BESTARI JAYA, 1 June: The effort to identify is being performed by the state government on the status of forest land to be gazetted as permanent forest reserves in the state.

The Exco for Tourism, Environment, Green Technology and Consumer Affairs, Elizabeth Wong, said that this is in line with the state government’s commitment to maintain and increase the area of forest reserves to achieve a target of 35 percent.

“The 35 percent target is for the long term, for the period of a year or two this year; we set for it to increase to 32 percent,” she told Selangor Kini after the International Forest Fay Opening Ceremony at the Raja Musa Reserve Forest.

Elizabeth said that the state government is taking steps to offset development and conservation of forests.

“In case there are infrastructure projects by the state government, Federal government or even the private sector, we will make sure that the soil taken is replaced.

“The state government continues to support and welcome help and technical assistance from the Ministry, especially in projects related to eco-tourism and biodiversity.

At the event, Elizabeth also inaugurated the Paya Gambut Execllence Centre and planted 1,5000 saplings in the forest.

Also present was the Director of Forestry, Dr Mohd Puat Dahalan.

Permanent forests reserves in Selangor increased from 15,090 hectares to 18,998 hectares in 2009 including the Pulau Ketam Forest Reserve area which was gazetted as a permanent forest reserve on May 6, 2009, with an area of 2,365 hectares, which was originally government land.

Currently, the state government has reached 250,1287 hectares equivalent to 31,6 percent of the total land area.

NS