MIRI: Degraded logging concession areas in Sarawak and Sabah will be replanted with high-grade fast-growing trees so that the two states will become the nation’s main suppliers of secondary timber logs. 

Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said his ministry had set a target of creating at least 375,000ha of replanted forests within the next 15 years. 

“Sarawak and Sabah have the land size necessary to create these huge secondary forests where we can extract timber from replanted trees. 

“These forest plantations will help supplement our timber wood supply and reduce dependency on timber from primary jungles. 

“The Government wants to ensure we do not face any future shortage of timber supply, that is why we need to have fast-growing species of trees to replenish our forests,” he said in Miri recently. 

Chin said that timber companies must be more actively involved in replanting jungles that had been cut down. 

Timber operators cannot expect to continue cutting down trees from primary jungles as there was a need to preserve and conserve natural forests, he stressed. 

“We cannot rely on primary forests to sustain the timber industry in the long term. The era of cheap and abundant supply of timber is over,” he said. 

Chin said the ministry was aware it would cost a lot to jumpstart the creation of replanted forests as it required huge financial capital. 

His ministry, he said, had allocated RM200mil to facilitate the long-term development of replanted forests. 

This amount, he noted, would be used as capital to create 36,000ha of replanted forests over the next two years. 

The ministry had identified a few high-grade fast-growing species of trees and would recommend that timber companies plant these species in areas that had been logged, he said. 

He said that species such as acacia, kelampong and rubber could yield good harvests within 15 years.