Firm's forest regreening plan hailed
Published on: Friday, December 23, 2016
Tawau: Sabah Forestry Department Chief Conservator of Forests, Datuk Sam Mannan, Thursday praised Usahawan Borneo Greenwood Sdn Bhd a subsidiary of Usahawan Borneo Group, for the determination and commitment to make its Mosaic Planting System of mostly indigenous species at Gunung Rara Forest reserve, a success. Speaking following his visit to the project site at Gunung Rara about 140km from Tawau, he said it is someting the State can be proud of.The project is a joint venture between Datuk Elbert Lim's Usahawan Borneo Greenwood Sdn Bhd and Sabah Foundation.
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He congratulated Lim for his tenacity, determination and commitment at the highest company level to make the project a success.The Gunung Rara reforestation by Usahawan covers 15,000 hectares, some 10,000 of which will be planted, excluding construction, roads, rivers, protected lands and conservation zones.It is understood that Usahawan will have to invest RM3-5 million annually on the project which has been ongoing for about a year now with 1,105 hectares planted. Another 1,000 ha have been targetted for planting yearly.The species being cultivated at the nursery for planting currently are Albizia, Laran(local), Laran Merah, Binuang, Talisai Ketapang and Mahogany.
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"This is something that Sabah should be proud of and we should give full marks to what he (Elbert) is doing here. You can see the quality of buildings, from that you can tell this is long term, the road will be upgraded, he is doing research, he's getting help from us and he pays attention to the quality of work and this will also benefit Sabah Foundation", he said.
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It is understood that the new reforestation plan using the Mosaic Planting system is promoted and encouraged by the Sabah Forestry Department. It is the establishment of fast growing and high yielding species. The program uses the concept of floor tiles whereby, a cycle of 10 years is divided by 10 "floor tiles". When the first "floor tiles" of forest mature, it will be cut down and replanted, second year will cut down the second "floor tiles" of forest and replanting, and repeat the same step subsequently every 10 years for each of the unit of the whole area. "It would be an endless cycle reforestation programme," he said.Sam noted there has never been any large scale planting of indigenous species by the private sector. "This is one attempt with a commercial approach which means you are using your own money and you are taking a big risk. There are so many uncertainties, but yet he is willing to do this because I think, for him, it is about success for the future and something that he can be proud of. "It's not just about making money, you can do that easily from oil palm and other businesses but I think it is about the legacy part as a company this is the one business undertaking that will give him the biggest challenge".Mosaic Planting is still in its infancy, there are still some factors and risks of instability, but Elbert is determined to make it a success."You look at his capital investment in the program, such as the upgrading of roads, the construction of permanent offices, workers dormitories and warehouses and other equipment and long term research in this area, you can understand that he is in as a Long Term Investor.""There are also others doing such projects, but he has just started and we have learnt over the years from the experience of others, what are the pitfalls you need to avoid and how to get things right the first time. By getting right the first time you save so much because you avoid mistakes that others have committed." He said."We are transferring some of the burden of forest management to the private sector and we share this burden together and hopefully in the future both will benefit," he said.Sam said the project is new project and addresses degradation. What is being done is keeping about 50 percent of natural forest which will then be treated. The rest is for high volume production."That is our source of diversity in this place and the other half will be developed under the Mosaic System which still retains natural forest but we have to address the issue of productivity. This natural forest will take a good 40 years to come back in order to be viable and the right size of trees. But with the mosaic system we plant fast growing indigenous and exotic species," he said.Sam said after so many years of research, the Forestry Department has come to the conclusion that Sabah has many species that are equally if not better than exotics that have been used all this time and they are of higher quality and from the environmental point of view, they are much better."We still retain the riparian reserves, we retain the buffers and we maintain the steep areas keep them under natural conditions. This will take time, this investment here will stretch over at least 10 years with very little income if any. "But the time will come when all those investment will be recouped. You got to be determined to make such a project successful. This is not oil palm, and there are the worries of the environment, climate change, all those things which can hamper or bring you down from time to time like severe droughts you cannot plant and when continuous rain is here it also is an impediment, roads will breakdown bridges collapse things like that ", he said.He said the project could also develop into an ecotourism site with beautiful waterfalls and a wide variety of wildlife. Hunting is strictly prohibited to protect wild animals."Beside, the reforestation program will also protect our rivers and water.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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