In Kelantan, Orang Asli struggle to keep their culture alive as forests are turned into plantations. With their natural sources of materials for rites and food destroyed, they suffer spiritually and physically.
(Due to forest loss, the Temiar villagers of Kampung Kaloi, Kelantan, are struggling to find the natural materials needed for traditional rites like sewang. | Pic by YH Law)
(Eucalyptus trees are a popular choice in forest plantations worldwide. These were planted in 2019 in the Batu Papan Forest Reserve, Kelantan. | Pic by YH Law)
Forest Plantations in Reserves: Quick to Cut, Slow to Grow
Forest plantations are touted to turn degraded forests into a sustainable timber supply in Peninsular Malaysia. But our investigations reveal that so far, the plantations have cut lots of forests without any guarantee of harvest dates or yields.
(In Peninsular Malaysia, about 9% of forest reserves have been zoned to be cleared and turned into forest plantations like this one in Kelantan. | Pic by YH Law)
Juggling between development and environmental conservation is difficult when it comes to forest-use. But there are ways to be more inclusive. This is Part 4 of Forest Files.
MALAYSIA has had decades of continuous economic and population growth since independence.
In 2019, the country achieved a gross domestic production (GDP) of about RM1.5 trillion, more than a hundred-times the GDP in the 1960s. The population almost quadrupled over the same period.
However, before Malaysia industrialised in the 1980s, it exploited its natural resources, including its most accessible at that time: primary forests, some of the oldest in the world.
(Public participation allows citizens affected by forest-use change to voice out; pictured at the North Kuala Langat Forest Reserve degazettement townhall are [clockwise from top] Kg OA Pulau Kempas’s Tonjoi Bin Pipis and Batin Raman Pahat, and Kg OA Busut Baru’s Rosnah Anak Senin. Pics by Shakila Zen/KUASA)
To understand forest-use dynamics in Peninsular Malaysia, one must know how state governments – the sole authority on land use – perceive forests. This is Part 3 of Forest Files.
IN AUGUST 2019, when then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched a forestry exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, he took the audience down memory lane.
“At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, as the Prime Minister of Malaysia back then, I made a pledge that Malaysia is committed to maintain at least 50 percent of our land mass under forest cover,” said Mahathir.
(Photo: Logs, like these harvested from a permanent reserve forest in Johor, are an important source of revenue for many state governments. Pic by YH Law.)