Carbon deal won't endanger forests, says Sabah Forestry

 By Olivia Miwil - November 11, 2021 @ 9:45pm

-NSTP file pic, for illustration purpose only.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Forestry has given its assurance that the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) meant for conservation and protection of tropical rainforests would not be jeopardised by reports of a carbon deal allegedly signed by the Sabah government with foreign entities

It was recently reported that the Sabah government had on Oct 30 signed an agreement to market carbon and other natural capital from more than two million hectares of the state's forests for the next 100 years.

Indra Sunjoto, on behalf of the Chief Forest Conservator, said the NCA's objectives could be done through the monetisation of carbon stored in standing trees in addition to natural capital benefits in the natural forest environment.

"The focus of the NCA will be on forests classified previously as Totally Protected Areas (TPAs).

"TPAs are areas already locked in for conservation and protection under various state laws and international treaties. To be clear, the TPAs in question 'were not, are not and will never be in danger of commercial exploitation or deforestation'.

"As such, these areas are under no threat from any mining, logging or industrial agriculture, contrary to allegations made in the Nov 9, 2021 article by Mongabay," he said in a statement.

Indra said the NCA has yet to be finalised and would resolve several outstanding issues including the designated area – the size and locality of which is yet to be determined and approved by the state government.

Others are the addendum to the framework agreement which specifies that an initial area of 600,000ha is to be identified as a pilot scheme first.

Only upon the success of that pilot scheme will the state government consider approving such further areas as deemed appropriate which is up to a potential total area of two million hectare.

The third is the Nature Conservation Management Plan that is acceptable to the state government over the pilot scheme area and must be approved before any carbon trading or sale of natural assets under the NCA can take place.

As for Native Customary Rights and Ownership, the pre-existing native customary rights of ownership have previously been attached to certain TPAs.

"As these rights belong to native communities and not the state, consent from each respective native community is required before these rights are 'signed away' through the NCA.

"By virtue of being a frontrunner, the state government acknowledges that there is always an element of risk.

"However, the state government envisions great benefits from being a frontrunner in an era where the world is rushing towards a low carbon future," said Indra, adding that stakeholders would be invited to evaluate the government's performance in relation to NCA.

Earlier, a joint statement by environmental and social groups had demanded transparency over the deal.

As for the deal with Hoch Standard Pte Ltd (HS), he said Sabah has agreed to a provisional framework agreement with the Singapore private company.

In exchange, HS had made several representations to the state government that it has access to financial networks which are capable of funding and realising the objectives of the NCA.