Sabah government goes into oil palm

SANDAKAN (Sabah) - Sabah's forestry director Sam Mannan calls it the 'devil's recipe'.
But he said it was out of desperation that the state opted to become the operator of a massive oil palm plantation carved out of degraded forests.
A total of 100,000ha in southern Sabah - an area almost twice the size of Singapore - was turned into plantations to generate revenue to conserve a much larger adjacent forest of 1.1 million hectares.
With Sabah fast running out of money, Datuk Mannan said, the authorities had no choice. Timber revenue last year was at its lowest in 40 years.
He feared there would be temptation to log even more intensively without new funds coming in. 'We can't always be green beggars,' he said.
About 60 per cent of the 100,000ha has now been planted with oil palm, and is starting to generate returns in terms of revenue as well as political capital.
Several green experts see it as indication of Sabah's commitment to reversing the trend of rapid deforestation that plagues the Malaysian Borneo states, especially Sarawak.
The oil palm plantation and adjacent forest bank, collectively about 20 times the size of Singapore, both belong to the state through its wholly-owned Sabah Foundation.
As the single largest concession in Sabah, this forest bank makes up almost one-third of the state's total forest reserves of 3.9 million hectares.
About half is protected forest, while the other half is to be logged sustainably.
The tract includes the world famous Maliau Basin, Danum Valley and Imbak Canyon.
'It's the most biodiversity-rich forest in one large contiguous area,' said Mr Mannan.
But it came under severe threat as the area became more and more intensively logged while generating lower and lower revenues as the forests became depleted. Last year, timber revenue fell to RM200million (S$79.8million), the lowest since 1970.
The state used to rake in an average RM500 million a year.
The Sabah Foundation was set up in the 1960s to manage this vast tract of forest sustainably but this soon went out of the window.
In the last 10 years, the state government has tried to restore the forests to a level where they can be sustainably logged. This controversial oil palm project is one part of it.
This year, another 150,000ha were added to the totally protected category.
The efforts have won some kudos. Mr Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com, a popular conservation site, said the intention of reversing deforestation was good but it was still an open question whether it will succeed.
Some critics say the Sabah Foundation is playing up its conservation work while quietly continuing to log elsewhere.
They also worry that the project is a precursor to turning more areas into oil palm.
Ms Cynthia Ong, who leads the Land Empowerment Animals People organisation, which works on grassroots initiatives, calls it a move to buy time.
'How do we make a case to stop logging and put food on our tables at the same time?' she asked. 'We wish there are other answers but...'
She noted that Sabah has become a lot more willing to work with international organisations, which demand a certain level of transparency in forest management.
This is undoubtedly helped by Sabah's growing environmental movement, which a few years ago, succeeded in forcing the government to cancel a coal plant.
This green movement may prove a force in the next general election; Sabah is expected to be one of the most hotly contested states.
But Mr Mannan said it is not about external pressure. 'We simply cannot afford a reversal, we have no more buffers.'