Logging activity in Kelantan based on quota from forestry council, says deputy MB

KOTA BARU: The Kelantan government will not stop logging activities in the state as they are carried out in accordance with terms and conditions stipulated under the National Forestry Act 1984, says Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah(pic).

He said each state is given a quota by the National Forestry Council, and there is a condition that reforestation has be carried out in the affected area where trees have been felled.

"For example, if the quota given for this year is 3,000 hectares, we should not exceed that. Otherwise, we will be subject to action by the National Forestry Council.

"The quota is not determined by the state, but by the council.

"Logging does not only provide revenue for Kelantan. Almost all states depend on forest products, especially Pahang and Sarawak,” he told reporters after Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob’s 2022 New Year message at the Kota Darulnaim Complex here on Thursday (Jan 6).

He added that trees also had to be felled after a certain age to prevent them falling onto and destroying other growth.

He had been asked to comment on an online petition for a moratorium on logging and to preserve forests as a bulwark against floods, which has received nearly 200,000 signatures.

The petition, titled "Henti Pembalakan & Kemusnahan Alam Sekarang” (Stop Logging and the Destruction of the Environment Now), was co-sponsored by the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim) and an environmental group, the Association for the Protection of the Natural Heritage of Malaysia (Peka).

The petition was launched to urge the government to impose a moratorium on logging activities for the time being following the recent catastrophic floods.

Mohd Amar said logging was not the main cause of floods in the state, as it was a phenomenon that occurred almost every year.

Furthermore, no felling of trees is allowed between October and December because of the monsoon season, he added.

”Those that were swept away by the (recent) floods may have been felled before that and stored at Beta (log storage area),” he said, urging the public not to blame logging activities alone as the cause of the floods. – Bernama