PUTRAJAYA: Every state has an annual cut ration for harvesting timber set by the National Land Council, energy and natural resources minister Takiyuddin Hassan said today.
“Each state has its stipulated quota (of logs) each year, which is determined at a meeting of the National Land Council chaired by the prime minister and attended by all chief ministers and menteris besar,” he said.
He was responding to Kelantan deputy menteri besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah’s comment that state governments did not have the power to determine their logging quotas, and that logging activities were conducted in accordance with the National Forestry Act 1984.
Takiyuddin said he would contact Amar to seek clarification on his statement, and that he had answered this question several times in Parliament.
He also said he knew that each state had a cut ration based on the Malaysian Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management since 2012, because he had been in the Kelantan exco before.
“No state can cut or produce logs in excess of the quota,” he said.
Takiyuddin stressed that the Malaysian government was committed to maintaining 50% of the country’s land area under tree and forest cover by 2040.
“Right now our forested area is around 55.3% Therefore we need to control this deforestation because if a forest is cleared, it takes a long time for reforestation,” he said. - FMT
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