The Star 15 Sep 09;
THE Forestry Department appreciates the concerns highlighted in “Get to the root cause of why more trees are felled,” (The Star, Sept 2).
Malaysia is committed to manage its natural forest in a sustainable manner; to ensure continuous timber production, maintain multiple functions of the forests, conserve biodiversity and control environmental impact.
The sustainable forest management concept is in line with the “conservation” and “sustainable use” definitions by the World Conservation Strategy and Convention of Biological Diversity. In 2008, natural forest cover in Peninsular Malaysia was 5.85 million ha or 44.39% of the total land area (13.18 million ha).
Of the 5.85 million ha, 4.81 million ha had been designated as permanent reserved forest (PRF) to be managed sustainably for the benefit of the present and future generations.
Of this, approximately 2.81 million ha (21.3% of the total land area) are classified as production forest. The remaining two million ha (15.2% of the total land area) is classified as protection forest.
The role of the protection forest is to ensure favourable climatic and physical conditions of the country, the safeguarding of water resources, soil fertility, environmental quality, conservation of biological diversity and the minimisation of damage by floods and erosion to rivers and agricultural land.
Besides the protection forest within the PRF, other protected areas, which had been gazetted as national parks, wildlife and bird sanctuaries in Peninsular Malaysia amounted to 0.89 million ha (6.8% of the total land area).
A total of 0.12 million ha (0.9% of the total land area) of the wildlife and bird sanctuary areas are located within the PRF.
Currently, the production forests are managed under Selective Management System, which advocates the selection of a cutting regime based on diameter limits and species composition of the standing trees.
Furthermore, the harvesting operation in PRFs is being carried out with the guidelines of Malaysian Criteria and Indicators, a standard used for assessing forest management practices and MS ISO 9001:2000 certification procedures.
To further mitigate the adverse effects of forest harvesting, the Forestry Department supervises closely the implementation of the environmental conservation measures including demarcation of buffer zones for rivers and water bodies, selection of cutting regime, constructions of forests road, preparation of the forest management plan and restriction from cutting for areas with elevation above 1,000m and area of slopes greater than 40°.
In addition, conservation measures for environmental protection and biological conservation have been taken into consideration during harvesting through retention of mother trees and fruit trees, retention trees for protection, buffer zone along rivers and streams, timber tagging and directional felling, construction of forest roads, skid trails and log landings according to prescribed standards approved by the department.
Sustainable forest management is the principle of the forest management practices and the department will continue to enhance and improve its management practices in the light of new research findings, innovative technologies, better skills and knowledge.
Thus, it will demand conscientious effort, a lot of hard work and a strong commitment, determination and collaboration from the Government, private sector and non-governmental organisations.
DR AMERJIT SINGH,
For Secretary-General,
Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.
