Possibility of Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve (SLFR), Sandakan As Nature Tourism Attraction

Abstract

The tourism sector in Sabah is rapidly developing as the state has high biodiversity resources. The state needs to diversify its natural tourism destinations to increase the number of tourists because tourism is one of the sector that give some contribution to the economic state. Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve which located in Sandakan district is a newly discovered conservation area that has the potential to be a natural tourism area as this area is rich in biodiversity of flora and fauna as well as attractive landscapes. The objective of the study is to identify the natural resources found in the SLFR that can be the tourist attraction. The Criteria for Assessing Natural Tourism Potential based on National Ecotourism Plan of Malaysia (Guideline for Sabah State) was used in this study. This study shows that the SLFR area has the potential to be a nature tourism attraction but recommends to have some management mechanism in place to precede any development of tourism activity.

Suitability for salt-lick tourism: A preliminary assessment on the natural salt-licks at Segaliud-Lokan Forest Reserve, Sandakan, Sabah

“…Then, the detection frequency of every recorded species at each lick was estimated, as suggested by [4]. A three-point rating score was employed in evaluating every criterion quantitatively, and then an average rating score was estimated, as representation to the overall suitability of a natural salt-lick for mammal watching, in which: 1=Low suitability; 2=Medium suitability, and; 3=High suitability [14,16], were used in this research. The difference in averaged rating score between the four selected licks was determined through the Kruskal-Wallis test, by using the statistical software PAST ver.…”

“…Moreover, species richness of the viewable terrestrial mammals at SL56 was higher than those of SL50_B and SL59. Past studies emphasized that the suitability of a certain area for wildlife watching was defined by different perspectives as a whole [10,13,16]. Based on this aspect, SL50_B, SL56 and SL59 have the potential to be promoted as the future mammal-watching hotspots in this forest reserve.…”

Geochemical Characteristics of Tropical Salt Licks in Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve, Sandakan, Sabah Malaysia

“…The SLFR was gazetted as a timber production forest in 1955 and has been managed by a few private companies to date (Wilting & Mohamed, 2010). The SLFR is divided by Sungai Lokan in the north, Sungai Tabalion in the south, and Sungai Rawog in the center, whereas the eastern area of the forest consists of part of the basin formed by three rivers: Sungai Lokan to the north, Sungai Rawog Besar, and Sungai Tabalion Besar to the south (Hasmat et al, 2020). This forest reserve is made up of the Kulapis Formation, as shown in Figure 2 (Clennell, 1991;Hutchison, 2005).…”