KUCHING: The Sarawak Forest Department, in line with the state government’s policy, does not issue new long-term licences for logging activities anymore, says director Datuk Hamden Mohammad.
However, short-term and annual licences were still being issued, he said, but these were mainly for the development of an area taking into account the duration of the development and land area.
“Do not get the wrong idea…this is because if we do not issue any new licence, then development cannot be implemented,” he told reporters after launching a ‘Revised Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) Guidelines for Sarawak’ session at Imperial Hotel here today.
He said when native customary rights (NCR) landowners wanted to open up their land for development, new licence or ‘small licences’ would be issued to them.
“For instance, in the hydroelectric project (HEP) area which needs development, special licences have to be issued because it is for development.”
He further explained that if the development involved small areas, then the licence would only be issued for a short period of time and once the development was done, the license would no longer be valid.
“We need to see what is the balanced of the forest area within certain area. If it just a small area, we just issue the licence for six months.
“Therefore, it depends on how big the area is being developed, and forest land balance on the ground.”
Hamden added that as of August this year, 184 licences are still valid.
