KUALA LUMPUR – The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry is always strengthening synergies with state governments through various initiatives to enhance forest management and conservation, said its Minister Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah.
He said that although no special allocation had been set aside for the state governments as compensation for efforts on forest management and conservation, the federal government had, on average, consistently allocated a development budget of RM1.54 billion for forest conservation since 2010.
“The federal government had also introduced the Ecological Fiscal Transfer for Biodiversity Conversation (EFT) in 2019, with a RM60 million allocation to encourage state governments to gazette protected areas, which are crucial to ecosystem services, including as areas for water catchment and wildlife protection.
“This allocation has been distributed to the state governments through the Economic, Infrastructure and Welfare Development-Based Grants,” he said in a statement today, in response to a newspaper report on the matter yesterday.
He said the EFT initiative would be continued in 2021 with an allocation of RM70 million as an additional incentive to state governments, to implement programmes and projects to ensure biodiversity sustainability.
Shamsul Anuar said the ministry would also implement the Greening Malaysia Programme from January 2021 via the 100 Million Tree-Planting Campaign under the 12thh Malaysia Plan to increase forest cover, conserve biodiversity and raise awareness among the people. – Bernama, December 18, 2020
