State Government to Receive Compensation for Good Forest Management
The state has been guaranteed to receive compensation from the federal government for good forest management.
Perak Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said, however, that the value of compensation has not been decided.
“The state government will not claim an unreasonable value of compensation for forest management of the state and it depends on the capability and consent of the federal government.
“Nevertheless, the Prime Minister has provided the guarantee during the meeting with all the Menteri Besar and Chief Ministers that the federal government will pay compensation to any state government that manages its forests well.
“This is due to the fact that the state has missed the opportunity to generate income, as it could not log, carry out quarry activities and mining in order to take care of its forest reserve.”
He said so after launching the state-level Greening Malaysia Programme: Planting the 2 Millionth Tree, at the Sungai Siput Forestry Training Complex today.
Present was the Director of State Forestry Department, Datuk Mohamed Zin Yusop.
According to him, the federal government has set 100 million trees to be planted nationwide in the period of 5 years, and the state government has agreed to plant 10 million trees in the set period.
“Every year, we plant two million trees, so in five years, we will succeed in planting 10 million trees.
“Today for the year 2021, the planting of the two millionth tree is realised, though there might be even more as there are some that are unregistered,” he added.
He explained that the trees are planted as a commitment towards environmental sustainability for the future generations.
He added that this is to prevent deforestation leading to instability in the natural ecosystem which can then cause floods and landslides.
In a related development, he stated that the state government, via the State Executive Council (MMKN), has approved the proposal of 1,749.12 hectares to be gazetted as forest reserves statewide.
The approval includes for the planting of mangroves in Bagan Datuk across 139.21 hectares, which was approved on September 15.
“MMKN has provided approval in Bagan Datuk, for the South of Perak area, for the planting of mangrove among others as already decided by the state government, while the rest is in Manjung, Larut Matang and Kinta,” he said.
Rosli Mansor
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