I refer to the recent news of forest clearing for plantation at Johor's Sembrong Forest Reserve.

It is totally mind boggling that the logging license has been issued although the Environmental Management Plan has yet to be received and approved by the authority.

What will happen to Malaysia's reputation in terms of forest and wildlife conservation at the international level?

What is the main purpose to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) if the process is not being respected?

Malaysia houses one of the world's oldest and pristine tropical rainforests and is blessed with ample rainfall that ensures our water security.

It is to shameful to see that weak enforcement and lack of coordination between government agencies to cause this kind of activity is being carried out just for the sake of economy development, regardless of the survivability of the endangered wildlife, and the destruction of natural water catchment areas.

According to the Forestry Department, rubber plantations within forest reserves have increased from 2,195ha in 2005 to 17,443ha in 2007.

This has shown that massive deforestation has occur for agriculture land conversion within two years.

Moreover, instead of protecting the natural forest cover in Malaysia, the National Forestry Act does not specify that permanent reserve forests should consist of only natural forests.

Forests act as the natural flood control system where excessive water absorbed by the tree roots and control the water volume into the river and eventually lower the risk of flooding. Further clearing at the forest reserve might cause the 2007 Kota Tinggi massive flooding episode to happen again.

Furthermore, forests serve mainly as the habitat for wildlife and are natural water catchment areas and therefore must be gazetted and freed from any development to ensure the quality of the surface water.

Strict forestry regulations and laws must be implemented, enforced and amended accordingly and timely. The EIA process and report must be respected and not just for the sake of reporting.

Information such as location and features of the gazetted areas must be listed and published publicly for the purpose of education, awareness, and to instill a sense of ownership in the public.

We will be the world limelight for the wrong reasons if we fail to come out with a sustainable and holistic solution regarding this matter.

Foon Weng Lian is policy and research executive for Forum Air Malaysia.