KUALA LUMPUR – The Environment Department (DoE) has approved 46 environment impact assessment (EIA) reports for land projects in Pahang, including for logging and agricultural development.
Despite denials by the Pahang Forestry Department that the recent spate of massive flooding was caused by excessive logging and land-clearing activities, the DoE’s own records show that not only were logging and land-clearing activities taking place – some of them were even approved by the DoE.
Photographs of logs washed up by floods are spreading on social media and have courted concerns about environmental destruction in Pahang, with netizens speculating that the logs and wood chips washed away by floodwaters were the result of rampant illegal logging.
Documents obtained by The Vibes, however, indicate that some of these activities may have had the necessary go-ahead by the authorities.
The Pahang Forestry Department has rubbished the allegations, blaming landslides for the flood debris in Bentong, and further emphasising that no illegal logging activities were taking place at the Lentang Forest Reserve.
However, it was only a year ago that this same department issued a stop-work order against a logging company tasked with clearing forests at the same reserve.
Additionally, in 2015, the Association for the Protection of Natural Heritage of Malaysia threatened to furnish evidence that logging activities were indeed taking place at the Lentang Forest Reserve.
Such activities were not isolated to Lentang, as the Pahang government is aware of the rampancy of these environmentally destructive activities.
In 2019, Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail stated that 2,530ha of forest reserves in the state had already been encroached upon.
The EIA obtained by The Vibes is a frightening indictment of the authorities’ dereliction of duty in protecting the environment and perhaps its complicity in contributing to the recent flooding in Pahang, which has taken 20 lives.
Among the projects that have been approved are:
- Land clearing and logging on a 96.16ha slope in Cameron Highlands for a waste sediment disposal facility by Tenaga Nasional Bhd
- Logging concession to Seruan Gemilang Sdn Bhd to log 3,844ha of the Bukit Ibam Forest Reserve in Rompin
- Logging concession to Persatuan Peniaga Melayu Bersatu Pahang (PPMB) over 217.70ha of state land in Hulu Tembeling
- Logging concession to Golden Prosperous Resources Sdn Bhd involving 124.38ha of the Bukit Ibam Forest Reserve
While only three logging concession EIAs have received approval from the DoE, 14 assents were given to forest plantation development activities in forest reserves.
These agricultural projects include:
- 396.85ha of the Krau Forest Reserve in Temerloh to Gemilang Krai Sdn Bhd
- 117.17ha of the Lakum Forest Reserve in Temerloh to Kemudi Pertama Sdn Bhd
- 483 ha of the Tekai Tembeling Forest Reserve in Jerantut to Kerjaya Jutamas Sdn Bhd
- 435.8 ha of the Tekam Forest Reserve in Jerantut to Akokaya Sdn Bhd
- 400.51 ha of the Tenggalan Forest Reserve in Lipis to Casa Tropical Enterprise
- 486.45 ha of the Lepar Forest Reserve in Pekan to Liew Trading
In total, it is understood that the DoE received 74 EIA reports this year, approving 46. – The Vibes, December 31, 2021
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