Roy Goh, The New Straits Times 23 Jan 10;
INDONESIA, Malaysia and Brunei need to find a common ground to preserve the environment along border areas on the island of Borneo.
East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak said it would be pointless for any of the countries to set aside forests for conservation when their neighbours did not.
"In our case, the Mentarang Forest Reserve, located north of the province, borders Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak.
"On our side, we preserve our forests but on the other side of the borders, the connecting areas are commercial forests.
"That would defeat the purpose of preserving the forests because it would surely have some sort of effect on the eco-system," he said, adding that the Malaysian side was near Lawas in Sarawak and Sipitang in Sabah.
"We brought it up before at government-to-government forums and I believe there are efforts under way towards finding a solution to this," said Faroek, when meeting a delegation of businessmen and journalists from Sabah, led by former Chief Minister Datuk Harris Mohd Salleh.
He said Kalimantan was also part of the "Heart of Borneo" programme initiated by the respective countries in Borneo, including Brunei, together with international organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund.
"These are avenues where we can discuss and find ways on how best to preserve our environment," he said while emphasising that on the part of East Kalimantan, his government had introduced a "zero-burning" policy for companies to set up or replant at their plantations.
Stressing that his administration took the global warming warning seriously, Faroek said the haze problem which had also affected Malaysia was not from East Kalimantan.
"We do not have peat soil here at all, which is the cause of haze almost every time," he said.
