KUALA LUMPUR: Sarawak’s new chief minister, Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, has come out with an enhanced forest governance policy after abuses were found in the way timber licences were issued in the state. Under the improved policy, short-term licences for state land forest will only be issued through open tenders, in a bid to improve governance and transparency in the timber industry.

In a statement yesterday, Abang Johari said the short-term licences will also only be issued for state land forest which has been approved for development and native customary land and native communal reserve (NCR) that shall undergo development.

Under the tender process, the Forest Department will prepare the tender documents and make an estimate of the timber stands which will be valued based on land size and quality of existing stands.

The tender will then be advertised in local newspapers and the department’s website, before the tender’s closing date of at least 30 days after the date of publication.

“The tender process is effective immediately for state land approved for development and not subject to any NCR claims.

“Meanwhile, the Forest Department shall fine-tune the mechanism for the award of timber licences for forest area on land subject to native customary rights, taking into consideration the interests of the community involved,” said the Chief Minister’s Office.

It added that successful bidders are still subject to payment of royalty, premium, cess and other charges based on the volume of timber extracted and the current rate.

Meanwhile, short-term timber licences issued on state land forest expiring in 2017 will not be renewed unless such land has been approved for development, with the award for such areas to be done by tender.

When contacted by The Edge Financial Daily, Ta Ann Holdings Bhd said it is unsure of the impact of this development on the group.

“At this point in time, not much details have been given on this,” said its spokesman. “We don’t know if this will affect Ta Ann as we already have long-term licences.”

Kenanga Research analyst Voon Yee Ping opined that the award of licences by tender would not make much of a difference to the big timber players.

“In order to carry out logging activities, companies would need the licence. However, most of the big players already have licences in place. This would not affect them unless they would like to increase their licences.

“This might affect more of the smaller players, but not so much for the bigger players,” she said.

Recall that the Sarawak’s former chief minister, the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem, in 2014 discontinued the issuance of logging permits. The permits, comprising occupation ticket (OT) licences and letters of authority (LAs), were no longer issued in order to curb corruption and illegal logging.

LAs are permits to fell trees for land less than 100ha while OTs are for land less than 1,000ha.