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States to tighten enforcementTranslation from Utusan Malaysia 10 September 2002 BY YUSWANDI MAJID KUANTAN (Pahang State) 9 Sept. – All State Forestry Department Directors have been directed to strengthen forest law enforcement in their respective states, including conducting surveillance during public holidays to curb illegal logging. The Director-General of the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia, Datuk Zul Mukhshar Md. Shaari said that his department still wants the issue to be closely monitored, even though illegal logging has generally been brought down. "The department realised that a lot of parties are inferring that the occurrence of illegal logging on weekends and public holidays is due to the department’s staff not working on those days", he said. He told the reporters this after the opening of the 22nd State Forestry Directors’ Convention at the Swiss Garden Resort here today. The Convention, which will be held until 13 September was officiated by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob. Zul Mukhshar said that the government had been very earnest for along time in curbing illegal logging, which had been serious before, in the early 1990s. Amongst some of the actions taken included amending the National Forestry Act in 1993 to impose heavier penalties for offences. "Owing to the introduction of the revised act, the number of illegal logging cases dropped from about 500 cases in the early 1990s to only about 40 cases a year now," he added. Although the number of illegal logging cases has decreased drastically, continuous efforts are still being undertaken to overcome the problem. He also said that the government has also introduced other measures such as determining the number of trees that can be felled at certain designated areas to ensure that logging operations in this country are totally controlled. "Inspections and checks at sawmills are also carried out to ensure that they only accept logs from legal sources," he added. The authorities also hope for close public co-operation by providing information on illegal logging activities. He said that action will be taken within three days of receiving the information, in line with the department’s client’s charter. "Informants will also be rewarded accordingly by the particular State forestry department as incentives", he said. He also gave the assurance that every complaint received would be acted upon, even though there have been cases when information given by the public is inaccurate. |
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10 September 2002
MTC’s
