Satellite photos confirm widespread logging on Umno’s land

Satellite photos confirm widespread logging on Umno’s land
Steven Gan
1060203730
exclusive In the movie ‘Signs’, a Pennsylvanian family discovered huge crop circles on their cornfield, left there by aliens. Malaysia, too, has one such ‘sign’. This one, however, is the work of humans, and instead of circles, it is an oblong square.
The ‘sign’ is revealed in satellite images obtained by malaysiakini of a virgin forest given to the ruling Umno party in Pahang that has been systematically logged over the past years.
What is left now is a huge oblique patch - about 60 sq km in size - visible from space.
The bright green plot, as seen in the satellite photos, is what was once 10,000 acres of virgin peat swamp forest in southeast Pahang, which had been methodically clear-felled.
On paper, the Umno Pahang land should be about 40 sq km, but it appears to be closer to 60 sq km in the satellite images.
Industry sources said this could be because loggers might have encroached into the neighbouring forest reserve and wiped out a large slice of the protected wetland.
- Oldest peat swamp forest
- Close-up shows canals, tracks
- Images: Before and after