World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF) conservation director Henry Chan said if the authorities continued with the business-as-usual attitude, there will be more forests facing destruction.
“We are deeply concerned with forest loss in Malaysia. We need to accept the fact that Malaysia’s forest loss must command a sense of urgency within the country,” he said in a statement today.
He added that commercial agriculture is the leading cause of global forest destruction, particularly true in Malaysia where land is cleared to make room for livestock and crop farming.
“It is a matter of grave concern. We are working with the government and relevant stakeholders to mitigate our forest loss, and to replenish what is lost from nature by forest restoration.”
The group said they have developed a 10-year strategy with three main goals for Malaysia.
The first is for at least 50% of the country to be legislated under natural forest cover by 2030, with 48% of the country already legislated under various categories of Protected Areas and Permanent Reserved Forests.
“Legislation must include the need to protect, conserve and manage large blocks of contiguous lush forests for provision of ecosystem services and wildlife habitats, and restore degraded areas to improve forest cover.
“Other smaller blocks of forest are needed to provide for urban parks and recreational forests,” WWF said.
The group added that the next step is to carry out at least one million hectares of habitat restoration, by reversing land degradation.
Lastly, in addition to 20% legislated as protected areas , as stipulated by the National Policy on Biological Diversity, WWF advocates for 60% of the country’s landmass to be sustainably managed in order to boost the green economy, evenly divided between the forestry and agricultural sector.
This approach would not only safeguard the availability and sustainability of natural resources, he said, but would also preserve wildlife and the key ecological functions of forest areas.
It added that these goals were reliant on government cooperation as well as “a shift in the general attitude of Malaysians towards forests.”