Reforestation a costly affair

During a Citizen Action for Tigers (CAT) Walk, an anti-poaching and anti-deforestation surveillance walks, in May , volunteers land in Sungai Yu, Merapoh, Pahang discovered land being cleared and informed the authorities. In June the Pahang Lang and Minerals director put up a notice warning against the land clearing and building of structures. Picture was taken on Saturday, July 30, 2016. The Sungai Yu Reforestation Project was launched at the third eco-viaduct in Sungai Yu on Friday, July 29, 2016.

I REFER to the report “Xavier: Refores­tation is the way forward” (The Star, Aug 19) and would like applaud Dr Xavier Jayakumar’s support for a massive reforestation programme. While I also support reforestation, I would like to bring the following points to his attention.

1. Reforestation is not a magic bullet to solve environmental issues such as access to water, floods and landslides. It is time-consuming, costly and there isn’t a 100% guarantee of success. Reforestation failures in northern Nigeria and marginal success in southwest China are good examples. There is also no guarantee that reforested lands will be able to provide sufficient and effective ecological services such as water catchment, watershed protection, flood and erosion control. Furthermore, reforestation is a classic “treat the symptom, not the cause” approach. It should not divert us from addressing the fundamental problem – deforestation.