KOTA KINABALU, May 28 — Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal today said that all timber concessionaires in the state will be reviewed, a week after banning the export of all timber logs.
Shafie said the reason for the review is because some were in conflict with wildlife hotspot areas and may have caused the deaths of several elephants in the past and some were found to be breaking the forest management unit conditions.
“We will be reviewing all concessionaires including the forest management units where there are some issues. We believe several elephants deaths recently were due to build up of water catchment areas where there is wildlife presence.
“We need to look further into this to know for sure before it becomes more problematic,” said Shafie after chairing his second Cabinet meeting.
He said that the review was only to check on those who may not be following the guidelines.
“We have heard of some places gazetted as forest reserves but illegal logging activities has been reported. In other cases, they’re not replanting as they’re supposed to. Or cutting down trees where they’re not supposed to. Some do replant, but they plant oil palm instead.
“I can’t pin down exactly where or who is doing it, which is why we need to review and study it to get more details.
“If they are following the rules then no problem, they can continue to do so, but if we find there are any wrongdoings, then we will take the appropriate action according to the law,” he said.
Shafie said he was not sure how many concessionaires were given out, but said that he will get a detailed briefing from the Sabah Forestry Department soon.
“I know timber is a source of revenue for the state, but we cannot allow it at the expense of environmental problems. These are critical areas — there have been two elephant death cases in these areas,” he said.
Last week, Shafie had announced a total ban on the export of timber logs with immediate effect, a move that he said was to benefit the local market and provide supply for the factories in order to create more job opportunities for local youth.
“I’m confident the industry won’t suffer huge losses. They still need logs in the domestic market. Perhaps their margin of profit will be reduced but my concern is to provide paying jobs for our youth. We need to develop our downstreaming industries.
“Maybe the state won’t be as rich but the people will have jobs. There is no point of the state earning lots of profit from this industry if our people still don’t have work,” he said.
