Mapping out campsites

Good start: Mohamed Taufik (left) says the regulation exercise will filter out high-risk campsites.

SELANGOR campsite operators have begun heeding the state government’s call to register their businesses for the purpose of licensing as the March 31 deadline draws near.

The state government has uploaded an online form while local councils are also circulating the form via their social media pages. It can also be found at ls.selangor.my/2sq8x3

To date, five out of the 12 local councils in Selangor have received 47 registrations.

The Hulu Selangor Municipal Council (MPHS), which recorded 17 registrations so far, said the process might take time due to the requirement of documents such as land titles, lease agreements and on-site photographs from campsite operators.

Selangor, which has about 200 campsites, is the first state to implement campsite licensing.

During a Jan 31 press conference, state local government, public transportation and new village development committee chairman Ng Sze Han urged campsite operators in Selangor to register their business.

Among required documents is a survey plan, which must be obtained from a licensed surveyor to indicate the exact location and the area’s geographical condition.

This is to enable the authorities to determine the site’s suitability before giving the approval.

Ng said this would be done as part of the registration process after the endorsement of the proposed guideline by the state executive council.

“The statement on the need for a survey plan was to prepare campsite owners but for now, they just need to give us the basic information such as contact details, location and type of activities at campsites,” said Ng.

Campsites that fail to register can be fined up to RM250,000 for operating illegally.

Operators propose alternatives

Although this only applies to campsites in Selangor, Malaysian Camping Association secretary Tengku Nina Ali, 35, said operators from other states were also taking note.

“Operators have suggested that instead of a survey plan, which would incur cost, a grant or lease agreement indicating that they are not squatting or trespassing on forest and river reserves or private or government land, should suffice,” she said.

“For safety evaluations, the operator could provide a site layout instead.”

However, Tengku Nina, who runs a webpage for campsite bookings, said for an industry that had largely remained unregulated until the landslide in Batang Kali on Dec 16 that killed 31 people, drastic changes would be necessary to avert such disasters.

Mohamed Taufik Omar, 52, president of the Hulu Selangor Campsite Owners Group, which represents 40 members, said the move to register campsites was a good start to regulate the industry.

“Campsites operating illegally on state land and forest reserves are the ones getting nervous now. The ones who are running on private land will have no problems,” said Mohamed Taufik.

Declaring that 90% of its group members’ campsites are on flat land and the other 10%, located on undulating terrain with slopes not exceeding 10°, Mohamed Taufik said the call for a submission for a survey plan would filter out high-risk campsites located next to steep trenches or deforested slopes and hilly rivers where sudden surges in water levels could occur.

On how his group members were dealing with the prospect of paying surveyors’ fees, Mohamed Taufik said a surveyor had been engaged to handle the task.

“As we are a group, the engagement will come with multiple jobs, so there will be a volume discount.

“Since we have already carried out the surveys to mark our boundaries when we bought the land, the surveyor will concentrate on the topography for the camping zones and not the whole piece of land.

“Many of the campsites are about the size of a football field, and are beside motorable roads and have already been cleared of thick vegetation, so the job should not be hard to do,” he said.

Another much cheaper alternative would be to refer to Google Maps for the contours, provided that the area can be found on the map, he said.

“On Google Maps, where the ‘Layers’ feature is located, click ‘Terrain’ and you’d be able to view the topography, terrain elevation as well as hydrological features of an area. The land office should be able to do this if it has the lot numbers where the campsites are located,” said Mohamed Taufik.

Campsite owner Md Razeef Md Jee, 62, has been taking advantage of the scenic lakeside view at his fruit orchard at the Batu Arang Permanent Food Production Park for the past two years.

He hoped that since the state government was going to impose licensing fees and other chargeable conditions for the industry, some form of service could be provided for waste management.

“Rubbish left behind by campers has to be physically transported out of the park to a nearby communal rubbish bin. That transportation cost is borne by us.

“On weekdays, most campgrounds are empty,” said Md Razeef, hoping the state government was aware that the camping business was seasonal in nature.

His campsite can accommodate up to 12 tents and has segregated toilets as well as a swimming pool. Charges are between RM30 and RM50, while tents are not provided.

According to him, his weekly earnings are less than RM700, from which he has to pay for utilities, repairs and labour.

Sue (third right) says the number of camping enthusiasts has exponentially increased over the past 10 years.

Sue Abdul Wahab, 43, an outdoor enthusiast who also administers a Facebook group for campers and campsite owners, said some form of regulation would do the industry good as the number of participants had grown exponentially in the last 10 years.

“There are already half a million members in our Facebook group. There are more than 7,000 campsites nationwide, of which 300 are in Selangor. In Hulu Selangor, where the Batang Kali landslide took place, there are 33.”

“Not all campsite operators have a sense of awareness when it comes to safety, environmental preservation or know how to handle emergencies. They do not have fire extinguishers. They instal sinks that discharge waste into the river. So, it is important that the education process is part of the licensing exercise,” said Sue.

Camper Mohd Efry El-Hafiz, 41, who is also an administrator of the same group, said operators’ inability to afford the fees of licensed surveyors should not be an excuse.

“Even a simple business like a pisang goreng (banana fritter) stall, for example, would require a temporary licence from the local council and for the vendor to attend a food handler’s course,” said Mohd Efry.

“So, it is only right that the state government draws a plan just for campsites. Criteria, guidelines and licensing fee structures could be different for campsites with structures and without. State eco-forest parks such as Templer, Sungai Chongkak and Komanwel could be used as a benchmark.”

One-off exercise

Team Rescue Bencana Malaysia president Muhammad Dean Lau Abdullah, who is also a survival camp instructor, said glamping was all the rage now with operators in this category charging premium prices, thus allowing paying guests to camp at their own risk should be a thing of the past.

“It may sound like an expensive exercise but it is also one-off and after that, the operator will be making money from his site,” he pointed out.

Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia honorary secretary-general Logisvarran Muniandy said the requirement would most likely be for a topographic survey that would delineate natural and man-made features on the ground.

Logiswaran, a licensed land surveyor and managing director of Amanah Berjasa Geomatique, a land survey firm, said the information would contain details such as terrain and existing water features like rivers together with buildings built on the land, for example.

He added that the topographical survey would also ascertain the land boundary, whether it had been appropriately alienated or if the occupant had a grant or temporary occupational licence (TOL) for it.

The minimum requirement to determine the status of the campsites’ operations would be a TOL, without which, it would be illegal, he said.

As the TOL entails yearly renewal at the land office, information such as features on the ground and any modification plans the occupant has for the land would have already been included in the report by a settlement officer from the land office, he said.

Logisvarran added that any development plans involving additional structures such as toilets must have approval from the local council’s planning department.

Since the announcement urging campsite operators to register, the first local councils to post registration forms on its social media pages were MPHS (Feb 7), Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (March 2) and Kuala Langat Municipal Council (March 3).

The Klang, Kajang Selayang, Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam councils also did the same from March 6 to March 7.

The Subang Jaya City Council, Kuala Selangor Municipal Council and Sabak Bernam District Council have said there are no campsites under their purview.

The registration deadline for campsite operators is March 31.

On March 2, Town and Country Planning Department (PLANMalaysia), which comes under the Local Government Development Ministry (KPKT), also announced through its social media pages that it was preparing guidelines for campsite operations.

This will be finalised by the end of April after considering views and feedback from industry players, government and the public.

PLANMalaysia has disseminated two online survey forms – one for the public, another for campsite operators – to collect nationwide information.

These forms were seen being shared on the social media pages of Family Camping Malaysia and Camping Buddies Malaysia, which have a large following of camping enthusiasts.

In the surveys and registration forms for campsite operators, respondents are required to state how their campsites are being operated, fees charged, type of facilities provided, type of approval obtained from authorities to operate and if approval has been obtained for erected structures.

Operators are also required to submit copies of their land titles, lease agreements, on-site photographs and list attractions such as water falls, lakes, rivers, orchards, hills, forests or flying fox ziplines.

The deadline for the submission is March 18. PLANMalaysia has confirmed that its survey is independent of the registration and licensing process for campsites in Selangor.