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IPOH: The approval to carry out the forest plantation development project at the Bukit Kinta Forest Reserve is subject to the Perak Forestry Department review and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
Perak Mentri Besar’s Office in a statement today said the state government had also directed the relevant company to submit a proposal for an alternative site to carry out the project following a check by the State Forestry Department which revealed that the previous area was not suitable for the activity.
It said the state government had also reduced nearly half of the 61,189 hectares (ha) of the Forest Plantation Development Zone approved by the previous administration.
The approval for the Forest Plantation Development Zone was issued by the National Land Council in 2012 and out of the 439,000 ha approved nationwide, 100,000 ha were located at forest reserves in the state.
“Of the total, only 7,828 ha have been developed while the remaining is still in the process of preparing the EIA report and the Forest Management Plan,” the statement said.
According to the statement, all applications must go through the process set by the government and efforts to improve the Forestry Development Standard Operating Procedure were also being carried out by the Perak Forestry Department.
“The state government is always concerned about the impact of a development project on the environment as well as the community and final approval of a project proposal will only be given if all the rules and guidelines set by the relevant agencies are fully complied with,” it added.
Earlier, more than 20 Orang Asli representatives around the Simpang Pulai area submitted a memorandum to the state government on the project at the State Secretary Building here. - Bernama
