Len Talif: Need to review strategies, policies

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KUCHING: Sarawak needs to relook at its strategies and policies as land and worker issues are major barriers to achieving the target of having one million hectares of planted forest by 2020.

In stating this, Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh revealed that the state had only managed to achieve 30 per cent of the target or over 300,000 hectares of planted forest presently.

“So we have to be more realistic and a review (on policies and strategies) is required as the last was two to three years ago. So I will personally look into the details of it,” he emphasised.

He highlighted this when met by reporters after officiating at the certificate presentation ceremony of the Conservation Internship Programme for Forest Management Certification at a leading hotel here yesterday.

Organised by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) in collaboration with Sarawak Timber Association (STA), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and other stakeholders, the ceremony saw the first batch of 14 interns who had successfully completed the 9-month programme receiving the certificate.

“We need to address or overcome existing problems and challenges especially land and worker issues if we are to meet our desired target,” Len Talif said.

As for technical resources, he pointed out that this was not an issue as it could be dealt with by the choice of tree species to be planted.

“There are more complex issues to deal with and we need to be more realistic and pragmatic so as to achieve our desired or positive target,” he added.

To a question, Len Talif said the government would be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an institution from Finland this Jan 25 for research collaborations.

“It is very important to link ourselves with such international organisation particularly to attain credibility recognition because expertise-wise, we can produce ourselves but the question is whether our expertise is recognised worldwide or not,” he said.

“So by way of smart partnership, we collaborate with them to establish our name internationally,” he added.

Earlier in his speech, Len Talif stressed that the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg was committed to protecting and preserving the forests for the benefit of the present and future generations.

“In relation to that, we have set a target to establish one million hectares of land as Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) for conservation. We are almost there,” he said.

“However, as of today the forestry sector plays a prominent role in the social and economic wellbeing of the people in Sarawak,” he added.

He further said that Sustainable Forest Management and adopting best practices in forest management such as forest management certification were among the key tools to improve forest management standards and practices in Sarawak.

“Therefore, the timber industry must fully cooperate with the government to combat the negative perception that the state is poorly and ineffectively managing our forest,” he stressed.

SFC acting chief executive officer Zolkipli Mohamad Aton, STA general manager Dr Peter Kho and WWF-Malaysia Sarawak programme leader Dr Jason Hon were among those present.