Visit Deramakot Forest Reserve, Borneo

Deramakot Forest Reserve is an area of mixed Dipterocarp forest located around 100 miles southwest of Sandakan. One of the Sabah Forestry Department’s flagship projects, Deramakot is managed in accordance with sustainable forestry practises and covers an area over 55,000 hectares. The internationally recognised Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) first certified Deramakot in 1997 which means that to date it is the longest certified tropical rainforest in the world.

The Sabah Forestry Department aims to manage the commercial forest reserves in a way that minimises the impact on the wider rainforest ecology. The final aim being to produce low volume, high quality and high priced timber in a sustainable manner.

Practises have been reviewed and refined over the years with changes in technological developments and scientific research. Whilst the reserve has been practising sustainable logging since the 1990s, logging was taking place in this region of Sabah from the 1950s onward and in some pockets of the rainforest the damage is evident in terms of the ecology. Sabah Forestry Department and the reserve are very open about lessons learnt from previous experiences. The “Domingos Trail” has a number of educational signs explaining the changes over the past 70 years and concludes with the mantra “We learn from our mistakes”.

Today, Deramakot Forest Reserve offers an unparalleled opportunity to experience adventure, off the beaten tourist trail and also to see some of Borneo’s best wildlife. The lust rainforest and varied landscapes makes a brilliant habitat for animals such as civets, flying squirrel, leopard cat, deer, langur, orangutan and even the elusive clouded leopard. Gibbons can be heard calling out across the forest at dawn and bird sightings are particularly varied here with the mighty hornbill often spotted flying above.