Malaysia's forests: Have they grown or shrunk?

States and government agency report different sets of figures on the acreage of forest reserves
Straits Times 9 Jun 08;

KUALA LUMPUR - HAS Malaysia recorded a net gain or net loss of permanent forest reserves over the past five years? The answer depends on how one, and who, reads government gazettes, reported the New Sunday Times.

According to statistics from state gazettes, state governments added 38,800ha of forest reserves, but cut down 40,500ha, between 2001 and 2005. This means that peninsular Malaysia lost a net total of 1,700ha - the size of more than 2,000 football fields - of its permanent forest reserves in five years.

But the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM) painted a contrasting picture, saying there was an additional 6,800ha in permanent forest reserves during the period.

It stated that there was an addition of 23,300ha over the period, with omission, or degazetted areas, of only 16,500ha.

When states add forest reserve acreage, they gazette these areas. Similarly, omission means degazettement.

Interestingly, the department also cited the gazettes as its source of information.

Discrepancies between the figures in the state gazettes and what the department reported, based on those same figures, are baffling.

For example, JPSM placed reserve cuts at 16,500ha. This does not tally with what the gazettes - the only legal documents proving a permanent forest reserve addition or excision process - state, reported the New Sunday Times.

Based on four major excisions plucked from the gazettes, the total had already breached the 18,000ha mark. There were 115 other excisions in those five years.

On the inconsistencies in the figures, the department said: 'Since the procedures of gazettement and degazettement are lengthy and involve several parties, figures might be displaced along the process.'

Over the past decade, forest reserves have been on a slight, but steady, decline.

In 1978, the National Forestry Council and the National Land Council jointly approved a proposal for a permanent forest estate of 5.18 million ha, which is about 40 per cent of the land area of peninsular Malaysia.

The target, which has not been met, continues to appear unattainable if the recent trend is any thing to go by.

Between 1999 and 2004, total forest reserves fell from 4.85 million ha to 4.68 million ha, and stabilised at 4.7 million ha, according to JPSM's statistics.

On how viable the 5.18 million ha target was, considering that peninsular Malaysia is short of a whopping 480,000ha of forest reserves, the department played down concerns.

'There are no worries of diminishing reserves in the near future because the role of the Forestry Department pertaining to permanent forest reserves is still relevant,' it said.

The department added that forests played a significant role in the socio-economic development of the country.

However, some of the areas had to be sacrificed or converted to other uses for the betterment of the country, such as in poverty alleviation, it said.

This was especially so in the case of massive land development and resettlement schemes such as Felda, it said.

'Malaysia aims to be an advanced developing country and should not be hindered by global development issues such as climate change,' it said.

'Nevertheless, active steps are being undertaken by JPSM and state forestry departments to ensure more gazettement of forest areas and to further classify them as protection forests.'

Biggest losses in Perak and Negeri Sembilan
Straits Times 9 Jun 08;

THE states of Perak and Negeri Sembilan experienced the biggest net loss in permanent forest reserves between 2001 and 2005.

Perak lost about 11,900ha, an area larger than the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, while Negeri Sembilan lost 8,800ha, reported the New Sunday Times.

Pahang, which is 42 per cent covered by forest reserves, had an impressive net gain of 26,600ha.

Although it cleared 3,000ha of reserves, it added 29,000ha, said its Forestry Department deputy director, Mr Jalil Md Som.

Most of the increase was from the gazettement of peat swamp forests, he said.

'These peat swamps are not to be logged or even touched, although they are categorised as agriculture land,' he said. 'We have to keep them forested because of their importance as carbon sinks.'

Perlis and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya registered no change in the size of their reserves.

Negeri Sembilan forestry director Ahmad Zainal said a quarter of the state was still covered with reserves as of 2005.

On how the state was going to increase its permanent forest reserves, he said: 'Any state land can be planted back with forests and regazetted. There are such things as reforestation and afforestation.'