PARLIAMENT | The federal government has no intention to pay compensation to state governments which gazette forests as permanent reserves and are unable to generate revenue from forest products, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr A Xavier Jayakumar said it is the responsibility of the state governments to retain the forests as water catchment areas.

The state governments can take advantage of the forest reserves by promoting ecotourism and finding other avenues for generating revenue, without having to depend on forest products, he said during the minister’s question time in the Dewan.

“Promote ecotourism and such. Nowadays, foreigners are interested in ecotourism. They want to pay top dollar to live in the jungle,” he said when replying to a supplementary question from Hasan Arifin (BN-Rompin).

Hasan wanted to know whether it is appropriate for the federal government to pay compensation to state governments which gazette forests as permanent reserves.

Xavier said the country has 18.24 million ha of forests, which makes up 55.52 percent of the total land area. 

- Bernama