KUCHING: The Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) is utilising technology to identify areas that have degraded and require restoration, in tandem with the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) efforts.
Its director, Datuk Hamden Mohammad disclosed the department is using the hyper-spectral technology to identify suitable areas for replanting.
“FLR is not limited to tree planting alone. It involves the integration of land use, broad ecological and socio-economic benefits, and a vision for sustainable management at a larger landscape level.
“The department supports an inclusive FLR participatory process and encourages communities and other stakeholders to drive FLR implementation through active participation in all restoration activities such as enrichment planting, seedling supply, and so on.
“We hope that community involvement will be further expanded by implementing planting in degraded areas such as Native Customary Rights (NCR) land or communal forests,” he said.
He relayed this during the state-level International Day of Forest (IDF) Celebration held at Sabal Forest Reserve in Serian on Saturday (June 8).
Hamden commented the forest restoration programme would not be successful without the cooperation of various parties, including government agencies, private entities, corporate bodies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and local communities.
On another note, he said the department has entered into a strategic cooperation with the Skogforsk Research Institute, Sweden, for the transfer of technical expertise in the forestry field to ensure compliance with the latest policies, namely the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
“This cooperation is expected to benefit the management of systems and information, as well as forest engineering,” he said.
He added FDS also continues to collaborate with the National Institute of Environment Studies, Japan by sending its personnel to NIES Tsukuba, Japan, for training in forestry technology, specifically in the analysis of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data.
“During the Digital Forestry Exhibition, Premier witnessed one of the technological outcomes we have developed for determining tree volume and estimating carbon.
“At the local level, the department also collaborates with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) by conducting a study on the application of Drone Seeding technology as an initial study in forest restoration programmes,” he concluded.
