A giant step in fight against illegal logging

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Despite his relentless efforts to stamp out illegal logging since taking office almost a year ago, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s recent announcement that he would not approve any more timber concessions and land for plantations took many by surprise.

This is the boldest step taken by the chief minister so far in keeping to his vow to curb illegal logging in the state.

In what seemed like overkill, Adenan also said he would terminate about half of the existing timber licences and impose strict restrictions on the renewal of the rest.

At first glance it seems the move would deal a mortal blow to the state’s timber and oil palm industries.

However, on deeper scrutiny, the chief minister’s intended steps were ‘what the doctor ordered’ to combat illegal logging and reduce land disputes without affecting both industries drastically.

Asked by a reporter if cancelling half of the existing timber licences would seriously impact the state’s timber industry, the chief minister said it should not since most of the concessions under them had been logged out.

That answer brings up the question of why so many licences are maintained when the areas allocated to them are no longer viable to log.

There has been a nagging suspicion that many of the licences are maintained to ‘legalise’ logs harvested from outside the concession for many years but this has never been proven.

The Forest Department should survey all the existing forest concessions to determine the amount of harvestable timber in them.

Those found to have been logged out should immediately be terminated to prevent them from being used as a ‘rubber stamp’ for logs fell elsewhere.

The exercise would also be useful for the state government in deciding the renewal applications of the rest.

On stopping alienation of big swathes of land to plantation companies, Adenan said “he had enough with giving land for big plantations” as it often led to land disputes with the native people of the area.

However, the bigger problem in the past was awarding land to well connected companies which had nothing to do with the oil palm industry.

These companies upon acquiring the land would then sell it to plantations.

When land disputes arose the genuine plantation companies were often left to carry the can while the company which sold the land laughed all the way to the bank.

The plantation companies often stood their ground in such disputes since they had parted with large sums of money to acquire the land and felt aggrieved at having to give in to demands from the locals.

Since it is almost inevitable that such large areas of land would encroach into Native Customary Rights land or other private land, stopping alienation of land to plantations or companies set up to acquire plantation lands is the right move to prevent future land disputes.

However, mindful that NCR landowners should not be deprived from developing their land, the chief minister said he would still approve joint-venture NCR plantations and small holdings.

This is an assurance that the growth of the state’s oil palm industry would not be stunted as there would be still room for more oil palm plantations in future.

These latest measures announced by Adenan deserve the support of the people regardless of their political affiliation.

Whatever doubt on the seriousness of the chief minister’s declaration of war against illegal logging should be put paid by these latest bold moves.