I am deeply in love with Borneo, have been to Sarawak and several times to Sabah, but this is the crown of Borneo. Your video makes it even more beautiful. Thank you very much for this, I will share it as often as I can! People have to understand, how beautiful, how important Borneo for all of us is!
Correct me if I am wrong. Water monitors seem to be thriving in human habitats in Sabah. They dwell in the drains and happily feed on the fish and rats in there. By the way, amazing documentary you have made there! Maliau Basin is truly a wonderful piece of nature.
Exactly! I have seen many in the drains in Tawau and KK (big ones too!). In this way they display a remarkable synanthropic ability (living alongside humans). So harvesting for skin is mainly focussed on males, due to the more impressive colouration, and most likely juveniles for the same reason. The primary threat due to hunting is in fact in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka - probably why we see so many in the cities in Borneo :)
Generally everyone I met was very pleasant and accommodating, especially in the jungle! There is a big cultural difference between Sabah and Sarawak, and also differences between the people of Sabah. Yes I have been to the Philippines, but sadly not to the islands between the Philippines and Borneo as these are particularly dangerous these days due to kidnappings and pirates.
Very nice video. Oh, how I miss being in the magnificent rainforest. My favorite place to be. It’s uncomfortable, but the rewards far outweigh the drawbacks.
Wow.. incredible.. amazing.. wonderful.. 2:00 The full name of the pilot who found the place is Datuk Seri TENGKU Dr. ZAINAL ADFIN TENGKU MAHMOD. One of the newest species of Reflesia flowers has been found there. And given the same name as his name. I was surprised he was English even though his name was very synonymous with the locals. Thanks for your info.
People's always talking about how beautiful river of Kinabatangan but we were losing the story of river of Maliau.So now listen what he tells us what behind of it!
Hi Matt! A fabulous documentrary! I found it very atmospheric, with a great narrative, a lot of information despite its relatively short length, and clear message to the viewer. Did you stay in Maliau for three months straight?
Hi Matt, I love the documentary! Would you mind if I shared it on our site www.seeksophie.com? Our mission is to make remote and beautiful places like Maliau more accessible to travellers and it would be amazing if we could show our users your video so they can get to know more about Maliau. Our belief is that people need to see these places firsthand and become more aware of what's happening there (in Maliau's case, deforestation, threat from gold and coal mining, poachers of agarwood etc). Hopefully the awareness will prompt them to want to do something about the situation or at least if more travellers go there the government may decide that it's a place that's worth keeping in its current form instead of giving mining concessions to the place some years down the road. Your video goes a long way to showing people how special the place is and I hope that would prompt people to go there and see it firsthand.
Hi Jacinta of course you can! I also made a page about it on my website which you can link to too, or perhaps a shorter video also: www.journecology.com/maliau If you look on my facebook (@journecology) there is also a short video on Maliau under the videos section - and anything else you find on there just ask if you want to use :)
5 years ago I spent some time there so made a short piece about some of the formation, nature, and conservation of the Maliau Basin area. Is that okay?
I'm sorry. It was the wrong video. I had a playlist made for my preschool class to play in the backround of our dramatic play area. This is a great video!
So, this is really a tourist ad. Scientists are NOT saving forests. They are not stopping extraction. Indigenous people preserved this and it belongs to them. The forest does not need you to study it. It needs oto be left alone. Cutting a hole in the forest is a lousy way to being "conservation," and so is road building. WHat BS. The tourist" center is the beginning of the end - with tourists, as noted. "Minimal impact" is an odd term when you can see in the aerial shot they've demolished a chunk of forest already. You don't need to research this place. You need to leave it alone for once. Nice neoliberal hypocrisy - you're just exploiting it for your pleasure. Real preservation would mean no entry and let the Indigenous people go on as they have.
Hi Sasachiminesh, thanks for taking the time to comment and you make some really interesting and important points. Allow me to consider and reply to some fo the things you have raised, to which you can agree or not of course! The first thing to note is at this point in time it is very difficult to stop the government of Malaysia, and large companies, deforesting just what they want in order to provide jobs and make money. Although there are of course important efforts to prevent this, there has to be solid scientific research in order to prove it is a problem, in order to create solid policy. Without scientific backing, no beneficial large scale governmental decisions would happen and indeed the forest would be carved away like you describe. Conservation centres like the one at Maliau allow researchers the opportunity to provided solid evidence that deforestation is bad. You may ask why this is necessary at Maliau - the answer is because you need a comparison from deforested land (e.g. oil palm plantation) to compare against pristine jungle. So studies therefore show how much more beneficial and useful a pristine jungle like Maliau is left alone. I have been there, and the conservation centre is a tiny blip of land that has been carefully removed (with forested corridors throughout the grounds) in order to facilitate these researchers, and yes a few tourists. The tourism aspect is carefully monitored and the money raised goes back into the conservation and better facilities in order to complete the research faster. I am also deeply saddened at the size of the road they had begun to build leading up to the centre, and I hope they integrate vital crossing places for wildlife. In reference to indigenous people, no indigenous people lived inside Maliau Basin, however it is very important to the surrounding communities, and so protecting it is important. This is exactly the reason we need researchers to show policy makers that it is worth keeping. I have worked in Maliau, and alongside other researchers, and there is zero impact made on the jungle itself except for tiny trail markers. Also it's certainly not a tourist ad, I made this video completely myself, for no money, in order to increase awareness of the amazing biodiversity that exists here, and to encourage people to appreciate and cherish the environment. If we stood by and watched, Maliau basin would very quickly be logged and converted into a short-lived money making plantation or cattle ranch. It is precisely the work of environmentalists, researchers and science communicators that bring awareness to these areas in order to protect the flora, fauna and communities that they hold.
I mean, I don't mind "as an indigenous people that person" that ppl are doing this. Its good for the forest and the animals. And Sabah is home to plenty of traditional medicine. Maybe it can cure cancer?
In order to prevent the destruction of Maliau from large agriculture and logging we need scientific literature to provide solid environmental protection policy.
We know about this land 200 million nation wide know about it here in Indonesia. Not Lost at all. Just let us be and leave the forest clean, you love the forest right then stay away from it..Prove it.
Hi Clouds, thanks for your comment. The title 'Lost in Time' does not refer to it being unknown to people, it means it is an area of forest which has remained unchanged for a long period of time, "Lost in Time", almost like time has never changed there. It has nothing to do with how many people know about it now. I think you've misunderstood the title, and also likely not watched the actual video itself - other than look at the title. It's much more important we as humans learn to respect the environments we visit, rather than asking us to 'stay away from' everything. If we all went by the mantra you propose, I'm sure everyone would have very unfulfilled lives. If we learn how to respect the environment then we can help it in places we have caused problems. I'm also sure if you look at your own life more closely, you'll see ways you can improve your way of life for the forest - eat less meat, use less plastic, support sustainable companies and produce. Do you really do enough of those things to validate this comment on a supportive and environmentally conscious documentary video made by a 21 year old?
