Ulu Telupid Forest Reserve is a protected forest reserve in

Tongod District Tongod District may refer to: * Tongod District, Malaysia * Tongod District, Peru Tongod District is one of thirteen districts of the province San Miguel in Peru. Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática The Instituto Nacional de Es ...

Sandakan Division Sandakan Division () is an administrative division of Sabah, Malaysia. It stretches diagonally from the northeastern coast of Sabah to the state's central region. With an area of 28,205 square kilometres, it occupies 38.3% of Sabah's territory, ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

, Malaysia. First established in 1972, it was designated as a Class 1 Protection Forest by the Sabah Forestry Department in 1984. Its area is , down from its former size of . Prior to being established as a forest reserve, the area was used for logging and

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

plantations. The reserve is mostly mountainous, consisting mainly of mixed

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

forest. The land surrounding the reserve includes a town, oil palm plantations, rubber plantations, and rice paddies. It is threatened by fires and illegal logging. In some areas agricultural activities have encroached into the protected area. Since 2000 there has been a net loss of just under 2% of the reserve's forested area. There is a small level of

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

activity in the reserve, consisting of guided tours from a nearby village, which provides livelihood alternatives to logging and poaching.

Flora

163 floral species have been identified within the reserve, the lowest diversity found within Sabah's inland forest reserves. 29 are endemic to Borneo, with none endemic to Sabah. Due to fire, illegal logging, and illegal agricultural activities, only around 40% of Ulu Telupid Forest Reserve remains primary forest, mostly in the upland interior areas of the reserve. The rest of the reserve's forest is secondary, including areas populated by

pioneer species Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession. Various kinds of events can create good conditions for pi ...

. It is an important area for tree species including, in upland areas of the reserve, ''

Schima wallichii ''Schima wallichii'', commonly known as the needlewood or Chinese guger tree, is a species of evergreen tree in the tea family, Theaceae. ''Schima wallichii'' is native to a wide area of China and tropical Asia. It grows tall. File:Chilaune.j ...

'', '' Dipterocarpus confertus'', ''

Shorea atrinervosa ''Shorea atrinervosa'' is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The species name is derived from Latin (''ater'' = dull black and ''nervosus'' = nerved) and refers to leaf venation which is black in herbarium specimens. It is an em ...

'', ''

Shorea argentifolia ''Shorea argentifolia'' (called, along with some other species in the genus ''Shorea'', dark red meranti) is an emergent rainforest tree species in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It native to Borneo. It grows in mixed dipterocarp forests on hills ...

'' and '' Shorea agamii''. The reserve is also home to ''

Anisoptera A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threatens ...

'', ''

Dipterocarpus '' D. retusus'' in Köhler ''Dipterocarpus'' is a genus of flowering plants and the type genus of family Dipterocarpaceae. ''Dipterocarpus'' is the third-largest and most diverse genus among the Dipterocarpaceae. The species are well known for ...

'', ''

Dryobalanops ''Dryobalanops'' is a genus of flowering plants and the genus of family Dipterocarpaceae. The name ''Dryobalanops'' is derived from Greek (''dryas'' = a nymph associated with oaks and ''balanops'' = acorn) and describes the acorn-like nut. The ge ...

'', ''

Hopea ''Hopea'' is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It contains some 113 species, distributed from Sri Lanka and southern India to the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, southern China, and southward throughout Malesia to New Guinea. They are ...

'', ''

Parashorea ''Parashorea'' is a genus of plant in family Dipterocarpaceae. The name ''Parashorea'' is derived from Greek (''para'' = similar to) and refers to the genus similarity to ''Shorea''. It contains about 14 species distributed from South Myanmar, T ...

'', ''

Polyalthia ''Polyalthia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. There are approximately 90 species distributed from Africa to Asia and the Pacific.

'', ''

Shorea Fruit of a ''Shorea'' species ''Shorea'' is a genus of about 47 species of mainly rainforest trees in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The timber of trees of the genus is sold under the common names lauan, luan, lawaan, meranti, seraya, balau, bang ...

'', ''

Syzygium ''Syzygium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific. I ...

'' and ''

Vatica ''Vatica'' is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. Its species range from India and southern China through Sri Lanka, Indochina, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea. Species , ''Plants of the World Online'' accepted the fo ...

'' species.

References

External links

Ulu Telupid – Protected Planet
{{Protected areas of Sabah Forest reserves of Sabah Tongod District Borneo lowland rain forests