Malaysia’s federal government on Saturday said it would end biodiversity-related payments to Kelantan if the state goes through with its plans to remove protections for vast areas of rainforest.
“We are proposing to stop the payment of Ecological Fiscal Transfer (EFT) to Kelantan with regards to their proposal to take out the bulk of their permanent forest reserves from environmental sensitive areas,” Natural Resources, Environment, and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, said in a statement on LinkedIn.
EFTs were introduced last year, and Kelantan has received around RM29 million ($6 mln) in EFT funding for forest protections going back to 2019, and as part of its biodiversity strategy, the federal government said earlier this month that it plans to ramp up the payments to meet its target of ensuring 50% forest cover across peninsular Malaysia.
But the Kelantan state government has revealed draft plans to remove the “environmentally sensitive area” (ESA) classification for more than 411,000 hectares of forest – 88% of its total protected area – to make it available for development, sparking fears that the state may see a massive spike in deforestation rates.
Since 2001, Kelantan has already lost 452,000 hectares of forest cover, much of it humid primary forest, a 34% drop in total state forest cover that Global Forest Watch says has caused 288 million tonnes of CO2 to be released into the atmosphere.
Minister Nik Nazmi said Saturday that the Kelantan plan would affect the state’s Central Forest Spine ecological network and unbalance its ecosystem, creating habitat loss that would threaten species such as the Malayan tiger, elephants, and tapirs.
“I hope the state government will reconsider the proposed changes to the development plan involving the ESAs in Kelantan and work closely with the ministry to strengthen forest management and development and maintain existing forest land for the sustainability of the environment,” a separate statement from the minister said.
UNPRECEDENTED
In a statement released last week, green group RimbaWatch claimed Kelantan’s plan, currently out for public consultation, has already been agreed by the Kelantan State Executive Council, and that it had never before seen such a move.
“In inspecting these proposed alterations, RimbaWatch is appalled by the unprecedented proposal to remove all environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) in Kelantan,” the group wrote in an op-ed published on the Malaysiakini website.
“We express our deepest concern over the secrecy of this decision and complete disregard for public voice or participation in making such a decision.”
Should the Kelantan state government move forward with its plan, it would leave just some 56,000 ha of protected forests in the state.
“Given that these areas are now procedurally easier to deforest and convert to plantations without the ESA classification, we question the motive of the Kelantan authorities in doing this,” said RimbaWatch.
The news comes as Malaysia’s federal government earlier this month announced a string of initiatives to address the biodiversity and climate change crises.
That included a RM1 billion financial instrument to fund reforestation and forest restoration by generating carbon credits with biodiversity co-benefits.
Malaysia is also one of the four Asian nations in talks with the UNDP over creating a tiger protection bond that in part would be monetised through the sales of high-quality biodiversity credits.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
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