LAWAS: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem has instructed that the proposed Ulu Trusan forest reserve project to be suspended with immediate effect in response to request from Lawas MP Datuk Henry Sum Agong on behalf of the local community.
Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said this following a meeting with the Lawas MP and community leaders in the district Wednesday afternoon after officiating at a Raya celebration in Lawas Indoor Stadium.
He said the chief minister had responded to the request in a letter written by Henry voicing concerns and confusion among the Lun Bawang community for the proposed 120,000ha of forest reserves.
A notice of the government’s intention to declare the area as a protected forest was published in The Borneo Post on May 26.
Awg Tengah said there was some confusion arising from the proposed project, particularly on NCR land issue.
Adenan had said the NCR land perimeter survey would continue in Ulu Trusan although the forest reserves project had been suspended.
Awg Tengah went on to say that the chief minister had taken into consideration the request and the feedback from community leaders on current issues at the meeting in Lawas on Wednesday before returning to Kuching.
In June, state PKR chief and Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian said his constituents were totally against the proposed Ulu Trusan protected forest plan believing it would extinguish their native customary rights (NCR) land.
He said the proposal would cover a huge area of Lun Bawang NCR lands owned by thousands of people in Ba Kelalan constituency, leaving small portions of cleared areas around the villages.
“This will deprive the people of their hunting, foraging and fishing grounds and leave them with nothing to live on,” Baru told a press conference then.
Meanwhile, the chief minister has been in the forefront of sustainable forest management and conservation since taking office on February 28, 2014, ringing in a halt to issuance of new logging licences and cancelling half of the logging permits while cracking down hard on illegal logging and corruption.
He also announced that the state government would create more national parks to bring the tally to one million hectares from 800,000ha at present.
He said this at a press conference in October last year after officiating at the third civil service integrity seminar for 554 enforcement officers.