Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) and the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) today said further disappointment was the allocation of loans to develop logging forests or plantation forests.
They said plantation forests would only impact communities who rely on the forests and as past experiences have shown adverse impacts when such a move has taken place.
“We are disappointed that there was no special mention to address climate change, with rising temperatures and increased rainfall intensities.
“Funds being allocated to develop ladang hutan or plantation forests are also equally disappointing, as in the past, it has brought adverse impact on the environment. Tree plantations are not forests,” CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader and SAM president Meenakshi Raman said in a joint statement today.
Ecotourism and Conservation Society Malaysia CEO Andrew Sebastian said the RM400 million set aside for all states for biodiversity protection was a good move by the government.
However, the money would not be enough to push states to convert key marine and forest sites into reserves.
Sebastian said the RM10 million funding to the outlying islands of Johor and Terengganu to deal with waste management was also good, but hoped the money won’t be used for an incinerator but used to push for no-plastic bag rulings and other recycling methods there.
“It seems the government has listened and put a lot of resources on local communities to invest in them. A lot of goodies have been given to NGOs, especially to help Orang Asli and to clean up rivers.
“I would like to see how the RM400 million for biodiversity protection would be spent and a roadmap of how this would be carried out,” he said.
In a nutshell, the 2021 budget allocated RM50 million to clean rivers of rubbish and waste; RM40 million to strengthen enforcement and monitoring activities; RM10 million for island waste management projects in Johor and Terengganu; RM400 million for all states for biodiversity protection and RM20 million for the hiring of 500 former soldiers and police, as well as Orang Asli, to patrol forests.