Here we go again... Raping Forest Reserves!!!

It is indeed bad news on a Monday morning, when I opened The Star and read this report, Issuing Permits to Log forest RESERVES in Sabah! Two statements stand out, one each from the Sabah Environmental Protec­tion Association(SEPA) and a reply from the Forestry and Wildlife Departments(FWD). Allow me to quote them for clarity.

The SEPA expressed its deep concern that 4000 hectares of RESERVES are targeted for 'limited' logging and they said.. " Our worry is that allowing logging in a forest will result in the area being degraded to an extent that the authorities will eventually convert it into another oil palm plantation...."

The FWD replied that..." the department had appointed three trustees – the Tambunan District Officer, Tambunan Forest Office and the areas Native Chief – to issue permits for the area. and also said that those who want to log the area would be required to replant the area with trees once they had completed their operations....."

The issue of destroying our limited forest reserves have been debated in your papers for some time now, and what is really upsetting us is the same reply the authorities have dished out again and again to justify the approval to log from a forest reserve. Obviously the authorities think that, the rakyat believe in what is begin said, and more importantly to them, they have responded appropriately to the problem by giving a press statement.

Anyone who has an interest in the future of our country and the preservation of our unique forests as part of a global program of protecting its biodiversity, should pursue answers to the following:

• What is the intention of the Government to declare and designate an area a FOREST RESERVE? Can we then just destroy it with the issue of a simple logging permit from a local authority?
• How can the planting of a sapling ever replace a 100 year old tree, taken from the reserve?
  
• Will the "extraction" of the 100 year old tree be done in a manner that NO other part of the forest or the undergrowth will be destroyed? In other words, will the 100 year old tree be the ONLY plant that is "extracted" and killed, under the licence issued?
  
• Can the peripheral areas around the felled tree, which is the natural habitat of our precious wildlife and other valuable plants be replaced by planting of "imported" saplings and seeds? What about the escalation of soil erosion in the denuded areas?
  
• In order to fell and to extract the tress from a limited area of the Reserve, will it be essential for the permit holder to destroy other parts of the Forest in order to build roads and storage areas, and to bring in heavy equipment to do his job?
  
• Have the FWD calculated the "collateral" damage a permit holder will cause to the rest of the reserves, while he is supposed to be only removing the 100 year old tree, for example.?
  

I think the Govt and all responsible citizens should clamour for a detailed answer to these issues, and ask that a proper national strategy be drawn up to articulate our objectives to protect our forests and allow them to regenerate for our future generations, and also for the World.

Don't procrastinate anymore for political expediency. Can we eat sand, when the last of our trees and rivers have gone?

Act now to save our Forests!!!!!!!!!!!