Illegal logging on Betong-Thai border

SEIZED: Perak MB checking piles of illegal timber at the Sama Gagah forest reserve

PENGKALAN HULU(PERAK): A logging concessionaire will be taken to task for encroaching a forest reserve at the Malaysian border checkpoint.

Perak Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the company was permitted to log up to 70ha at the Sama Gagah forest reserve but had instead encroached into another 62ha.

“708 logs worth RM270,000 were seized,” he told reporters after checking the concessionaire’s storage area at Matau state land in Pengkalan Hulu 1km away from the Thai border.

Zambry said the logging permit has been suspended, with the case pending investigation under the National Forestry Act 1948.

“If the concessionaire is found guilty, the permit will be immediately revoked,he said. Zambry, who refused to elaborate, however, said the concessionaire had other logging projects in Perak.

He said the state government found it difficult to detect logging activities in sprawling Perak.

He said this prompted the setting up of a yearly allocation meant for satellite surveillance.

Zambry was on a two-day working trip with members of the media to Royal Belum and Pengkalan Hulu.

Organisers of the trip, organised to check environmental matters and curb illegal logging activities, also hoped to help generate sustainable tourism activities in Perak.