P. Chandra Sagaran New Straits Times 3 Feb 12;
New regulations on entry permits to increase number of visitors to Royal Belum Forest
THE number of visitors to the unique Royal Belum Forest is expected to increase following the state government's move to reduce the waiting period for entry permits to a day effective this year compared with between three days and a week previously.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said records showed that the number of visitors from foreign countries had gone up by 40 per cent compared with the last three years.
"We still need permits to enter the forest as it borders the Malaysia-Thailand border, which has been categorised as a security zone.
"However, we have reduced the waiting time to only 24 hours now," he said after visiting several new facilities at the Royal Belum Forest here on Wednesday.
In a bid to actively promote and popularise the rainforest haven for flora and fauna, the Perak State Parks Corporation and the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) have implemented various programmes to make the forest a world-renowned destination.
Zambry said the efforts were to complement this year's Visit Perak Year.
He said that the NCIA had drawn up the master plan to promote the forest.
"To date, NCIA has spent RM4.16 million out of RM9.5 million allocated to upgrade facilities, including the jetty and pontoon."
Meanwhile, the weekly state exco meeting, which was held in Banding, also discussed the state's vision to place the forest on the world map, including extending the runway at the airstrip here.
"The present runway is only 450m and we need to extend it to between 700 and 800m to enable DHC-7 aircraft to land. I will raise this with the Defence Ministry.
"With such upgraded facilities, tourists and visitors from Subang, Pangkor and Singapore can fly directly here.
"We are also proposing to Berjaya Air, which currently operates the Subang-Pangkor flights, to extend their services to Grik once the runway is extended."
The 130 million-year-old Royal Belum Forest, which is older than the Amazon Forest, covers some 117,500 hectares, which is almost 90 per cent of the total 132,000 hectares of the Belum Forest Reserve.
Zambry also announced that the state government would organise the Royal Belum World Drum Festival, with the participation of 10 countries, at the forest on Feb 26.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) president Professor Dr Maketab Mohamed said reducing the waiting period was a good step to encourage tourism in the area.
Maketab said the facilities and services in the area, such as accommodation, transport and nature guides, should be developed as well.
He also said MNS was more than willing to help the state government protect the Belum-Temengor Rainforest, which is home to at least 10 Hornbill species, the most that can be found in one rainforest.
