What’s really left of our forest, Taib?’

Does the Sarawak government even know how much of the state's rainforest is left?

KUCHING: Conflicting statements from Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his much-speculated successor Awang Tengah Ali Hassan over the size of Sarawak’s remaining rainforest have raised more questions.

According to Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian, last week Taib said that 48% of the land mass in the state was still covered with forest.

The same Taib in a YouTube video posted last year claimed that 70% of Sarawak’s forest was intact, which is equivalent to about 8.68 million hectares (ha). This year the figure is 6 million ha.

“This means that in just over one year, 2.68 million ha of our forest has been destroyed. Is the chief minister intending to continue clearing what is left?

“Will the figure next year be five million ha? What about the disastrous consequences of the deforestation that have been carried out to date?” asked Bian.

Sarawak’s total land mass is about 12.4 million ha.

Taib’s statement also contradicts comments made by Awang Tengah, who is Resource Planning and Environment Second Minister, on the same issue.

Bian said in February this year, Awang Tengah declared proudly at the World Wetlands Day celebrations that the state is more than 80% covered with forest.

He also declared that the state has targeted to turn some one million ha of its natural forest by 2020 into totally protected areas in the form of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

A further six million ha will be left untouched to become permanent forest while another two million ha has been approved for forest rehabilitation programme.

“Now we’re left confused. If the chief minister says that there is only six million ha of forest left and Awang Tengah says one million ha will be turned into totally protected areas and six million ha will be left untouched, then all logging activities should stop immediately to preserve the six million ha that is left.

“But that still leaves us with one million ha short for the totally protected areas.

“Clearly, the authorities do not wish to disclose the statistics to the public, judging from the conflicting figures presented to the public.

“Perhaps they do not know themselves how much of our forests is left. At the same time, they deny the claims of environmentalists that judging from satellite images, Sarawak has lost up to 90% of its primary forest cover.

“The land belongs to the people of Sarawak and the authorities have been entrusted to manage and protect this precious lifeline of the people.

“The least they can do is to disclose the accurate figures to the public instead of giving us such confusing and conflicting figures,” Bian said.

Define ‘forests’

He said the conflicting statements are not helping dispel people’s growing distrust of the BN government.

Already hogging the alternative media headlines and online Radio Free Sarawak broadcasts are widespread allegations of land grabs and self-enriching projects by those in power.

Said Bian: “There are now more questions than answers. What are they to do with the countless number of people displaced and dispossessed by logging and plantation companies which are now fighting for their NCR lands?

“What about the destruction of the habitat of wildlife by these companies and the loss of the sources of food and medicinal plants for the people who live off the land?

“And the pollution and silting of the rivers caused by the logging activities and the resulting loss of fish and aquatic life?”

He also questioned the quality of the remaining forest and urged the government to define the term “forest”.

“Do planted forests and plantations come under the government’s definition of ‘forest’?

“How much of the merchantable timber is left? In many areas, the natives are left with low-grade timber which they cannot use for building their houses or boats.

“The other burning issues for me are how much of the land in Sarawak are plantation land, and protected forests and how much of the protected areas have been excised for plantations by the government,” said Bian, who is also Ba’Kelalan assemblyman.

-  Free Malaysia Today

PKR cautiously welcomes Rio Tinto’s decision

KUCHING:   Sarawak PKR today advised the people of Sarawak especially those living in Similajau near Bintulu not to be too happy with the decision of Rio Tinto to pull out of the agreement with CMS to build an aluminium smelting plant.

“We cautiously welcome the decision of Rio Tinto Alcan to pull out of the proposed RM7 billion aluminium smelting plant project in Similajau, Bintulu,” said PKR vice-chairman See Chee How when commenting on the decision of Rio Tinto and CMS to scrap the decision to build the smelter project.

“Losing the ‘anchor’ aluminium smelting plant project could be a blessing in disguise as it is opportune for the Sarawak state government to review its decision and drop its plan to construct the 12 mammoth (hydro-electric) dams in Sarawak.

“However, we are aware that Press Metal Sarawak may step in to replace Rio Tinto Alcan,” said See, who is the Batu Lintang Assemblyman.

“Together with the other multi-national conglomerates which are interested to exploit our cheaper hydropower resources and our relaxed environmental protection legislatures and policies, Sarawak will be pervaded by the world most polluting industries in aluminium smelting, manganese smelting, ferro-alloy smelting and polycrystalline silicon plant.

“Until today, Sarawakians are kept in the dark as to the environmental impact these industries will have on the state and the Similajau region in particular.

“Further, we are sceptical that these industries will create job opportunities for local Sarawakians as it is reliably learned that one of the manganese smelting companies had doubted the capability of locals to withstand the heat and it has already engaged an employment agency to recruit workers from India and China.

“In addition, these industries will not be generating revenues for the state as they are enjoying a 10-years tax exemption which is the very reasons these industries are setting up their smelting plants in Sarawak.

“Besides, Sarawak provides the cheap hydropower resources and that other countries are imposing stringent environmental protection and conservation measures on these industries,” he said.

Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, whose family owns the CMS, is not worried about the termination of the agreement between CMS and Rio Tinto as there are two other investors waiting on the list.

It is reliably learnt that Press Metal is one of them. After all it has already set up its first plant in Mukah and has been in operation since September 2009 producing some 300,000 metric tonnes of various aluminium products.

Press Metal is a Malaysian-based aluminium company with extensive global presence. From modest beginnings as private owned local aluminium Extrusion Company in 1986, Press Metal has come a long way to become a public listed global integrated aluminium player in the world today.

The existence of this plant in Mukah came to light last year after  longhouse residents at Rumah Bansan, and five other longhouses in  Mukah,   claimed they have been suffering from a ‘mysterious’ illness causing their skins to be itchy, various skin diseases, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties and other health problems.

Fish, vegetables, fruit trees and the surrounding areas are also affected, claimed the villagers.

The villagers alleged that the source of their illness came from the nearby aluminium plant.

The State government the destroyer of Forests?

Kuching: The Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia (BRIMAS) has called on the State Government of Sarawak to halt its current development policy and practice of developing its 1.7 million hectares of oil palm plantations as its development is tantamount to the build–up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

In a statement emailed to The Broken Shield, its executive director, Mark Bujang said that over the recent years some 750,000 hectares of land had been planted with oil palm trees, about 70% of this are in deep peat soil area in Sarawak.

“With this massive clearing of peat swamp forest and conversion of peat soil land for plantations, thousands of tons of carbon dioxide are going to be released into the atmosphere,” he said, pointing out to a study conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2007 on the role peat lands play in human-induced climate change, found out that the world’s estimated 988 million acres of peat land (which represented about three percent of world’s land and freshwater surface) are capable of storing some two trillion tons of carbon dioxide.

This, he said, was equivalent to about 100 years worth of fossil fuel emissions.

Sarawak’s peat land is one of the most fragile wetland systems in the world, Bujang said and added that 95% of peat land in Sarawak is deep peat that is more than three metres deep.

He said: “The state government of Sarawak’s target of planting one million hectares of land with oil palm next year is very alarming.

“As such, the widespread conversions of peat bogs into plantations will seriously affect environment especially when the stored carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere from drained or burnt of peat lands,” he said.

BRIMAS he said had over the years carried out field monitoring on oil palm plantations and found out the nature of development activities taken place on peat lands are very destructive with extensive clearing of peat swamp forest and drainage of lands.

These activities, he added, had resulted in total loss of biodiversity as most of the plantations have taken the easy way out of clearing the lands through open burning.

“Hence Sarawak is continuously facing and experiencing poor air quality due to haze when there is dry weather,” Bujang pointed out.

He went on to say that the roundtable on sustainable palm oil (RSPO) proposals to amend the RSPO principle and criteria with inclusion of specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be lauded and supported by all parties including the Sarawak oil palm owners association.

BRIMAS also called on the State government to stop issuing new licences for planting of oil palm over any peat land area in the state, he said, and also urged the government to stop the oil palm plantation companies from further clearing of forest for new plantations.

“By doing so, the government could avoid the accusations of being labeled as destroyers of the forest and ecosystems by opening up lands for oil palm plantations. Not only that, the government could stand high to prove to the global community that it has taken credible efforts in protecting and restoring peat lands in reducing our country’s carbon footprints as the world braces for global warming,” Bujang said.- The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com