Logging Kenyir

The Yang diPertuan Agong's home state losing its wilderness. The Star has an excellent write-up here (Lost Wilderness, by Tan Cheng Li, 26/5/09) on some UFOs (unexplained felling operations) that are threatening Terengganu's reknowned Kenyir.

There are enough hints in the article to suggest that someone, or a group of someones, is making tonnes where they shouldn't, at the expense of Mother Nature and all of us in general.

"As if it is not bad enough that over 6,130ha of wilderness will have to make way for the two reservoirs, the Terengganu state government intends to log another 12,620ha around the inundated area.

Much is at stake: forests and riverine habitats, together with the flora and fauna within. What worries conservationists is that the forest here is among the last few refuges of the highly endangered Sumatran rhinoceros, Malayan tiger and Malayan gaur (seladang). It also harbours the Asian elephant, tapir, primates, wild cats and plants, of which 94 species are Red Listed as threatened by extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Last November, Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said told The Star that the logging was to prevent loss of timber revenue when the area is submerged – but he failed to explain why the state is allowing logging of an extra 12,620ha outside of the 6,130ha that would be flooded."

I'm very interested on who these logging companies belong to. I hope The Star follows this up with the MB. Surely, he knows who the loggers are and, more importantly, who the people behind these loggers are.