Adenan says his fight against illegal logging is to protect forests as source of new medicine, natural products
Adenan smelling an orchid during his visit to the new research building. He is accompanied by Yeo (left). — Photo by Kong Jun Liung
KUCHING: The state’s forest is a rich source for naturalists to discover a new species and chemists to find a new compound for new medicine and as such must be protected from unfettered logging to preserve its rich biodiversity.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem in pointing this out said that was the reason for his fight against illegal logging and freeze on issuing licences for new timber concessions.
“Don’t look at the rainforest as a dollar sign because it is our permanent treasure. Look at it from the view of naturalist and scientist,” he said when launching the Integrated Biodiversity Research Building of Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC) near here yesterday.
He added that the state could generate new economic opportunities while promoting conservation through bioprospecting because of its rich biodiversity.
“Bioprospecting refers to a systematic search for biochemical information and novel compounds from natural resources such as plants, microbes and other living things including fungus.
“It is a way to discover valuable applications and it can be done sustainably because biotechnology and chemistry nowadays have the capability to make measurements on a micro scale. These are the things that we will pursue,” the chief minister explained.
He said the state must tap into its rich biodiversity by conserving it and improving on its research capacity to collect data to generate invention and innovation.
Adenan noted that through the establishment of Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (BSC) Sarawak can conduct its own scientific research and with the existing legislation covering bioprospecting, he believed the state could greatly benefit from the increasing global interest in natural products research.
“Sarawak used to send out species of plants and animals for research. We cannot simply remain as a supplier of raw material for others to benefit from the discoveries made. We must be a significant partner in research collaboration and ideally carry out critical work in our research agencies,” he said.
Adenan planting a tree to commemorate the launching SBC’s Integrated Biodiversity Research Building. Seen from left are Len Talif, Yeo, former deputy chief minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang and Morshidi (right).
Adenan cuts a ribbon to mark the launching of SBC’s Integrated Biodiversity Research Building.
Also present were SBC chief executive officer Dr Yeo Tiong Chia, Assistant Minister for Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh and State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Ghani.
Yeo, in his speech earlier, described the new integrated research building as the final phase of the physical development of SBC’s laboratories. The centre is equipped with a RM2 million facility that could help researchers tell the exact mass of compound to the fourth decimal place.
“The main reason for the construction of this building is because we need to expand our chemistry lab to be proficient in understanding chemical structure; we wanted to expand our plant tissue culture programme because we think that it will play a critical role in the next five years in our propagation needs.
“Also, we need bigger space for the research officers to work and to house our natural product library which now has reach 20,000 extracts for plants and another 20,000 more for microbes,” he said.