We refer to an article entitled Wildlife reserve? Heads it is, tails it isn't , ( Malaysiakini , Nov 8, 2010). We appreciate the concerns raised by the writer and would like to provide our comments with regards to the issues highlighted.

Chior Wildlife Reserve was the first wildlife reserve site to be gazetted in 1903 under Gazette Notification No 493 and was regazetted in 1910. The same area was gazetted as a forest reserve in 1914. The original area was 4,330 ha but has decreased gradually as some areas were removed for agriculture and other purposes.

The remaining area stands at 689 ha. Most of the development took place before 1972 when the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) was still an agency under the State. The reserve mainly consist of lowland and hill tropical rainforest surrounded by villages, rubber and oil palm plantation while being adjacent to the Korbu Forest Reserve.

The officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Perak conducted a check with the Forest Ranger Office at Lasah, Sungai Siput on 21 September 2010. The permission to log the area was granted to a college by the Perak Forestry Department headquarters in Ipoh based on the feedback from the State Land and Mineral office and approval to change the land ownership by the state executive council.

Records obtained from the land office in Sungai Siput Utara revealed that the affected land in the wildlife reserve was allocated to the said college based on the approval by the state executive council.

Despite the size of the land , we believe that its presence could still contribute to the conservation of biodiversity in the state. In this regard, we would like to seek the cooperation of the state government to maintain and protect the wildlife reserve for our future generations.

The author writes from the corporate communications unit of the Ministry Of Natural Resources and Environment.