KOTA KINABALU: Sabah will focus on several projects and programmes that would look into environmental, land development management and climate change issues.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said one of them, dubbed as the Integrated Landscape Management of Heart of Borneo Landscapes, was under the Global Environment Facility funded, Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Programme (FOLUR IP).
"The six-year project involves 1.6 million hectares within the Heart of Borneo (HoB) landscape, costing USD7.3 million (RM30.3 million) to be funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
"Sabah will also be involved in another UNDP-funded programme, the BIOFIN project, on Conservation Finance in the State," he said in a statement, after launching the first virtual international conference on Heart of Borneo(HoB) - "HoB Initiative - Moving Forward in the New Norm" today,
Apart from that, Hajiji said Sabah has engaged with various partners, executing 79 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Memoranda of Agreement (MoAs) in past years.
"Today, we will add another eight MoUs to the list," he said.
The Chief Minister also added that Sabah would follow the federal level in looking into climate change issues.
"Sabah too would have its own Climate Change Action Council platform to discuss climate change policies and actions, drive green economic growth, catalyse green technology and low-carbon growth.
"Sabah will carry out carbon trading carefully so such activities do not affect the country's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions commitment," he said.
Meanwhile, Hajiji said he was also glad to see the continuing efforts by researchers at HoB which have yielded several publications as evidenced by two new books by Markus Gubilil entitled "A Checklist of Trees of Sabah – new edition" and "Panduan Bergambar Likofit dan Paku Pakis di Sabah."