Published on: Sunday, May 27, 2007 |
Kota Kinabalu: The Forestry Department has no choice but to allow the logging contracts at Ulu Segama and Malua to run its full course before it can take over the area for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).
Forestry Director Datuk Sam Mannan admitted that the logging activity in Ulu Segama was "a disaster", hence the reason the State Government wanted to give the area to the department quickly.
Responding to a question from the floor after presenting a talk to The Sabah Society on Sustainable Forest Management at Hyatt Hotel here, Friday, he said the department's job "was not to blame but to fix the problem".
He said the department was monitoring the situation closely and had closed down many of the (contractor) coops.
Sam was responding to concerns that on-going logging activities at Malua and Ulu Segama would cause further damage to Sabah's already depleted forests, which had been earmarked by the State Government for SFM and conservation last year.
Earlier, he said the agreements to log in Ulu Segama and Malua were entered long ago but would be phased out by end of this year.
He said Yayasan Sabah could not force the contractors to stop the felling activities there because it would involve legal issues.
"Yayasan Sabah can be sued for RM1 billion and I as the Forestry Director RM500 million. So, who is going to pay for that? It is wasting time É so we just have to wait until the contract ends by December this year," he said.
Last year, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman announced that the Cabinet agreed for the SFM concept, pioneered in Deramakot Forest Reserve, to be expanded to the whole of Ulu Segama Reserve comprising 203,808ha, Malua Forest Reserve comprising 33,969ha and Ulu Kalumpang Forest comprising 51,118ha.
"Harvesting of timber, which first commenced in the early 1960s in Ulu Segama during the colonial era and Malua in the 1970s will be phased out by Dec. 31 2007," said Musa.
Following the decision, Sabah now has close to one million hectares of untouchable forest (including Danum Valley and Maliau Basin), which according to the Forestry Department would see the State Government foregoing about RM1 billion in revenue from the forestry sector.
Ulu Segama borders Danum Valley on the southern side while Malua is on the northern side of the valley. The Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve is located in the Tawau region, which is a vital catchment area. Sam said in Malua the situation was "a bit under control" since they used the Reduced-Impact Logging (RIL) method.
He was also asked the reason for the logging activities by Yayasan Sabah in its concession area, claimed to have been done in the conservation area near Imbak Canyon.
Sam who is also a Board Member of Yayasan Sabah assured that there was no way the Government would allow logging in Imbak Canyon and that the issue cropped up due to non-transparency on the part of the Yayasan Sabah conservation unit.
"I have problems because they are not transparent...this is not the first time. They are doing things quietly behind us. When we enter (the place earmarked for logging) suddenly we find they are carrying out research there.
"Imbak Canyon is across the river, that is your place," he told them, he said.
On the Forest Management Unit (FMU), he said the Government had terminated three licences while the "rest are those still doing well and some bad ones...maybe two of them". According to him, the Forestry Department was now enjoying full support from the Government to enable implementation of all the forestry development plans.
He said political instability, especially near election time, often led to an increased number of logging licences being issued by the Government, which he described as a "random act of madness".
Only when the State Government was changed in 1994 that a study was commissioned to look at the forest policies including the Forest Reserve system that was enacted as early as 1913.
Based on the study, the SFM policy was drawn up and implemented in 1997. "SFM cannot operate unless there is political stability," he said.
The flagship of the Forestry Department's SFM was the Deramakot Forest Reserve, which had been getting international recognition as well as support from the Government reflected by the visit of former Premier, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and re-affirmed by the visit of current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last year.
By next year, according to Sam, Deramakot would be giving back every single sen the Government had given earlier for its implementation.
He said for such concept to be implemented successfully needs money and so far there were many donors including international ones contributing to Deramakot.
He disclosed that the Forestry Department was also in the midst of negotiating with a commercial bank for a RM20 million loan to be paid back over 20 years for the implementation of the SFM.
If the deal goes through it would mark the first time a commercial bank has expressed belief in such a concept.
On the burning of houses of locals in forest reserves, he maintained that they were not houses and that those people were not poor but some were government servants "grabbing land from forest reserves".
He said it was the same thing that he told the Chief Minister and Prime Minister.
"We have to be cruel in order to be kind," he said, adding that with about 270,000 hectares of planted forest and some 1.4 million hectares in the forest reserves plan in Sabah, it would be the biggest in the country.
Also on hand was Sabah Society President, Zahra Yaacob.
