GREED, THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR SABAH'S FOREST CONSERVATION

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia), Jan 25 (Bernama) -- Sabah's biggest challenge in
conserving its forest reserves is human greed, Tourism, Culture and Environment
Minister Masidi Manjun said.

"What is right might not be right for some people. Some of the state
government's decisions (on forest conservation) turn out to be unpopular
although it is for a noble cause, that is to protect our forest reserves for
posterity," he said.

Speaking at the signing ceremony between AEON CO (M) Bhd and the World Wide
Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) on the reforestation and rehabilitation
of Orang Utan's habitat, here Monday, Masidi said despite the odds, the
government was serious about preserving the forest.

"We don't want to see the fruits of our efforts to be sacrificed for
short-term monetary gains. We want our future generation to enjoy what we have
enjoyed or have been enjoying," he said.

Toward this end, he said more than 50 per cent of the Sabah's forest was put
under the protected areas, with some being gazetted as first class forest
reserves.


The state government had also agreed to nominate both the Danum Valley and
the Maliau Basin in the south central part of Sabah as World Heritage Sites, he
said.

This was to ensure the future government would not act at will in handling
forest reserves, he added.

He thanked AEON for the initiative in complementing state government's
efforts in the reforestation and rehabilitation of the Orang Utan's natural
habitat in northern Ulu Segama, Lahad Datu, where the forest was severely
degraded due to several cycles of logging in the past and frequent occurrence of
forest fire.

For this, AEON, Malaysia-wide retail chain and supermarket, signed a
five-year contract with WWF-Malaysia that would see AEON investing about
RM500,000 into the project within the approximately 80ha area.

AEON CO (M) Bhd managing director Nagahisa Oyama signed on behalf of the
company while WWF-Malaysia was represented by its Chief Executive Officer
Dr Dionysius Sharma.

In his remarks, Nagahisa said it had always been the company's aspiration to
preserve the environment and the Orang Utan's habitat there.

"We see the growing importance of conservation measures to protect and
nurture green environment," he added.

Sabah, ('Land Below the Wind') occupies the eastern part of North Borneo and
is East Malaysia's second largest state.