Extracted from Malaysiakini

S'wak to clear 2.4 mil hectares for plantations

Tony Thien

Dec 15, 04 3:13pm

The Sarawak government has, for the first time, revealed the land area given over to economic activities, including forest and oil palm plantations.

Second Resource Planning and Management Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hasan told the state legislative assembly that, as at Dec 1, 38 forest plantation licences covering a total of 2.4 million hectares had been issued. Of this, activities have commenced on 1.4 million hectares.

In addition, the state government has given out 1.1 million hectares for oil palm plantations as well as 10,800 hectares for aquaculture, 6,400 hectares for padi and 24,000 hectares for industries.

Awang Tengah, who is also state industrial development minister, revealed the amount of compensation for land acquisition.

He said the Land and Survey Department had received RM150 million for compensation purposes and still needed another RM97.5 million for the same purpose.

The government is expected to spend a huge amount on compensation as land, including native customary land, is being acquired for accelerated development.

Cause of conflict

The opening up of land for oil palm plantations as well as for logging has often been the cause of conflict with owners of native customary land.

The government has determined that one way to resolve the problem is to pay adequate compensation in cases where ownership has been determined.

Land in Sarawak falls under five classifications - Mixed Zone Land, Native Area Land, Reserve Land, Native Customary Land and Interior Area Land.

The minister said Reserve Land and Native Customary Land can also cover Mixed Zone Land or Native Area Land or Interior Area Land.

These lands can be further classified as Town Land, Sub-urban Land and Country Land.

Mixed Zone Land covers 2,111,473 hectares, Native Area Land 775,505 hectares and Interior Area Land 9,057,493 hectares.

Town Land covers 39,877 hectares, Sub-urban Land 65,876 hectares and Country Land 11,838,718 hectares.

Sarawak with a total area of about 140,000 sq km is Malaysia's largest state.