The Association for Welfare Community and Dialogue urges all the state representatives of Perak to take heed of the petition signed by more than 5,000 concerned citizens who are against turning the Kledang Saiong forest into a timber-producing factory.
The petition was signed through change.org.
The project, which has already been awarded and currently awaiting environmental impact assessment approval involves the clear-felling of the existing forest of 4,280 hectares (the size of about 6,000 football fields) with a complete clearing of all vegetation for the development and operation of the forest plantation for 50 years.
The factual reality in the country with regard to floods in Johor and the east coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu and parts of Perak and the landslide in Batang Kali, Selangor, should compel people’s representatives to properly scrutinise our environmental landscape with regard to hilltop projects and create the necessary safeguards for not only our current generation but future generations.
Merely passing on the responsibility to the Department of Environment (DoE) for the environmental impact approval is irresponsible and goes against the holistic aspect of sustainable development.
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While the term sustainable development is usually propagated by political authorities to satisfy global trends, it is a pity that state assemblies like Perak’s do not debate and come to a proper understanding of what constitutes sustainable development.
We are still far away from the nitty-gritty aspects of sustainable development that start from protecting our basic natural resources, such as forests, which are made up of medicinal biodiversity that have links to public health and an ecosystem of life that protects the habitat, which sustains planet Earth. The forests contribute to preserving soil and absorbing water, and this protective element mitigates the impact that comes with a heavy downpour that sometimes results in floods.
Currently, there is a slogan to make Ipoh a green city, but there is a lack of understanding that unless there is a holistic approach to building the necessary foundation – by interlinking the various aspects of climate issues and adopting an interconnected approach to protecting the environment – we will only end up with deceptive slogans.
Hopefully, the Perak state assembly members will be able to persuade the Perak government to do away with the project of turning Kledang Siong into a commercial enterprise zone with a 50-year duration for commercial elites to meddle with the ecosystem.
These moves will put our current and future generations at risk of climate disasters.
Let us start adopting a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to the environment by saying no to the deforestation of Kledang Saiong.
All the assembly members in Perak should take up the responsibility of persuading the Perak government to do away with this project by making it an important agenda in the state assembly sitting. – Malaysiakini
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