THE thorny issue of illegal durian plantations on state land is back in the news. Like many times in the past, it is a story of deforestation and illegal harvests.
This time, though, the forest that was cleared to make way for the durian plantation was no ordinary state land. It was a reserve deep inside the belly of Pahang, all 404 hectares of it.
What we are told is that the illegal plantation has been in operation for two years. It may not have come to light had it not been for an aerial monitoring exercise conducted by Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail on Nov 29.
How many aged trees were felled, what species of insects, birds and mammals did the plunderers send into extinction in the interior of Sungai Perdak in Betong? We may never know. And not many people care either.
Call it a Malaysian apathy for the forest and all things there. All that matters is profit, not the planet.
Yes, the disease is national, not an ailment of a state or two. Who could forget the illegal clearance of 3,500 hectares of forest reserves in Kedah from 2011 to 2021?
Why did it take 11 years for the illegal clearance to become breaking news? Like many things else, it was left unexplained.
The regulators must realise that lame enforcement only gives the plunderers time enough to say: wrong though it may be, we have been doing this for so long it has now become our right.
The law of this land is clear: adverse possession, be it for 20 or 2,000 years, is illegal possession.
Illegality never gives birth to legal or moral rights. Period. But having the law is one thing, enforcing it is another. This requires vigilance of the 24/7 kind.
To expect the menteri besar to take to the air to spot illegal activities is to ask him to do what regulators should be doing. He has more important things to do, such as governing the state.
Neither should enforcement be in fits and starts. Malaysian forests are vast, and plunderers many.
Illegal durian plantations are so lucrative that foreign nationals from as far away as China are turning up in Pahang, the home of Musang King, a durian variety that is popular there. No single aerial surveillance can cover them. Neither can a hundred of it.
For sure, our vast forests require manpower and machines. If the states are serious about keeping the forests safe from illegal farmers and other plunderers, they will find the means to provide them.
Lawmakers, too, should not be on the side of illegal farmers. They must make laws, not help break them. Politics must not be allowed to disturb our forests thus.
Our authorities, too, must learn not to give in to the pressure of commerce. More so if it is an illegal one. To surrender to the profit motive in this way is to encourage crass commerce. Profits must not be allowed to buy our forests.
The way of the plunderers is this: give them an inch, they would want a yard. Unfarmed forests set up a store of insatiety in the plunderers. No efforts must be spared to keep our forests — our natural capital — as they are.