Ikea completes replanting of three million rainforest trees in Luasong


  • Nation
  • Tuesday, 04 Dec 2018

Ikea

KOTA KINABALU: Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has completed the replanting of three million rainforest trees at Luasong in east coast Sabah as part of its efforts to rehabilitate the degraded forest since 1998.

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences' lecturer Jan Faulk, who has been involved since the beginning of the project with state-owned Yayasan Sabah, described it as successful as it involved a focus on rehabilitation with an eye to putting back the diversity of the rainforest.

“It is a unique rainforest rehabilitation project. Today we are seeing the wildlife returning to the once burned down forest,” he told reporters after joining Ikea of Sweden Global Wood Supply and Forestry manager Ulf Johansson in a meeting with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Faulk said a lot of research was done by scientists from Sweden, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and also from Australia.

“As the forest recovers, we believe there will more opportunity for further research, and we believe more universities would be interested to come,” he said, adding that research here complements studies on untouched rainforests at the Maliau Basin.

“It is a gift from Ikea. All over the world, they have shops selling furniture. It is only here in Sabah they are doing rehabilitation. There is no revenue back,” he said, adding that project involved hiring 150 people working round the clock for the past 20 years.

Faulk said with the main replanting exercise completed in the area, it will remain a place for research as the forest was now fully protected.

Johansson, meanwhile, said that during their meeting with Shafie they discussed the downstream timber industry development.

“We would like to see more acacia plantations in Sabah. The more plantations developed on degraded land, the more jobs and happy customers we will have and there will be less pressure on natural forest,” he said, adding that it could lead to furniture manufacturing in the state.

It was important that raw materials for furniture were obtained on from sustainable forest areas, he said.

Article type: metered
User Type: anonymous web
User Status:
Campaign ID: 1
Cxense type: free
User access status: 0
Subscribe now to our Premium Plan for an ad-free and unlimited reading experience!
   

Next In Nation

Bring own containers for takeaways at Ramadan bazaars, urges Perak exco member
Shop owner fined for possessing slimming products containing banned appetite suppressant in Sabah
Last surviving tin dredge TT5 receives IMechE award from UK
Inform cops if leaving homes empty for long weekend to avoid unwanted incidents, say Johor police
Over RM3mil worth of drugs seized, two arrested in JB
Comms ministry did not block Shahidan’s TikTok livestream, says Teo
NGO report needs to be reevaluated, says Sabah chief forest conservator
Pakatan’s Madius Tangau gets to keep Tuaran seat won in GE15
Stop making personal attacks against DPPs, defence told in Guan Eng’s undersea tunnel case
Man shot to death at Johor convenience store

Others Also Read