IPOH: Hundreds of millions of ringgit have been pocketed by illegal loggers who had cleared thousands of hectares of land in Perak between 2006 and 2011.
Sources told the New Straits Times that vast areas involving forest reserves, state lands and even wildlife reserve had been ravaged.
Shockingly, a plot no less than 600ha forming part of the Chior wildlife reserve near Sungai Siput, the first such wildlife reserve in the country dating back to the early 1900s, had been cleared.
In its place now stand oil palm plantations.
“The illegal logging and clearing activities, at its peak, were especially rampant in Hulu Perak, the northern-most part of the state, as well as the Kuala Kangsar and Larut Matang districts,” said the source.
“And, we are only talking about activities carried out on a massive scale. There were also smaller- scale illegal logging and clearing activities that had taken place.”
The source said the prospect of making a huge killing from the sale of timber of high commercial value had superseded the risks of being caught.
“They are aware of the risks but couldn’t care less due to the high value of the logs such as meranti, merbau and cengal,” said the source.
While large-scale clearing activities had slowed down considerably, there were still numerous pockets of small-scale unsanctioned felling of trees in the state, said the source.
Perak had been identified by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission-led Op Tukul to curb illegal logging as a hot spot for the activity.
The NST had last week front-paged a report that massive raids were on the cards as the MACC has pledged to go on an all-out assault on illegal logging
activities nationwide. Following successful raids in Johor and Sarawak last week, which saw the arrest of 30 people, including a senior police officer with the rank of assistant commissioner and the freezing of 30 bank accounts, it was reported that the anti-graft body was training its gun on the northern states.
In our exclusive reports, sources had said in one case, more than 100ha of forestry in one of the states were illegally cleared.
MACC officers had visited the site last Thursday.
MACC had said Op Tukul, the most extensive on illegal logging, would continue for several years.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) field officer Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman confirmed that illegal logging activities in the state were currently under control.
“There was only one arrest case last year and three in 2011,” he said, quoting Forestry Department reports.
“Another reason for this decline is that the number of high-value logs sought by the illegal loggers has significantly depleted.”
On the rampant illegal logging activities before Op Tukul, Razak said this was because of lax enforcement.
Perak Forestry Department
director Datuk Roslan Ariffin could not be reached for comments yesterday.