Amended forestry law may endanger Central Forest Spine, Yeo warns

 

PARLIAMENT | Amendments to the National Forestry Act meant to protect forests better may end up endangering the Central Forest Spine (CFS) and biodiversity in other affected forests, warned a lawmaker.

Yeo Bee Yin (Pakatan Harapan-Bakri) said this is as a clause asking states to replace excised permanent forest reserves (PFRs) could be used as an excuse to degazette the CFS.

The CFS is a network of ecological corridors in the peninsula meant for conservation and to allow wildlife to move from one forest complex to another.

It comprises four forest complexes encompassing eight states and is a source of water for 22.3 million Malaysians.

It is also home to over 1,000 species of wildlife - including the endangered Malayan tiger, Malayan sun bear, Malayan tapir, and Asian elephants.

In theory, the CFS is protected as PFRs, which have further safeguards introduced by amendments to the National Forestry Act 

The amendments - which were unanimously passed by the Dewan Rakyat today - require that state governments conduct public inquiries before excising PFRs and also replacing it with a forest of an equal or bigger size.

‘Good on paper’

In debating the bill today, Yeo argued that while this sounds good on paper, replacing PFRs could result in forest fragmentations, which will have a negative ecological impact.

“Forest fragmentation causes a loss of biodiversity, an increase of invasive plant species, pests, and pathogens, as well as reducing the quality of water.

“When forests are fragemented, the movement of plants and wildlife is restricted, constricting breeding and gene flow, which will result in a reduction in the population of flora and fauna in the long term,” she said.

Further, she said that new non-forest surroundings next to the fragmented forests will also have an impact on the forests’ temperature, growth, and resilience of plants, as well as having various edge effects on wildlife that depend on those plants

Hence, the former energy, science, technology, environment, and climate change minister asked how the government would safeguard the CFS from such fragmentation.

She also asked during the committee stage of the bill for the government to introduce exceptions to protect the CFS from excision.

Her queries and demands were not answered. - Mkini