More Than Two Years On Tasik Chini Area Yet To Be Made A Forest Reserve

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An area covering 4,600 hectares at Tasik Chini in Pekan, Pahang - said to have been made a permanent forest reserve in 2019 to protect its biodiversity - has yet to be officially gazetted.
Malaysiakini learnt that the gazetting has not taken place more than two years after the Pahang State Executive Council decided on March 6, 2019, to declare Tasik Chini and its surrounding areas as a forest reserve.
Pahang Forestry Department director Mohd Hizamri Mohd Yasin said in a statement last Sunday that his department would propose to the state to make the Tasik Chini area a protected forest after its gazetting is completed.
Asked to clarify the matter, Hizamri explained that the efforts to gazette Tasik Chini as a forest reserve were still going on.
"It will be (gazetted) in the near future. I cannot specify when as this matter is under the Pekan Land and District Office and the Pahang Survey and Mapping Department," he told Malaysiakini.
On June 14, Pahang Regent Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah called for an expansion of the "existing" 4,600 hectares of forest reserve in Tasik Chini to between 6,000 and 7,000 hectares amid concerns that mining activities there could threaten the lake.
Subsequently, Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail said the state government would comply with the expansion.

However, the original area is facing obstacles to be officially turned into a permanent forest reserve.
Asked why it was taking years to gazette the Tasik Chini area as a protected forest, Hizamri said this was because "several mining licences are still in effect".

Pahang Forestry Department director Mohd Hizamri Mohd Yasin
These licences were granted prior to 2019 before a moratorium was imposed on new licences.
While no new licence has been granted, those that have already obtained their licences can still carry out mining in the area.

Asked if the gazettement can only happen after all mining licences expired, Hizamri said: "We abide by his majesty (Tengku Hassanal's) decree."
The Pahang Land and Minerals Office has said that prior to the 'gazettement' in 2019, a total of 14 mining licences were issued, of which only two are still valid.
The office said that both licences would expire this year, including one at the end of this month.

'How are mines there still active?'
However, Raub MP Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji, who is former deputy water, land and natural resources minister, disputed the Pahang Land and Minerals Office's explanation.
"I visited Tasik Chini in April 2019... I was told that there was only one mining licence that was still active and that it would expire in October that year.
"How come now, in 2021, that there are two mining licences still active?" he told Malaysiakini.

Raub MP Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji
Tengku Zulpuri said he suspected that more mining licences may have been approved after Pakatan Harapan fell last year, and he urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the matter.
As early as last month, efforts were still going on to commence mining operations in the area.
On June 3, Malaysiakini reported that Hanishah Ventures Sdn Bhd, a royalty-linked firm, was seeking to commence mining operations in a site about 3km from Tasik Chini.
The Pahang state government had given an exemption to the manganese mine, even though the site was categorised as Environmentally Sensitive Area Level 2.
Under this category, the area can be developed with certain conditions but mining activities are not allowed.
The plan became public knowledge after it underwent an environmental impact assessment.
The issue has attracted the attention of the Pahang regent, who visited the site earlier this week and called for a halt to all mining activities at Tasik Chini.

Tasik Chini manganese mining site
The Pahang Land and Minerals Office and Pahang Menteri Besar’s Office did not respond to Malaysiakini's request for comment.
Tasik Chini, a rich bio-diversified lush tropical wilderness, is the second largest natural lake in the country. 
In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) declared the area, home to hundreds of species of flora, non-aquatic live and freshwater fish, as one of its biosphere reserves.
Environmentalists have warned that Tasik Chini may lose its Unesco Biosphere Reserve status should pollution in the area continue. - Mkini

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