SARAWAK aims to have 3 million hectares of its long-term license areas certified by 2025 under the Post-2022 Forest Management Certification Policy.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said that to date, a total of 26 Forest Management Units (FMUs) covering 2.38 million hectares have received certification.
Additionally, seven Forest Plantation Management Units (FPMUs) spanning 97,966 hectares have been certified.
“The achievement of forest certification status is important to demonstrate that forest management in Sarawak meets international standards.
“This certification allows our timber products to be competitively marketed globally,” he said during his ministerial winding-up speech today.
Awang Tengah, who is the Second Minister for Natural Resources and Urban Development, stressed that the Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) collaborated with various international entities to enhance forest management, forestry technology, and forest research in Sarawak.
Notable collaborations include partnerships between the FDS and the European Union (EU), the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) in Japan, and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences in Velp, Netherlands.
Furthermore, two project agreements were signed on March 21, 2023, with the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) for the Management of the Upper Baram Forest Area for Conservation and Sustainable Development with Involvement of Local Communities, valued at USD556,083, and the Community Empowerment in Forest Management and Forest Landscape Restoration in Upper Baram, valued at US$258,000.
Sarawak has also hosted international conferences in collaboration with FDS, the Sarawak Timber Association (STA), ITTO, and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia.
In terms of wildlife conservation and enforcement, Awang Tengah noted that Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) has established collaborations with various international agencies.
These include the US Embassy through the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), NParks Singapore, Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) Japan, Asian Forest Cooperation Organisation (AFoCO) Korea, and Indianapolis Zoo USA.
Aligned with the Land Use Policy, he said FDS has gazetted 3.9 million hectares as permanent forest estates, out of the six million hectares targeted.
“This year, the Sarawak government gazetted a new permanent forest estate, the Bajoh-Ujong Murod Protected Forest, covering 13,125 hectares.
“This brings the total area of permanent forest estates in Sarawak to 3,960,471 hectares,” he said.
