KOTA KINABALU – Sabah’s timber glory days may be within sight if private timber companies invest RM4 billion to plant 80 million trees.
This is to achieve the state’s target of producing eight million cubic metres of timber annually through its Industrial Tree Plantation (ITP) initiative.
Sabah chief forest conservator Datuk Frederick Kugan said that the state is targeting to have 400,000ha of ITP development in the state, which is about 5% of the total 7.4 million ha landmass in Sabah.
“The ITP will be the main source of future timber supply to sustain the forest industries and hence reducing the pressure on the natural forests and contributing towards forest conservation.
“Currently, Sabah has about 160,000ha of ITP established by SFM, which is rather slow as it averaged only 6,000ha annually since the inception of SFM in 1997,” said Kugan at the Sabah International Business Economic Summit, titled “Unlocking Sabah’s potential, unleashing business opportunities” held at the Sabah International Convention Centre here, today.
Kugan said that the department is targeting to fully develop the remaining 240,000ha within the shortest time possible to achieve a sustainable supply of 8 million cubic metres of timber annually.
“This is to realise a sustainable supply of planted timber at a scale that would encourage more downstream and high value-added investment and innovation, which is expected to contribute RM11.5 billion to the state’s GDP, which is an increase of about tenfold compared to the current GDP of RM1.7 billion,” he said.
Kugan added that it will also provide 80,000 job opportunities – 40,000 skilled and semi-skilled workers in the upstream sector in rural areas, and 40,000 workers in downstream forest industries created predominantly for Sabahans once the plantation and associated industries are fully developed.
“(If ITP is successful) the timber industries in Sabah will turn around as one of the main contributors for the socioeconomic development of the state,” he said.
However, he said the initiative requires existing players and new investors to increase the current planting capacity and scale up in developing forest plantations.
He said the Sabah Forestry Department will soon announce an action plan – a blueprint that would include details such as ITP strategies and an action plan, standard-setting and training for all practitioners in the new ITP economic values chain, transparency in the monitoring of progress and development, among other things.
Earlier, when launching the summit, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the ITP initiated by the Sabah Forestry Department is an economic game-changer, projected to earn RM7 billion per year from the export of timber products.
“The ITP initiative has a higher yield and shorter gestation period, which will be a game-changer to reviving Sabah’s timber industry to its former peak production of 12 million cubic metres in the 1980s.
“The ITP is also crucial for conservation and sustainability. By planting trees in areas degraded by logging activities, it will go a long way in achieving a carbon-neutral nation by as early as 2050,” Hajiji said. – The Vibes, January 17, 2022
