Forest Dept inks MoU with BDA on restoration activities
BINTULU: The Sarawak Forest Department yesterday inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) for collaboration on restoration activities.
Forest director Datu Hamden Mohammad said the restoration activities include planting, conservation, and protection of trees in the area under BDA’s supervision for the town’s beautification.
He said forest landscape restoration has been implemented by the department since the 1990s.
“Several high valued species of local trees have been identified namely meranti, keruing, belian, kapor, engkabang, kelampayan, geronggang, and others for planting,” Hamden said during the launch of Le Tour De Restoration (Greening Sarawak Campaign) Bintulu divisional level and drone seedlings project at Taman Medan Sentral by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
He said the department is also working on research and development to produce higher quality planting materials that are fast growing and resistant to diseases and pests.
“Looking forward, Sarawak Forest will discuss a collaboration with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in the field of forestry research including strengthening drone seedling technology to be adapted to the seed ball to speed up the planting process,” he said.
He added the department would also take advantage of existing technological advances such as hyperspectral imaging to identify areas that need to be restored and replanted.
At the same time, he said under coastal restoration since 2006 to Oct 30, 2021, a total of 646,410 saplings consisting of mangrove, Casuarina, and various other species have been planted over 454.12 ha.
Among the swamp forest areas that have been restored were Selabat Mudflat Nature Reserve in Kuching; Pulau Perpat Nature Reserve, Sematan; and Pulau Tun Ahmad Zaidi Nature Reserve in Sibu, which have been gazetted as totally protected areas.
On Le Tour De Restoration (Greening Sarawak Campaign), he said it was aligned with Malaysia’s greening programme of planting 100 million trees nationwide.
He said Sarawak targeted to plant 35 million trees over a period of five years or seven million trees per year.
Hamden added the programme aimed to promote implementation and increase public awareness on the importance of caring for and preserving forests, especially through tree planting activities.
Among those present at yesterday’s event were Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan; Utilities Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom; Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Integrity and Ombudsman) Datuk Talib Zulpilip; Assistant Minister of Native Laws and Customs Datuk John Sikie Tayai; Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh; Deputy State Secretary (Socioeconomic Transformation) Dato Sri Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki; Bintulu Resident Datu Jack Aman Luat; and BDA general manager Datu Muhammad Yakub Kari.
The Jelajah Kembara programme was officially launched by Abang Johari in Kuching on Sept 30.