KUCHING: Timber thieves, be warned.
The state Forestry Department is coming down hard against unscrupulous operators in its efforts to put an end to illegal logging activities in Sarawak.
Apart from intensifying enforcement by conducting frequent air surveillance, the department will destroy all illegal logs found abandoned or about to be transported to other places for the black market.
Sources close to the enforcement team from the department told the New Straits Times that previously, all logs found to be illegally felled which was seized, or abandoned by timber thieves to evade arrest, was transported to the department’s nearest office before it was auctioned.
“All this has changed since early this year. Illegal timber logs confiscated during our operations will be destroyed. Enforcement officers have been instructed to burn the logs seized during operations or left abandoned," the sourses said.
“This is our new approach. We want to send a strong message to timber thieves that we are serious about putting an end to illegal logging activities.
“We want to tell the thieves not to mess with us (the department).”
On Wednesday the department destroyed some 300 illegal logs which were left abandoned at a secluded spot in Batang Belawai near Sarikei.
“The logs were discovered during the department’s four day air surveillance operation which ended on Friday," the sources said.
“During the operation, which was led by the department’s Forest Management and Planning Division’s development and application system unit head Dr Affendi Suhaili, our enforcement scoured more than 55,000 hectares of area covering Tanjung Manis and Batang Belawai.
“We used a helicopter that is equipped with a scanning device known as Airborne Hyper-Spectral Sensing apart from a boat.”
A total of 15 enforcement officers were involved in the operation.
The department started using a more sophisticated method and conducted more aerial surveillance to stamp out illegal logging and timber smuggling activities since 2015.
“We are planning to conduct more air surveillance this year regardless of day or night,” the sources said.