HERE’S a rare piece of good news! The youngest and smallest of Sabah’s FMUs (Forest Management Units) is enjoying the biggest “Harvest Festival” of its own ahead of Sabah’s famous KadazanDusun Harvest Festival, Kaamatan, which climaxes on May 30.
This is the story.
Despite being the youngest (started in 2016/2018) and smallest (11,043ha) Forest Management Unit in Sabah, Jawala Plantations Industries Sdn Bhd mounted its largest debut commercial-scale industrial tree harvest in late March 2026.
Voted winner of the “Best Model Forest Plantation 2023” among 84 companies in Malaysia, Jawala reportedly planted a maximum density of 1.6 million Laran and Albizia, which are actually fast growing hardwoods rather than softwood trees across 7,500 hectares over the last 7 years, while devoting 1,496 hectares to High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) – a required environmental pillar for all FMUs.
Rahman Khan, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Jawala Inc., which is listed on the Singapore Exchange, attributed the “can be done” outcome to deep passion, long experience in, and intimate knowledge of timber market demand.
Largest Commercial-Scale Harvest
“I am happy to report to you that we have already commenced our largest-scale commercial harvest,” beamed Rahman during an interview with Daily Express on April 6.
“Prior to the commercial harvest in late March, we had also conducted a trial harvest in October 2025. So the trees – Albizia and Laran – were about seven years old,” Rahman noted.
“I’m also happy to report to you again that from that trial harvest last year, we managed to get a yield of 245 cubic metres per hectare for the Albizia and 209 cubic metres per hectare for the Laran.”
“And logs were sent to a plywood factory in Sook, Nabawan, and also sent to Integrated Wood Processing Sdn Bhd (IWP), Tawau – a major plywood and sawn timber manufacturing facility, and the same factory to which we had previously sent our logs for testing,” Rahman recalled.
Starting with 3,000 Cubic Metres in First Month
“We are targeting to harvest about 3,000 cubic metres of plantation timber for April, and I am also happy to announce to you that we are receiving more customers.”
“So this demonstrates that factories in Sabah realise that the way forward for them is to utilise plantation timber,” he paused to stress the point. For the benefit of average laymen who may not be moved by timber volume numbers, a typical household in temperate countries burns between five and 10 cubic metres of firewood during winter. So 3,000 cubic metres would heat several hundred homes for a lifetime.
Oil Prices, Ringgit Hikes – Two Powerful Headwinds
But while Jawala celebrates the good news, two powerful headwinds are hitting the timber industry hard.
Rahman noted: “This harvest has come at a very peculiar time where the Iran war has started.”
“Prices of oil have skyrocketed and the majority of FMU licensees have suspended logging operations due to the high cost of diesel.”
“With the skyrocketing diesel price, logs become very expensive. The factories cannot absorb such high log costs. So the industry is going through a very troubling time now,” Rahman noted.
“At the same time, the ringgit has also appreciated. As of May 2026, the ringgit had strengthened by 3.3 per cent against the US dollar, which is a disadvantage to exporters because timber factories and wood product exporters receive fewer ringgit for the same volume of overseas sales, thereby hurting their profit margins.”
Price-Competitive Industrial Trees Helping Factories in Difficult Times
“However, as factories cannot afford to buy higher-priced logs, this is where my industrial timber plantation plays a major role in providing competitive prices for factories to continue fulfilling their international orders,” Rahman pointed out.
“This is why we are operating and harvesting now.”
“I am pleased to note that factories can continue operating during this very difficult period because of the competitive prices of plantation timber,” he added.
Online System, First Weighbridge in an FMU
“To give you an idea, we harvested just last week (before April 6) and have already delivered the logs. I have to take my hat off to the Forestry Department because the Sabah Forestry Department has come up with an online system that allows plantation timber to be harvested in the morning, pass through our own weighbridge in the afternoon and reach factories on the very same day!” Rahman praised.
“So this is three cheers for the Sabah Forestry Department!” he quipped.
“Now, Jawala was the first among the FMUs to install a weighbridge – a system where you no longer physically measure logs manually,” he noted.
Telling Impact on Domestic and International Markets
“This old practice normally takes three weeks to a month before logs reach customers. So now, with the weighbridge and the online systems introduced by the Sabah Forestry Department, I can harvest in the morning, my truck goes over the weighbridge in the afternoon and leaves for customers immediately, arriving in the evening.”
“So customers receive very fresh plantation timber logs,” he elaborated.
“Hence, it improves recovery rates and product quality.” (Laran and Albizia are prone to splitting post-harvest because the outer layers dry faster than the core.)
“Just to give you an idea, we started harvesting last week (before April 6) and delivered to customers four days ago. You can already see here that it has become applied wood,” Rahman marvelled while pointing to a finished sample product on the table.
“And this is now under packaging to be exported to the United States of America. It’s amazing!”
“So the ongoing harvest is continuing. More orders have been placed. We are now actually struggling to cope with the orders because more contractors are needed!”
Plantation Timber – A “Blessing in Disguise”
“Yes, so this is a blessing in disguise. Had we not decided to plant trees, had the Sabah Government not made this a priority policy, the timber factories would have shut down by now!” Rahman asserted.
“Shut down?” Daily Express queried.
“Yes. Correct. Anyway, we hope that the war will end very soon.”
“As I mentioned to you, I’m most pleased to know that more factories in Sabah are now ready to take up plantation timber. So we are looking forward to a better future for plantation timber. And as I mentioned to you, the price is competitive!”
“Delivery on the same day enhances quality, volume and factory capacity. There will be more plantation timber to keep them busy,” Rahman believed.
“Most Sabah timber factories are now operating well below capacity because of the depleted supply of tropical timber and natural logs.”
“So with this mass volume now coming in, factories hopefully will no longer operate below capacity. This is a volume game!” he summed up.
Industrial Timber – Smaller Area, Larger Volume
“The more volume you have, the lower your costs will be. To give you an idea, I am harvesting about 3,000 cubic metres this month from only 15 hectares of land.”
“To produce the same volume of tropical timber would require about 100 hectares.”
“As I mentioned earlier, our biggest issue now is the skyrocketing price of diesel (price of industrial diesel reportedly had jumped from RM2.88/litre to RM9/litre). Can you imagine the amount of diesel required to work on 100 hectares versus only 15 hectares with plantation timber?”
“It is a much smaller area but produces much larger volume,” Rahman said in support of industrial tree plantations.
“That is where your costs come down because of the sheer volume plantation forests can produce.”
“But I must emphasise here that industrial timber plantations must be developed on a full-fledged industrial scale,” Rahman concluded the interview.
What drives Sabah into the global pioneer in applying FMUs to tropical rainforest
SABAH didn’t invent the FMU concept. But the State became a global pioneer in applying the sorely needed model to tropical rainforests in 1997.
That came after the Sabah Forestry Department (SFD) tested the concept through a pilot project in Deramakot and won the world’s first such certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1997 for its success.
Understanding the forces that drove Sabah into this landmark transition nearly three decades ago is the only way to understand why Jawala Plantations Industries Sdn Bhd is celebrating with such gusto over its commercial-scale industrial tree harvesting, which commenced in late March.
Some Sabahans remain proud that Sabah led the plunge into FMUs (Forest Management Units), which divide the State’s forests into large management blocks averaging about 100,000 hectares each, to be managed over the long term for sustainable and lasting benefits.
But news of FMUs reaping major plantation harvests – such as Jawala’s case – rarely reaches the Daily Express. Or perhaps we simply missed them.
To understand why FMUs became necessary, one must return to a painful period rooted in what many considered once “out-of-control” forest destruction and degradation. It was an attempt to reverse the rot through FMUs, numbering 27. That, in essence, was the idea. So what exactly was the problem that tormented Sabah badly enough to warrant the creation of FMUs, involving vast tracts of land, in an attempt to redeem a troubled forestry past?
Exhaustion of Timber – Once Backbone of Sabah’s Economy
Remember, Sabah was once almost entirely covered by ancient tropical rainforest.
In the post-colonial years and following Sabah’s brief independence before the formation of Malaysia, oil and gas revenues flowed largely to Kuala Lumpur, while timber harvesting became the backbone of Sabah’s economy, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the State’s total revenue at one stage.
The peak of forest destruction and degradation occurred between the 1970s and 1980s.
The scale of timber extraction – using fleets of heavy bulldozers and machinery – frequently exceeded 10 million cubic metres annually.
The Department of Statistics still keeps these figures.
Although only a relatively small percentage of valuable merchantable trees were cut, the heavy machinery damaged an estimated 74 to 80 per cent of the remaining forest stands, leaving massive tracts heavily degraded.
One view was that Sabah possessed one of the world’s highest densities of valuable mixed dipterocarp forests per hectare, inviting especially aggressive exploitation.
By 1990, the vast majority of Sabah’s commercial lowland forests had already been heavily logged – once, twice, or even more.
Here is one vivid personal recollection.
The Padas River once roared with multiple rapids of pure reddish “Teh O” coloured water during a 1986 train trip to Tenom.
Alas, in a return trip in 1990, the river had turned into a muddy flow from which it has never truly recovered, after forests around its Ulu Padas headwaters in Long Pasia were ripped apart.
Massive Oil Palm Expansion: 1990s-2000s
Following the Logging Era, which exhausted much of Sabah’s high-quality timber resources, the Plantation Conversion Era of the 1990s and 2000s followed.
This accelerated deforestation even further, with more than 1.85 million hectares of forest reportedly lost or converted to oil palm plantations.
What was the main culprit behind such alarming forest exhaustion?
Short-term logging licences lasting between one and five years.
When SFD Began to “Think Long Term” Under Mannan and Yong
The answer? Long Term Tenure!
This started the Sustainable Forest Management Licence Agreement (SFMLA), introduced in 1997, which granted 50- to 100-year licences over vast forest areas to companies.
The agreements were designed not only for sustainable forest management, but also to include the development of Industrial Tree Plantations.
With financial assistance from the German Government, Sabah tested Sustainable Forest Management concepts and techniques through the Deramakot pilot project within a commercial forest reserve.
The project was later deemed successful and became the first tropical rainforest in the world to receive FSC certification for sustainable forest management.
Former Sabah Forestry Director Datuk Sam Mannan strongly advocated Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).
The then Chief Minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee reportedly hailed, particularly after seeing how logs could be extracted from steep areas using cable skyline systems as part of its famous Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) guideline!
That helped cement FMUs as the way forward.
1997 – When FMUs Were Zoned for Sustainable Forest Management
By September 1997, several Sustainable Forest Management Licence Agreements had been signed.
While the FMU system aimed to institutionalise Sustainable Forest Management permanently, the policy also allowed severely degraded and destroyed natural forests to be converted into productive timber plantations – partly to reduce pressure on remaining natural forests.
Under these long-term licences, outright clear-felling of natural forests was prohibited.
Instead, FMUs were subdivided into different zones – including conservation zones and dedicated Industrial Tree Plantation zones, sometimes referred to as Forest Plantation Management areas.
These were aimed at rehabilitating and restoring heavily logged and degraded forests within Sabah’s estimated 3.6 million hectares of Permanent Forest Estate.
How was this to be achieved?
Partly through “salvage logging” within FMUs, allowing licence holders to clear poor-quality residual stands to help finance the planting of new fast-growing species such as Laran and Albizia.
That is precisely the model Jawala is now acting upon – and harvesting the fruits of its labor, commercially at scale.
