KUCHING: The deadline to achieve the target of one million hectares of plantation forest has to be reset to 2025, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
Tengah said it was not possible to meet the target by 2020 as initially scheduled because progress had been slow.
“Progress has not been encouraging, with only 420,146 hectares planted to date. Therefore, I propose to reset the deadline to 2025 instead of 2020,” he said at the closing ceremony of “Stakeholders Consultation on the Proposed State Forestry Policies” yesterday.
“Hopefully, all the players of the forest plantation industry will respond positively to this revised target,” said Tengah, who holds two other portfolios, namely Urban Development and Natural Resources Second Minister and Industrial and Entrepreneurs Development Minister.
He reminded that the state government had made it mandatory for all long-term forest timber licensees to obtain forest management certification by 2022.
“This is to further strengthen the Sustainable Forest Management in Sarawak and at the same time, we also require industrial forest plantation to be certified.
“Though forest management certification is a voluntary procedure, the state government strongly believes that certification principle is a good practice and is in line with our goal to ensure that our forests are managed sustainably.
“Furthermore, using the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) which is affiliated to the PEFC (Endorsement of Forest Certification), an internationally recognised certification body, our certification process is necessary for market penetration and acceptance of our timber products globally,” he said.
