no existing logging track amidst giant tress and thick undergrowth that prevents sunlight to penetrate all year round.

Blanket by overgrown foliage and jungle canopy makes its even tougher for participants to tackle the short but extreme virgin rainforest between 3km-4km distance, which is expected to test their overall mental and physical endurance, men and machines to tackle (expected to complete at least between 3-4 days).

Kinabalu Four Wheel Drive Club (KFWDC) president James Wong AMN said yesterday, the Sabah Forestry Department has again given the organisers the nod and permission to use the Deramakot Forest Reserve in this year’s Borneo Safari.

He said, though expected to give them a hard time, participants would certainly have the rare opportunity, especially foreign participants and journalists, on how serious the government’s efforts in adopting sustainable forest management (SFM).

James Wong….Expect the Unexpected in this year’s Borneo Safari. 

“Our recce team has more or less identify the routes (slightly differs to the 2006 event) inside the reserve and from what we gather, this year’s track could be even tougher, maybe the toughest of all past Borneo Safari challenges,” he said.

“The team is expected to make another trip this weekend, this time on foot to line out the exact track and to ascertain all possible links and to find out what type of obstacles that can be expected along the way.”

“Since the Forest Reserve is a protected area, we will abide and adhere to all instructions including of chopping down any valuable trees while trying to set the track, where participants will have to rough it out as there will be no specific camp sites.”

James added, to date, KFWDC has received several confirmations from foreign competitors, participants, observers as well as avid hardcores from Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, Labuan and Brunei.

From the media angle, they have also received confirmations and enquiries from foreign journalists, travel writers and auto magazine writers, who have voiced their interest to be part in this year’s event.

It is again KFWDC’s hope and confident that the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) would consider sponsoring these foreign journalists to fly in and cover the event for better mileage like in last year’s Borneo Safari, which is one of its calendar of events.

It was the many foreign journalists’ printed publications last year that gave the Borneo Safari all round coverage and its well organised approaches by volunteered members, thus describing it as one of the best 4x4 challenges with total teamwork and cooperation.    

Since KFWDC has decided to make this year’s event an open event, several 4x4 avid hardcores from Peninsular Malaysia have confirmed their participant, meaning their heavily modified vehicles fitted with Drop Axles (Volvo Axles) are allowed to compete.

In the past, these sorts of axles were banned by KFWDC due to its maximum ground clearance compared to standard axles, where James expects a tough competition awaits for all competitors, including Sabah’s renowned past champions.

Meanwhile, the Deramakot Forest Reserve (Class ii) is bounded by the Kinabatangan River in the South, that is home to some globally and locally threatened large mammalian species such as the Orang Utans, Seladang, pygmy elephants, clouded leopards, sun bears and proboscis monkeys.

It was once a logging area 1956 (selective) areas until 1959 before gazetted as a commercial Forest Reserve in 1989 where logging was disbanded to make way for the initiation of Sustainable Forest Management, a project initiated in collaboration with the GTZ through the government of the Republic of Germany.

In 1995, the implementation of the SFM following the adoption of the Forest Management Plan (FMP) and the first log auction began, and two years later, it was certified as the “Well Managed Forest” by the SGS and the visitation of the then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

Eco-friendly harvesting of tress, commonly known as RIL (Reduced Impact Logging) which is done not more than the annual growth, which is about 15,000m annually or approximately 2,000 trees yearly under the management cycle of 40 years.

The whole area (5,746h) is undergoing aggressive enrichment planting, carried out in patches of degraded forest caused by heavy and unplanned logging in the past.

The Forest reserve is out of bound to visitors unless given official nod from the Forestry Department for research and studies, with strict control of poachers inorder to protect the wildlife and their habitats.