RM500-a-day bird-watch guides in Sabah

By : Jaswinder Kaur

KOTA KINABALU: The income they earn is definitely not for the birds. The specialist guides who help bird-watchers spot the diverse species in Sabah can earn up to an incredible RM500 a day.

Borneo Bird Club pro tem chairman Cede Prudente said at present there were five people in the state who could provide this specialised service.

“More bird-watchers are coming here but we just don’t have enough experts to help them find and identify the birds.

“In the next 10 years, we may need 500 specialist guides. We hope to develop the field with the locals.

“There are more than two million bird-watching enthusiasts in Britain alone.

“Although we have many species of birds here, we are way behind in exploiting what could be a goldmine.”

Prudente was speaking at the Borneo Bird Festival exhibition at 1Borneo Hypermall here yesterday. The two-day exhibition includes talks by experts on the types of birds in Sabah and the 622 resident and migratory species found on Borneo Island.

Prudente said the club, launched a week ago, was keen to work with the Sabah Wildlife Department and the Sabah Forestry Department to train locals to become bird guides.

“One of the reasons we are holding this exhibition here is because we want to promote bird-watching among residents.

“We also want to promote places like the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sandakan which are good for bird-watching.”

Sabah Society Sandakan branch chairman Arthur Chung said there was a lot of potential in bird-watching as a tourism product.

“The Sepilok forest (in Sandakan) has close to 290 bird species.”