The Kelantan government has assured that every permanent forest reserve degazetted for development or resource extraction will be replaced with a new forest area.
Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Mohamed Fadzli Hassan said the Temangan Forest Reserve in Machang was identified for granite mining after a company was granted approval to undertake the activity in 2009.
He said the reserve was found to contain commercially viable granite resources, with the approval for mining having been issued more than a decade ago.
“The approval was given in 2009 because the forest reserve contained granite resources that could be developed. It is only now that the area has been officially degazetted and removed from the state’s permanent forest reserve list,” he said.
Mohamed Fadzli, who is also the Temangan assemblyman, said he had sought clarification from the Kelantan Forestry Department regarding the replacement of the affected forest reserve.
He said State Forestry Department director Mohd Rahim Ramli had assured that any permanent forest reserve removed from gazettement must be replaced with another area, in line with the state’s forest conservation policy.
