Kudos for forest protection

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s commitment to retaining its natural forest cover has been recognised again, this time in a report by the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland’s Global Forest Watch.

The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry said the report noted that Malaysia had managed to keep its rate of primary forest loss to near-record low levels.

“Overall, Malaysia reduced its primary forest loss by 57% as of 2022, placing us fourth among the top 10 countries for reduction in primary forest loss as of 2022.

“This achievement was due to a number of initiatives, including stricter enforcement, the spread of the Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil certification, the Ecological Fiscal Transfers (EFTs) for Biodiversity Conservation initiative, which is being institutionalised by the government, and the proactive action of the various state governments in protecting their forests,” its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said in a statement yesterday.

He said that at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Malaysia committed to maintaining at least 50% of its forest cover.

“We have held to this pledge, with the country’s forest cover at 54.58%, or 18.05 million hectares,” he said.

The EFT is a biodiversity protection mechanism that has been around since the early 1990s under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

It is a mechanism to distribute “a share of revenues according to where the environment is protected”.

In the most recent round, the top recipients of EFTs were Sabah, which received RM16mil in Budget 2023; Pahang (RM14mil); Terengganu (RM13.9mil); Perak (RM13mil); Kelantan (RM11mil); and Sarawak (RM10mil).

Collectively, these six states took up nearly RM80mil, which is more than half of the RM150mil in EFT funds set aside for this year.

While the United Nations Global Forest Resource Assessment Report 2020 also listed Malaysia as a “High Forest, Low Deforestation” nation among 25 other developing peers, the ministry takes the position that Malaysia cannot be complacent and that more needs to be done to ensure that the loss of primary forests is halted completely in the near future.

“We will therefore continue to undertake a number of initiatives, including strengthening legislation such as the National Forestry Act, increasing efforts to gazette forested areas including in the Central Forest Spine and Environmentally Sensitive Areas, increasing the EFT allocation in 2023 to RM150mil (a 150% increase since its first implementation in 2019), and others towards enhancing the conservation of our forests,” said Nik Nazmi.

He also welcomed all stakeholders, including the various state governments, the private sector and civil society, to work together with his ministry to strengthen forest management as well as ensure that forest land remains a forest.

“We urge all Malaysians to continue to back our efforts to protect our forests as one of the nation’s most crucial resources, to ensure we can pass on this most precious heritage to our children and their children.”