KOTA KINABALU: The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will apply for additional allocations for the Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative under the 11th Malaysia Plan to be tabled in May next year.
Minister Datuk Seri G Palanivel said the extra funding would be used for biodiversity conservation and forestry development nationwide including in Sabah and Sarawak.
“We need to preserve forest areas, most of the forests in the two states as well as the peninsula are already gone,” he told reporters after opening the International Conference on Enhancing Biodiversity Towards No Net Loss and Beyond Within The HoB Landscape here yesterday.
Palanivel said the Sabah Forestry Department is planting trees as part of efforts to restore forests, adding the federal government has allocated over RM30 billion since 2011 for development in Sabah and Sarawak.
Meanwhile, the department’s director Datuk Sam Mannan said the additional funds would enable the department to achieve its target of having 2.2 million hectares of totally protected areas or 30 per cent of the state’s land area over the next
10 years.
Some 700 participants are attending the five-day conference, including former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his wife Tun Jeanne Abdullah, who chairs the Tropical Rainforest Research and Conservation Centre. — Bernama