Rural folks as Gaharu millionaires
Published on: Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: The State Government plans to turn rural folks into millionaires by developing Gaharu (Agarwood) plantations in Sabah, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (pic).To date, some 250 hectares of owned land and another 100 hectares of forest reserve land in the State have been planted with the prized commodity."And currently there are 68 registered gaharu planters with 45,000 trees," he said, in his winding up speech during the debate to amend the Forest Enactment 1968, at the State Legislative Assembly sitting, Tuesday.
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"If we work on it on a big scale, I am confident it will yield good results."Gaharu wood, he said, is categorised into several categories and the price for Grade A can reach RM100,000 per kg."This source of wealth which is unknown to some, can be planted in our own backyard."And that is what we are looking into, wealth which can be created by people who do not have to plant gaharu on big pieces of land.
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"If villagers can produce not only a kg of gaharu wood, but 100kg of it, imagine the income that they can obtain in a month," he said.Recalling an Orang Asli from Pahang whom he helped many years ago, Shafie said the individual is now a millionaire through gaharu trade.
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"When I visited him again, I was told that his gaharu business has expanded to other states in Malaysia, apart from Pahang. Aside from that, he is also involved in various other businesses."I am confident if we take positive measures such as the amendment of the Forest Enactment 1968, we can produce millionaires in villages."He said it is important to control gaharu wood so that it will not be stolen by irresponsible quarters which could also affect its production."Early measures have to be taken to ensure the future of gaharu in Sabah. And that is why we need a comprehensive law on it," he said.Meanwhile, Shafie said the Government will look into helping villagers who are living in forest reserves."We take note that villagers who built their homes on lands long before they were gazetted as forest reserve."The government will look into this matter and I am sure we will protect these villagers who had settled in these lands…steps will be taken as I have announced previously on land management."What is more important is that our people had the right to get lands, not only for them to build their houses but also for cultivation."He also said that the government will not take any action which can burden these villagers. Deputy Speaker Datuk Ahmad Abdul Rahman later announced the passing of the amended Forest Enactment 1968 to include gaharu as among forest produce to be protected. He said the enactment is now cited as the Forest (Amendment) Enactment 2018 that will take effect on Sept. 17, this year. Shafie said the amendment on the principal enactment was established to strengthen existing provisions to tackle gaharu theft which was becoming rampant. The amendment is also needed to bring gaharu theft cases to Court."Section 2 was proposed to be amended as it is needed to insert the definition of 'forest produce' by substituting paragraph (a) with the following paragraph stated as below:-timber, converted timber, wood chip, saw dust, oil, carving, firewood, charcoal, getah (rubber), gaharu, wood oil, bark, extracts of bark, copal, damar and atap found in or brought from a Forest Reserve, State land or alienated land."The amendment also included the definition of gaharu as 'gaharu includes any products derived from Aquilaria spp.' and to insert the word 'leaf' after the word 'branch' in the definition of 'tree'," he said when tabling the bill to amend the Forest Enactment 1968 at the State Legislative Assembly here.Another amendment, Shafie said was on Section 30 by amending sub-section 30(1) to remove element of doubt whereby the paragraph is to be substituted with a new paragraph stated below:(g) keeps or has in his possession, custody or control of any forest produce which bears or does not bear any property mark in respect of which a forest offence has been committed or upon which the royalty or other payments due in respect thereof has not been paid or made.Apart from that, he said an amendment of Section 38 is also needed by inserting subsection 13, after subsection 12, to provide for provision of presumption for possession, custody or control of any form of gaharu to cater the needs of prosecution requirement when bringing gaharu theft cases to court.This is because, he said most of such cases were seldom caught red-handed in forest reserves and state land.Following this, Shafie said the insertion of subsection 13 was made as part of the amendment is stated as below:-Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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