How Did Musang King Farm Start Without An Eia Baling Flood Victims Ask

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This file pic dated July 6, 2022, shows the water catchment area at the Musang King plantation at Gunung Inas in Baling. - Pic courtesy of NST reader.BALING: The victims of the July 4 floods in Kupang here want to know how the Musang King farm on Gunung Inas was allowed to start without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
Iboi Charitable Organisation chairman Dr Syuhaimi Zakaria raised the matter today during a gathering with some 300 people from 13 villages in Kupang at Kampung Iboi, ground zero for the disaster.
"We demand that the government release a clear chronology of the development of the Musang King farm: from the initial approval for logging, to the development of 'ladang rakyat' in parcels A and B, which comprises seven compartments, until the Musang King farm was cultivated.
"All the processes, from the project approval, EIA report, monitoring, logging revenues earned by the state and the private entities involved," he said while reading out a memorandum of demand by the villagers at the gathering.

Some 300 people from 13 villages in Kupang sub-district gathered in Kampung Iboi today to voice their demand for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the July 4 destructive floods that ravaged 43 villages in Baling – Pic by Adie Zulkifli
Dr Syuhaimi said it was mind boggling that the Musang King farm was not shut down despite failing to have an EIA since the development started in 2017.
The New Straits Times today reported that the Environment and Water Ministry found that the Musang King farm had flouted environmental laws.
The operator might have flouted several EIA guidelines approved for a Timber Latex Clone (LTC) forest farming project, which was initially slated for the site.
This includes building reservoirs on top of the Gunung Inas, which flouted a ban on development on slopes above 25 degrees and on land at elevations higher than the 1,000m above the mean sea level.
The farm also failed to plant vegetation to cover ground exposer from logging.
A source said the report was based on the detailed EIA report for the TLC project's sighted by the NST.
Department of Environment director-general Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar had said the company had started the Musang King farm without an EIA.
He said the company had only submitted an EIA studies application to the department two weeks before the July 4 disaster.
Wan Abdul Latiff also said the department was probing the farm under the Environmental Quality Act 1974.
Villagers in Kampung Iboi and Kupang had been calling on the state government to demolish the reservoirs and shut down the Musang King farm for fear that they would lead to water surges during heavy rain.
However, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor had rebuffed the pleas, saying that agencies under the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry had concluded that the floods were an geological disaster and the Musang King farm had not contributed to them.
He said the reservoirs could not be demolished as "they were owned" by the company.
Dr Syuhaimi said the villagers reiterated their call for the Musang King farm to be shut down.
"The farm should be replaced by tree species that are allowed by the Forestry Department," he said.
He said the vilagers also demanded that a halt to development on sites that sloped more than 25 degrees and higher than 1,000m above mean sea level.
"About 70 per cent of the Gunung Inas topography is made of steep slopes. The river basin buffer zones and water catchment areas must be protected from any development," he said, referring to the memorandum.
Dr Syuhaimi also reiterated their call for the state to restore Gunung Inas's status as a permanent forest reserve site.
He called on the Musang King farm to rehabilitate sites that were heavily damaged by heavy rain and floods, as they posed a danger to the villages below.
The villagers also demanded that the authorities consult them for future development on Gunung Inas.
"This is because for every negative impact that occurred from previous developments, we (the villagers) are suffering while the projects reap millions of ringgit in profits for the logging companies," he said. - NST

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