In this edition, we look at the need for sustainable forest management
programs in view of damaging foresting practices.
In 2000, the United Nations created a forum to promote sustainable forest
management practices by governments. In December this year, the bi-annual event
will see the drafting of a new international agreement highlighting the
importance of voluntary national measures.
Hamidon Ali is the Vice Chair of the UN Forum on Forests, and Malaysia's
Ambassador to the United Nations. He explains to UN Radio.
HA: Now we say yes, we have to work together to make sure our forests are
sustainable, that there will be forests for the future generation and we realize
how important forests are to us, therefore this non-legal binding instrument is
the beginning of a very important process to ensure that countries around the
world around the globe work together to help one another to maintain their
forests, at the same time to allow them to exploit the forest but not to damage
the forests.
Citing Malaysia as an example, Ambassador Ali stresses that 55% of Malaysia's
land is covered by forest. And this, he added, has allowed for economic
development.
HA: In our case for example we are now able to produce bio-fuel from palm oil
and this is good and also from the rubber trees before we tapped rubber for the
latex, now we are using rubber trees as a source of timber. So this again makes
us less dependent on natural forests - we can use rubber trees as a source of
timber and for our furniture industry.
Apart from that, the international forest agreement will seek to protect the
livelihoods of forest dwellers. In Malaysia, the indigenous people living on the
island of Borneo are one group which has lived off the natural forestry
economically, spiritually and culturally. But problems like illegal logging,
pollution have greatly depleted the forest resources.
Ambassador Ali reveals that Malaysia is working at the government level to
reduce these negative impacts.
HA: In our case the situation is much more complex because we are a federal
system, we have 13 states and states have sovereign rights over land and forests
is part of that. So we have to negotiate at the federal level with state
authorities to ensure that when we develop projects of such type that people are
not adversely affected because there are people really depend on forests, the
forest dwellers: you cannot remove the trees otherwise they will not survive.
But many are already move out, meaning they are integrated in the mainstream and
they have children sent to boarding school and eventually the next generation
will not live off the forest but integrated into nation economic activities of
the country but not necessarily having to live day to day living in the forest.
Besides deforestation, another environmental problem plaguing the South East
Asian region is the haze.
Every year during the dry season, farmers in Indonesia will slash and burn
forests for agriculture - bringing about the haze problem.
In 2002, the Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN signed an
agreement on trans-boundary haze but two countries have yet to ratify the treaty
- Indonesia and the Philippines.
Ambassador Ali suggests that Indonesia can do more to manage the fires used to
clear land. He added that Malaysia is offering help to Indonesia through high
end technology.
HA: For example if there's a fire, we will send our fire fighters to help you,
try to work on technology to enable them to be less dependent on the burning as
a way of clearing land - we are telling our plantation owners for example - a
lot of Malaysian plantation owners have moved to Indonesia - to grow oil palms
for them to also be careful about the means of clearing land you must use a
sustainable method not that something will cause havoc in the environment.
That was Malaysia's Ambassador to the United Nations, Hamidon Ali. With that we
end EYE ON ASIA on Radio Singapore International.