PEKAN: An environmental group is urging the authorities to halt plans to convert parts of the Chini Forest Reserve near here into timber plantations.
RimbaWatch said it was shocked and appalled by a document outlining plans to convert six plots of land measuring 1,625ha into timber plantations.
"The forest reserve compartments affected by the project are those directly under the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) Biosphere Reserve border and in an area proposed to be protected as a biosphere peripheral zone in the Tasik Chini Special Area Plan.
"The Chini Forest Reserve is adjacent to the Unesco Biosphere Reserve site.
"Last year, preliminary findings of a Unesco review found that the Chini Unesco site no longer met its biosphere reserve criteria.
"The Pahang government has taken steps to restore the area, including developing the Tasik Chini Special Area Plan, but the proposed project poses a threat to attempts to rehabilitate Tasik Chini and safeguard its Unesco status."
RimbaWatch said the 1,625ha earmarked for the timber plantation project were equal to the size of 657 football fields, or 10 times the size of Bukit Kiara in Kuala Lumpur.
It said the timber plantation programme was previously described as a method to rehabilitate degraded forests, encroached forests, unproductive state lands and poorly-stocked forest, but satellite images of the affected compartments of the Chini Forest Reserve between 1984 and 2022 showed minimum disturbance in those areas.
"Since the area mostly remains as an intact primary forest, there is no need to replace those forests with plantations.
"Furthermore, the customary territory (tanah adat) of the nearby Orang Asli villages, such as Kampung Gumum and Melai, will be affected by any encroachments as these communities rely on forest resources.
"If the proposed project is continued, it would result in the loss of carbon stocks through the conversion of natural forests.
"Malaysia has made international commitments to preserve and enhance its natural carbon sinks, including forests, through frameworks such as the Paris Agreement."
Therefore, it said, the project was not aligned with these commitments.
RimbaWatch called on the authorities to reject the idea of establishing timber plantations in the forest reserve at any scale, and the Department of Environment to reject the Environmental Impact Assessment.
"The authorities must classify the forest reserve as a protected forest.
"Logging or other concessions have to be cancelled, and the land handed back to the state for preservation as a high conservation value forest.
"Timber plantation programmes in the country have to be ceased with immediate effect, and remaining concessions to be cancelled."
RimbaWatch said the establishment of monoculture timber plantations had become the biggest driver of deforestation in the country, and it was responsible for three times more deforestation than palm oil expansion in recent years.
"The programme, referred to as 'forest plantations' by the state and federal authorities, is merely a way to greenwash deforestation and it has not been justified economically or ecologically."