OF PANDEMIC AND ECOTOURISM: TAMAN IKAN JINAK, KOTA BELUD

17 April 2021

By Ilona Andrew

KOTA BELUD: Kota Belud, some 70 kilometres away from the hustle and bustle of Kota Kinabalu, is undoubtedly renowned for storing some enchanted gems that have managed to lure many globetrotters from around the world.

Many of the attractions directed towards natural environments to support conservation efforts, and what’s so special about it is that some of these are community-based.

But no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism sector in Sabah was battered with ecotourism attractions one of the most affected.

However, Taman Ikan Jinak, a community-based ecotourism in Kampung Melangkap Tiong here told Nabalu News that the community remains optimistic, that the industry would soon bounce back.

Anichlose Kesimin

Its secretary Anichlose Kesimin said they all believe that all hope is not lost, although it does seem almost impossible to recover.

Sited along the Kadamaian river, Taman Ikan Jinak adopts the tagal system concept which prohibits the utilisation of natural resources to ensure the continuous production of aquatic resources.

In Dusun language, “tagal” translates to “prohibition”. Basically, the tagal system prohibits anyone to fish in the rivers.

“The sogit (fine) for those who go against the fishing prohibition is in a form of livestock.

“But we will always be considerate before imposing sogit and give exception to breachers who are actually desperate for the fish, such as to fulfil pregnancy food cravings,” he said.

Prior to its setup in 2010, the community conducted a visit to the famous Kg Luanti Fish Spa in Ranau to learn how the tagal system works.

Since then, in a period of one year, the community managed to “tame” the Pelian fish in the river by feeding them every single day with their hands covered in gloves or socks.

To date, there are approximately 400 friendly Pelian fish in the river that would rush toward anybody nearby and nibble on their skin, promoting a therapeutic fish spa experience.

According to Anichlose, the ecotourism attraction has gained several recognitions and awards. One of the awards it bagged is the best community-based ecotourism in ASEAN for the year 2017/2018.

The fish, he added, has also been recognised as the friendliest fish in Sabah, and probably in Malaysia.

The community has a total of 109 members from the same village to manage the attraction area, but the site was closed most of the time last year due to the imposition of movement control orders (MCO).

The biggest challenge that they had to go through was when a Covid-19 cluster was detected there early this year, leading to the imposition of enhanced MCO in the whole village.

“We reopened on January 1 this year but unfortunately one of the visitors tested positive for Covid-19 which saw 75 other close contacts to have contracted the virus, if I’m not mistaken.

“Since then, the whole villagers underwent quarantine for about two months and Taman Ikan Jinak had to close for operation. There was nothing we could do but to follow the instruction of the Health Ministry in order to curb the spread of Covid-19,” he said.

During the first MCO last year, Anichlose revealed that the community had to dig up the ecotourism community’s savings fund to pay the salaries of their workers.

He said: “We fully relied on the fund during the first MCO and had to fork out about RM2,000 every month just to pay our workers.”

“If it’s not because of the pandemic and MCO, the villagers in this community-based ecotourism wouldn’t have to struggle as their income from this would be enough.”

Different from before the pandemic, the park used to earn up to RM2,000 a day during the weekends but now the most they could get isRM400.

Although the tourism sector is now allowed to operate under the recovery MCO, most of the visitors are locals from the district itself or Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran only. Back then, they used to receive tourists from around the world, especially China and Korean nationals.

“Arrivals of tourists could really bring in abundant economic activities to the villagers here – there were a lot of shops surrounding this site selling agricultural produces and all kinds of things that the tourists would buy.

“Other than that, we also have performers from our own cultural dancers' club, so when some tourists request and pay to see traditional dance and music performance, we call them up so they too could earn some money.

“We would even call up some villagers who are certified guides to bring tourists for hiking adventures around the area,” he explained.

Anichlose expressed hope that Taman Ikan Jinak could bring back those glorious days again where both locals and tourists alike could benefit from the ecotourism industry.

“When the Covid-19 situation in Sabah subsides later, I personally and on behalf of the community hope that inter-district and inter-state travel ban are lifted so that tourists would visit our place.

“But if it is destined that Covid-19 continues to take control in the long run and our economy is still affected, we really hope that the government or any relevant parties could assist us, the community-based ecotourism, in coping up with it.”

Taman Ikan Jinak opens every day from 8am to 5pm and charges an admission fee of RM3 per adult and RM1 for kids below 12 years old. Senior citizens and people with disabilities (OKU) will be given a free pass. It also offers a campsite for those who wish to stay and camp there overnight.