PETALING JAYA: The Swiss city of Basel will be making a US$200,000 (RM830,960) contribution to the Baram Peace Park, a conservation project in the interior of Sarawak. Basel mayor Beat Jans announced on Monday (July 5) that the contribution will be directed to the International Tropical Timber Organisation’s (ITTO) Upper Baram Forest Management Area. He added that the government of Basel has decided to offer its support in order to sustain the livelihoods of the indigenous communities there as well as to honour Bruno Manser, a Basel-born environmentalist who had gone missing in Sarawak in 2000. The ITTO project is set to benefit 24 indigenous communities in the 283,500 hectares of land, which consists of forests and agricultural areas which have traditionally been used by the communities to cultivate rice.