KUCHING: The Ministry of Urban Development and Natural Resources (MUDeNR) will review existing policies, laws, regulations and procedures to ensure that they keep up with current development and needs.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said the ministry has successfully formulated and implemented several policies in recent years to ensure sustainability.
“Among them are the Sarawak Forestry Policy 2019, Forest Management Certification Policy, Revised Planted Forest Policy, Timber Industry Transformation Policy, and Rubberwood Extraction Policy,” he said.
He was addressing the ministry’s Excellence Services Award @ Appreciation Night held at Waterfront Hotel here last Wednesday.
Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, mentioned that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had decided that forest management certification is mandatory for long term timber concession area in Sarawak and by 2022, all long term timber concessions must be certified.
“So far, we have 1.3 million hectares certified as forest management areas and we need to undertake intensive effort to achieve our target of 4.5 million hectares,” he added.
He also shared that the chief minister had launched the Forest Landscape Restoration Programme 2022-2025 on June 15 last year, to restore degraded forest areas with an allocation of RM62 million.
Awang Tengah added that the state government would explore new revenues from the forestry sector such as carbon trading to make up for decreasing revenue due to reduction in log production.
“The project is to conserve and/or restore the areas in a manner that would be environmentally sustainable, beneficial for local communities, financially viable, as well as internationally credible in the markets for carbon offset credits and other environmental products,” he elaborated.
He also said the government is committed to produce high value-added timber-based products in view of declining log production from natural forest, as well as to protect the state’s wildlife by establishing the habitat areas as Totally Protected Areas (TPA).
On land policy, he said the formulation of Strata (Subsidiary Titles) Ordinance, 2019 provided a more relevant provision in tandem with the real estate and building industry trends and would compel greater professional responsibilities, compliance and certification besides ensuring speedy issuance of unit title, apart from strengthening the enforcement and investigation powers.
Other land policies included new provision for providing infrastructure for Kampung Extension Schemes and Resettlement Scheme in Sarawak; amendment of the Land Code Cap 81 (Native Territorial Domain); reduction of land premium for land titles issued within Resettlement Schemes and Kampung Extension Schemes and subsequent refund of excess land premium paid; as well as claiming of state’s right upon amendment of The Oil Mining Ordinance, 1958.
For biodiversity and environment policy, he said the Natural Resources and Environment (Amendment) Ordinance had also been passed, which aimed to enhance the sustainable management of natural resources and the protection of environmental quality in Sarawak.
