In a post on Instagram, Tengku Amir Shah said some groups believe he was benefiting from the withdrawal of legal protection for the forest reserve.
Tengku Amir Shah, who is Raja Muda of Selangor, said: “I would like to make my position clear. I have no link to Gabungan Indah or any development project in the reserve.”
Gabungan Indah Sdn Bhd was named in a report by the New Straits Times as the company believed to have won the rights to develop 536.7 hectares of the forest into a mixed-commercial development.
Gabungan Indah is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vibrantscape Sdn Bhd, which in turn is 100% owned by Perdana Parkcity.
The Selangor government has since put on hold the controversial decision to de-gazette the reserve until it has reviewed issues that had been raised over the move.
Tengku Amir said he remained “deeply concerned” about the environment and about how development affected climate change.
Forest areas, especially peat swamps, played a vital role as carbon sinks to slow down the rate of global warming, he said.
The Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve is mainly peat swamp forest, with smaller areas of lowland dipterocarp forest. It has been home to the Temuan tribe of Orang Asli people for more than 150 years
Tengku Amir said: “Going forward, I wish everyone to pursue the most ambitious path. Make it all our responsibility to protect and rehabilitate as much of this land.”
A few days ago he had been linked by the Sarawak Report website to another company which was allegedly behind a decision to degazette the forest reserve.
The Selangor state assembly was told on Monday by the executive councillor for the environment, Hee Loy Sian, that the state government had agreed in May to degazette large swathes of the forest for development.
Hee, of PKR, is the assemblyman for Kajang.
He explained that the total area earmarked for redevelopment was now 54% of the 931.16 hectares that had been mooted earlier, and had taken into account objections that had been raised following the initial proposal.
This led to brickbats, including by a pro-Anwar Ibrahim group, Otai Reformis and the Coalition of Environmental NGOs, as well as threats of legal action.