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Adenan Spells Out 5 Key Areas to Make Planted Forest Industry Sustainable
Adenan Spells Out 5 Key Areas to Make Planted Forest Industry Sustainable
14/10/2014 (Borneo Post) - Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem yesterday highlighted five key areas that ought to be carefully observed in order to have a viable planted forest industry.
Firstly, he said, the state must have forestry and land-use policies that are conducive.
“On this point, we are aware that there have been some finger-pointing and the government is on the receiving end of quite a bit of the ‘blaming culture’ that seems to permeate the timber industry,” he pointed out.
However, he said the state government had been unwavering in not only supporting but also facilitating the establishment of forest plantations.
“Almost three million hectares of land have been alienated for plantations under terms and conditions that are envied by planters everywhere.
“In fact, we have received serious inquiries on planted forests investments from as far as Korea and China,” he said during the Regional Conference on Planted Forests in Sarawak 2014, themed ‘Sustaining the Future of Planted Forests Industry in Sarawak’, at ParkCity Everly Hotel here yesterday which was attended by 250 participants.
His text of speech was read by Assistant Minister of Resource Planning Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais.
For seed money and to tide planters over during the initial establishment period, Adenan said the government allowed 20 per cent of ‘plantable’ areas to be planted with oil palms that have a much shorter gestation period.
He said this concession was provided in addition to the 60-year tenure and substantial windfall derived from salvage logging of areas approved for tree planting or oil palm development.
On the issue of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, Adenan said it had already been factored into the allocation of land and was one of the reasons why the state government only targeted to plant one million hectares out of almost three million hectares of land alienated.
“I can only offer you this truism, most issues become problems only if such issues are not properly managed and mitigated,” he added.
The second area to be considered, he continued, is profitability of the business of planting trees.
“We seem to hear this more than before that planting of trees is not a profitable business.
“In fact it can be profitable provided that the right species are planted in the right place and provided that the plantation is well planned and well managed,” he said, while citing the many success stories associated with planted forest industries in the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand and Vietnam.
With 12 months of sunshine and rain, relatively cheap labour and a supportive government, he said the planted forest industry here was quite profitable.
The third area that needed to be taken into account is Research and Development (R&D), he said.
The state government, he added, had recently commissioned a study as well as a state-wide inventory on planting materials in the state as it had been reported that most R&D programmes were mere start-ups or were allocated with very limited resources.
He said seed testing, which is critical for quality control, was carried out in only a few licensed planted forests (LPF) operations.
“It would appear to me that a majority of LPF holders are more concerned with quantity than quality.
“How can we have sustainability and profitability if we don’t care about the quality of what we plant and if we don’t invest in R&D to look after our plantations well,” Adenan pointed out.
As R&D is expensive, he said Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) had been commissioned to address the reported shortage of high quality planting materials and fast-track the R&D capacities.
He thus hoped the industry would respond positively to this government initiative that would cost millions to run over the next year or two.
The fourth area to be considered, he added, is unwavering commitment of LPF owners.
“Everything will come to nought if we keep pointing fingers and coming up with excuses for our failures,” he said, referring to what would happen if LPF owners were not committed to their tree planting plans.
Lastly, the fifth key area to be taken into account, he said, is other stakeholders’ participation.
“Forestry is a very important economic sector in Sarawak. All of us, the government, the LPF holders, the local communities and other stakeholders have to get our act together to safeguard the wellbeing of this important economic sector,” he added.
Also present were Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Saleh, Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment permanent secretary Datu Sudarsono Osman and Sarawak Forests director Sapuan Ahmad.
Firstly, he said, the state must have forestry and land-use policies that are conducive.
“On this point, we are aware that there have been some finger-pointing and the government is on the receiving end of quite a bit of the ‘blaming culture’ that seems to permeate the timber industry,” he pointed out.
However, he said the state government had been unwavering in not only supporting but also facilitating the establishment of forest plantations.
“Almost three million hectares of land have been alienated for plantations under terms and conditions that are envied by planters everywhere.
“In fact, we have received serious inquiries on planted forests investments from as far as Korea and China,” he said during the Regional Conference on Planted Forests in Sarawak 2014, themed ‘Sustaining the Future of Planted Forests Industry in Sarawak’, at ParkCity Everly Hotel here yesterday which was attended by 250 participants.
His text of speech was read by Assistant Minister of Resource Planning Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais.
For seed money and to tide planters over during the initial establishment period, Adenan said the government allowed 20 per cent of ‘plantable’ areas to be planted with oil palms that have a much shorter gestation period.
He said this concession was provided in addition to the 60-year tenure and substantial windfall derived from salvage logging of areas approved for tree planting or oil palm development.
On the issue of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, Adenan said it had already been factored into the allocation of land and was one of the reasons why the state government only targeted to plant one million hectares out of almost three million hectares of land alienated.
“I can only offer you this truism, most issues become problems only if such issues are not properly managed and mitigated,” he added.
The second area to be considered, he continued, is profitability of the business of planting trees.
“We seem to hear this more than before that planting of trees is not a profitable business.
“In fact it can be profitable provided that the right species are planted in the right place and provided that the plantation is well planned and well managed,” he said, while citing the many success stories associated with planted forest industries in the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand and Vietnam.
With 12 months of sunshine and rain, relatively cheap labour and a supportive government, he said the planted forest industry here was quite profitable.
The third area that needed to be taken into account is Research and Development (R&D), he said.
The state government, he added, had recently commissioned a study as well as a state-wide inventory on planting materials in the state as it had been reported that most R&D programmes were mere start-ups or were allocated with very limited resources.
He said seed testing, which is critical for quality control, was carried out in only a few licensed planted forests (LPF) operations.
“It would appear to me that a majority of LPF holders are more concerned with quantity than quality.
“How can we have sustainability and profitability if we don’t care about the quality of what we plant and if we don’t invest in R&D to look after our plantations well,” Adenan pointed out.
As R&D is expensive, he said Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) had been commissioned to address the reported shortage of high quality planting materials and fast-track the R&D capacities.
He thus hoped the industry would respond positively to this government initiative that would cost millions to run over the next year or two.
The fourth area to be considered, he added, is unwavering commitment of LPF owners.
“Everything will come to nought if we keep pointing fingers and coming up with excuses for our failures,” he said, referring to what would happen if LPF owners were not committed to their tree planting plans.
Lastly, the fifth key area to be taken into account, he said, is other stakeholders’ participation.
“Forestry is a very important economic sector in Sarawak. All of us, the government, the LPF holders, the local communities and other stakeholders have to get our act together to safeguard the wellbeing of this important economic sector,” he added.
Also present were Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Saleh, Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment permanent secretary Datu Sudarsono Osman and Sarawak Forests director Sapuan Ahmad.