FOREST RESERVE TO STATE LAND TO MINING? LEASE GIVEN TO PAHANG ROYAL!

Yang Amat Mulia Tengku Puteri Seri Lela Manja, Tengku Dato’ Hajjah Nong Fatimah Binti Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta’in Billah, DK., SIMP.,

Until 2019, the Som Forest in Pahang, was designated as a permanent Forest Reserve. It is home to 15 threatened species, including tigers, elephants, tapirs, sun bears and leopards and is part of a wildlife corridor connecting key forests complexes in Peninsular Malaysia’s Central Forest Spine.

But land is a State matter. All it takes to degazette a piece of protected land is publicising its change of status in the government gazette. So why would the Pahang state government want to degazette the Som Permanent Forest Reserve, into state land?

Iron Ore Mining for a start?

An environmental report has revealed that one of the kerabat di raja of Pahang is requesting permission from the Department of Environment for a new iron ore mine in the middle of the once Permanent Som Forest Reserve!

Tengku Nong Fatimah Sultan Ahmad Shah, sister to Dollah. aka YDPA aka King, owns the site’s mining lease. She is married to Dato Haji Mohamed Moiz.

The proposed deforestation and excavation of 60.75 hectares (150 acres) in the Som Forest Reserve for a new iron ore mine will destroy an area the size of 113 football fields. It will result in:

1. Irreversible loss of habitat of the protected species in that area.

2. An increased risk of human-animal conflict due to them being pushed toward nearby plantations and residential areas.

3. The potential for disrupting a key wildlife corridor, and the “rampant” poaching of animals in and around the project area.

4. the proposed site is 500 meters (546 yards) from a salt lick visited by elephants, tapirs and sun bears. Salt licks are a key resource for animals to increase their mineral intake, and is protected from any man-made disturbance under the 2010 Wildlife Conservation Act.

5. Loss of habitat and negative impacts on flora and fauna — including a total of 188 fully protected species found in the proposed site.

6. This mine will affect the entire ecosystem, including poor rural villagers. Silt and sedimentation in the nearby Kerak and Pahang rivers could increase during site clearing and mining. This will pose a risk to villages downstream that depend on aquaculture. Residents are at risk of losing their homes and lives due to the increase in the frequency of flash floods that accompany deforestation. And proof of this this we have already seen in the recent floods.

Tun Putera Yasir Ahmad Shah bin Mohamed Moiz, is the nephew to the Sultan of Pahang, who is now the Yang di Pertuan Agong.

The project is awaiting approval from the Department of Environment.

Additional reading : https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/pahang-deforestation-adds-decades-indigenous-land-rights-struggle-malaysia

Hussein Hamid

16th January 2022

Melbourne.