Riparian Restoration

Restoring riverbanks across the Mid-Segama

The Mid-Segama follows a broad floodplain with fertile alluvial soils. These fertile riverbank soils support extensive lowland riverine forest and have historically been used for agriculture and paved the way for one of Sabah’s most extensive oil palm production landscapes.

The condition of the riverbank forest varies along the Segama river. River sections adjacent to Protected Areas retain the high biological values while stretches in human development areas and production landscapes are severely fragmented, leading to high riverbank erosion, lack of vegetation cover and loss of ecological connectivity vital for some of Sabah’s iconic species, such as the Proboscis monkeys and other apes.

Forever Sabah’s participatory spatial study of about 288 kilometres of the main river found no riparian forest along more than one-third of the northern bank of the river and almost one-quarter of the southern bank assessed. The remaining forests ranged from narrow strips to wider areas connected to protected forests.

The Intervention

Landscape mapping identified remaining forests, degraded riverbanks and gaps where restoration could improve connections between habitats. Four priority areas identified remotely were then surveyed by boat across oil palm estates, smallholdings, village land and forests connected to Protected Areas.

The field surveys recorded proboscis monkeys in areas where riverbank forests remained connected to larger forest patches. One degraded stretch was identified as an important bottleneck between proboscis monkey populations, showing how the loss of riparian forest can restrict wildlife movement through the Mid-Segama. In better news, many small patches of quality riparian forest and some more extended degraded areas were found surprisingly rich in tree species and birds and here stewardship could likely achieve significant ecological benefits relatively rapidly.

Some disturbed riverbanks, especially in community areas - still retain large specimens of one of Sabah’s keystone species - the many kinds of wild figs species that provide critical habitat and food for many bird, mammal and other species observed in the Segama River. These areas can be supported through assisted natural regeneration and enrichment planting, while cleared stretches require planting, maintenance and agreement with various stakeholders occupying land adjacent to these buffer zones.

Community members are involved in selecting sites, producing seedlings, planting and ongoing management of community managed riparian corridors while facilitated efforts between communities and oil palm estates supported the restoration efforts in identified areas to improve ecological connections across the production landscape.

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