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Deramakot’s sustainable harvesting forest thrives in heart of Sabah

BY RAYMUND WONG
November 02, 2015

An aerial view of Deramakot Forest Reserve. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Raymund Wong, November 2, 2015.Nestled in the centre of Sabah is Sandakan's Deramakot Forest Reserve, the world’s first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified tropical forest.

The sprawling 55,507 hectare area was FSC certified in 1997, acknowledging its success in promoting environmentally friendly, socially beneficial and economically viable forest management.

FSC’s principles are centred on three pillars: environmental, social and economic values in which a 100% agreement must be made by all members from these three chambers before a rule, regulation or amendment can be made to the existing principles. 

According to Deramakot district forest officer Johnny Kissing, maintaining the FSC standards are no easy task.

“It’s a renewable certificate every five years, but every year we are subject to a surveillance audit which covers at least 30% of the FSC material principles and criteria which constantly evolves.

“Because it can evolve, it is stressful and difficult but it is well worth it, and something we can be proud of,” he said.

Kissing said an example of the FSC's high standards was that every tree  felled was marked and recorded.

“We do this because FSC is very transparent, every process is recorded, and a piece of FSC certified wood can be tracked right down to its stump,” he said.

Kissing said that Deramakot is divided into 136 different compartments, or areas, for harvesting.

“From a study we carried out, we use a cycle of 40 years for harvesting, this means that if a particular compartment is harvested, we will not harvest that forest compartment again until 40 years later and by then the younger trees would have had enough time to grow,” he said.

Kissing said trees were chosen based on the measurement of its diameter from a breast height of about 1.3 meters.

A tree being measured by a forest officer. Only trees measuring between 60cm and 120cm in diameter can be felled. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Raymund Wong, November 2, 2015.“We only fell trees that are from 60cm to 120cm in diameter, less or more and we do not touch it."

Trees that are within a 10m to 30m distance from other tress will also not be felled.

Deramakot assistant district forest officer Peter Mathew Lagan said that trees that bear fruit or those that were rare were also left untouched.

“Trees like that are marked as High Conservation Value (HCV) because they are fundamental to the animals and ecosystem,” he said adding that the Forest Management Unit normally covered two compartments a year harvesting around 2,000 trees.

Lagan said the department approaches the communities living in and around the forest for support and approval.

“We always work hand in hand with them, a lot of them actually help us in maintaining the forest and they will also inform us if there are any poachers or illegal loggings happening, but so far nothing so bad yet,” he said.

Lagan also said the management was also trying to train the local communities to be able to accommodate tourists.

“We need to improve the infrastructure, like having proper toilets, then with every tourist that comes in, the community can get extra revenue,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan said in the next 10 years, the government would made a requirement to increase Sabah’s Total Protected Area (TPA) to 30%.

“Sabah is 7.4 million hectares of land, government policy states that in the next 10 years, we will need to increase our Total Protected Area TPA to 30% of Sabah, that's 2.2million ha, now we have 1.55 million ha (protected), this November we are going to add on another 200,000 ha,” he said.

Mannan said in the next three to five years, the department would have already achieved its target making the protected forests “untouchable”. – November 2, 2015.