KUALA LUMPUR: The government needs to allocate more funding under Budget 2023 for a more concerted effort towards environmental preservation.
Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said this was also in line with Malaysia's commitment to realising targets set under the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"The recent death of an oil palm plantation worker trampled by a wild elephant in Temerloh was a tragic incident. MPIC wishes to extend our deepest condolences to the victim's family.
"Over the years, MPIC, through various agencies like the Malaysian Palm Oil Green Conservation Foundation (MPOGCF), has undertaken numerous measures to ensure sustainable growth for the industry.
"This includes setting up the Borneo Elephant Wildlife Sanctuary to address human-elephant conflict and create a controlled public access sanctuary to better understand and care for these animals," she said in a statement today.
MPOGCF has also started a programme to plant elephant grass species to encourage the animals to utilise the wildlife corridors and eventually help mitigate human-elephant conflicts.
MPIC also supports the Heart of Borneo Initiative. A joint Declaration initiated this uniquely government-led and NGO supported programme by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia in 2007.
The programme aims to conserve the biodiversity of the Heart of Borneo for the benefit of the people who rely upon it through a network of protected areas, sustainable management of forests, and other sustainable land uses.
"These efforts demonstrate the government's commitment to preserving our rich biodiversity.
"Malaysia has agreed to support and participate in the Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use and the Global Methane Pledge at the 26th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP-26) held in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, in November 2021.
"Malaysia's participation, along with 141 other countries, in this declaration is in line with the country's Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use to continue maintaining at least 50 percent of the country's land area under forest cover and to strengthen its commitment in conservation and sustainable management of forests and other ecosystems and land use including agriculture," she said.
Such efforts, said Zuraida, also repudiate criticisms, especially from the West, that Malaysia has been breaching global environmental standards for commercial considerations.
"On my part, the mnistry and I have constantly refuted these distorted views, especially during my trade missions abroad, in line with the "The Global Movement to Champion the Goodness of Palm Oil" campaign," she added.