Sarawak wants to gazette 13 new permanent forest estates involving 814,437 hectares

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By Shikin Louis

KUCHING, July 26: Sarawak intends to gazette 13 new permanent forest estates (PFEs) involving land size amounting to 814,437 hectares.

Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said Sarawak has 67 totally protected areas (TPAs) with a total area of 2,118,249.53 hectares comprising a land area of 874,523.53 hectares and a water body of 1,243,726 hectares and 118 PFEs with a total area of 3,960,381 hectares.

“In addition, the Sarawak Forestry Department (FDS) has proposed 31 areas as new PFEs, which is expected to involve an area of 814,437 hectares.

“I hope the Federal government will provide more allocations through Ecological Fiscal Transfer (EFT) for conservation activities,” he said when officiating the National-level International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem held at the Hilton Hotel here today.

Awang Tengah, who is also the Second Minister for Natural Resources and Urban Development (MUDeNR) and Minister for International Trade, Industry and Investment (MINTRED), further said that Sarawak, to date, has gazetted an area of 12,950 hectares or 19 per cent of the total area of mangrove forest in Sarawak as TPAs.

Meanwhile, 11,084 hectares or 16 per cent of the total mangrove forest area in Sarawak has been gazetted as PFEs.

At the event, Awang Tengah also launched a book titled ‘Status of Mangroves in Malaysia’, which was published by Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM).

Also present were Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES) Dato Sri Huang Tiong Sii; NRES secretary-general Dr Ching Too Kim; MUDeNR permanent secretary Datu Abdullah Julaihi; and Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia deputy director-general (Policy and Planning) Dato Zahari Ibrahim. — DayakDaily

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