Awg Tengah: 13 forest management units issued with certifications

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Awang Tengah speaks at the dinner gathering.

KUCHING (June 13): A total of 13 Forest Management Units (FMUs) involving 1.27 million hectares of land have been issued with certifications as at May 10 this year, revealed Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.

“We continue on with Sarawak’s Forest Management Certification Policy by making it compulsory for all long-term logging licensees to obtain forest management certification status,” he said.

He added that the forest certification is the state government’s continuous effort to promote economic prosperity, social inclusivity and environmental sustainability in line with the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS).

Awang Tengah said this when speaking at a joint Hari Raya and Gawai Dayak dinner organised by the Ministry of Urban Development and Natural Resources and Ministry of International Trade at a hotel here on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, he said the state Forest Department continues to implement Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) programme, now rebranded as Greening Sarawak Campaign, with the aim to enrich degraded forest areas involving all stakeholders and the local community – in line with the Malaysian Greening Programme to plant 100 million trees by 2025.

As such, he said the state government is committed to planting 35 million trees for a period of five years or seven million trees per year.

“The state government has also approved the establishment of the Sarawak Delta Geopark (SDGp) with an area of ​​311,246 hectares covering land and water areas that represent the special geological, biological and cultural heritage found in Kuching, Bau, Siburan and Padawan.

“The SDGp has undergone an evaluation process to be recognised as a National Geopark Jan 19 to 21 – which is expected to be certified in June 2022. Subsequently, the state government will lift the SDGp as a Unesco Global Geopark,” he added.