Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Chief Conservator of Forests Datuk Frederick Kugan reiterated that the State Attorney-General’s Chambers has yet to receive relevant documents from Hoch Standard Pte Ltd (HSPL).
He said this requirement is part of the State’s “due diligence” process on the Singapore company to ascertain its professional capacity to undertake such a large and complex project going beyond carbon.
At the same time, the State Government is reviewing several clauses contained within the signed Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) document to provide for greater clarity.
It is also reviewing with greater scrutiny the legality of the provisioned clauses to build a legal framework by which the NCA could be operationalised.
When completed, this would form an Addendum to the currently inoperable NCA and shall cover the issues concerning the “designated area” which comes under the Government purview, he added.
“These are some of the safeguards that must be fulfilled and should not be compromised by any parties in order to protect our natural heritage and its access for generations to come,” he said in a statement, Wednesday.
He was responding to Deputy Chief Minister I cum Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan’s statement on the NCA on March 15.
“In June 2023, the Sabah Forestry Department received a formal request from Dr Jeffrey, through the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Ministry on behalf of HSPL and its local counterpart, for a “pilot site” of 190,051 hectares.
“The area included the Nuluhon Trusmadi Forest Reserve (Class I) amongst others.
This ‘pilot site’ would test the framework for the perceived outputs of the NCA, and the exceptional financial gains that are potentially deliverable to the State.
“This ‘pilot site’ was meant to be the ‘proof-of-concept’ for Nature Capital and is outside of the ambits of the agreement signed between HSPL and the State Government.
This is due to the fact that HSPL is still required to fulfil the conditions stipulated by the State Government,” said Kugan.
