he National Parks Ordinance of 1962 came into force on 11th May, 1962. The Ordinance provided for the constitution of national parks, following a Resident's enquiry into objections and claims for customary rights and the subsequent management of the national parks by a Board of Trustees.

It prohibited certain acts in national parks and provided penalties. Two parks were gazetted under this Ordinance, namely, Kinabalu National Park in 1964 and Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park in 1974. In September 1977, the National Parks Ordinance of 1962 was repealed and replaced by the National Parks Enactment of 1977. This Enactment empowered the Board not only to preserve and protect national parks in the State but also national reserves.

The national reserves are areas, which although deserving of protection, do not for various reasons qualify to be called national parks. Four more national parks were created under the 1977 Enactment, namely, Turtle Islands National Park in October 1977, Pulau Tiga National Park in June 1978, Klias Peninsula National Park in July 1978 and Tawau Hills National Park in May 1979.

Unfortunately, in August 1981, the then State Government decided to degazette the whole of the Klias Peninsula National Park and reverted it back to a Forest Reserve. On 8th March 1984, the State Legislative Assembly passed the new Parks Enactment of 1984 to repeal and replace the old National Parks Enactment of 1977. The objectives of introducing this new enactment were to streamline the control and management of parks in Sabah and to redefine the boundaries of all the parks.

Under the new Enactment, the location and extent of each park were clearly shown and a land title for each park for a period of nine hundred and ninety-nine years free of all liabilities and encumbrances was vested in the name of the Board of Trustees of the Sabah Parks. With this new Enactment, all the five exisiting national parks in the State were reconstituted as state parks and were known thereafter as follows:

• Taman Kinabalu (Kinabalu Park)
• Taman Tunku Abdul Rahman (Tunku Abdul Rahman Park)
• Taman Pulau Penyu (Turtle Islands Park)
• Taman Pulau Tiga (Pulau Tiga Park)
• Taman Bukit Tawau (Tawau Hills Park)

In addition, the new Enactment created a new park covering an area of 139,919 ha called the Crocker Range National Park. This new park protects the very important water-catchment area for most of the major rivers of the Interior and West Coast Divisions.

Parks Establishment