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 ©New
Sunday Times (Used by permission)
by Elizabeth John and Adib Povera
• Logging’s not the only option
• A wild world
When the men with the chainsaw move in, it will spell big
trouble for not only the Ulu Muda catchment areas but also downstream to the
padi fields and the household taps as far south as Penang, write by Elizabeth
John and Adib Povera
FOR A sitting duck, the Ulu Muda catchment forests have achieved an amazing feat
-they stayed mostly intact despite endless attempts to clear them of their
treasured logs.
 Stretched over a thousand square kilometres along Kedah's eastern border with
Thailand, this catchment area is a network of several forest reserves.
These forests are the giant sponge that feeds three reservoirs in the state,
which in turn supply the country's main rice bowl as well as people and
industries across three states.
But that hasn't stopped state governments on either side of the political divide
from eyeing the logs; such is its value.
The latest attempt began last month with an announcement from the newly minted
Pas-led state government that it was considering logging the area.
Criticism has come fast and furious from green groups, farmers and ordinary
folk, who protested just as loudly in 2003 at a BN government plan to log
122,798 hectares of forest in the sprawling catchment.
Whether or not current plans are similar to that mooted five years ago, experts
say that any major logging in the catchment will have serious impacts.
Fewer trees also means less water is trapped, says Dr Chan Ngai Weng, a
professor in Geography from Universiti Sains Malaysia.
In the long term, the total water retained in the earth would be drastically
reduced in a state that has seen a few serious droughts and farmers seated in
desperate prayer in their cracked and caked padi fields.
"No water catchment means no water," says Chan who also heads non-governmental
group Water Watch Penang.
And with parts of the giant sponge missing, there's likely to be increased
flooding downstream affecting Kedah and Penang which share a major river
originating in this catchment - Sungai Muda.
The greatest concern though is for the 96,000ha of padi fields in the Muda
Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) scheme that produces about a million
metric tones of padi a year, accounting for 40 per cent of the coun
country's total rice production.
The scheme is very dependent on water from the catchment, says Loh Kim Mon, the
Mada deputy general manager for technical matters.
Rainfall provides just over half the water needed to plant twice yearly in the
scheme, says the engineer.
Another 32 per cent is from the reservoirs and 10 per cent from rivers fed by
the catchment. A final six per cent is from recycled water.
A Mada report indicates that proposed logging in Ulu Muda's catchment area would
have adverse effects on padi production, says Agriculture and Agro-Based
Industries Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed.
"This stands to jeopardise the livelihood of about 48,500 families, or some
quarter of a million people, who depend on padi farming in the Mada region," he
told the New Sunday Times.
 The Pedu dam is one of a trio in the Ulu Muda catchment area that help irrigate Kedah’s vast padi fields. — Pictues by Shahrizal Md Noor. The report says that with less forest cover, more surface water will run into
rivers faster, carrying more silt and lowering water storage levels in the
Ahning, Pedu and Muda dams.
It says the success of the padi planting scheme relies on water from these dams
and large-scale logging in the catchment should be avoided.
Even with reduced-impact heli-logging, where logs are air-lifted for a distance
after being felled, there'll still be clearing for roads, log yards and workers'
camps, thus an impact on water sources, the report adds.
"We hope the state government gives very serious consideration to this fact in
making any decision," says Mustapa.
These dams don't just help grow grains. They also supply water to homes and
industry in north Kedah, south Perlis and Langkawi.
But it's Penang folk who should be most concerned.
The state gets 80 per cent of its water supply from Sungai Muda. The water from
Sungai Muda flows into Sungai Dua from which it is pumped for use in Penang,
explains Loh.
Silt from logged sites will pollute rivers and clog up water treatment plants,
says Chan.
Also, when the water level in Sungai Muda is low, water is released from the
Muda dam as was the case in the dry spells of 1998 and 2002.
Loh didn't rule out the possibility that logging could hasten a water deficit.
Details of the logging plan aren't finalised, says Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan
Abdul Razak.
In a phone interview, he told New Sunday Times that there was no reason for
people to panic. The proposal to log was just that - a proposal.
He says the state will study possible impacts and talk to agencies before
deciding. They may not necessarily press on with logging.
But Azizan's previous insistence on logging even if the federal government paid
the RM100 million-compensation promised for canceling the 2003 project is enough
to justify current hysteria.
State BN reps have given the current administration a tongue-lashing but have
probably forgotten that it was only federal government intervention that saved
these forests five years ago.
In fact, according to Mada's report a previous state government issued 21
licenses to log a 2,775ha area within the Muda dam's catchment forest.
Logging was done in 1990 and 1991 but was halted when its impacts on the
environment and water storage in the dams became clear.
The problem is there's really no iron-clad protection for forests like those in
the Ulu Muda catchment.
All permanent forest reserves must be classified under one or more of 11
categories in the National Forestry Act 1984.
The classes describe the purpose for which the land should be used.
So a forest could be for flood control or a wildlife sanctuary. But the act
doesn't expressly allowed or prohibit logging in any of these classes.
All it says, in sections 15 and 16, is that logging is allowed with a license,
says Roger Tan, chair of the Bar Council's environmental law committee.
Section 20 says license applicants must meet certain requirements but this too
can be waived by the state under the act, Tan adds.
Usually state Forestry Departments, draw up rules for activities allowed in
reserves. Kedah's declined to release a copy of its rules.
Forests around Ulu Muda were classed permanent reserved forests for production,
keeping them a highly desired target.
But in a gazette published this March, some reserves in this area were
re-classified as "water catchment forests".
It is learnt that this applied Ulu Muda, Chebar Besar, Pedu and Terenas forest
reserves covering 31,329ha.
Even this, isn't a guarantee.
A newly gazetted 2008 Kedah Water Resources Enactment provides for lands to be
declared and protected as water conservation areas, with specified limits on
activities.
But if the area protected by this enactment is different from the reserve under
the Forestry Act, there could be conflicts.
Tan has, in the past, suggested the radical idea of protecting Ulu Muda's
catchment forests under the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act 1959 that
secures airports and military installations.
It would mean closing reserves to research or tourism and guarding it with heavy
duty weapons.
More sensible and practical would be to declare it a park under the National
Parks Act 1980, says Surin Suksuwan, WWF's chief technical officer for
Peninsular Malaysia.
Or for Kedah to follow Johor and Perak's path of making the area a park under a
state parks corporation enactment, he says.
While it's questionable if an area one-and-a half times bigger than Singapore
can be protected with guns and fences, the countless attempts made on its life
certainly qualifies those forests for some serious body-guarding.
Logging’s not the only option
BEFORE the dams, the grid of canals and planned irrigation padi fields in Kedah
were planted just once a year and laid fallow for the remaining six months.
 Double cropping of padi in the Mada region of Kedah and Perlis could be jeopardised if logging impacts its water sources - file picture. Double cropping was just a dream till the Pedu and Muda dams were built and the
Muda Irrigation scheme came into being in the 1970s.
Phang Fatt Khow was then a young agriculture officer and the catchment forests
of Ulu Muda a dark and dangerous place of wild beasts and communists.
Now retired from his job at the Rice Seed Centre, he knows what it would be like
for padi to go without irrigation.
He worries about that the state's plan to log could silt up the dams and shorten
their livespan.
If its income the state's looking for then there are alternatives, says Phang
who now heads the Kedah branch of the Malaysian Nature Society.
For instance the area could be declared a state park and the wildlife-rich
forests developed for eco-tourism.
"Look at Sabah and Sarawak where they're serious about eco-tourism.
"They plan and manage it well compared with those in Peninsular Malaysia.
"They could also raise water charges and taxes but those would be politically
unpopular decisions," he says.
"Yes, logging will bring in quick money but is the profit worth the problems its
going to cause farmers, expanding industries and towns and settlements in three
states?" asks Water Watch Penang president Dr Chan Ngai Weng.
Kedah should also pursue the federal government to keep its promise of paying
RM100 million to the state for protecting its catchment forests, he suggests.
The other option is for Kedah to approach Penang and Perlis to discuss the
possibility of payment for the water it provides, he adds.
"In a friendly manner, not with guns blazing! It's always better to negotiate,"
says Chan.
There's no law compelling Penang to pay Kedah for water when they share the
river it is drawn from, says Chan.
"But I am sure, Penang will be willing to listen and talk, since the protection
of the Ulu Muda catchment is vital in ensuring adequate clean water in the
river."
A wild world
FROM tigers to tapir, more than half the mammal species found in the country are
present in Ulu Muda area.
 Tigers can be found in the fauna-rich forests here- file picture Studies and surveys from a scientific expedition to the Ulu
Muda Forest Reserve in March 2003 also found that these forests host six of 10
primate species and 42 of 54 reptile species.
The dense jungles are home to 78 % squirrel species, 53 percent bat species, 175
bird species, seven out of 10 hornbill species.
Scientists also found myriad river and lake fish and herds of elephants which
make the reserve a major reservoir for wildlife.
The reserve itself is over 100,000 ha in size and is spread of the Sik, Padang
Terap and Baling districsts, adjacent to Thailand in the northeast and Perak in
the south.
The national importance of the Ulu Muda complex of forests
was first highlighted by a WWF proposal for a Kedah Conservation Strategy in
1984, say papers in Hutan Simpan Ulu Muda, Kedah: Pengurusan, Persekitaran
Fizikal dan Biologi, a publication of findings during the 2003 survey.
The area was also been identified as a critical area for conservation under the
Economic Planning Unit's Malaysian National Conservation Strategy in 1993.
The strategy recommended that Ulu Muda be protected as a National or State park.
It has also been proposed as trans-frontier protected area as it lies on the
Thai-Malaysia border.
In 1996, the National Ecotourism Plan recognized Ulu Muda as a potentially
important nature tourism destination.
The forest here is also a storehouse of medical plants with surveys of just
small sections uncovering about 56 species.
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