The Environment Department (DOE) has ordered a palm oil plantation with ties to the Johor royal household to stop work after being caught supposedly clearing land without its approval.
In a parliamentary reply yesterday, Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the department’s investigations found that AA Sawit Sdn Bhd had started developing a plantation in Endau, Johor, without an approved environmental impact assessment (EIA).
The company has been issued a stop-work order under Section 34AA of the Environmental Quality Act 1974, and is being investigated under Section 34A(6) for conducting activities prescribed by the law without EIA approval.
“The project proponent (AA Sawit) is also required to take remedial action on the project site so erosion and silting can be kept under control, and would not cause pollution to the environment and the nearby river,” he said.
The minister was responding to Lee Chean Chung’s (Pakatan Harapan-Petaling Jaya) question regarding the findings of DOE’s investigations on the company.
Previously, it was reported Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar and his son Tunku Ismail Idris have majority ownership of the company.
South China Morning Post reported in July last year that plot PTD4118 had been cleared months before consultants were contracted to conduct an EIA, and continued even as consultants arrived to survey wildlife and sample groundwater.
By the time the report was completed and made public earlier that month, the 3,775ha site had already been completely cleared and irrigation channels dug out.
According to the report, Sultan Ibrahim took control of four of the six parcels of land involved in the project - including the formerly forested parcels PTD 4085 and PTD 4118 - in April 2018.
However, the report noted at the time that it was unsure if it was AA Sawit or a different company that carried out the forest clearing. - Mkini
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