Kota Kinabalu: Sabah earned some RM181 million in forest revenue last year, 22 per cent more than the original annual target set by the State Forestry Department.
Sabah Chief Conservator of Forest Datuk Frederick Kugan said this showed the forestry sector is still relevant and can contribute to the State’s economy.
Forest and conservation efforts are now essential or complement oil palm, tourism, energy, etc.
“The Department staff are preparing themselves with knowledge and skills in order to remain relevant and adapt to the increasingly changing forestry landscape as well as demand towards forest conservation,” he said at the 2023 Forestry Appreciation Ceremony (MAPT) at Magellan Sutera Harbour officiated by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Frederick said among the measures planned include strengthening and emphasising aspects such as improving protection and law enforcement; ensuring the retention of 50 per cent forested areas, especially the Totally Protected Area (TPA) target of 30pc by 2025 including the use of the OECM (other effective area-based conservation measure) forest concept;
The rationalisation of land use changes involving forested areas that have high conservation values (HCVs) and the needs of current socio-economic development; strengthening and applying conservation values in the landscape outside the forest reserve;
Empowerment of the implementation of the SFM/FMU (Sustainable Forest Management/Forest Management Unit) concept, including the takeover of FMU by the Government involving approximately half a million hectares of commercial forest for the public interest;
Vertical integration integrates upstream and downstream Industry; implementing an action plan for the transformation of the forest plantation sector in Sabah through the Forest Plantation Transformation Plan and;
Generating new income through the capitalisation of forest ecosystem functions to support forest conservation and the development of economic sectors that require the role of forests for the benefit of the general public.
“The year 2022 was important for the forest plantation sector in view of the launch of the Action Plan on Forest Plantation Development (2022-2036) by the Chief Minister during the State-level International Forest Day 2022 on March 25, 2022.
“This action plan is in line with the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) Development Plan which supports the transformation of forest plantations to generate State income in the near future.
“The Chief Minister’s visit to several FMUs in the same year is a sign of commitment and important recognition of this effort.
“The plan, as well as various planting activities, have been held to support the Malaysian Greening Campaign through the planting of 100 million trees to foster the culture of tree planting.
“As of December 2022, as many as 10,789,974 trees were planted throughout Sabah,” he said.
Forestry Department staff have won several State-level awards like the Most Informative Website Award, the Best Designed Website Award (Runner-up), 5-Star Rating of Key Performance Indicators of the Human Resource Information System (SM2), Outstanding Human Resource Manager Award 2022, State Government appreciation for the implementation of the Joint Department Council (MBJ) and also the Sabah Chief Minister’s Best Book Award (Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka).
He said all the programme planning and achievements of the Department are highlighted in its 2022 Annual Report which has just been completed.
Frederick also presented an advanced copy of the 2022 Annual Report to Hajiji.
It is also available from the Sabah Forestry Department website: https://
forest.sabah.gov.my/images/pdf/publication/annualreport/SFD.AR2022.pdf
Some 60 staff who have shown excellent performance last year received the Excellent Service Award (APC), in addition to 24 Sustainable Forest Management License Agreement (SFMLA) holders and 13 SFM Projects who received the Compliance Certificate for the year 2022 and seven non-governmental organisation friends (NGO), higher education and secondary education institutions which received recognition and awards as the Conservation Partners for their contribution and commitment and close ties with the Forestry Department in implementing the conservation agenda in the State.
