By Norrasyidah Arshad
SHAH ALAM, Feb 7 — The Selangor State Forestry Department has denied claims made by several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that permanent forest reserves (HSK) land are being sold online.
This follows a survey study conducted by Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP) that identified 43,539 hectares of HSK land, including in Selangor, were sold commercially on several websites, including Facebook, last year.
The department director Datuk Ahmad Fadzil Abdul Majid said the location identified for sale was not of HSK status as gazetted under the Selangor National Forestry Act (Adoption) Enactment 1985.
"There are two locations in Selangor that were alleged to have been advertised through the website for sale, which is in Pulau Indah (Pulau Lumut) with an area of 192 hectares and Puncak Alam with an area of 72 hectares.
"Based on our checks, the two locations are not of HSK status," said Ahmad Fadzil in a statement yesterday.
Commenting further, he said HSK areas in Selangor had been increased to 250,250.29 hectares last year, as a result of the Selangor government's continuous commitment through several initiatives implemented since 2010.
He said the efforts included the enforcement of a moratorium on logging in HSK for 25 years and the amendment to the Selangor National Forestry Act (Adoption) Enactment 1985 in 2011, which requires any degazettement of HSK to go through a public inquiry.
"Besides that, the degazetted HSK needs to be replaced with an area of equivalent, more or equal in value to ensure that natural treasures continue to be preserved in a transparent, efficient and sustainable manner," he said.
On Friday, several NGOs involving residents associations and environmental activists wanted authorities to investigate the alleged commercial sale of forest land in the peninsula.
The group also demanded that the matter be made public and wanted appropriate action to be taken if there was a violation of the law.
