Sarawak opening up coastal lowland areas for agriculture, plantation devt — Adenan
KUCHING: The state government has decided to open up the coastal lowland areas for agriculture and plantation development.
The decision was made after realising the enormous potential of the coastal land and looking at peatland as the most strategic alternative resource due to dwindling arable land.
“This is to increase food production to cater for the increasing population and at the same time to eradicate persistent poverty particularly in the rural areas,” said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem in his keynote address when opening the 15th International Peat Congress ( IPC) in a local hotel here which started on Aug 15 and will end on Aug 19.
He said the move to use peat land had a l lowed the development of palm oil industry, one of the fastest g rowing industries in Sarawak and a major contributor to the state’s total export value in 2015 at about 10 per cent.
As a signatory to multilateral treaties such as the Earth Summit agreement in Rio de Janeiro, Malaysia has commit ted to preserve at least 50 per cent its land as forest area.
“In the Sarawak scenario, we have wel l exceeded the national commitment of forest conservation, where the state has a total forested area of 65 per cent, based on satellite imagery for year 2013/2014,” said Adenan.
To the green NGOs, he said they were not the only people who care about Sarawak’s environment.
“We also care about our own environment. As chief minister, I have been flying over the state every week and I can see down there, greenery upon greenery. What I see doesn’t lie. It is not a desert, burnt- out forest. It is greenery down there.”
Citing the fact that Sarawak was the first to set up a biodiversity centre in the country, Adenan stressed that the state does care for its environment and the preservation of its rich biodiversity.
On Orang Utan and plantation, Adenan said it has been the state’s policy that areas identified as Orang Utan habitats are well protected and completely off limits for plantation development and logging.
“Yes, there had been poaching and destruction of their forest habitats, but that is not the policy of the state,” said Adenan, stressing that the state government did not encourage poaching and destruct ion of Orang Utan habitat.
To protect Sarawak’s forests and environment, he said the state has stopped giving out forest concessions and licences for large scale commercial plantations, apart from raging war against illegal logging.
Adenan continued to assert that peatland had become an important resource for Sarawakians, especially the rural farmers who are now able to elevate their standard of living and support their children’s higher education through income from oil palm smallholdings.
Peatland research has also increased the state’s palm oil production and spared the state from huge peat fi res which at one time was raging in neighbouring countries, he added.
“The state’s policies and procedures had ensured that scientific knowledge about peat had effectively been transferred from the laboratory to the stakeholders which include the government, industrial decision makers and plantation workers.
“In this respect, the state government has outlined a clear land use policy which integrates and balances all aspects of economic development, social wellbeing of local communities and environmental conservation.
“This policy, which embraces landscape planning, allocates the optimal amount of land for the purpose of Agriculture, Forestry and other miscellaneous use.
“With this policy, the state government has targeted to set aside six million ha of land as permanent forest estates and one million ha as totally protected areas,” said Adenan.
He said Sarawak recognised the impacts of any form of development on environment and communities, thus it has been the state’s emphasis that the palm oil industry must be developed in a sustainable manner through the setting up of Tropical Peat Research Laboratory ( TPRL) led by Dr Lulie Melling, who is also IPC congress general.