Preserving Sabah’s forests through certification

The Pin Supu Forest Reserve was certified as a well-managed forest by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

KOTA KINABALU: One way to ensure that Sabah’s forests are conserved is through certification.

In a statement, WWF Malaysia said the degradation of forests can be minimised by managing them responsibly according to credible forest management standards, such as those of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

FSC, an independent and not-for-profit foundation, was founded by WWF and other environmentally-concerned parties in 1993.

Over the past 20 years, the organisation has earned a reputation as the most credible forest certification scheme, with more than 180mil ha of forest around the world certified to its standards and guaranteed to be managed sustainably.

The benefits of the FSC certification for well-managed forests include more responsible logging, retention of land under natural forest cover, management and monitoring of High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, independent auditing and monitoring and greater stakeholder participation.

Certification by the FSC will ensure Sabah retains a large and connected forest cover which will lead to endangered forest types and habitats for endangered animals being conserved and well-managed.

The statement also said that non-certified forest reserves face a higher risk of degradation and conversion to non-forest land use.

This will lead to loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, amongst other things.

In May this year, four forest reserves — Northern Gunung Rara, Timimbang-Botitian Forest Reserve, Nuluhon-Trusmadi-Sungai Kiluyu Forest Reserve and Pin Supu Forest Reserve — all managed by Sabah Forest Department (SFD) were certified as well-managed forests by the FSC.

With a combined size of 155,440ha, these forest reserves form about 10% of protected forests in Sabah.

There are also other protection forest reserves in Sabah that have received FSC certification previously and they total up to 441,264ha.

Is is SFD’s aim that all forest management units in Sabah will be certified by globally-recognised credible certification schemes such as the FSC.

Not only will this ensure that Sabah still retains a large and connected forest cover, it will also lead to endangered forest types and habitats for endangered animals being conserved and well-managed.

WWF-Malaysia looks forward to seeing more forests in Sabah protected and managed according to the FSC standards.

This will ensure that forests, along with their products and services, will continue to benefit everyone.