Nature Alert: Environmentalists protest proposed logging of Malaysian forest reserve

Saturday, 12 July 2008

Environmentalists protest proposed logging of Malaysian forest reserve

Environmentalists protest proposed logging of Malaysian forest reserve

mongabay.com
July 10, 2008

Nineteen environmental groups launched a protest against a Malaysian state government plan to log Hulu Muda forest reserve, reports Bernama.

The groups have formed an alliance — the Coalition of Friends of Hulu Muda — against the logging plan proposed earlier this year by Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Kedah.

Azizan Abdul Razak said the timber harvesting scheme — which would also include Pedu and the permanent forest estates of Bukit Keramat and Bukit Siong in the Padang Terap district — would generate 100 million ringgits ($31 million) per year in revenue.

Coalition coordinator Nizam Mahshar said the environmentalists want the federal government to declare Ulu Muda a national park, thereby banning logging activities. Such action would require the federal government to compensate the Kedah state government for forgoing its logging claims in the reserve.

Ulu Muda was gazetted in 1932 as a permanent forest reserve. It covers 160,000 hectares of rugged forest near Malaysia's border with Thailand.

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.