Despite being gazetted and protected as a conservation wetland under an international treaty, logging activities are still being carried out at the Tasik Bera peat swamp forest in Pahang.

This is affecting the livelihood of the Semelai villages which, for about 600 years have depended on forest's resources.

But the villagers are now afraid of entering the forest as the loggers had told them there is a 'hunting operation' being carried out and the villagers could risk being accidentally shot if they ventured into the woods.

Villager Noran Yaseh (pic) from the Semelai settlement of Po Iskandar, who had been extracting resin from the keruing trees in the area, now is too afraid to enter the forest and this has drastically affected his livelihood.

Since he came upon several strangers on Feb 5 deep in the forest who warned him about the 'hunting expedition', neither him nor his uncle 'Pak Lang' have dared to enter deep into the forest.

"They were not from around here. They simply told me not to go any further ... we know the other Orang Asli who come into the area," said Noran when met at Po Iskandar.

"One of them (the stranger) gave me and my three other friends RM50 each as 'compensation' for not being able to extract the resin. Since that time, we have not gone there," he added.

Pak Lang, who has been collecting the resins for 25 years, voiced concern that his monthly earnings would be drastically affected.

"The tauke comes once a month to collect the keruing from me, which come up to about RM400. But this month, ever since they told us to keep away, I don't have any keruing to sell," he lamented.

Protect the wetlands

Colin Nicholas, the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns director, echoed Pak Lang's sentiments in decrying the threat posed by logging to the already meager income of the Semelai community.

Nicholas, who recently visited the site of illegal logging within Tasik Bera as well as legal logging on the fringes of the conservation area (pic), raised the possibility of the latter being more harmful .

This is because, he said, licensed loggers often harvest trees in complete disregard for sustainable forest management standards.

"Illegal logging can sometimes be more sustainable because they are very selective and target the really valuable timber. Obviously, this is to avoid detection (by the authorities), but it's also because they're looking for the higher-value (trees).

"Licensed loggers often cut the whole lot of trees that are more than four inches in diameter, raising questions of sustainability," he said when met in Kuala Lumpur.

Agreeing on the matter was Wetlands International senior officer, Murugadas T Loganathan, who said it was often the case where a conservation area may not be directly targeted by developers but is nonetheless significantly harmed by activities in the surrounding areas.

Tasik Bera is one of only a few hundred wetland sites found globally listed under the international Ramsar Convention important for their rich bio-diversity as well as ecological and 'socio-economic' values.

As such, said Murugadas, Tasik Bera needs to be protected by the authorities, who should arrest and punish the perpetrators as well as take steps to monitor the site more closely in order to prevent further encroachment.

"The Tasik Bera Ramsar Site management unit (which is tasked to manage and protect Tasik Bera) should really come down hard on the illegal loggers and try to reduce and deter such practices," he said when contacted.

However, mechanisms should also be put in place to control the developments surrounding Tasik Bera and ensure that these are subject to sustainable forest management standards, he added

Contacted for comment, Tasik Bera Ramsar Site management unit head Hassan Kassim said there is continuous efforts being taken to address this problem.