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Shell-Earthwatch Partnership
The Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah is a pristine forest reserve that is rich in rainforest biodiversity. Shell Malaysia is partnering Earthwatch in a project that looks into maintaining the biodiversity, ecosystem and conservation value of the area in the face of climate and land use change.
With the Royal Society Southest Asia Rainforest Research Programme as Project Coordinator, this research programme covers the Danum Valley Conservation Area, the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment (located in the Malua Forest Reserve), Ulu Segama & Malua Forest Reserves as well as various forest fragments embedded within oil palm plantations in eastern/central Sabah.
Research objectives:
1. To establish the regeneration status and restoration requirements of degraded and fragmented forest and how restoration can best be achieved
2. To assess biodiversity and vegetation structure in pristine and degraded rainforest, forest under active restoration and in rainforest fragments
3. To assess the ability of degraded and fragmented forest to maintain ecosystem functioning (focussing on decomposition)
4. To establish the comparative resilience of forest fragments and degraded/restored rainforest to predicted increases in drought intensity and heavy rainfall frequency associated with climate change
Other partners involved in this project:
- The Royal Society Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Programme as Project Coordinator
- The Sabah Foundation
- Universiti Malaysia Sabah
- University of Swansea,UK
- University of York, UK
- University of Zürich, Switzerland
Shell staff often participate in fieldwork on a voluntary basis, under the guidance of PhD students leading the research programme.