Malaysia: 'No' to degazettement of Selangor forest reserves

New Straits Times 28 Mar 14;

SHAH ALAM: Environmental groups yesterday protested against a proposal to degazette 106.65ha of Selangor's forest reserves for the construction of the Kuala Lumpur Outer Ring Road (KLORR) project.

The proposed degazettement involves land from four forest reserves , namely Ampang, Bukit Seputeh, Ulu Gombak and Ulu Langat.

Malaysian Nature Society executive director Shah Redza Hussein said the land involved for the project had a sensitive ecology and was an important water catchment area for the people of Klang Valley.

"It is ironic that we complain about haze and water shortages but are not concerned (about degazetting the forest reserves).

"The ratio of forests in Klang Valley is already so small, we cannot prioritise a highway concessionaire's interests and disregard destruction of the biodiversity and long-term costs to the people," he said after handing over a petition with 7,292 signatures and 209 individual letters protesting the project to Selangor Menteri Besar's chief private secretary Mohd Yasid Bidin and Selangor Forestry Department director Yusoff Muda at Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, here, yesterday.

Treat Every Environment Special (Trees) director Leela Panikkar said they had been protesting the KLORR project for about 15 years, with renewed vigour in 2009.

"It escalated because not only does the concessionaire want to cut right through the middle of the forest reserve but now they want to degazette the area.

"The highway will traverse through rivers classified as Environmentally Sensitive Area Rank 1. How can the state give the management of such an area to a private company?"

She urged the Selangor state assemblymen to raise the issue in the next state assembly.