Reducing negative impacts on elephants from construction of the Pan-Borneo Highway in Sabah

Grant period: 2025 – 2026

Sabah, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, is facing significant threats from habitat fragmentation and loss. In 2024 the Bornean elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) has been listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List, as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last 3 generations. The preservation of elephant populations and their habitats in Sabah is crucial. The impacts of Linear Transport Infrastructure development on Asian elephants are a growing source of concern, as these infrastructures can act as a barrier or filter to their movement.

The Pan Borneo Highway (PBH) is Malaysia’s biggest and most ambitious infrastructure project. Several stretches in Sabah will bisect between 30 and 170 km of forest reserves in the Central Sabah Managed Elephant Range (MER), potentially having devastating consequences for elephants by the disruption of elephant migration routes, increased incidents of human-elephant conflict and the overall degradation of elephant habitats.

This project, undertaken in partnership with Seratu Aatai, responds to the urgent need for proactive action to minimize and mitigate these threats. We will provide reliable baseline data on how Bornean elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis) currently use the area impacted by the road construction by radio-collaring elephants and integrating camera trap data and opportunistic field observations. With this data, we will assess how elephants are likely to be affected by the highway and identify critical risk areas and periods for other elephant groups and individuals. The results will be disseminated to policymakers, conservationists, and the general public in Sabah as input for evidence-based decision-making, as well as to the scientific community and conservation practitioners in Asian elephant range states. Our findings will contribute to the definition of elephant-safe working practices during the construction of the road and the identification of practical measures to facilitate elephant movements and mitigate threats.