POIC ILLEGALLY ‘CHOPPED DOWN’ MANGROVES?

By: SEPA MEDIA

THE mangroves play an invaluable role as nature’s shield against cyclones, ecological disaster and as protector of shorelines. Furthermore, it also serves as breeding and nursery grounds for a variety of marine animals and also main sources of income generation for shoreline communities like fishermen.

Therefore, the privileges and importance of the mangroves should be preserved and should not be chopped down for development activities.

Sabah Environment Protection Association (SEPA) president Wong Tack said this logging activities are serious and should be stopped immediately to save the marine diversity, which is fast diminishing.

SEPA indicates its dissatisfaction over the action of the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) Lahad Datu to chop down the mangroves in POIC that would negatively impact the environment.

“Although there are rules to replace the chopped area of mangroves in other places, we still think that this action is not acceptable as the replaced area does not have the same ecosystem with the cleared area,” he said during a press conference, here, yesterday.

Wong said that mangroves were also able to protect the land from erosion and help human to breathe a clean air by absorbing pollutants in the air.

Therefore, to maintain the diversity in the mangroves, Wong had discussed this issue with the Industrial Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan who has agreed to work together with SEPA and look into recommendations on how to protect the environment and at the same time complement industrial development.

SEPA will establish a monitoring team to monitor the development activities to ensure that the development will not affect the environment.

Wong also called all the industry particularly palm oil industries to ensure any development or activity that they carry would not affect the environment.