THE state government will intensify the perimeter survey for Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands through the New Initiative NCR Land Perimeter Survey Programme.
Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said under the first phase of the programme, a total of 748,167 hectares have been surveyed.
“The government will also intensify efforts to survey individual land lots for the purpose of issuing land titles under Section 18 of the State Land Code through phase two of the programme.
“At present, around 4,690 individual lots have been successfully surveyed involving 24 areas measuring around 4,892 hectares or 12,088 acres,” he said during his winding-up speech for his ministry at the 18th State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting yesterday.
He also told the August House that under the Traditional Kampung Survey Programme (Program Pengukuran Kampung Tradisional), a total of 43,232 land titles under Section 18 of the State Land Code had been issued for residential purposes to date.
“Through this programme, the government recognises villages which have long been in existence by surveying and issuing the individual land titles to the site of the residential houses.”
Meanwhile, Awang Tengah also touched on the preservation of the state’s forests, and pointed out that the state government had gazetted 903,769 hectares as Totally Protected Areas.
“The government has also identified 32 more areas comprising around 572,685 hectares to be gazetted for the same purpose.
“If this can be implemented, Sarawak will have Totally Protected Areas as wide as 1.4 million hectares including coastal areas by the year 2020.”