Its all about Corruption when encroachments go undetected

The forestry knows about it but no action taken. Enviction was carried out at another peat swamp called Raja Muda Forest Reserve (north Selangor). How come Kuala Langat South Peat Swamp was the exception? MY PERCEPTION - ITS ALL ABOUT CORRUPTION! IN BOLEHLAND CORRUPTION REIGN AND LAWS ARE ONLY FOR THE POOR!!

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June 14, 2011
2,000ha of swamp forest encroached by illegal farmers
By STUART MICHAEL
Star

MORE than 200 farmers have encroached 2,000ha into the Kuala Langat South Peat Swamp Forest and only a major operation can force out the culprits.

Selangor Forestry Department assistant director (operations and enforcement) Mohd Yussainy Md Yusop said 30% of the 6,908ha of the forest reserve had been encroached.

“Each farmer plant crops at least on 10ha in the forest reserve and employ workers to take care and harvest the crops.

On June 6, the department arrested five Indonesian workers for encroaching into the reserve and planting cash crops.

There are now remanded at the Telok Panglima Garang police station.

Yussainy said the department took statements from three employers and they would be charged with trespassing.

Under the Forestry Act 1984, Yussainy said those found encroaching into forest reserves could be fined up to RM10,000 or jailed up to three years or both if found guilty.

“The profits raked in by the farmers amount to thousands of ringgit and they are willing to take the risk of being jailed or fined.

“The money that they rake from the crops like banana, soursop, papaya, sweet corn, tapioca, sweet potato, turmeric, lengkuas (galangal), ginger, serai (lemongrass) and chilli is just too good. Some of these farmers are millionaires,’’ he claimed.

He said on Oct 25 last year, the department had given notice to the farmers to move out.

“Then, the department had planted 100,000 trees of different species to let the forest regrow but it is having a tough time doing so.

“These illegal farmers sprayed poison on the young trees and planted their crops instead. This shows how bold they are and have no respect for the law.

“Some may think that having cash crops at forest reserves is not as bad as chopping down the trees. But they fail to realise that pesticides can be harmful to the surrounding forest,’’ he said.

Outlaw open burning on peat land, Sarawak urged

August 9, 2009
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Sarawak should outlaw open burning on peat areas as they contribute to fires and the haze.

Environmental advisor to the Sarawak Government Dr James Dawos Mamit said he would advise the Natural Resource and Environment Board to review its current practice of issuing permits to plantations on peat land to use burning in their operations.

On Thursday, satellite images showed a high number of hotspots in Sarawak with a significant numbers in Sibu, Mukah and Miri divisions.

The haze map released by the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre in Singapore showed the area around Sibu and Mukah shrouded in thick haze. The map also showed many hotspots in that area.

While open burning is banned in other parts of Malaysia, plantation operators in Sarawak can apply for an open burning permit under Section 30(1)(a) and (2) of the Natural Resources and Environment Ordinance.

In the application form, the applicant is asked to state whether the land is mineral or peat soil.

“It is a known fact now that it is detrimental to use fire on peat land as it is very difficult to put out.

“They should look at it objectively,” said Dr Dawos in reference to certain quarters in Sarawak that had dismissed environmentalists’ criticisms of oil palm development on peat land.

Dr Dawos is also the president of the newly-formed Malaysian Peat Society.

Peat expert Faizal Parish of the Global Environment Centre urged plantation companies to avoid peat soil as 95% of peat land in Sarawak are deep peat (more than 3m deep).

“Plantation should only be allowed on degraded areas.

“The state government should reconsider permitting open burning on peat land,” he said.

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August 9, 2009
1,000ha ablaze in Sarawak
Star

MIRI: Wildfires are raging in more than 1,000ha of forests and peat land near the Sarawak-Brunei border, resulting in a heavy concentration of thick smoke and ash which is choking the people living in the Kuala Baram area.

According to the Miri Fire and Rescue Department and local politicians, some 3,000ha have been burnt.

Miri Division Fire Chief Christian Olas said the fires were most intense near the bridge linking Sarawak to Brunei.

“More than 1,000ha in Kuala Baram district are still on fire.

“We have doused many fires over the past few days but they keep spreading due to the strong wind. New fires keep on appearing.

“Our firefighters are already on 24-hour duty. We only have 37 firefighters on the ground because we are short of manpower,” said Olas.

Checks by The Star Saturday showed that the area was choked with thick smoke and burnt smell.

Visibility was still at dangerously-low levels, with some stretches of the Pan-Borneo Highway blanketed with smoke.

At some stretches, visibility was between 100m to 200m. The thick haze has also blotted out the sun.

State authorities have called for more measures to contain the fires.

Assistant state Infrastructure Development and Communication minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin said the fires in his Senadin constituency, which is located in the Kuala Baram district, had burned more than 3,000ha of land.

“The fire department will build a watchtower to detect the fires swiftly and to enable better and more effective enforcement against open-burning activities,” he said.

The Air Pollution Index (API) in four locations in Sarawak - Bintulu, Miri, Samarahan and Sibu - were in unhealthy levels, with Sibu having a high API reading.

Kapit, Limbang and Sarikei had moderate air quality readings. There were no readings for Kuching.

The other three locations with unhealthy air quality were Bukit Rambai (in Malacca) and Muar.

Raja Musa Forest Reserve - Give The Smallholder HELL please!

These smallholders are cronies from the previous Barisan Najis. The Barisan Najis through agents sold land to smallholders without titles. And these greedy smallholders (which they claim but actually rich buggers) actually exploited the forest reserve, without thinking about the ecological damages done - affecting farmers down stream, draining off the peat swamp, killing enormous number of wildlife and forest, flora....and they dare to cry double standard? HELL to them. They employed foreigners to work on the peat swamps. Look at some of the pictures below to prove to you the damages and raping of healthy forest for personal profit by the so called cronies of Barisan Najis......

Raja Musa Forest Reserve - barren for miles the shit left by the previous government.

Miles and miles of open, barren land of Raja Musa Forest Reserve, Selangor. Culprits should be hanged or given rotan. But sadly you can buy your way out.

Foreign workers near the boundary of Raja Musa Forest Reserve. They were willing to sell us wildlife caught from the reserve at the right price.

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May 20, 2009
Raja Musa forest reserve smallholders cry double standard
Star

SMALLHOLDERS who were evicted from the Raja Musa forest reserve near Batang Berjuntai are crying foul over the double standard practised by the Selangor government.

They claimed the government did not take immediate action to evict encroachers at the Kuala Langat forest reserve.

The group who were evicted from the Raja Musa peat swamp forest reserve during an enforcement exercise some time at the end of last year, felt that the state government had given face to those who committed the same offence in the Kuala Langat area.

“The state is willing to listen to them and had even called for a meeting with them,” said Idris Jaafar, one of the smallholders who were evicted from the forest reserve last year.

“They were also given more time to work on the land until they can collect their harvest this season.

“The state did not give the same chance to us,” he said.

He said they had tried to hold a similar meeting to voice their grouses to the state government since last year, but it fell on deaf ears.

“Most of us had invested a lot of money on the land and had been working there for years.

“We also had the approval to conduct the agricultural activity although it was on the forest reserve.

“So why didn’t they give us a chance like what they are doing to the group from Kuala Langat,” he added.

His sentiment was shared by Nordin Kassim, another smallholder who had lost his crop during the exercise.

“Last time when the authority told us that we could not plant oil palm trees and told us to replace it with cash crop instead, we obeyed and replaced them with pineapple and banana trees.

“How come no one told us that we were not allow to do all of this from the beginning,” he said.

When asked, Selangor state agriculture committee chairman Yaakob Sapari said such action was necessary as the threat was far worse in Raja Musa forest reserve.

Yaakob, who is also the state natural resources and entrepreneur development committee chairman, said the Raja Musa forest reserve was a very sensitive one as it affected the water table.

“The Raja Musa forest reserve affects not only the encroachers but also the padi farmers and the water table as it is a peat forest.

“More than 9,500 rice growers are affected due to the draining of the Raja Musa peat forest.

“But over here, it only affects the forest ecology,” he said.

For over 10 years, more than 600ha of the forest reserve was illegally cleared and burnt for large-scale farming.

At the end of last year, the Selangor state forestry department, on the instruction of the state government, ordered the eviction of the illegal occupants and started the clearing of all vegetation and agricultural activities in the area.

Since then the department together with various NGOs have put up continuous efforts to rehabilitate the 23,000ha peat swamp forest reserve.

It includes replanting seedlings of indigenous to the peat swamp species to turn it back into its natural state.

Peat Land vs Oil Palm

We know peat land is a sustainable reservoir of water body, home to rich biodiversity and a place to sustain the ecosystem. But wait, there is one spin politician in Sarawak who think from the arse, who claimed that oil palm was more sustainable than peat land. And now he is wasting tax money on his stupid claim.

We know, with oil palm, there are pesticides, there are fertilisers, there are erosions and he called that sustainable. Do you need pesticides, fertilisers and drainage in peat land? Such simple reasoning! Anything natural is always sustainable. Left alone they can sustain naturally. Anything man-made is not.

Generate credible scientific data? Bullshit. Generate wealth & greed would be a better reasoning.

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Sarawak sets up peat R&D lab to back palm oil lobby

Friday November 14, 2008
Staronline

KUCHING: The state government has set up the tropical peat research laboratory unit to counter anti-palm oil campaigns by western non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam said the NGOs claimed that planting of oil palm on tropical peat land was unsustainable as it would lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions.

“To counter the allegations, we need to generate credible scientific data in those areas,” he added.

Towards this end, Dr Chan, who is also state Minister for Modernisation of Agriculture, said the government set up the laboratory to gather relevant scientific and technical data related to the use of tropical peat land for palm oil cultivation.

“It will evaluate the influence of tropical peat structure and decomposition on peat subsidence dynamics and determine the nutrient dynamics of tropical peat land,” he said on Wednesday.

The unit recently organised an international seminar to update the recommended practices for oil palm cultivation.

Dr Chan said Sarawak has some 1.65mil hectares of peat land, representing 13% of the state, which the government planned to open up for oil palm cultivation.

On a plan to turn Sarawak into the country’s second rice bowl, Dr Chan said the Federal Government had allocated RM80mil this year to fund seven projects.

Of the amount, he said, RM47mil would be used by the Agriculture Department to carry out land levelling.

It will also provide mechanisation services and supply fertiliser, lime and pesticides.

The balance would be used by the Drainage and Irrigation Department to maintain drainage and irrigation facilities as well as develop farm infrastructure.

He said the state hoped to become self-sufficient in rice in four years’ time.

Peat swamp guideline for state govts

The Star,
Wednesday March 12, 2008
MYT 12:30:16 PM
By AMANDA LEE

KUALA LUMPUR: A guideline will be drawn up for state governments to ensure conservation and sustainable use of Peat Swamp Forests (PSF) based on the findings of the five-year Peat Swamp Forest Project, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry secretary-general Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin said.

“The aim of the guideline, which includes a comprehensive long-term plan until 2020, is to encourage state authorities to manage PSF through informed decisions in managing the forests,” he said at the Symposium on Peat Swamp Forests.

However, he noted that the choice to adhere to the guideline depends on the state governments.

Launching the project’s 15th publication, “Orchids of Peat Swamp Forests in Peninsular Malaysia”, Suboh said that it is crucial that PSF are managed in a sustainable manner as they are a significant mitigating factor in climate change, as demonstrated in the three sites chosen for the project: Loagan Bunut Park in Sarawak, Klias Peninsula in Sabah and the South-East Pahang PSF in Pahang.

"Accounting for 75% (about 1.54 mil hectares) of total wetlands area in Malaysia, PSF provides waters supply, groundwater recharge, carbon storage and sanctuary to a wealth of flora and fauna,” Forest Research Institite of Malaysia (FRIM) director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Mohd Ali said.

Coordinated by the FRIM and implemented by the forestry departments of Pahang, Sarawak and Sabah, the RM19.9mil project was initiated by the Malaysian government in 2002 and received additional RM22.5mil in funding from the United Nations Development Programme/ Global Environment Facility (UNDP/ GEF) in collaboration with Danish International Development Assistance (Danida).