PUTRAJAYA — More than five million hectares of forest in Malaysia to date are certified under the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said efforts to introduce forest certification in compliance with forest sustainability in Malaysia began as early as 1994 when a set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management were formulated.
Malaysia, he said, had been practising sustainable forest management (SFM) since 1901 and the overall harvesting of timber in Malaysia was based on each state's stipulated quota that was approved by the National Land Council and adopted by the respective states.
He said Malaysia is committed to maintaining at least 50 per cent of the country's land area with forest and tree covers in line with the pledge made at the Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro in 1992 through SFM.
"With more than 50 per cent forest and tree cover, Malaysia's forest can help in limiting global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius.
“Currently, Malaysia's forest cover is at 55.31 per cent with an area of 18.27 million hectares,” he added when launching Nestle Malaysia's Project RELeaf at Taman Rimba Alam, here, today. — Bernama, September 21, 2020
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