Supporting Sabah’s transition to a diversified
equitable circular economy
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Summary
Forever Sabah is a 25-year, multi-sectoral, initiative that is founded on the
principles of equity, integrity, inclusiveness, balance, justice, custodianship, and
shared responsibility. Taking a ground-up, project-based approach, Forever
Sabah seeks to change the development and economic trajectory of the State by
backing exploratory projects that can be mainstreamed to catalyze a wider shift
to sustainability both for Sabah’s environment and its economy.
Forever Sabah
programme to su
transition to a
equitable, circu
Mission
To support Sabah’s transition to a diversified, equitable, circular economy by:
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Catalyzing positive institutional change through a ground-up, projectbased approach.
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Building capacity to sustainably manage Sabah’s natural resources.
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Further protecting and restoring, Sabah’s natural habitats.
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Enhancing social and ecological resilience in the face of changing
climate and land use.
Sabah’s Advantages
The Malaysian state of Sabah has numerous advantages that together form a
strong foundation for change:
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Sabah is still endowed with a mega-rich diversity of intact terrestrial
and marine ecosystems.
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Sabah has a government that is openly looking for innovative approaches
to enhance sustainability while developing a robust and competitive
economy.
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Sabah has an increasingly vocal civil society and active NGO network
that is poised to engage in shaping the direction of the state’s future.
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Sabah alone produces 12% of the global supply of palm oil, and is actively
working to certify its estates to the highest best practice standards.
Approach
Forever Sabah was initiated to answer the fundamental question: where will the state be in fifty years if it continues
to progress along it’s current development trajectory? To answer these questions, an inclusive partnership of leaders
from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, scientific institutions and industry engaged in a two-year process
to reflect on our shared history and think strategically about our collective future. This ground-breaking collaboration
opened up a range of new spaces in Sabah for solutions that embraced a diversity of ideas, opinions, and perspectives,
and has itself catalysed change by empowering and energising communities across the State.
www.foreversabah.org
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abah is a 25-year
to support sabah’s
to a diversifed,
circular economy
Focal Areas
Forever Sabah’s first ‘wave’ of transformational engagements on the ground was
conceived as a coherent, interconnected framework with four focal areas:
1. Food & Agriculture
2. Renewable Energy
3. Tourism
4. Water, Waste & Soil
At its core, Forever Sabah is a web of interactions and linkages that nurtures
sharing, networking, collaboration and calibration. This ecology of partnerships
works to transform innovative visions for Sabah’s future into scalable and
actionable solutions. Each project is treated as an input, which together can
collectively transform Sabah into a living landscape.
Forever Sabah is...
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Game-Changing: ‘Business as usual’ – the standard models of development
and conservation funding – is not sustainable, nor equitable.
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Inclusive: A leaders from government, civil society, indigenous peoples,
scientific institutions and industry engaged in a two-year process to reflect
on our shared history and think strategically about our collective future.
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Local-Regional-Global: Forever Sabah promotes and generates local
responses to issues of regional and global importance.
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Capacity Building: Offers solutions that integrate knowledge and skills
across the spectrum of indigenous wisdom and cutting edge science to
build capacity for all sectors.
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Timely: Acting now to reduce and reverse biodiversity and habitat loss and
improve Sabah’s resilience to climate change and environmental pressures.
Call to Action
Forever Sabah is an ongoing conversation. We seek partnerships not aid, to
foster new relationships, empower communities and civil society and catalyze
change from the ground up. The time to act is now. Join us, to build:
A fair, prosperous and sustainable Sabah – Forever Sabah.
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Local-Regional-Global
The links between environmental health, economic
health and social wellbeing are increasingly
acknowledged globally and recognition is growing that
holistic, interdisciplinary strategies are necessary to
tackle the challenges of poverty, resource depletion,
species loss and climate change. Business has also been
awakening to socio-entrepreneurial and resilience
thinking and the roles of state and local governments
in backing such new economic models is now well
understood.
Forever Sabah’s focus is on supporting the transition to
a diversified, equitable, circular economy in Sabah and
engaging all sectors in a multi-stakeholder, bottom-up
approach. Forever Sabah is also aligned with the broad
consensus in business and civil society that addressing
the needs of local communities, and supporting their
capacity to solve their own problems is crucial to
the success of conservation and truly just, equitable
development.
Thailand
Philippines
Vietnam
SABAH
Sumatra
Borneo Island
South East Asia
www.foreversabah.org
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