Stop work order issued in Tanjung Malim forest demolition
The bulldozers that were demolishing two million rainforest trees near the town of Tanjung Malim on the Perak-Selangor border have fallen silent due to the issuance of an emergency stop work order.
It is learnt that an aide to the Perak Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu drove to the area to stop the bulldozers and that a stop-work order was issued shortly afterwards by the Tanjung Malim District Council.
In a letter sighted by Malaysiakini and signed by council head Faizal Nizam Mohd Nor, the order was issued in accordance with Section 70A of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974....
The bulldozers that were demolishing two million rainforest trees near the town of Tanjung Malim on the Perak-Selangor border have fallen silent due to the issuance of an emergency stop work order.
It is learnt that an aide to the Perak Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu drove to the area to stop the bulldozers and that a stop work order was issued shortly afterwards by the Tanjung Malim District Council.
In a letter sighted by Malaysiakini and signed by council head Faizal Nizam Mohd Nor, the order was issued in accordance with Section 70A of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
The letter is addressed to the chief executive of the Perak Corporation Bhd (PCB) and orders that works which have already begun should cease with immediate effect.
It requires that PCB present a works plan to the district council and asks that the company anticipate any such disaster such as "landslides, floods and water pollution by doing so within seven days."
The council also reminded the PCB that any attempt to authorise or undertake any work would lead them liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding a year or a fine of RM50,000 or both.
Conservation activist Jules Rahman Ong was grateful that some action has been taken.
"The damage can be estimated at between 80-100 acres (32.3ha-40.4ha). Approximately 40 percent," he told Malaysiakini.
"We are hopeful that they can gazette the remaining 100 acres as a protected area," he added.
The trees were part of a life-long and painstaking reforestation project led by 84-year-old James Kingham who planted a whole forest in an area of 200 acres, which contained 1,200 species of rare forest trees.
However, after his annual lease on the land was not renewed, the state land was sold to new owners who commenced demolition operations earlier this week.
It is understood that after the issue was highlighted by Malaysiakini and other portals, the Menteri Besar's Office decided to intervene.
According to Ong, there were originally two million trees and 800 endemic and exotic forest tree species at the Tanjung Malim nursery, more than those in the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (Frim) or Jabatan Perhutanan collection.
In 2007, Kingham who is known affectionately as the "tree guru", oil palm planter Geoffrey Cooper and others helped transform a barren piece of land into a gene bank for endangered jungle plants.
With the aid of local Orang Asli and park rangers, he had spent many years collecting and replanting the rare tree species.
Another activist had confirmed with Malaysiakini that they were seeking a court injunction to prevent further demolition.
PCB is believed to have planned to replace the green area with housing and a golf course.
