SIBU: Sarawak’s achievement in planting 35 million trees can serve as an inspiration for other states to enhance their biodiversity conservation efforts through the Malaysia Greening Programme, said Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability said that as of June 11 this year, a total of 89.09 million trees have been planted nationwide since the launch of the 100 Million Trees Planting Campaign in 2021.
“Sarawak has recorded the planting of more than 35 million trees, specifically 35.006 million, according to the latest records.
“Congratulations to the Sarawak Forestry Department, which is a crucial agency in the Malaysia Greening Programme and the Sarawak Greening Programme.
“This achievement should be emulated by other states as motivation to collectively succeed in this greening effort,” he said.
He said this in his speech at the 2024 International Forest Day Celebration for the Sibu Division at Surau Darul Ukhuwah, Kemuyang here today (June 15).
Nik Nazmi also said that Malaysia’s current forest area still exceeds the standard, with 18 million hectares or 54.58 per cent.
“This is in line with Malaysia’s commitment at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to maintain at least 50 per cent of the country’s land area covered by forests or trees.
“Of that amount, the state of Sarawak is the largest contributor with 7.6 million hectares or 42.5 per cent of the total forest area in the country. So we are still within the figures or standards we aim to achieve,” he said.
However, Nik Nazmi said that there is a need to be cautious because the needs for development, infrastructure, housing, and so on will put pressure on the forest stock we still have.
The Setiawangsa MP reminded that while replanting trees is important, there are many challenges the department must address, including tree survival and other related issues.
“Most importantly, we also need to ensure that the existing forests, which have been around for hundreds of years, are preserved because newly planted trees need time to grow and contribute to the state,” he said.
Therefore, considering these factors, the government allocates millions of ringgit annually for the Ecological Fiscal Transfer (EFT) incentives for conservation purposes.
He mentioned that it started with RM60 million in 2019, and since becoming prime minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has increased the fund to RM150 million, and this year it has been further increased to RM200 million.
Nik Nazmi noted that with the larger forest size in Sarawak, it receives the largest EFT fund of RM55.4 million from 2019 to 2024.
“We hope that through this allocation, we can utilise it for conservation work and we will also review regulations to ensure this effort is effective,” he added.
Also present was director of Forestry Sarawak, Datuk Hamden Mohammad.
