Continuing policies on conservation

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Abang Johari says state to ensure balance between environment and development

KUCHING: The issuance of timber concessions remained frozen and Occupation Ticket (OT) licences will not be renewed unless the land has been approved for development purpose.

Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg highlighted this last night as he pledged to continue with the policies that had been laid down by Tok Nan (late Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem).

“Priority will be given to protect and preserve our forests and environment. The ban on issuance of timber concessions stays while the award of short term timber licences to harvest timber on

land meant for development will be done on open tender,” he said.

“The reason is we don’t want contractor of the project to have the opportunity to steal our timber,” he added.

Abang Johari was speaking at the presentation of the Chief Minister’s Environmental Award (CMEA) 2017 held at Imperial Hotel here.

“We have to enforce our discipline on this and in this regard, I have requested the state Forest Department to enhance their enforcement division even if it means to use modern technology,” he said.

All development plan for the state, he emphasised, must be judiciously executed to make sure there is balance between environment and development.

“We try to add value to our resources by judiciously managing our resources … if not our rivers, dams, and even roads can be polluted,” he warned.

As such, Abang Johari said the state has to look at other countries which have good models to preserve and conserve the environment such as Singapore.

He congratulated Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) for its effort to create awareness on the preservation of environment by recognising companies and organisations for their good environmental practices.

He said the environmental award is an incentive for the companies to not only to protect but also to upgrade their technology to make sure the environment is safe for the future generation.

Abang Johari later presented CMEA awards to winning companies and agencies for

their endeavours in good stewardship in environmental protection and management in Sarawak.

Jointly organised by NREB Sarawak and the Sarawak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), this year’s CMEA attracted a total of 78 entries from four main industries namely Large Enterprise, Medium Enterprise, Small Industries as well as Government Agencies: Local Authorities.

The award also expanded the categories of competition to include media and individual/journalist categories.

In the Large Enterprise category, it was divided into six sub-categories namely Manufacturing which was awarded to ASEAN Bintulu Fertilizer Sdn Bhd; Services – Electricity Supply which was won by Sejingkat Power Corporation Sdn Bhd; Services – Waste Disposal won by Trienekens (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd; Plantation awarded to Ta Ann Plywood Sdn Bhd (Reforestation Division); Construction won by NAIM Holdings Berhad; and Oil & Gas which was won by Malaysia LNG Sdn Bhd.

Winners in the Medium Industries category were Wargana Consortium Sdn Bhd under the Services – Waste Management/Disposal sub-category; Stenggang Oil Palm Eatate (Plantation); Grand Margherita Hotel (Hotel and Resort); and Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club (Golf Course).

For the Small Industries category, Shell PJSS Enterprise won in the Gas/Petrol Station sub-category while Miri City Council won in the City & Municipal Council sub-category under the Government Agencies: Local Authorities category.

For the Individual/Journalist (Environmental Stewardship) category, it went to Prof Dr Lau Seng of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Andy Jong Wan Joon of Sin Chew Daily.

Earlier, Abang Johari also launched the CMEA logo which winners of the award will be allowed to use for promotion and marketing purposes.

Also present at the ceremony were Abang Johari’s wife Datin Amar Juma’ani Tuanku Bujang, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, state secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Morshidi Abdul Ghani, Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh, and Environmental Quality controller Peter Sawal.