Malaysia Remains Green

Of Late, the Malaysian public was fed with news and reports about more forests being felled around Malaysia to make way for development. Fingers were pointed in all directions, leaving the public to wonder why the authorities, including the Forestry Department, failed to act accordingly.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL of the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia, Datuk Abdul Rashid Mat Amin said Malaysians can be assured that the country remains green, in fact, greener than one thinks.

According to the Forestry Departments of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia has managed to increase the size of its Permanent Reserved Forests (PRFs) from 12.74 million hectares in 1990 to 14.39 million hectares in 2003. The size of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries has also increased from 1.50 million hectares to 2.40 million hectares in the same period.

Up till 2003, Peninsular Malaysia was covered with a total of 5.88 million hectares of forests. Of this, a total of 4.70 million hectares were PRFs, 0.58 million hectares national parks and 0.31 million hectares were wildlife and bird sanctuaries. The remaining figure comprised state lands and alienated lands which have been allocated for development.

"Most of the clear felling and development we see today takes place on either forested land owned by the State and set aside for future development, or forested land owned by individuals or organisations, called alienated land. Here, the department has little control over such land, although it is often blamed for inaction in such areas. Under the law, these lands do not come under the purview of the Forestry Department," said Datuk Abdul Rashid.

He said that a State government has the right to degazette forest reserves for development based on decisions made by the State Executive Council.

What the Forestry Department can do is determine the boundaries within which logging can be carried out. "Owners of alienated land do not need a permit to cut down the trees, but only need permission from us to remove felled logs from their land. We also ensure that excise duties are paid to the Government for the sale of forest produce," the Director-General explained.

"There are laws under the Town and Country Planning Act and local authority by-laws that control how much timber is to be retained on the land. A Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment is also required if an activity such as logging involving an area exceeding 500 hectares is going to be done. None of these laws is administered by the Forestry Department," he added.

Datuk Abdul Rashid emphasised that the department's major role is to manage the forest reserves in a sustainable manner. The Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia, for instance, wields power only within the 4.70 million hectares of PRFs in the Peninsular. Although the existing laws do not allow the Forestry Department to playa bigger role in conserving all forested areas, they can still help and offer their expertise. "Despite the legal constraints, a great deal can still be done. We can advise owners of alienated land or state land which areas should be conserved. We can tag "special trees", point out which species are endemic to an area and help design a plan that will allow the conservation of green belts within a development area," he elaborated.