Sabah Rainforest Rehabilitation, Malaysia

Malaysia has experienced significant deforestation and loss of tree cover in recent decades, with a 31% decrease since 2000 according to Global Forest Watch. The logging of indigenous forests has traditionally accounted for 50-70% of Sabah's state revenue, as reported by the Sabah Forestry Department.

The project enables the sequestration of large volumes of carbon from the atmosphere by rehabilitating 25,000 ha of degraded rainforest in Sabah through enrichment planting with indigenous dipterocarps, the fast-growing pioneer tree, and forest fruit trees. It also prevents the relogging of the forest in the area.

Restoring tropical rainforests in Sabah, on the island of Borneo, is sequestering carbon and conserving biodiversity, including orangutans, red langurs, Bornean (pygmy) elephants, and rhinoceros hornbills. It also provides employment and training opportunities to dozens of local community members, both women and men.

In addition to delivering emission removals over the project’s lifetime to take climate action (SDG 13), the project delivers additional benefits:

• Quality Education: Increases proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill
• Clean Water and Sanitation: Increases change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time
• Decent Work and Economic Growth: Decreases unemployment rate, by sex, age and persons with disabilities
• Life on Land: Increases progress towards sustainable forest management
• Partnerships for the Goals: Increases amount of money committed to public-private and civil society partnership