LEAP is now in preliminary stages of project development with three potential PES projects in collaboration with the Sabah Forestry Department, the Sabah Wildlife Department and Arborcarb International. These are in the Ulu Segama and Deramakot Forest Reserves and the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary -- all critical habitat areas for viable wildlife populations. The aim is to seek new streams of revenue generation for these forest resources, while restoring and reconnecting vital tracts of forests.

Ulu Segama (203,000 ha) is a critical habitat area for orang utan with a contiguous population of 2,650 animals. It has been severely degraded by decades of logging and after a logging ban in 2006, the government is now seeking ecomically viable ways of restoring these forest resources. With a vast and degraded landscape as this, the only viable solution has emerged from the field of PES. The goal is to develop a mixed portfolio of ecosystem services which can generate income for the rehabilitation of the area and ultimately protect most if not all of the habitat zones. The current focus is to develop this project through the next phases of ground-work – PIN (Project Idea Note) and PDD (Project Design Document) to establish viability through a 20,000 – 25,000 ha pilot block.

In Deramakot (55,000 ha), Borneo’s and the world’s first FSC-certified tropical rainforest reserve, the concept is to marry sustainable forest management and carbon sequestration through C-RIL (Carbon-Reduced Impact Logging) and hopefully present to the tropical rainforest community that sustainable forest management (according to FSC standards) can raise carbon financing through increased silviculture. The findings in Deramakot have been that sustainable forest management through RIL can support a viable orang utan population (600 animals). With a pilot C-RIL project, the goal is to promote the financial viability of RIL as a model for all commercial forest reserves in Sabah, where the majority of wild orang utans are found. The current focus is to develop this project through the next phases of ground-work – PIN (Project Idea Note) and PDD (Project Design Document) to establish viability.

In the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary area (26,000 ha with a wild orang utan population of 1,100 animals), the proposed concept is a Climate Community Biodiversity standard project encompassing fragments of the wildlife sanctuary, virgin forest reserves, community land and palm oil estate land, to promote contiguity of habitat and restore forests. The current focus is to develop this project through the next phases of ground-work – PIN (Project Idea Note) and PDD (Project Design Document) to establish viability through a 10,000 – 12,000 ha pilot block.

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