Bill to empower conservation of Sabah biological resources passed

KOTA KINABALU: The Bill to amend the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment 2000 and provide for the control of biological resources to stop anyone from keeping, selling, buying, exporting or importing any protected biological resource without a valid license from the Sabah Biodiversity Centre director was passed on Thursday at the State Legislative Assembly.

Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Abidin Madingkir said the purpose of the amendment of the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment 2000 to the Sabah Biodiversity (Amendment) 2023 is to empower conservation activities, sustainable use, management, enforcement and matters related to access and sharing of benefits resulting from the use of biological and genetic resources, including traditional knowledge related to biological resources in order to be able to be implemented effectively according to the State and International legislations that are in force.

He said the Sabah Biodiversity Centre had received several public complaints on the smuggling activities of endemic durian species’ seeds since 2018.

At the same time, Sabah Biodiversity Centre also received complaints of outbound smuggling of insect speciments for research purposes without access and export licenses from the Sabah Biodiversity Centre under the Enactment, he said.

“If this issue is not addressed, Sabah’s biology source will likely be exploited and commercialised by other countries. This matter will be a loss for the Sabah Government if the genetic biology sources concerned are developed and patented at other countries,” he said in tabling the Bill.

“Hence, the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment 2000 is amended to provide for the control of biological resources so that no one can keep, sell, buy, export or import any protected biological resource without a valid license from the director of the Sabah Biodiversity Centre,” he said.

He added that the Sabah Biodiversity Center had identified biological resources that need to be protected and have been listed in the proposed amendment to ensure that the genetic rights of the plants are protected in accordance with international requirements (Nagoya Protocol).

All the 126 species of animals and plants listed were selected based on the following criteria:

a) Endemic in Sabah;

b) Rare or geologically obliged;

c) Endangered status;

d) Has significant cultural value;

e) Important for ecology;

f) Has genetic value;

g) High demand by the community;

h) Potential or having commercial value.

“One of the biological resources proposed to be protected in this Bill is the plant species Phyllanthus rufuschaneyi, where research results found that this plant species is capable of absorbing metals such as nickel and zinc. The proposed Bill is important to protect the plant species from being smuggled and exploited by irresponsible parties,” he said.

He said that this Bill also aims to appoint a Sabah Biodiversity Center’s director who will be responsible for administering and managing the Sabah Biodiversity Center.

He added that the Sabah Biodiversity Center will function directly under the Sabah Chief Minister’s Department and will no longer be under the Land Revenue Office.

Abidin said that there are 30 clauses in the Sabah Biodiversity (Amendment) Bill 2023. They are:

Clause 1 contains a brief title and date commencement of the proposed Enactment.

Clause 2 seeks to amend the long title of the Enactment of specifically state the purpose of the Enactment.

Clause 3 seeks to replace the word “Council” with the word “Director” in certain Enactment’s sections and to substitute the word “secretary” with the word “director” in the Enactment. This clause also aims to update terminology

specific in the national language text to be consistent with current terms used in the language.

Clause 4 seeks to amend section 2 of the Enactment to introduce new definitions of “exporter” and ‘director’ as well amend and delete the definitions of “access license”, “knowledge concerned” and “secretary” to coordinate with other proposed amendments to the Enactment.

Clause 7 seeks to amend section 3A of the Enactment to empower the Council to advise the Government on matters related to biology resource management or traditional knowledge related to biological resources according to international requirements and to delete certain functions and powers of the Council considering that function and authority have been given to the Director at under section 8B.

Clause 9 seeks to insert new sections 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D into the Enactment to make provisions which is related to the establishment of the committee by Council, disclosure of interests, appointment of advisers by the Council and delegation of authority by the Council.

Clause 10 seeks to include Part IIA and new sections 8A, 8B and 8C into the Enactment of provisions related to the appointment of the Director and officers of the Sabah Biodiversity Center, the functions and powers of the Director and the delegation of his powers.

Clause 11 seeks to amend section 9 of the Enactment to enable the Biodiversity Centre to be managed by the Director and to delete certain functions of the Biodiversity Centre.

Clause 14 seeks to amend section 14 of the Enactment to empower the Director to administer, control and maintain the Central Biodiversity Fund.

Clause 16 seeks to introduce new section 14B to provide for the prohibition to store, sell, buy, export or import biological resources that are protected and includes a definition of protected biological resources.

Clause 22 seeks to introduce a new section 21B into the Enactment to provide for the presumption as to export.

Clause 26 seeks to insert new section 36B into the Enactment to provide for protection against lawsuits and legal proceedings.

Clause 28 seeks to insert a new section 38 into the Enactment to empower the Minister to amend the Schedule by an order published in the Gazette.

Clause 29 seeks to introduce a Schedule into the Enactment to list species of biological resources that are protected under the Enactment.

Clause 30 seeks to provide for savings of all licences granted or issued by the Council before the commencement of this Enactment.