Identified forest reserves reclassified
Published on: Friday, November 27, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The State Legislative Assembly on Thursday passed an amendment bill to the Forests (Constitution of Forest Reserves and Amendment) Enactment 1984.Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Ellron Angin who tabled the Bill said the amendment was to facilitate excising, constituting and reclassifying the identified forest reserves."A total of 11 forest reserves with total acreage of 67,952.85 hectares will be excised, constituting 18 new forest reserves with total acreage of 4,133.46 hectares and reclassifying six Forest Reserve Class II (Commercial Forest) with total acreage of 155,431 hectares to be first class Forest Reserve (Protection) and Forest Reserve VI Class (Virgin Jungle Reserve).
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"About 67,952.85 hectares comprising several forest reserves were proposed to be excised for the socio-economic development of the people, village settlements, cemeteries and titled lands as those areas are degraded forests, repeatedly burned and occupied by villagers in places," he said.Ellron said 17 state lands with a total acreage of 4,133.46 hectares have been identified to be proposed as new forest reserves to replace those areas that will be excised."Those new areas comprise various type of forests such as mangrove forests, reserve lands of Sabah Forestry Department and state lands which have existed and some were land swap area that have been agreed to be gazetted as forest reserve."Furthermore, some of the new forest reserves have high conservation values, serve as wildlife corridors and sanctuary to several species of flora and fauna, as well as have among the best ecosystem of mangroves," he said.
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Ellron said out of six Forest Reserve Class II (Commercial), five were proposed to be reclassified as Forest Reserve Class I (Protection) and the remaining involving 126 hectares of Paitan Forest Reserve Class II to be reclassified as Forest Reserve Class VI and to be renamed as Sg. Paitan Forest Reserve Class VI (Virgin Jungle Forest).The rationale for reclassifying the identified forest reserves, he said was to maintain the forest area for protection purposes and wellbeing of the natural environment, preserving the water catchment areas and biodiversity lifespan.
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Another reason, he said was to enhance biodiversity quality in degraded forest areas and continue to retain its role as a buffer zone and restore the function of forest ecology to ensure survival of wildlife that is trapped in isolated as 'wildlife corridor'.Ellron said reclassifying the six forest reserves from Class II (Commercial) to Class I (Protection) and Class VI (Virgin Jungle Reserve) proved that the State Government is committed to ensuring a balance land development in the State."As a result of this amendment bill, the Forest Reserve Class 1 (Protection) will increase its acreage by 15.3 per cent from 1,038,890 hectares to 1,197,867 hectares while the Forest Reserve Class II (Commercial) will be reduced for 10.84 per cent from 2,033,183 hectares to 1,812,752 hectares and Forest Reserve Class IV (Amenity) will be lesser from 12,409.448 hectares to 11,149.17 hectares by a drop of 10.16 per cent. However, he said the Forest Reserve Class III (Domestic) remain its total acreage of 4,673 hectares."Forest Reserve Class V (Mangrove) area will also be reduced from 281,374.56 hectares to 280,002.27 hectares with a drop of 0.49 per cent but Forest Reserve Class VI (Virgin Jungle Reserve) acreage increased from 106,801.144 hectares to 106,812.32 hectares with 0.01 percentage," he said.Ellron said the protection of forest reserve Class II (Commercial) through reclassification to become Forest Reserve Class 1 (Protection) is a measure to protect the forest from being further exploited due to its commercial status."This is also in line with the state policy to increase the percentage of Total Protected Areas (TPA) to 30 per cent in 10 years' time."Through this initiative, this will make Sabah as the leader in Tropical Forest Conservation and Management and will increase Wildlife Forest Reserve (Class VII) from 137,735 hectare to 137,991 hectare with 0.19 per cent rise," he said.Ellron pointed out that total forest reserves in Sabah after excising, gazettment and reclassifying would be 3,551,246.76 hectares which recorded a reduction of 1.77 per cent compared to 2014 (3,615,066.15 hectares) which showed a balance between conservation and development that are being practised in current State Forest Management.Replying to Tamparuli assemblyman Datuk Wilfred M. Bumburing and Bingkor assemblyman Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan on the Bill during the debate session, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the amendment to the Forest Enactment 1984 does not include Forest Management Unit (FMU) areas as there is a strict agreement between the concessionaire and State government."When we passed the FMUs areas to the concessionaire to develop the lands, we cannot take back the land as there is a very strict agreement between the State Government and the concessionaire," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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