Following the cabinet decision to ban all types of logging in the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve in Kedah, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) has proposed that the whole area be managed as a state park.

Its president Dr Salleh Mohd Nor said adjacent forest reserves could function as a buffer zone for the Ulu Muda area, the state's main water catchment network with three reservoirs.

On Monday, Primary Industries Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik announced the ban o­n all types of logging, including the Kedah government's heli-logging proposal, to preserve water quality in the 122,798-hectare area where timber was to have been harvested. The state will be compensated.

'Strengthen decision'

Salleh said the decision should be further strengthened by classifying the area as a water catchment forest under the National Forestry Act 1984 which requires a gazette notification to de-classify or excise the forest.

"As a state park, the issue of national water and food security will not be compromised, with income to the state and locals through low-impact nature activities, a wildlife sanctuary and a tourist haven," he said in a statement welcoming the cabinet's intervention.

He said the Ulu Muda heli-logging proposal was a test case for the government's commitment to protect catchment forests.

"If logging is allowed, it will set a precedent for other states to follow, and catchment forests will no longer be safe against the chainsaw," he said.

"Against the backdrop of drying reservoirs, siltation of rivers and water scarcity, logging in catchment forests should not even be contemplated, much less practised."

Salleh said the conversion of lowland forests to other land uses and the over-logging of production forests have left catchment forests vulnerable and threatened.

"The issue cannot be seen with levity anymore, as we cannot afford to lose any more forests to development," he said.

"The reason that states are logging or converting their forest is due to the lack of incentives to conserve (such areas) as water catchments, wildlife reserves or for other national purposes."

Salleh said a policy change was necessary to provide compensatory revenue for states to protect their forests.

Other proposals

The New Straits Times ( NST ) reported o­n Monday that the Kedah government would have earned more than RM6 million annually from the Ulu Muda heli-logging project.

The proposal, which had been scheduled for implementation in two phases over 10 years, would have involved the construction of about 40km of logging tracks and the harvesting of three trees per 0.4ha.

Kedah Menteri Besar Syed Razak Syed Zain was quoted as saying that the state would discuss other proposals with the federal government o­n how to generate income from the natural resources in the total forest area of 400,000ha.

After the first environmental impact assessment (EIA) was rejected by the Department of Environment in February, the state said early this month that it would submit a new EIA proposal.

The NST also quoted WWF Malaysia as saying that heli-logging could severely damage the forests by removing about four million trees in order to build the logging tracks, an activity more damaging than the actual timber extraction itself.

The environmental group also cautioned that there were no guidelines for helicopter logging in Peninsular Malaysia.