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Kota Kinabalu: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) has endorsed the decision of the State Government to terminate Forest Management Unit (FMU) agreements which have not complied with the requirements of the Forestry Department. Its Deputy President Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said in a statement Monday that PBS had always maintained its stand made in the State Assembly in 1997 that the FMU concept, while noble, would fail because of the questionable manner of implementation.

“We told the Government then that the concept of FMU was good but to privatise hurriedly two million hectares of commercial forest reserves to about a dozen companies for 100 years each was a sell-out of the State’s assets,” he said.

“The then State Government argued that the massive privatisation was to meet requirements and standards set by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) which apparently wanted exported timber from the region to come from plantation forestry by 2000.”

According to Maximus, the party took the position that there was no need to abruptly privatise such a huge area of forest reserves especially to a limited number of companies whose track records in forestry management and reforestation were mostly unknown.

“In fact, to our knowledge, only four or five of the FMU owners have met the Forestry Department’s requirements to the extent of having commenced some reforestation on programmes on a limited scale.

“Those who have breached the terms of the agreement should have their agreements terminated, and the areas sub-divided to smaller, manageable size and offered to credible local companies,” he said.