‘Preserve urban forest area’

SHAH Alam residents have voiced their objections to a proposal to build a road and a cemetery across an existing forest that they call the Shah Alam Community Forest (SACF).

A total of 25 residents attended a public hearing at Wisma MBSA in Shah Alam, Selangor to put forward their argument on why the state land would be better made a full-fledged urban community forest.

Previously, Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) carried out a public feedback exercise for its 2035 Local Draft Plan, in which the proposal to build a road and cemetery across the SACF was stated.

MBSA received 718 objections for the road and 195 objections for the cemetery from the public.

SACF Society founder and secretary Alicia Teoh, who represented 9,000 members, laid out several reasons why the forest should remain a leisure area for the community.

The session that was chaired by Selangor local government, public transport and new village development committee chairman Ng Sze Han and state tourism, environment, green technology and Orang Asli affairs committee chairman Hee Loy Sian.

“There is huge public support for SACF to be protected as a community forest reserve.

“The society has garnered over 66,000 signatures in our online petition to protect this forest for ecological, recreational and educational purposes.

“Furthermore, there is already a road connecting Setia Alam and Persiaran Mokhtar Dahari, so why is there a need for an extra road cutting through the forest?

“The proposed road will not provide more invaluable long-term benefits than preserving this forest will, in terms of ecological advantages such as flood mitigation, lowering ambient temperatures and as a water catchment area, ” Teoh told StarMetro after the public hearing.

She stressed that SACF was a forest that had been loved and cared for by the Shah Alam community for over seven years.

“Shah Alam residents are happy having natural forest trails to hike, de-stress and use as an educational platform to teach natural sciences and environmental stewardship, ” she said.

Society treasurer Dr Teckwyn Lim, who was also present, questioned the status of SACF as he had not found any notice to degazette the land under the Selangor State Government Gazette and thus, it should remain a permanent forest reserve.

“We have highlighted the matter to Selangor Forestry Department and Selangor State Secretary but neither has come forth to refute the claim, ” he noted.

He said Hee promised to follow up with Selangor Forestry Department regarding the degazettement of SACF and other parcels of forest land in the vicinity.

Previously, the SACF Society, with funding from the UN’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme, discovered that the Shah Alam Community Forest was still part of the remaining Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve.

The group that made the discovery consisted of Lim and a team of mapping, legal and forestry experts who found no reports of the land, now known as SACF, being excised in the Selangor State Government Gazette.

SACF Society also submitted a copy of the proposed plan to the MBSA Planning Department on making SACF an Urban Community Forest that would be a model of sustainable city planning for the rest of the country.