AONE-hour helicopter ride from Chukai in Kemaman to a logging concession in Petuang, Hulu Terengganu, gave me a bird’s eye view of the extensive land development, with clearings for agriculture, hills carved for oil palm and logging tracks in several concessions.
It is an eyesore, no doubt, to see large tracts of forests being cleared and replanted with oil palm, but it is for the nation’s economic security.
The scars created by logging tracts to retrieve felled timber were evident. The heartland forest, if it could speak, will cry out for help to stop the damage.
Although logging practice in Terengganu is regarded as the best managed in the country, the activity which uses the old technique of opening small tracks along steep slopes to retrieve timber causes extensive damage to the environment, and it often takes years to recover despite mandatory replanting of selected timber species.
But logging practice in Terengganu, and possibly in the rest of Peninsular Malaysia, is about to change with the introduction of a logging technique that had proven successful in reducing environmental damage in Sarawak.
The technique using heavy machinery called log fisher retrieves felled timber using a 300m-long cable with the strength to pull logs as heavy as 10 tonnes. Once retrieved, it will use its gripper to load them on lorries.
After witnessing the log fisher at work, this writer was able to see the harvesting technique actually reduce damage to the environment because it required no roads to be cleared. In the past, excavators were used to clear small side roads on steep slopes to reach felled timber, which increased the chance of landslides in the forest.
Landslides in the forest will expose a wide area and destroy all vegetation along its path. The exposed earth when, washed off by rain, will be flushed into rivers and streams and ultimately damage aquatic life.
The erosion can be a source of headwater and flooding at the lower reaches of the river. It happened in 2008 when Sungai Lata Payong, which runs through a logging concession, swelled and burst dams in the upper reaches and nearly swept away a village.
Similar incidents also occurred four years earlier when headwater along Sungai Besut from Keruak in Hulu Besut caused massive floods that hit Jertih town some 50km away.
The upper reaches of river systems in the Petuang forests run through the concession and flows along Sungai Lata Payong and part of it runs through Sungai Petuang. The river system that flows into Sungai Petuang is blocked by the second Kenyir Hydroelectric dam.
The contractor has deployed six log fishers to minimise environmental damage in the concession and two more are on their way. It is hoped that log fishers can stop logging debris from building a natural dam upstream as this can pose a danger, especially during the monsoon season.
Logs and other debris that block the river can burst under tremendous pressure resulting from the containment of water. Rushing headwater can reach a speed of 20 knots and swell by more than 5m.
Still, logging in primary forest need to be monitored closely. Attempts must be made by the Forestry Department, Forest Research Institute of Malaysia and universities to conduct research and conservation efforts to protect flora and fauna.
The primary forest is home to many unidentified species. Expeditions should be held in these areas to identify unknown plants and those that have medicinal properties. Otherwise, these species could be lost forever.
River systems in these concessions could also be thriving with aquatic life not known to science. Recording these species, known or unknown, will enrich the nation with records and knowledge for future generations to appreciate.
Future generations may only get to see the flora and fauna in literature. Even if the logged over forests recover after 30 years, some of flora and fauna that thrive under forest cover might be gone forever.
Rosli Zakaria is NST's Specialist Writer based in Terengganu. He is an environmentalist and enjoys capturing the beauty of flora and fauna in its fragile environment. He draws his inspiration from cross county drives on and off-road adventures.