KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg will introduce the new law to form a Sarawak Research Council in the upcoming State Legislative Assembly (DUN). He announced this when officiating at the Sarawak Forestry 14th Anniversary Dinner 2017 at Pullman Hotel, on Thursday.
In relation to that, Johar i proposed the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) to conduct a research on log and as well as having the technology equipment to preserve the forest asset.
“There are some measures to manage our forest such as expanding our reserve forest from 2.1 million hectares to 2.5 million hectares; invest in raw material which is planting trees in industrial forest without disturbing the reserve forest, and do research on our log to produce more furniture which can create job opportunities, “On the research side, I will allocate some fund to SFC to do scientific research on our logs. Besides that, we will use the scholarship from Yayasan Sarawak to sponsor our students in forest and timber related fields,” said Johari.
Johari also noted that there is a need to combat the illegal logging by using the current technologies. “We must be committed to protect our environment. There are many ways to combat the illegal logging, for example by using drone to find the illegal loggers, “SFC must have unit comprising IT (Intelligent Technology) savvy people to handle the technology things. From that SFC is no longer a forest guard as the technology will do the work,” he pointed out.
On the ceremony, Johar i also presented two award categories namely Best Managed Totally Protected Area (TPA) and Outstanding Honorary Wild Life Ranger.
The winner for Best Managed Totally Protected Area (TPA) went to Matang Wildlife Centre, and winner for Outstanding Honorary Wi ld Li fe Ranger was Musa Misbah. He also witnessed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing between SFC and Spectral Imaging System (SIS).
