Not all timber companies guilty of global environment degradation, - TopicsExpress



          

Not all timber companies guilty of global environment degradation, says minister KUCHING: Special Functions Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem has come to the defence of timber companies, saying most, if not all, of them comply with the requirements of both local and international regulations. He said certain parties, especially the foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), should not make timber companies in Sarawak the culprit of global environment degradation. He said local timber companies also believed in sustainable development and economic development. “So, don’t just point your fingers at them. May be some of them are, but not all. Many of them are conscious of the environment and sustainable forest management. “Many of them have also been doing tree replanting,” he said at the opening of seminar on Heart of Borneo (HoB) here yesterday. Adenan, who is Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department, said some of the timber companies in Sarawak had played an important role in the existence of accessibility in the remote areas. He said the companies had built roads and when they abandoned them, the government could improve them for the people to use. The existence of timber roads had made it easier for the Government to bring development into the rural areas, for the people from different settlements to travel and visit each other, to go to towns for pleasure, medical treatments or meet government officials and for more children to attend school, he elaborated Adenan said the timber companies had made significant contributions to the rural economy. He said they had helped improve the living standard of the rural populations by creating opportunities for employment, apart from various other forms of assistance. He went on to assure that the state would manage its timber industry in a sustainable manner. Adenan said as a developing nation, it was a difficult task striking a balance between the need to protect the environment and the necessity to attain a high standard of development. He said for Sarawak, a lot of effort had been made to conserve and protect its forest areas. He said this could be seen from its extensive network of Permanent Forest Estate (PFE) and Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) to meet the needs of the people now and in the future. He noted that the state had designated six million hectares as PFE and one million hectares as TPAs.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 09:57:41 +0000

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