A petition with 82,715 signatures to save the Temenggor Forest Reserve has been handed over to the state government.
The campaign initiated by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) together with its partner The Body Shop Malaysia had collected the signatures for six months since April last year.
The collective signatures were from The Body Shop customers obtained through physical and online petitions and handed over to state Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Hamidah Osman at the state secretariat building yesterday.
MNS president Assoc Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed, in his speech, said the Save Temenggor campaign, originally launched in 2006, was pursued after the Royal Belum State Park was gazetted in 2007.
He said only a third of the forest reserve was protected and the remaining two-thirds remained vulnerable to a host of threats particularly logging and poaching activities.
He said the 300,000ha Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex (BTFC) was the country’s pride and at 130 million years old, it was older than the Amazon and the Congo Basins.
“We will continue to reiterate our stand in advocating for Temenggor to be safeguarded in preserving the integrity of the BTFC as an intact forest landscape,” he said.
At a press conference later, Hamidah said she would bring up the matter at the next state executive councillors meeting to pass the message to Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.
Hamidah said the state government was also concerned about preserving the forest and hoped to come up with a win-win situation for the betterment of all parties.
She said the state government was aware of illegal logging being carried out and had instructed the relevant authorities to enhance enforcement activities and to closely monitor the situation.
