4.3m ha gazetted as Permanent Forest Reserve in S'wak

KUCHING: As of Oct this year, 4.3 million ha of land has been gazetted as Permanent Forest Reserve (PFE) in Sarawak, accounting for 72% of the six million hectares targeted by the state government.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said, at the same time, the state government had gazetted 948,034ha out of the one million ha targeted to be gazetted as totally protected areas (TPA).
Awang Tengah. who is also Sarawak Urban Development and Natural Resources Minister, said it covers 716,084.40 hectares of terrestrial land and 231,954ha of water bodies.
"The state government has also taken various proactive measures to ensure adequate timber supply to meet the needs of the local industry and reduce dependence on virgin forest," he said when winding up debate pertaining to the ministry in the state legislative assembly today.
Among these is focusing on forest plantation development or industrial forest and, for which, RM15 million has been allocated for research and development programmes aimed at identifying and producing fast-growing trees, resistant to diseases and suitable to the local environment.
Meanwhile referring to the state timber industry, Awang Tengah said Sarawak's exports of wood products exceeded RM4.61 billion up to the third quarter of this year.
He said almost 90 per cent or RM4.13 billion of this total was contributed by four major products, namely plywood valued at RM2.47 billion, timber (RM936 million), sawn timber (RM595 million) and veneer (RM135 million).
The five major markets of Sarawak's timber products are Japan, India, Korea, Middle East countries and Taiwan, which contributed to total export value of RM3.76 billion.
"In comparison to the same period last year, the export value of Sarawak wood products has increased by 4.7%, from RM4.41 billion to RM4.6 billion," he said. – Bernama