GEORGE TOWN: The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) is urging the relevant authorities to put a stop to all illegal and unsustainable logging in forest reserves to preserve the vital water catchment areas and their rich biodiversity.
Its president Henry Goh said it was irregular for a large swathe of forest reserve of more than 500ha in Bukit Enggang, Sik, Kedah, to be logged without an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
“The villagers living in the foothills of Bukit Enggang have to ‘dam up the river’ to collect water for their daily use.
“This river is heavily polluted by the logging in the forest located upstream which has rendered the water unusable,” he said in a press statement on Tuesday.
Goh said other logging concessions closer to villages were given out for logging in Bukit Enggang without any consideration of the impact on people living in the vicinity.
“Many other logging concessions were given in smaller parcels in other districts in Kedah away from public view which are not monitored for proper timber extraction.
“Replanting of logged forests is either not required or the replanting is not done to the prescribed standards,” he said.
It was reported in The Star on Monday that the logging of over 500ha of forest reserve in Bukit Enggang had been carried out without an EIA.
The logging activity had caused muddy run-offs into rivers in the surrounding area.
Separate checks by both villagers and an environmental group with the state Department of Environment (DoE) confirmed that no EIA had been issued for the logging.
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