Siden 2009 er mere end 9000 hektar skovreservat blevet ryddet i Malaysias nordvestlige stater. Nu forsøger Malaysias skovministerium sammen med Verdensnaturfonden at få lavet en særlig mærkningsordning for skovområder for at få stoppet rydningen, skriver miljøsitet Mongabay.
In July Bikam Permanent Forest Reserve in Malaysia’s Perak state was degazetted, allowing the forest to be clearcut for an oil palm plantation.
Only after the forest was lost, did the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) announce that it had contained the last stands of keruing paya (Dipterocarpus coriaceus) on the Malay peninsula, a large hardwood tree that’s classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
The species is now reportedly extinct in Malaysia, although may still be found in Indonesia. However, the degazettement of the 400-hectare Bikam Forest Reserve wasn’t an abnormality, according to activists.
Since 2009, over 9,000 hectares of Permanent Forest Reserves have been degazetted in northwestern state, wiping out not just trees, but undercutting protected mammals and birds while threatening watersheds.
After decades of deforestation going back to the 1970s, the state of Perak has been left with numerous small, isolated forest patches, many of which are protected as Permanent Forest Reserves.
However, under Malaysian law, the head of each state has the power to degazette these reserves without legislative approval, consultation with experts, or even public notification.
In this case, activists say that there has been an uptick in degazettements across Perak since Zambry Kadir was elected head of state in 2009.
Despite being small and isolated, these forests “are of high value,” Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman, a field officer with the NGO Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), or Friends of the Earth-Malaysia, told mongabay.com.
“Endangered tree, plant, and animal species cling by a thread in these small, fragmented forest reserves. What remains of these Permanent Forest Reserves also tend to be what is of most immediate importance to humans: they serve as water catchment areas. Activists and researchers on the ground believe that it is these small, fragmented Permanent Forest Reserves that are especially under threat of being degazetted altogether—the case of Bikam Forest Reserve being the most recent.”
WWF-Malaysia says that if a High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) assessment had been undertaken in Bikam, the forest would not have been cleared.
“WWF-Malaysia is currently engaging with the Forestry Department and forest managers in promoting and advocating for proper implementation of the HCVF concept…as an integral part of sustainable forest management practices in Malaysia,” a representative of the NGO told mongabay.com.
But even as 9,000 hectares of forest reserves have been degazetted since 2009, activists say more degazettements are in the pipeline.
Rahman says that on the ground research “suggests” possible degazettement of eight additional forest reserves, including Parit Forest Reserve, home to the last stand of keruing padi (Dipterocarpus semivestitus) and to several species protected under Malaysian law, including the leopard (Panthera pardus), Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), siamangs (Hylobates syndactylus), and the great Argus pheasant (Argusianus argus).
Læs videre her: http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0926-hance-bikam-perak.html
