By Neville Timothy Sanders
THROUGH forest carbon activities, Sarawak is expected to have a new source of revenues estimated at RM315 million annually.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said that this was based on the World Bank Carbon Price of USD 5.00 per tonne carbon with the estimation that 30 per cent of the permanent forests had carbon yielding carbon credit units at the rate of 200 tonne carbon/hectare.
“The private sector should embrace all these new opportunities presented to invest in schemes promoting forest carbon activities and other conservation and reforestation activities for carbon sequestration and carbon stocks for carbon credit units,” he said.
He added that the private sector should embrace all these new opportunities presented by the amendments and revise their business models.
“This is becasue logging and felling of merchantable timber will have to be reduced gradually to a sustainable level to mitigate the adverse environmental effects from logging,” he added.
Awang Tengah also said that the dynamics of the timber industry in Sarawak would change with the passing of the bill through monetising our forest resources in a non-destructive manner.
“The state government therefore calls on the private sector to respond positively and give its support to this new approach towards sustainable forest management which is also in line with the strategic thrusts of the PCDS 2030,” he said.
For the record, the Forests (Amendment) Bill 2022 was unanimously passed today on the third day of the 19th Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN).
