THERE is an urgent need to review and amend laws to better protect the forest and environment against rampant logging and deforestation, said environmental activists.

They said the government must also have adequate adaptation policies for climate change to increase society’s resilience to climate change.

They said failure of the government to properly handle issues of deforestation and logging was a factor for the worsening flood situation in the country, especially in the east coast states.

Pahang, especially, has been hit hard by the floods this year, with thousands forced to evacuate from their homes.

Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil, president of the Association for the Protection of the Natural Heritage of Malaysia (Peka), said the flood situation could get worse in years to come if concrete actions are not taken.

She said that the government should learn from past lessons and take immediate action to review and amend the federal constitution and the Forestry Act 1984 to transfer power over forests from the states to the federal government among others.

She also said that the act was almost 40 years old and had become irrelevant in their efforts to conserve and protect forests.

“As long as we don’t amend the federal constitution and the Forestry Act 1984, there is no way we can save the forests.

“Under the Malaysian constitution, forest management falls under the purview of the states, but it should be made to fall under the federal government.

“We will end up losing all our natural resources, and we will be poor, and this kind of disaster will continue to happen if this is not done.

“At the end of the day, who is suffering? All the people in the kampung (village),” she told The Malaysian Insight.

She said the acts of certain greedy individuals have resulted in people, especially villagers, suffering and called on the government to intervene and put a stop to these activities immediately.

“I would 100% say that these floods were caused due to rampant deforestation and logging activities.

“I’ve been fighting and screaming all this while because I know all this was coming.

“This situation could (eventually) worsen every year if we do not put a stop on logging activities,” said Shariffa who had previously complained in November that a logging company had encroached upon her land and polluted a nearby river in Bentong.

Several states have been accused of “selling off” their forested areas to private entities who then either log the trees or turn the areas into plantations or orchards.

Kedah and Kelantan have long been accused of allowing their forests to be destroyed in such a manner while recent aerial photographs over Pahang also showed forests being cut off for development, especially in Maran and Raub, two of the worst hit flood areas.

Failure to increase ecosystem’s resilience

Meanwhile, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) president Meena Raman said deforestation was a major factor that caused the massive floods this year.

“Deforestation, logging or anything that we do to interfere with the ability of land and forest to absorb or be a sponge, will definitely lead to floods of a kind that would be much worse in terms of impact because they would not be able to cope with the additional water that comes.

“Apart from logging and deforestation, all kinds of infrastructure changes like paving roads everywhere and others are done without respect for the capacity of the forest and land to cope with increased runoff.

“We are not paying attention to these,” she said.

Meena also said that Malaysia has failed to increase the ecosystem resilience that would essentially help it cope with changes in the climate.

“We are not sufficiently paying attention to the vulnerabilities that states are going to face due to rising climate change.

“Climate change will bring about higher risks, such as increasing rainfall that result in floods.

“Hence, instead of increasing its resilience, we are undermining it. This is a huge problem that must be addressed with urgency,” she said, while calling the government to produce its National Climate Change Adaptation Policy.

She added that states should take into consideration the adaptation policy and build resilience by halting logging and conversion of forests.

The objective of the adaptation policy is to reduce the country’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change by building adaptive capacity and resilience.

To date, Malaysia has yet to draw up such a policy or plan.

Flooding in Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Perak and Johor continued to worsen in the past few days, which led to about 50,000 people evacuated to relief centres. – January 9, 2021.