Almost half of Perak land area gazetted as Forest Reserve, MB tells assembly

IPOH: Nearly half the land in Perak is now categorised as Forest Reserve, says Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad (pic).

The Mentri Besar said a total of 986,862.44ha of land, which is 47% of the state's total land area of about 2.1 million hectares, has been gazetted under the National Forestry Act 1984.

“Of this figure, 95% or 944,451.81ha is classified as terrestrial forest while the remaining 42,410.63ha are mangrove swamps.

“Compared to 2010, the area of mangrove swamps has increased from 4.1% to 4.3% this year,” he said in reply to Wong May Ing (PH-Pantai Remis) at the state assembly sitting here on Wednesday (Dec 28).

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Saarani added that up to September, no exploration of the new forest areas was recorded for mining activities.

“Meanwhile, about 0.13% or 1,276.02ha has been used for agricultural activity, and 5ha for industrial purposes.

“The state, through the Forestry Department, is working to rehabilitate mangrove swamps that have been explored for various reasons,” he said.

Ishsam Sharuddin (BN-Ayer Kuning) asked what the state government could do if valuable mineral resources were found in the forest reserves.

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Saarani said the Forest Reserve status can be revoked by the state government in such cases.

“If the state government believes that the minerals found can contribute to Perak's revenue, the area can be degazetted.

“However, once this happens, the state will need to replace it with another area of the same size,” he added.