KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — Malaysia has maintained about 18.27 million hectares of its land area as of August this year under permanent forest reserve comprising 2.5 million trees, under the 10th Malaysia Plan (RMK10).
Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Hamim Samuri said Malaysia is firmly committed to plant at least four million trees of permanent forest reserve through the implementation of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).
“This is because we (government) held firmly to our commitment to maintain at least 50 per cent of the country’s land area under forest and covered by trees,” he said at the launch of ‘Unfortunate Tales of Treeless World’ campaign, here today.
He said to date, there were only 0.27 per cent or 68.27 hectares of forest reserve areas in the Klang Valley while there are 31 per cent or 251,000 hectares of forest reserve areas in Selangor.
Furthermore, to achieve the target of 50 per cent forest and trees covered areas, RM46.54 million has been disbursed as at December 31, 2015 for implementing a special programme on planting and rehabilitation of mangroves and other suitable tree species along the national coastal areas within the 9th and 10th Malaysia Plan.
“A total area of 2,578.36 hectares has been planted with 6.32 million trees under this programme up to December 31, 2015 and another RM5.2 million has been allocated this year for the implementation of the programme under the 11th Malaysia Plan,” he said.
He added mangrove vegetation covers 577,500 hectares in Malaysia from which Sabah and Sarawak make up 82 per cent of the area.
Meanwhile the ‘Unfortunate Tales of Treeless World’ campaign was organised by Double A (paper manufacturer company) in collaboration with Malaysia Nature Society (MNS) to produce the classic fairytale stories that turned into unfortunate tale about world without trees.
The campaign of tales that also involved an advertising company are told through mechanised mobile booths, posters, print advertising, special notebooks, composed soundtrack and in a website.
Also present at the event was Double A’s Senior Executive Vice-President, Thirawit Leetavorn and MNS President Henry Goh. — Bernama
