PETALING JAYA — Camera trap surveys in an oil palm plantation landscape in eastern Sabah have recorded several threatened wildlife species, including the Bornean clouded leopard, sun bear and Sunda pangolin, highlighting opportunities to strengthen habitat connectivity and biodiversity conservation.
The findings are part of a baseline assessment conducted under a regenerative palm oil pilot jointly implemented by SD Guthrie Berhad and WWF-Malaysia across approximately 13,000 hectares of Guthrie’s Binuang plantation.
The pilot landscape borders more than 56,000 hectares of neighbouring forest habitat, including the Madai Baturong and Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserves.
The assessment identified three priority ecological corridor areas to strengthen links between the forest reserves, potentially facilitating wildlife movement and improving the long-term resilience of the wider landscape. Orangutan nests were also documented in adjacent forest habitats.
WWF-Malaysia Senior Director of Strategic Conservation Partnerships Dr Henry Chan said the presence of threatened wildlife in the proposed corridor areas underscored the importance of maintaining and restoring habitat connectivity.
“The presence of threatened wildlife within these proposed corridor areas highlights the importance of maintaining and restoring habitat connectivity across the landscape,” he said.
Chan said the baseline assessment provided valuable evidence to guide conservation measures and identify opportunities for regenerative palm oil practices to address habitat fragmentation while maintaining productive agricultural land.
“This pilot demonstrates how working landscapes can contribute to biodiversity recovery by enhancing habitat connectivity and restoring ecological functions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Guthrie President and Group Chief Executive Officer Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad said the baseline assessment was an important step towards translating sustainability ambitions into measurable action.
“Our 13,000-hectare pilot landscape borders more than 56,000 hectares of forest habitat. That makes the way we manage our estates important not only for palm oil production, but also for the ecological links between these forests,” he said.
Mohd Haris further said the identification of three priority connectivity areas provided a basis for targeted restoration measures and efforts to improve wildlife movement.
“For us, regenerative palm oil must translate into practical changes on the ground, supported by evidence. This baseline will guide those interventions and provide the starting point for measuring their results,” he said.
The assessment, conducted between February and September 2026 across four estates and one mill within the Binuang plantation, also identified opportunities to restore degraded habitats, enhance riparian corridors and address barriers to wildlife movement, including electric fencing in selected areas.
The findings were presented at a side event during the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17), titled “The Role of Plantations Towards Global Biodiversity Targets: Guthrie’s Adoption of a Regenerative Palm Oil Framework”, co-organised by Guthrie and WWF-Malaysia.
The initiative aims to demonstrate how production landscapes can contribute to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework through habitat restoration, ecological connectivity and species conservation alongside sustainable agricultural production.
The partnership between Guthrie and WWF-Malaysia was formalised on Feb 1, 2026, to pilot regenerative palm oil approaches in Sabah. The initiative is intended to generate lessons that could inform the long-term development of Guthrie’s plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
