KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Government is seeking the cooperation of state governments to curb overlogging.
Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar said this was necessary because the European Union (EU) was moving to ban palm oil.
It is based on the reasoning that oil palm cultivation is behind unbridled logging that has caused the destruction of much of the country’s forests.
“I seek the cooperation of the state governments as it is now a national security issue," he said at Dewan Rakyat today.
"We are part of international programmes of biodiversity restoration, climate change, and forest reserves.
“Malaysia is now being hindered from selling palm oil (to EU nations) due to the disappearing forest cover.
“This is used (as a reason for restricting Malaysian palm oil exports) by the EU Parliament and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.”
Xavier said all stakeholders, including state governments, needed to understand the issue and back the ministry in implementing new programmes to restore the country’s forests.
“We can reuse previously logged land, and I am made to understand that there are 155,000ha of land suitable for replanting programmes.
“We can give birth a new industry with a sustainable forest management system or a new forest economy as there are those interested in investing in planting forest tree species that can bring returns over a period of a few years.
“Those returns can go into the states’ accounts. if the states understand, then this is a way to increase the states’ revenue and at the same time tackle (unbridled) logging,” he said.
On another issue, Xavier said the electronic land administration system (e-Tanah) would be expanded to Perak, Terengganu, Putrajaya, Labuan, Selangor, Pahang, Johor, Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis.
He said the system was expected to save the ministry RM111 million.
He added that the ministry would also give opportunity to Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka to implement e-Tanah.