Forest for the Future
During an early morning drive in the back of a pickup truck on a logging road, I hear the co-ordinated and exceptionally loud vocalisations of a pair of Bornean gibbons for the first time. The noise resounds through the lush forest like a car alarm as the Endangered primates proclaim their territorial boundaries. They are not alone: the hum of cicadas and intermittent drumming of a woodpecker also fills the humid air.
I can’t see the gibbons but our guide Terance Bin Bukarak paints a vivid picture with an amusing impersonation of them high up in branches, peering out across the mixed dipterocarp forest: “They know we are here,” he says. As a member of the Dusun Kota Belud tribe, Terance was taught how to hunt for food in the forest, recognise plants with medicinal properties, and navigate his way through Sabah’s jungles using natural signposts from a very young age.
We leave the soulful singers in peace and move on to a known salt lick further along a dusty track before the heat of the day becomes too overwhelming. We’re
