The Sabah government has rejected the construction of a road that would have further fragmented parcels of forests making up the 4,000ha Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in the east coast of the state.



Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said the state Cabinet made the decision following objections to the project from the Sabah wildlife and agriculture departments.



"The proposed road would have cut across the sanctuary and affected the habitat of the wildlife there and that is why we said ＇no＇," he said after the weekly Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.



He said the road was to have served as a short cut and used for the transportation of oil palm fruit bunches to a processing mill in the area.



Musa said the government would not hesitate to reject infrastructure projects that would have adverse impact on the environment.



Environmental and other concerned groups had earlier expressed their concerns over the construction of the road that would have an impact on the wildlife-rich area.



Declared by the state government in 1999 as a ＇＇Gift to the Earth," the wildlife sanctuary comprises the remaining tracts of forest along the lower regions of the 560km-long Kinabatangan river.



Naturalists have described the sanctuary as one of the richest ecosystems on earth, with shallow freshwater lakes, swamps and forests dotted with sandstone and limestone hills.



The area is also renowned as home to about 50 mammal and 200 bird species.



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