Dear Editor,
PLEASE allow me to explain
about the quarrying operations in the area which has been reported at various
occasions in your esteem portal. For your information, Kukusan Forest Reserve
was first gazetted as a Forest Reserve on 15th February 1949. It has remained
as a forest reserve since then.
From the beginning, it has always
been managed for commercial purposes, stone quarrying being the most prominent
use, because of the high quality stones found therein, and the lack of such a
significant area of equivalent quality stones in other part of Sabah.
There was a re-gazettment
exercise in 1992 which turned its status to Class I (protection), but this gave
only 'paper protection' as the existing quarrying permits therein were never
withdrawn or cancelled.
In order to regularize the
usage and to classify the management for its actual and existing purpose (
commercial), it was re-classified back as a Class II (Commercial) Forest
Reserve in 2003.
The existing quarrying
operations is covered by a Licence Agreement, issued under Section 15 of the
Forest Enactment 1968. Amongst other Licence conditions, the licensee has to
comply with the following:
-Payment of annual fees of
RM350,000.00.
-Payment of royalties at 10%
of the sales value of the stones and gravel sold by the licensee.
-Obtaining the E.I.A.
approval which the licensee has fully adhered to.
The total area of the
licence is 66.00 hectares including: office site, road, buffer area, stock
piles and retained forest of some 25.00 hectares. The Licence Agreement is
valid for a period of (10) years with an option for renewal after that.
The Forestry Department has
been allowing quarrying in the said reserve for a good 50 years on the
following grounds :
(i) It has good quality
stones sought after locally and abroad.
(ii) Since its inception in
1949, the site has always been managed as per the present usage – i.e. stone
quarrying.
(iii) It is a forest of low
conservation value and the department has never intended to manage it for conservation
or Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).
(iv) It is best used to
generate maximum income while adhering to environmental laws and guidelines and
the Licence Agreement conditions.
(v) A nearby forest reserve,
Gemok Hill Forest Reserve (Class I) of 435 hectares, in relatively pristine
condition, adequately represents a similar forest formerly found in Kukusan Forest
Reserve and therefore, a biological representative already exists nearby for
posterity.
(vi) The forest reserve has
not encroached any settlements. It is settlements, legal and illegal, that have
themselves come close or occupied parts of the reserve since a hill cannot
walk.
Furthermore, the quarrying
condition includes an endowment of RM2 million from the licensee to the
Forestry Department, under its 'Forest Conservation Fund', to re-create new forest
elsewhere on the basis of a 'no net loss' policy. This sum is adequate to
recreate or manage at least 500 hectares of new forests.
The Forestry Department
appreciates the concern of interested parties in ensuring that laws are adhered
to and the environment is protected.
Therefore, as far as
legalities are concerned, these have been addressed.
However, in view of the
conservation measures we have taken elsewhere (closing of logging in many parts
of Sabah, re-classifying forests of high conservation value to protected status
etc.), the forest revenue income will be at its lowest in the next (20) years
whilst waiting for the restoration / reforestation efforts today to bear
fruits, in the next 2 decades. In the meantime, the Forestry Department must
look for new and additional avenues for revenue generation, quarrying being one
option, where it is appropriate.
Contrary to popular belief,
this quarrying activity actually stops new forest areas from being logged or
opened up to generate revenue.
For illustration, the annual
fee of RM350,000.00 alone represents royalty income from some 50 hectares of
virgin forests if logged. Therefore, if the quarrying goes on for 10 years,
some 500 hectares of pristine forest do not have to be logged to generate the
same income and thus saved.
With the royalties on stone
production added on at 10%, more than 500 hectares of virgin forests can be
spared. As the revenue income exceeds RM1 million a year (RM1.3 m in 2011) it
follows that at least 1500 hectares of virgin forests are spared from the need
to log for revenue over 10 years. This is therefore logic in the department
allowing such a quarry.
At the same time, one has to
be aware that it is not practical nor desirable to save every tree, to save
every tract of forest, to save every monkey and to save every Frog etc, in
Sabah.
In a developing State like
Sabah, pragmatic solutions must be arrived at, to ensure that not only are our
development efforts balanced, but our conservation efforts must equally be
balanced.
There is nothing more
counter productive than total prohibition – it shall never work. We save what
we need to save and let go what does not need to be saved.
Otherwise, the Forestry
Department becomes a 'Green Beggar', rich with forests and lands but begging
for alms.
Nor can we continue and
upgrade our forest management efforts if we do not have an independent source
of financing ourselves. A government that is poor cannot help Forest
Conservation.
With The Best Regards,
DATUK SAM MANNAN
Director of Forestry
Department
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