KUCHING: There are approximately 383,244 hectares of area being planted with trees under the Industrial Tree Planting (ITP) plan which is still far behind the one million hectares target of planted forest.
This was disclosed by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Openg when officiating at the Forum on Forest Landscape held at Riverside Majestic Hotel here, yesterday.
A total of 250 participants from government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private sector and stakeholders attended the forum.
Johari in his speech remarked that the Forum was to gather all relevant stakeholders to share on past and ongoing forest landscape activities and experiences.
“It is also hoped that through this Forum, we are able to identify options and priorities for forest landscape restoration for different land use type.
“I am looking forward to the Strategic Action Plan, as outcomes of this Forum. I want to see the plan effectively implemented by the agencies concerned. You should identify an area as a pilot project, suggested by good research and development (R&D) so that where successful can be a model to be replicated throughout the state,” he pointed out.
Johari stated that Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia with a landmass area of 12.4 million hectares, where 65 per cent of the land area is still under forest cover which is more than the national target of 50 per cent.
“The state government is committed in upholding its policy on the sustainable forest management (SFM).
“This requires adherence to such principles in order to balance between ecological, economics and social dimension of sustainability with strong consensus among stakeholders, cross-sectoral approach and partnership.
“Continuous efforts need to be enhanced and sustained to ensure forest resources meet the demands of the present and future generation, thus ensuring the perpetuity of the forest resources for environmental protection and social economic of the community and the state,” he explained.
The government has also embarked on industrial tree planting (ITP) with a target of one million hectares of fast growing tree species as an alternative source of timber as well as for forest and soil rehabilitation and amelioration, respectively, adding the state needs new technologies that can help it to produce fast growing trees for industrial harvest within five years.
“This is also to ensure that we are not dependent on natural forest for our sustainable supply of raw material for the industry.
“In this respect, the government has issued 42 valid licenses for planted forest (LPT) with a gross area of 2.57 million hectares.
“As of today, there are approximately 383,244 hectares of area being planted which is still far behind the one million hectares target of planted forest. Due to slow progress, the government will review the current policy on forest plantation,” he pointed out.
He added that, the concept of restoration under Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) was more than just planting trees as it covers also the ecological functionality and human wellbeing across the forest landscape itself.
“In the case of Sarawak, the objectives of FLR are to enrich harvested areas with high value timber species; to restore and conserve degraded forest in TPA as well as to alleviate livelihood of forest dependent communities.
“I am glad that this Forum will provide a platform for networking, knowledge sharing and for detailing the challenges that need to be addressed to promote the forest landscape restoration in Sarawak, in particular,” said Johari.
Apart from that, collaboration between academics, industrial players and policy makers, is essential as the countries learn from and help one another.
Also present at the event was Permanent Secretary to Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment Datu Sudarsono Osman.
