The 4,280ha forest plantation project at the Kledang Saiong forest reserve is being proposed by four companies, whose EIA report was released by the Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday.

Adam Farhan, the director of Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP), said the project site lies in a “Rank 2” environmentally sensitive area. He said that according to the Perak State Structural Plan, development and plantation projects should not be carried out in such areas.

Adam said only reduced-impact logging activities could be carried out within these areas, as opposed to the project’s plan to clear-cut, terrace and establish plantations in a location nearly the size of Putrajaya.

He said forest plantations were supposed to be established only in “degraded forests”. According to Global Forest Watch, he said, the Kledang Saiong forest reserve recorded only 512ha of losses in forest coverage from 2001 to 2021.

“Therefore, there is no justification in the first place to convert the area from a forest to a plantation,” he told FMT.

He claimed the proposed forest plantation project was “an ill-disguised greenwashing scheme” as plantations should not be regarded as forests, let alone forest reserves.

The widely accepted UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s definition of a forest excludes areas predominantly used for agriculture, he said.

“This EIA should be rejected since forest plantations drive deforestation in the country,” Adam said.

“The EIA’s repeated claim that the project reduces the pressure on other forests and ensures timber supply is untrue as RDP’s data shows that the primary driver of deforestation in Peninsular Malaysia are forest plantations themselves.

“Based on our preliminary data, up to 70% of deforestation can be attributed to these (forest plantations). How can forest plantations reduce pressure on other forests when they are themselves the primary pressure?”

He also cited the climate and biodiversity crises faced by the country as another reason why the project should not be approved.

FMT is withholding the names of the companies and the consultant that prepared the EIA report pending comments.

DoE shared a link to a public feedback form for the proposed forest plantation project.

Contacted by FMT, natural resources, environment and climate change minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the ministry would respond to the matter.