Sabah to spend RM10 Million for reforestation yearly

For the next 10 years, Sabah will spend RM10 Million for reforestation every year. So generous of the state government. I agreed that the state government proceed with their reforestation program but why they have to pay for it.

Considering that the timber companies bulldozed through the virgin jungles of Sabah and reap billion Ringgit of profits from logging that resulted in destruction of natural habitats for endangered wildlife, the government is paying for the destruction of their jungles due to their shortsighted policies, lack of enforcement and manipulation.

I'm sure some insiders agreed to this budget so that the timber companies don't have to spend their money for reforestation. In actual fact, it should be the timber companies who do and pay for the reforestation. Those timber companies does not even have any guilt or social conscience to repay the community or the environment.

If it is in other countries, you break you pay, you pollute you clean. In Malaysia, companies and individual destroy the environment and when their sweat dissipate, they laugh their way to the bank.

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Source: thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/21/nation/20080521174206&sec=nation (May 21, 2008)

RM100mil to put trees back in Sabah forests

By Ruben Sario

KOTA KINABALU: Some RM100mil will be spent over the next 10 years to regenerate the Ulu Segama and Malua forest reserves spanning nearly 237,000ha, about 10 times the size of Penang island.

Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan said the funds, largely sourced from international contributors, would be used to restore up to 20,000ha of severely degraded forests.

“A portion of the funds would go towards silviculture works covering 40,000ha, such as clearing the undergrowth to enable young trees to grow,” he said.

Earlier, Mannan represented the Sabah Government in the signing of a memorandum of understanding with WWF-Malaysia for a 55ha reforestation effort in the northern part of Ulu Segama forest reserve where logging had ceased since December 2007.

Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman and Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Datuk Yahya Hussin witnessed the event.

He said the reforestation efforts at Ulu Segama and Malua had gained much international attention and United Kingdom-based retailer Marks & Spencer was the latest contributor, donating RM170, 000.

Other contributors in the Ulu Segama forest rehabilitation efforts include the Sime Darby group, which is donating RM25mil over the next five years, and the New Forest group, RM10mil over the next six years.

The WWF would be contributing RM2mil over the next six months while US-based philanthropist Nancy Abraham donated US$100,000, the US Government US$20,000 and the Australian Government RM62, 000.

Locally, Yayasan Sabah has set aside RM12.5mil, as seed money for the forest restoration efforts while the Sabah Government will be spending RM5mil yearly under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

Mannan said the restoration efforts at the Ulu Segama and Malua forest reserves would, among other things, benefit an estimated 4,000-orang utan and other wildlife.

“What we are doing here today will have a direct impact on improving the habitat for our iconic orang utan and the Borneo pygmy elephant which can only be found in Sabah,” he added.

WWF-Malaysia vice-president Tengku Zainal Adlin said the group had channelled some RM40mil to conservation in Sabah between 1975 and 2005.

Sabah is one of the main priority regions within the WWF worldwide network,” he said.

Musa also launched a book, Orang utan: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, authored by renowned wildlife biologist and conservationist Dr Junaidi Payne, with photographs by award-winning nature photographer Cede Prudente.