Friday 29 Mar 2024
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SIK (Kedah): Timber camp worker Shahril Md Isa has a day off by default, because it is raining and logging has been put on hold for the day. A Sik local, the 24-year-old accepts that there is money to be made from logging the forest.

“I started working with a timber company because it paid well. I work every day from 8am to 6pm. It has been two years and I don’t think I will leave to find work in the towns,” he said.

Shahril works with SBB Northern Trading, a contractor for Chek Seng Trading that holds the licence to log 60ha of the forest in the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve in Sik.

Chek Seng, headquartered in Alor Setar, has been in the logging business since 1988 while SBB began in 2003.

According to the records of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), these companies have survived through several Kedah governments, including the PAS-led administration between 2008 and 2013.

But why haven’t they stopped after the 2013 government takeover by Barisan Nasional (BN), when the new Menteri Besar Datuk Paduka Mukhriz Mahathir called for a halt to logging?

“Yes, I heard about it but I don’t know why it didn’t stop. We have continued working,” Shahril said. He estimates that about 200 tonnes of meranti, merbau, keruing, and gerutu with girths more than 31.75cm are transported out of the forest daily.

“But the forests have thinned now. There are not many big trees like before,” he said.

On May 18 last year, Mukhriz ordered logging in Kedah to cease while a study on the environment and people’s livelihood was carried out. Prior to last year’s general election, Mukhriz and other BN leaders and the media had attacked the then Kedah menteri besar, the

late Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak, and his administration for its relentless appetite for logging.

The lure of quick revenue from logging is a double-edged sword for any government that relies on it. Money is needed to sustain the government but forest clearing has altered landscapes and climate, affecting communities.

For Kedah, known as the rice bowl state, agriculture was its biggest revenue generator, but logging has become a sure-fire way to fill the state coffers.

During PAS’ tenure, reports indicated that logging had cushioned the budget of the allegedly cash-strapped Kedah government.

By 2013, open competitive tenders issued by the government to selected logging contractors helped the state to increase its revenue from the premium from logging concessions from RM8 million in 2008 to RM80 million.

In fact, Azizan was once quoted as saying that, “we have to log because we are poor” as one of the reasons why the state government went ahead despite the destructive effects of logging.

In one of Azizan’s plans, the state is said to have wanted to log about one million trees in the water catchment areas of the Muda, Pedu and Ahning dams. If the project had taken off, Kedah would have raked in a bounty of about RM16 billion from the premiums.

Declaring that “timber is God’s gift”, Azizan found no problem in making money from it and said that one should not “obsess” about preserving the forest. He later accused the federal government of failing to honour an agreement made during former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure to pay Kedah RM100 million annually for keeping its forests intact.

The amount was actually cited in a 2003 decision made by the federal government as “compensation” after it shot down then Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Syed Razak Syed Zain Barakbah’s proposal to conduct heli-logging on 122,798ha in Ulu Muda.

The concession was given to WTK Holdings Sdn Bhd and Yayasan Islam Negeri Kedah but the project failed after an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) revealed that there would be negative impacts on the water catchment area.

Since the compensation was never paid out even after two government terms, Azizan proposed as an alternative a 400ha agro-tourism project in Charok Batang Padi, in Pedu. This required the land to be cleared first. The project began but was stopped when Barisan Nasional won back the state in last year’s election.

So Mukhriz’s election pledge to halt logging was welcomed by Kedahans and environmentalists.

He reportedly said Kedah had enough logging activities and it must look for other income sources, famously adding that to him “a tree is worth more standing than felled”.

But a Jan 9 trip this year by fz.com to a logging site near Kampung Landai and along the Trans Eastern Kedah Inter Highway belied the announcement. Asked to comment, a Kedah Forestry Department ranger who covers Sik and Jeniang told fz.com that logging had never stopped in the Ulu Muda forests.

“The clearing has been ongoing since 2006, with logging permits renewed twice every year. We ensure that the companies comply with the forestry laws,” he said.

He added that the villagers were not affected because the nearest village, Kampung Gulau, is 16km away.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) researcher Shamsul Ery Shamsuddin said though he is baffled that it has not stopped, logging is not banned in all of Ulu Muda.

“The parts the villagers in Kampung Landai talk about could be part of the production forest that is allowed under forestry law. Although the status of the land is forest reserve, logging is still allowed,” he said.

The contention over logging, whether illegal or otherwise, in Ulu Muda has also been over the erosion and pollution that could affect the quality of water of rivers and streams.

As there are three dams in the area, the need to preserve the water catchment areas is obvious. Water from the rivers not only serves Kedah for consumption and irrigation of padi fields, but also supplies Perlis and Penang.

Water royalty disputes began during the tenure of former Kedah menteri besar Datuk Mahadzir Khalid (2005 to 2008), who demanded that Penang pay for the water drawn from Sungai Muda, and continues till today.

Azizan and later Mukhriz continued to demand RM10 million from the Penang government because both state officials argued that the source of Sungai Muda is in Kedah. The 178km Sungai Muda begins in Ulu Muda, meandering through Baling, Sik, Kulim and through Penang before it empties into the Northern Straits.

While Penang has refused to entertain the request, citing riparian water rights and because Kedah does not provide treated water to justify the demand for royalty, it agreed to fight alongside the state government to seek the RM100 million compensation from the federal government to stop logging.

This way, Penang said, the forest will be protected and the quality of Sungai Muda water will remain safe and pristine.


For more stories, go to www.fz.com, the website for freedom of expression and fairness in articulation.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 21, 2014.


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