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Halt forest clearing permanently at state land forests along the East-West Highway
21 September 2011, Halt forest clearing permanently at state land forests along the East-West Highway
Halt forest clearing permanently at state land forests along the East-West Highway
WWF-Malaysia is encouraged to learn that the Perak state government will be conducting an extensive probe into the forest clearing plans at Sungai Mendelum to make way for an oil palm plantation (Stop Work Now, 19 September 2011).
Under the National Tiger Conservation Action Plan, the importance of the forested linkage between Royal Belum State Park and Temengor Forest Reserve has been highlighted as a critical corridor for the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex, one of three priority areas for tiger conservation in Malaysia.
Like all state land forest, forest strips along the East-West highway are not protected and can easily be converted to other land uses by the State government without prior public notification. Clear-felling is the most common logging practice within state land forests, and is far more damaging to the environment compared to selective logging that is carried out in forest reserves such as Temengor.
Based on WWF-Malaysia’s intensive camera-trapping and sign surveys conducted since last year, it is clear that the state land forest along the East-West highway is constantly being used by endangered wildlife such as the tiger, clouded leopard, elephant, tapir, sun bear, gaur and sambar deer.
The high frequency of use by wildlife, for example, around the Sungai Mendelum area on both sides of the highway, indicates its suitability as an important wildlife crossing area. We have also just recently managed to gather photographic evidence of tiger movement across the highway along the state land forests bordering Royal Belum State Park and Temengor Forest Reserve, especially in the vicinity of the Sungai Mendelum area. Maintaining the integrity of such forest patches is critical to enable wildlife movement between Royal Belum State Park and Temengor Forest Reserve.
By itself, Royal Belum State Park may not be a viable long-term sanctuary for wildlife if it is not connected to a wider forest landscape via an intact corridor. If land-use conversion were to eventually occur all along the East-West highway, the Royal Belum State Park would be isolated from the Main Range which is the largest continuous forest block in Peninsular Malaysia. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment should support and assist the Perak state government to ensure that the corridor is not compromised by strictly adhering to Federal government-led plans such as the Central Forest Spine and the National Physical Plan.
WWF-Malaysia has been monitoring forest clearing along the East-West highway such as at Puncak Baring, where most of the 2,000 acres earmarked for agricultural activities have been cleared since early this year. Forest clearance was also observed at an area near the access road to RPS Banun (an Orang Asli resettlement area), around the Ulu Mangga area (after Puncak Baring) and near the Perak-Kelantan border.
Some of these sites did not comply with existing land use plans for the area but were still cleared. Water pollution and landslides have been observed at places which have been clear-felled. Elephants heavily utilise the state land forest patches along the highway, and it is worrying to imagine the escalation of human-elephant conflict that might occur once agricultural activities commence. This would inevitably result in economic loss due to crop damage, not to mention the risks to human safety that such conflicts might pose to local communities.
In addition to this, the Sungai Mendelum area is the source of an important water catchment that flows into Royal Belum State Park, and the local Orang Asli communities depend on this catchment system for their livelihoods. Any forest clearance in this area would result in water pollution and sedimentation, affecting the river ecosystem. This would have a detrimental impact on fish populations and Orang Asli livelihoods and eventually an economic loss over a long run.
WWF-Malaysia would like to state that we do not oppose economic development but rather seek to optimise economic benefits whilst maintaining our natural resources by adhering to sustainable development guidelines. Economic development should be viewed over the long term and not merely based on short-term monetary gain.
WWF-Malaysia thus calls for a freeze on all forest clearing plans along the highway within the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex. We strongly recommend for state land forests along the highway to be gazetted as part of the Royal Belum State Park or as a forest reserve under sustainable forest management thereby ensuring the long-term survival of wildlife, improving the livelihoods of local communities within the landscape, and maintaining vital ecosystem services that provide the fundamentals for economic development.
Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma
Executive Director/CEO
WWF-Malaysia