The Government has declared war on illegal loggers who are saboteurs of the country’s environmental conservation efforts.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said illegal logging was still a major problem, with more than 80 cases reported in the last two years.
“Illegal loggers are scuttling our attempts at conservation and we feel that it is time to be more aggressive against them,” he said after launching the National Level International Forestry Year in Nusajaya here yesterday.
Besides strengthening enforcement efforts, Douglas said the ministry was also finalising the amendments to the Forestry Act to ensure stricter penalties.
He expressed hope that the proposed amendments would be brought to Parliament by year end.
He said that one amendment called for imposing “stricter liability” on those suspected of illegal logging.
This means the suspects will have to prove where they got the logs from.
“This is important because currently, we face a challenge in proving that the logs are actually taken from prohibited areas,” he said.
Another proposed amendment called for slapping those caught being involved in illegal logging with fines of up to a maximum of RM1mil as compared to the current RM500,000.
“We are also pushing for the minimum jail term to be increased from one year to five years.”
Douglas said illegal logging had affected Government projects such as sustainable forest management and the creation of a central forest spine (an area of linked forest areas spanning the peninsula).
He added that illegal logging also posed problems to the ministry’s National Tiger Conservation Action Plan, which aimed to have 1,000 tigers in the forests here by 2020.
