Forestry Dept disputes watchdog's report on forest conservation

 

The Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department (JPSM) has welcomed RimbaWatch's efforts in raising community awareness of the importance of preserving forests in the country.

However, it raised concerns about the group's latest report.

JPSM pointed out that the group's understanding of forest plantation is different from the definition used by the department or government.

"We found that RimbaWatch uses a different definition than that used by JPSM or the government, especially the definition of 'forest' and also the group's understanding of 'deforestation' and 'forest plantation'.

"In fact, under the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), forest plantation is one of the activities that can be carried out through control and prescribed forestry practices.

"These differences and contradictions were found to have caused the prediction made by RimbaWatch about the extent of forest loss in Malaysia to be too large, reaching 2.3 million hectares," the department said in a statement today.

JPSM stressed that in the context of forestry under the United Nations (UN) framework, Malaysia reports forest data every five years through the Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) reporting coordinated by the FAO.

Additionally, the department said there are several periodic reports under international conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which also involve forest data reporting.

"The government is also committed to maintaining at least 50 percent of the country's land area with forest and tree cover - which is the national commitment made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992.

"Since then, various efforts have been implemented by the government to ensure the objective is achieved.

"Therefore, JPSM hopes that everyone will not be too worried about the expected forest loss figures reported by RimbaWatch," it added.

The forestry department said that it will continue to make efforts to maintain forested areas, primarily in Peninsula Malaysia, and ensure that all strategies align with the country's goal of balancing and sustaining its development.

To achieve this, JPSM stated that it requires the collaboration and assistance of the state governments and other stakeholders.

Call for action

On March 20, RimbaWatch issued a warning about the extensive destruction of forests in the country that may happen in the future, involving a land area greater than the combined areas of Perak, Penang and Malacca.

The NGO reported that around 2.34 million hectares of forests in the country are planned for deforestation - almost the size of Pahang.

The group analysed five categories of areas at risk of deforestation, which include non-forest zoning of forested land, real estate listings of forested land, forest reserve de-gazettement, approved forest-risk environmental impact assessments, and miscellaneous data.

Based on their estimation, RimbaWatch warned that such deforestation could reduce Malaysia's forest cover to 15.6 million hectares, which is 47.35 percent of the country's total land area.

This is based on the government's data in 2017, which stated Malaysia's forest cover to be 18.33 million hectares, or 55.2 percent of the country's total land area.

The group called on the government to end all deforestation programmes for timber plantations and also amend its definition of forest cover to include only natural forests.

They also urged Putrajaya to expand on its 50 percent forest cover commitment and develop a strategy to maintain natural forest cover. - Mkini