Today – after eight years of advocacy, the Friends of Kota Damansara have finally managed to get the Selangor state government to re-gazette the Kota Damansara forest in Petaling Jaya as a permanent reserve forest with an area of 321.7 ha (795 acres).

Originally known as the Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve, the forest was first gazetted in 1898 with an area of 6,590 ha. It holds the enviable record as the oldest gazetted forest in Malaysia until 1983 when half of the original reserve was excised for agriculture. In 1992 1,600ha was given to PKNS for the Kota Damansara township, while in 1993 the former state government excised 402.6ha from the forest reserve for a botanical garden.

The plan for a botanical garden was later cancelled and development proposals for the parcel were published in May 2002. The residents then staged their first protest. In March 2004, the state government promised that the land would be left as ‘Taman Botani’. However in December 2007, the Draft Petaling Jaya Local Plan 2020 was published zoning nearly the whole of the parcel for residential development with only a small area for recreation.

The potential destruction of the Kota Damansara Forest has been an issue that had united the residents of Kota Damansara and which led to the formation of a coalition of 20 residents’ associations and environmental groups. The Malaysian Nature Society was approached to help in the conservation of the forest and through it the Global Environment Facility (GEF) offered two grants in 2004 to the residents in their quest to conserve the forest.

A third grant was given in 2008 and it was during the Earth Day celebrations in April 2009 that the Selangor mentri besar promised to re-gazette the forest. The final gazette was published on Feb 18, 2010 restoring the parcel to be a permanent forest reserve and categorised as an amenity, research and education forest.

I served as the community coordinator under all the three GEF grants and initiated the Green Voters Campaign for the last general election. Dialogue sessions were held with all the election candidates and a commitment in the form of a signed pledge to protect the forest through gazetting was presented by the residents. Out of four candidates, only two candidates signed the pledge.

The Kota Damansara Community Forest has become synonymous with their annual Earth Day celebrations. In view of the gazetting, this year the event is to be called ‘Mega Earth Day 2010' and instead of the normal one-day event, it will be for two days on April 24 and 25 (Saturday and Sunday).

It will starting with a musical concert and midnight movie on Saturday night while Sunday morning will see the ‘Mega Breakfast with the Mentri Besar’ event where over 500 people will have breakfast next to the forest before the start of the festivities for the day which will include a funfair, kayaking and nature walks.

The writer is co-chairperson, Friends of Kota Damansara