Taib performs the launch gimmick for the book witnessed by (from second left) Juma’ani, Abang Johari, Raghad, Awang Tengah, Hamden and Len Talif. — Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING: Sarawak’s forests remain ‘an overlooked and undervalued asset’, says Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
According to him, Sarawak’s forests have the potential and value that should be explored further.
“Though Sarawak is now on a path of diversifying into new sources of revenues, the contribution by the Forest Department is still relevant as a major source of revenue to the state,” Abang Johari spoke at the Forest Department’s 100th anniversary gala dinner on Friday.
Moreover, he called upon the department to extract greater value from Sarawak’s forests and move beyond the traditional and conventional royalty-collection from logging.
Abang Johari said a new source of forest revenue – still being explored at the moment – would be royalty on standing trees.
“There’s a lot of potential in the forests from the wider perspective and it does not even require the cutting down of the trees,” he said.
Abang Johari said the Sarawak government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Shell International on a carbon credit project as a new source of revenue from the state’s forests.
“Timber players too need to leverage on environment-friendly or green technologies to mitigate these environmental risks and to ensure ecological sustainability,” he said.
Meanwhile, Forest Department Saarwak director Datu Hamden Mohammad said 63 per cent of Sarawak’s land mass – or 7.8 million hectares – continued to be covered in forests, which he attributed to sustainable forest management.
Hamden related that former chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem had instructed in 2013 that concession areas within the Heart of Borneo (HoB) must obtain Forest Management Certification by 2017.
“This was the starting point for mandatory certification for all long-term timber licenses, which was later announced in 2015,” he said.
Hamden added that with the strong support of the Sarawak government, the department’s policies had shifted from sustained yield of timber production to sustainable forest management, which was more holistic in nature – embracing the principle of ‘economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable’.
Hamden said the department would strive to ensure that all long-term forest timber licence holders would achieve forest management certification by 2022, in line with the goal of sustainable management of Sarawak’s forests and increased international market exposure for the state’s timber products.
At present, seven forest management units consisting of about 626,000 hectares of natural forests have obtained forest management certification, while another 84,000 hectares of forest plantation management units have been certified.
“A few more areas are in various stages of auditing and expected to be certified in the near future,” said Hamden.
To date, Sarawak has gazetted 867,423 hectares as totally protected areas (TPAs) – consisting of 46 national parks (586,825 hectares), five wildlife sanctuaries (225,791 hectares) and 15 nature reserves (3,460 hectares).
Some 1.24 million hectares of territorial waters have also been gazetted as TPAs.
Over 90,000 hectares of forests have been rehabilitated and enriched with various local species under the forest landscape restoration programme, to ensure that Sarawak’s forests would retain their vibrant and complex ecosystems.
The HoB area has also been expanded to 2.7 million hectares, and has secured a global environment facility funded project, expected to commence in 2021.
Hamden also said between 1988 and last year, the forest sector contributed RM600 million annually to the state coffers from royalties, cess, and premiums on log production.
“Apart from the direct tangible benefit in terms of dollars and cents, the forestry sector has also helped, through logging roads, in providing accessibility and communications to the rural communities,” he said.
The gala dinner also hosted the launch of the book ‘The Conservator/Director of Forests: Leading a Century Journey in Sustainable Forestry’.
Yang Di-Pertua Negeri Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and wife Toh Puan Datuk Patinggi Raghad Kurdi Taib graced the dinner.
Abang Johari’s wife Datuk Amar Juma’ani Tuanku Bujang, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Assistant Minister of Urban Development and Resources Datu Len Talif Salleh, Assistant Minister of Transport Datuk Dr Jerip Susil, and Indonesian Consul-General in Kuching Yonny Tri Prayitno, were among the guests.